The Best Class Ever

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.                                              C.S. Lewis

We read to know we’re not alone.                          C.S.Lewis

Back in time, 8th grade, English Lit., Mrs. Hargis
A little lady with a big stick to lay down the law
You will keep your hands on your desk, no talking, sit upright
You will not look out the window, look at me at all times
And by the end of the year, this will be your best class  ever
Eyes squinted, furrowed brow, she was like a tiger ready to attack.

We hit the ground running, not knowing she had an army at her disposal, we were doomed
Poe was first, Mask of the Red Death, the House of Usher falls, as the Raven cried, ‘Nevermore’
Hawthorn in chambers, the Scarlet Letter, wandering through The House of Seven Gables
A sprinkling of Emerson and the transcendentalist, as our minds are hiking to Walden.
Whitman’s Song of the Open Road, Oh Captain! My Captain! Song of Myself
Dickinson, Will there really be a ‘‘Morning’’? Fame is the one that does not stay.

We were losing this war but we didn’t seem to care, as she brought in the reinforcements
Books stacked to the brim on shelves and stacks on the floor, by now we had all defected
Still wanting more; To KiIl a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, Dracula, Frankenstein, Portrait of Dorian Gray, The Old Man and the Sea, The Great Gatsby, 
Lewis and his wardrobe box, Tolkien and his Rings, Hobbits everywhere, Dickens and Pip
Then disaster struck! The end of the year, what to do, as she is Wendy and we are the lost boys
We’ll be forever thirsty, always wanting and it’s her fault, yes this was the best class ever.

On the Road, Kerouac and I go it alone further enlightened from the trenches of 8th grade
Joyce- Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist; Thomas Mann-The Magic Mountain; Eliot-The Wasteland 
Maugham-The Razor’s Edge, Of Human Bondage; Tolstoy- Anna Karenina, War and Peace           And the more books I gave away, the more would find their way back to me hiding throughout my life.

Now even heavier fare; Blake, Kant, Nietzsche, Jung, Black Elk, Galileo, Newton, Einstein   
The Power of Myth, Seven Years in Tibet, The Life of the Buddha, The Gita, Parzival
The Metamorphose with Kafka embracing all that I’ve ever read and how it changed me               And it all began, the first day of school when magic hit the 8th grade and life was discovered
That silent explosion is still a part of me, the best class teacher ever, Mrs. Hargis.                                                  

©jc2016-9