Gratitude to Old Teachers
—Robert Bly
When we stride or stroll across the frozen lake,
We place our feet where they have never been.
We walk upon the unwalked. But we are uneasy.
Who is down there but our old teachers?
Water that once could take no human weight
We were students then—holds up our feet,
And goes on ahead of us for a mile.
Beneath us the teachers, and around us the stillness.
*
When we stride or stroll across the frozen lake,
We place our feet where they have never been.
We walk upon the unwalked. But we are uneasy.
Who is down there but our old teachers?
Water that once could take no human weight
We were students then—holds up our feet,
And goes on ahead of us for a mile.
Beneath us the teachers, and around us the stillness.
*
(photo: Professor Richard Lee, in the Cal Sate Long Beach parking lot. Professor Lee was one of Rebel Girl's patient and persistent professors in the early 1980s. Sometimes she thinks of him when she is in the classroom, how he smiled at her and made her feel welcome at the university, a place that did not always welcome her.)
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3 comments:
I notice Professor Lee has a place to park!
(Nice poem.)
Cool car.
Nice poem.
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