I just finished my textbook, The Write Road: Your Journey to College Writing. I just filmed my last video, encouraging my students to stay brave, ask questions, read widely, and write. I felt like I was standing at the car as they drove off to college…don’t forget to write! Don’t give your judgement away just because someone looks or sounds smart! Credibility is earned!
And I guess, I sort of am. I gave them what I have to give: from the beginning foundations, step by step.
As I was writing my final bullet-point script, I realized this is a lot like the poem I wrote in graduate school. I’ve been wrestling with this for a long time: what is courage? What does it look like? How does it play out in our lives? What does it ask of us?
And I’m realizing that I wrote The Write Road not just to teach them to write a paper, but to learn to engage. And engaging— with this culture right now especially— can be scary and intimidating.
It takes courage.
So I thought I’d share my poem here, with you.
Courage
I have a friend who always says
it takes great courage to live in these days.
and I used to think he meant, you know, carry a gun in your purse—
teach your daughters judo
get a big dog with sharp teeth—
there are monsters out there.
walking dead looking to devour the living
and propagate their species
so eventually
we can all be walking dead
but now I’m not so sure anymore.
Maybe it takes great courage to live in these days
is speaking more about my
heart.
left untended, it likes to grow cold
wary
caustic
armored
Maybe it means that moment
when I stand between the one who sees me
as enemy
and the one who sees me
as friend I
can reach out and grab each hand
Or this: it takes great courage to face my fears
you know the ones that lurk so deep
that you feel their rumble
anytime they get close to your conscious mind
those.
fears.
and then, it takes great courage
to deal with them ugly critters
pardon whomever put them there
—throw off that hundred pound backpack I’ve carried for so long—
—and move on.
even if it means pardoning myself
for being young and really really stupid
it takes great courage to not run not hide
in my inner armored barracks
or my outer ones
and face the walking dead and
refuse
to become
one of them
all creation groans
I feel it in the water
I feel it in the earth
I smell it in the air
this is not a myth--
all creation groans
waiting for the sons of men to be revealed
because it takes
great courage to live in these days