“When My Student Who Wants to Be a Writer Says They Do Not Read” by Frances Klein

October 8, 2024Posted by

Frances Klein

WHEN MY STUDENT WHO WANTS TO BE A WRITER SAYS THEY DO NOT READ

Why would you build a house with no nails?
 
Why plant, till, harvest a crop
in whose taste you find no savor?
 
The bees of the field scan the dances of their sisters
before penning a path to the lavender patch—
 
The forest produces a new body
of work only after absorbing volumes of cedar trees,
each bear bread and blueberry bush in the Tongass
standing on the shoulders of giants—
 
The incoming waves read each stone and shell
on the shore as they sketch the high tide line—
 
Inside you is a curled fern yearning for light.
 
Inside you is a fire lit beneath a capped chimney.
 
Smoke fills your rooms; there are no doors
or windows to air them out.
 

—from Poets Respond

__________

Frances Klein: “There has been a lot of online discourse this week about an article in The Atlantic lamenting that students no longer come to college prepared to read full books. Although I disagree with the author’s chosen villain (she blames high school teachers) I related to the experience of having students enter creative writing classes with an expressed distaste for reading. I have been teaching creative writing to high school students for many years, and in the last five years or so I have noticed a major shift in the ‘influences’ students identify for their writing. More and more, kids who claim they want to be writers are open about disliking reading. When asked to talk about the influences on their writing, they identify TV shows, musicians, and online influencers. In real life, I try to be patient and understanding, to help guide students to texts that sparks their interest and draw them in to loving reading. This poem, however, was written from my knee jerk reaction of frustration, from the ‘what I wish I could say,’ point of view.” (web)

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