Serving House: A Journal of Literary Arts
SHJ
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Poem
SHJ Issue 12
Spring 2015

The Poetry Teacher

by Tim Calaway

for Steve Kowit

He told you the secret to poetry,
which was really quite simple:
Tell a story, and tell it well.
Find your way to say it
in simple language
that anyone could understand.
I’ll miss his crooked grin,
his curls ruffled and askew,
the way he hitched his suspenders
while listening with fading ears
to our earnest attempts
to impress him.
The way he would nod 
and say, “Good, now rewrite
it a dozen times and 
you might have something.”
I will miss that.

 

SHJ Issue 12
Spring 2015

Tim Calaway

resides in San Diego. He brings his varied experiences to life in his poems and stories of lost loves, lost dreams, and lost fortunes. His poems have appeared in several anthologies.

“...we have been born here to witness and celebrate. We wonder at our purpose for living. Our purpose
is to perceive the fantastic. Why have a universe if there is no audience?” — Ray Bradbury