The White Sun Like A Moth On

Besides The Actual Reading In Class Of Many Poems, I Would Suggest You Do Two Things: First, While Teaching Everything You Can And Keeping Free Of It, Teach That Poetry Is A Mode Of Discourse That Differs From Logical Exposition

Poetry Leads Us To The Unstructured Sources Of Our Beings, To The Unknown, And Returns Us To Our Rational, Structured Selves Refreshed. Having Once Experienced The Mystery, Plenitude, Contradiction, And Composure Of A Work Of Art, We Afterward Have A Built-in Resistance To The Slogans And Propaganda Of Oversimplification That Have Often Contributed To The Destruction Of Human Life. Poetry Is A Verbal Means To A Nonverbal Source. It Is A Motion To No-motion, To The Still Point Of Contemplation And Deep Realization.

If The Greatest God Is The Stillness All The Motions Add Up To, Then We Must Ineluctably Be Included.

If A Poem Is Each Time New, Then It Is Necessarily An Act Of Discovery, A Chance Taken, A Chance That May Lead To Fulfillment Or Disaster

Where But In The Very Asshole Of Comedown Is Redemption: As Where But Brought Low, Where But In The Grief Of Failure, Loss, Error Do We Discern The Savage Afflictions That Turn Us Around: Where But In The Arrangements Love Crawls Us Through