It was almost a decade ago when one of my teachers, Adisa Omar, told me “when the student is ready the teacher will appear.” I eventually learned that the statement did not originate with him but it was definitely applicable to our relationship. For years people have been telling me that they believe I would make a great teacher; many who have said this have stated that my poetry is more of a teaching tool/lesson plan than entertainment in their eyes. I have always humbly accepted it at face value but I never really saw myself in the standard classroom setting and this has not changed in the least. I have recently decided that I would like to share the lesson I’ve learned with others of any demographic willing to listen with an open heart. Upon making that decision I declared to the universe that I would like to conduct workshops…be careful what you wish for. Straight from my mouth the God’s ear and back into my experience within the same week I received a phone call asking me to conduct a workshop. For all intents and purposes this seems great because I got exactly what I asked for. Well the problem is I have never done a workshop, never written a lesson plan, or created a curriculum and the time is drawing near for me to present what I am going to present to those who have invited me essentially so they can validate having to pay me and prepare the students. Truth is I don’t know where to begin as all of my “teaching experience” has been in the moment and reactive to what the student is seeking. People ask me questions and if I have answers I provide them but as far as structuring a direction in which to carry a groups of student who I will be meeting for the first time, I am drawing a blank.
I know what I would like to teach but I have zero understanding of workshop format. Its pretty much like the zero understanding of poetry I had when I started writing years ago. I just went with what made sense and while it presented some of the same difficulties I now face. The difference is the workshop have middle men/women who have to know what I am going to do before I actually do it. So here I am typing my thoughts they come hoping to write my way to a solution and simultaneously wondering if this appearance of students means I am ready to be a teacher.
I guess I can run a compare and contrast analysis between my idea of poetry and my idea of a workshop to see what will work in both and what new knowledge I will need to acquire to successfully pull off the latter.
My idea of poetry is a creative rhythmic personal expression used to communicate one’s observations and experiences to the world in a condensed manner using various literary devices. This is all done hoping the audience will grasp the intended meaning but since each audience member will bring their own observation and experience to the table poetry is completely open to interpretation; in short people will hear what they want to hear. I am aware that my idea of poetry is more connected to the performance of it but I am more connected to the performance as it has been my livelihood since 2002.
My idea of a workshop on poetry would teaching the above definition of poetry by condensing the decade and a half of experience I have writing and the decade of experience I have performing into 60-90 minutes. Included in the 60-90 minutes must be time for me to explain my idea of poetry, allow the student to practice what I have explained, share what they’ve practiced, and then close with a question and answer session that allows them to leave with some idea of my idea(s) about poetry as a seed and/or water in the formula of their own ideas about poetry.
Not bad for someone who has no idea what he is doing but moving on…
The primary link between my ideas of poetry and a workshop about poetry is the condensation of experience. In writing my poems I have been condensing experience for years now; so that means I am equipped to do the job even though I don’t know how to do the job. I am like guy claiming to be a mechanic with all the tools a mechanic owns but who has never worked on a single car. The swift way to handle this is to just attend some workshop I know but I have no time to attend any workshop before I have to turn in a lesson plan. Damn!
Okay looks like I am gonna just have to try it and see what happens sink or swim and use the first experience and a tool to teach myself how to do this…pray for me…no for real bow your head and say a prayer for me right now, I am gonna need it.
…and who knows maybe one day I’ll be telling this story and finish it off by saying “when the teacher is ready, the students will appear” or “I don’t do workshops because of blah, blah, blah” but I am sure you would agree that the former sounds so much better.
