Adam had stayed in his seat after class looking depressingly out the window.
“Alakazoo” shouted Mr. Bob, as in a puff of smoke he transformed a closed can of Sprite into an open one and handed it to Adam.
“Thanks,” Adam said. “Just having a bad day today.”
“Nonsense,” Mr. Bob claimed. “Every glass is half full and every cloud has a silver lining. Turn that mess into a message; that test into a testimony; that trial into a triumph; being a victim into a victory. What I’m saying sounds poetic so it must be true!”
“Life doesn’t seem poetic,” Adam said.
“You know what the difference between a poem and a story is?” Mr. Bob asked. “With a story you try to skip over things to understand the general plot: the problem and solution. A poem is the opposite. Every word is looked at very carefully and returned to many times to try and figure out what it’s “doing” in the poem. Stories are for understanding meaning. Poems are for exploring what words are doing, how they are working in the poem. Life can be hard if the big picture looks gloomy, but poets know any situation can keep revealing new and wonderful things the more we live every little moment and appreciate it.”
“My mom is cooking corned beef and cabbage tonight,” Adam complained.
The teacher shrugged. “Sometimes we can’t think our ways out of things,” Mr. Bob admitted.
