These Are My JOTtings, Part #2

The Class Once Taken

Two classes nestled in a high school hall.
I sat in each intent to learn.
The English Lit my heart enthralled,
but Grammar kept me from a fall.
Some parts of each did make me yearn.

The English Lit of Robert Frost,
and Robert Burns compelled me speak.
The words I knew, but thoughts I lost,
until with effort and great cost
I found some truth I long did seek.

The teachers, fair, did guide me right.
I learned of poets, and the Bard.
The skills they taught made future bright
by reading books from morn to night.
I write, now, poems by the yard.

Remember this, O sighing wind,
those classes are but yesterday.
I'd never e'er my time rescind,
but find, again, my middle thinned,
and lift my teachers on display.

by Jay O’Toole
on September 8th, 2021