Anti-School Poem I wrote for Mnerva Literary Journal Volume VI: Wonder

Today I'm going to share a poem called "Grammar School" that I wrote and talk about my inspiration for it. I submitted this poem to Volume VI of Mnerva Literary Journal, which had the theme of "Wonder." The poem is about how school kills your sense of wonder. I had a great experience corresponding with Mnerva about this poem, and I highly recommend submitting to them if you write poetry. 

It's actually not the first time I've written an anti-school poem. You may remember this old post I wrote where I was digging through my high school poetry. This poem was about attaching your self-worth to grades, which are just numbers, and about how awful that feels. School can feel like no real learning is happening at all and that you are just trying to optimize for grades. 

However, this time I wanted to write a poem that was about how school also kills our natural sense of wonder and curiosity. I thought Mnerva was the perfect place to submit because of the "Wonder" theme. 

The Cover of "Wonder"

I have to say, Mnerva did a great job of designing this cover. The font used to write "Wonder" is adorable and childlike. The font actually relates to the meaning of the word, which is great. It's a whimsical font. And the background looks like a mysterious forest ready to be explored. Also, the whole cover has a dreamlike quality. 

'Grammar School' -- A Poem

I am also a huge fan of the print layout. Very clean and well-designed. Here is what my poem, called 'grammar school,' looks like in print:

The poem text:

Grammar School

he chews a pencil until his tongue is black

his teachers say it must have darkened

from uttering blasphemies

he holds back questions they don’t let him ask

some of them love the rod and strap

like he loves the snake in the garden

the one he says must have a soul

who can really blame them

for lording over schoolboys when

they have no say in their households?

he thinks about the ocean then

with all the secrets She holds

how could she possibly have been created?

surely there is more wisdom in pondering this

than in writing down words like

Temperance and

Prudence

and Reverence

when the school inspector comes for a visit

tonight someone has plucked the stars out of the sky

but he is too wise to think that darkness is emptiness

he does not understand why the others care for

the notion of light dispelling the dark

can they not see that the night is like a mother?

when he takes refuge in his chamber

she shelters him when his candle flutters out

Wisdom herself emerges out of the dark

where he was the only one who thought to seek her

she loves him the best and garlands him above

scowling schoolteachers with their eyes ablaze at children

The Inspiration 

My inspiration from this poem largely came from a class I took about Genesis, in which the professor told us about how people have been discouraged from questioning if there was anything that existed before God created the world, even though the beginning of Genesis actually makes it seem like water existed before God started his act of creation. That's why I included the line about the ocean. The boy in the poem gets punished for his curiosity because the teachers don't like it when he asks questions. I was also inspired by a desire to inverse Oxford University's Latin motto, which is "Dominus illuminatio mea" or "God is my light," and link wisdom with darkness instead of with light. Basically, I thought ignorance = darkness and wisdom = light is too cliche, and decided to switch the imagery. We do injustice to things we consider part of the darkness by refusing to study them.

Anyway, I hope y'all liked that poem and hearing about the inspiration behind it. It was really nice to see it in print. Don't forget to submit to Mnerva Literary Journal!!! You can submit to their regular issues, or try one of their contests that offer some prize money. Good luck!!!

What's next?

While we're on the anti-school theme, I'm reading a book right now called Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning that shows how school is against what neuroscience has actually proven about what helps people learn. I'll let you know my thoughts when I'm done. 

And what's next with my creative writing? I've been working on a poem from the point of view of Erasmus during his monastery days, another poem about a wolverine, a short about nuns in medieval Spain, and another short story about Babel from the Old Testament. Stay tuned to find out what becomes of these projects!!!