Slam+Poetry

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Undivided attention By Taylor Mali [|www.taylormali.com] A grand piano wrapped in quilted pads by movers,

tied up with canvas straps - like classical music's

birthday gift to the insane -

is gently nudged without its legs

out an eighth-floor window on 62nd street. It dangles in April air from the neck of the movers' crane,

Chopin-shiny black lacquer squares

and dirty white crisscross patterns hanging like the second-to-last

note of a concerto played on the edge of the seat,

the edge of tears, the edge of eight stories up going over, and

I'm trying to teach math in the building across the street. Who can teach when there are such lessons to be learned?

All the greatest common factors are delivered by

<span style="color: #030202; font-family: Verdana,Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none;">long-necked cranes and flatbed trucks

<span style="color: #030202; font-family: Verdana,Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none;">or come through everything, even air.

<span style="color: #030202; font-family: Verdana,Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none;">Like snow. <span style="color: #030202; font-family: Verdana,Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none;">See, snow falls for the first time every year, and every year

<span style="color: #030202; font-family: Verdana,Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none;">my students rush to the window

<span style="color: #030202; font-family: Verdana,Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none;">as if snow were more interesting than math,

<span style="color: #030202; font-family: Verdana,Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none;">which, of course, it is. <span style="color: #030202; font-family: Verdana,Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none;">So please. <span style="color: #030202; font-family: Verdana,Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none;">Let me teach like a Steinway,

<span style="color: #030202; font-family: Verdana,Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none;">spinning slowly in April air,

<span style="color: #030202; font-family: Verdana,Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none;">so almost-falling, so hinderingly

<span style="color: #030202; font-family: Verdana,Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none;">dangling from the neck of the movers' crane.

<span style="color: #030202; font-family: Verdana,Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none;">So on the edge of losing everything. <span style="color: #030202; font-family: Verdana,Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none;">Let me teach like the first snow, falling.

__//On your page discuss the use of poetic devises. Discuss the overall meaning of the poem (theme). Discuss why you choose this poem. Identify key words and phrases. Of course, use specific examples from the poem!//__

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Undivided attention, by Taylor Mali, is a very descriptive poem. It has phrases like <span style="color: #030202; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none;">'Chopin-shiny black lacquer squares <span style="color: #030202; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none;">and dirty white crisscross patterns'. It also is a poem full of metaphors. My favourite one is <span style="color: #030202; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none;">'A grand piano wrapped in quilted pads by movers, <span style="color: #030202; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none;">tied up with canvas straps - like classical music's <span style="color: #030202; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none;">birthday gift to the insane'. <span style="color: #030202; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none;">I choose this poem because I liked it's slightly abstract points in a very common and realistic setting. <span style="color: #030202; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none;">I would say the key phrases in this poem include <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">'Who can teach when there are such lessons to be learned?', ' So on the edge of losing everything. Let me teach like the first snow, falling'. 'Who can teach when there are such lessons to be learned?' is a very intriguing line. He is trying to teach math, but across the street is a grand piano dangling way way up, and the first snow of the season is falling. His math lesson can wait, but this opportunity to watch this event of more important. Either all will go well, the piano will soon be (safely) resting on the street, or something will malfunction and everything will smash down. This is a great risk! This is 'go big' or 'go home'. He is teaching his students not a textbook lesson, but a life lesson of RISK. The movers are taking chances lowering the piano, but it needs to be done. The lesson of the day is 'some risk is always necessary in life'. If even 'learn' and 'teach' in 'Who can teach/learn when there are such lessons to be learned/taught' it would seem like only the students thought it was exciting.(The first word is the original, the second is the switched) It would make the poem seem more like the teacher wanted to have that attention. That line is pivotal to the whole poem's feel. 'So on the edge of losing everything. Let me teach like the first snow, falling' is the next key phrase I found. I think it is important. It means he wants to teach in such a way that is exciting, but beautiful and keeps the students attention because they __want__ to. A few lines before it says 'See, snow falls for the first time every year'. This means every time it happens (which is annually) it is new and exciting and different every year, though it is essentially the same thing. He wants to teach like that. Every day he teaches, but it still is something new, and 'falling', like the piano the students will pay attention to see what happens.