It may not be English class, but this teacher still loves poetry.
Psychology and economics teacher Nat Player reads his classes poetry every Friday to open their mind and help spark a new interest.
“For my first 10 years as a teacher, I used to read these humorous newspaper columns on Fridays,” Player said. “The [author] retired, so they kind of got old, but I still wanted to read something for my students.”
Player decided to turn to poetry, and has been enjoying reading it ever since.
“[It was] probably around 12 or 13 years ago when I started reading them,” Player said. “I got a little poetry kit myself and was reading some poetry books and I got a couple gifts from Christmas that were poetry books.”
One of his recent students has also found a love for his Poetry Fridays and even bought him a gift.
“For Christmas one of my students gave me two new poetry books so I have been choosing some poems out of those,” Player said. “I have five other poetry books in addition to these two new ones I got that are on my shelf.”
Player picks the poems for the week on Friday morning to share with his classes.
“I open my books up on Friday mornings and just flip through the pages,” Player said. “I have a whole bunch of dog-eared pages that have been marked by students in the past and myself.”
After picking some he enjoys, if given the time he allows some of his students to chose another.
“I typically do two or three poems,” Player said. “I normally have one or two that I picked out that I want to read and I usually ask students to pick a random page number and read whatever poem is on that page.”
He normally just reads the poems to his class, but sometimes talks about them if he feels necessary or has input he feels is important.
“We occasionally talk about the poems, but usually it’s just reading the poems and we don’t really have any class discussions about them,” Player said. “[Sometimes] somebody asks about it or there’s a part of a poem that is confusing, or maybe I want to give a thought about a couple lines about what it means or what it meant to me, but usually it’s just reading them.”
He usually enjoys just reading the poems and not diving into the deep meaning, and has a few favorite poets.
“One of my favorite poets is Wendell Berry, and most of his poems are about nature. He’s back to the earth as a Kentucky farmer so a lot of his stuff is writing poems about seasons and crop planting or trees, birds, and other natural stuff,” Player said. “I just became intrigued with [communication and] deep, powerful ideas.”
Player also likes poet Charles Bukowski. He enjoys poems that center around the themes of nature or relationships and human interaction.
“Two poems by Wendell Berry are the two that never a semester goes by that I don’t end up reading,” Player said. “One is called ‘The Wish to Be Generous’ and the other is called ‘Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front,’ both [written] by Wendell Berry.”
Reading poems to his class has become an important part of his teaching career, but has not always been an interest or passion in his life.
“Poetry hasn’t always been an interest [of mine],” Player said. “When I was a kid, I grew up having a crazy family, and my dad would give us all poems to memorize. On Sunday nights we would have to recite some little poem.”
As Player thinks back on his childhood, he is unsure whether that made him dislike poetry, but has grown to understand and enjoy reading it, as it can be interpreted however the audience sees fit.
“I didn’t really enjoy the poems I read in high school or [was forced to in] English class,” Player said. “Somewhere in the last 10 or 12 years I’ve increasingly been impressed by the ability of poets to pack so much meaning into a relatively little short space.”
Player’s newfound interest in poetry made him realize it all isn’t about interpreting and analyzing its meaning, but what you grasp and take out of it that is important. He hopes to show his students this other side of poetry.
“I wanted [my students] to engage their ears and listen a little bit,” Player said. “I just wanted to read poems that are fun and interesting to show my students that there’s some poetry out there that they may not have been exposed to, but may actually enjoy.”
He hopes through reading poems every Friday that he encourages his students to interact and come outside of their comfort zone and explore themselves throughout the year.
“I hope that my students are exposed to poems that make them think a little bit about some ideas, concepts, and philosophies, and some stuff that’s a little bit outside of what they normally get exposed to,” Player said. “I hope it gives them something to think about, something that’s deep and thought-provoking, and spurs some thinking on their part.”
By Kristen Haga