the instruction book?

the instruction book?

analytic(ˌanəˈlidik) vs(versus.) generative(ˈjenərədiv, ˈjenəˌrādiv)

consider a game and its rule book:
how much interest do you have
in the ins and outs of the instructions
until you’ve watched it being played,
or played it a bit yourself?
there comes a time when the rules are interesting,
but not till the game itself captures you,

as teachers, we can forget early developmental(dəˌveləpˈmen(t)l) stages,
we can fall in love with the structures
that appear so clear to us now,
and we falsely(ˈfôlslē) imagine that taking apart the whole
would help the young create the whole anew(əˈn(y)o͞o),
the ascendancy(əˈsendənsē) of the analytic over the generative,

I watch kids and I seek to learn from them,
I sought to help a kid write a poem(pōm,ˈpōim,ˈpōəm),
and I inspired myself to write the poem instead,
ever since I have trusted the impulse(ˈimˌpəls)
to shape thought and feeling into coherence(kōˈhi(ə)rəns)
as the prime(prīm) directive,
to bring forth a whole
that wants to be born
if we can but release(rəˈlēs)
ourselves into the shaping(SHāp),

I watch kids and I seek to learn from them,
for me, a kid should write poems first,
working on idea, on feeling, on memory,
on authenticity(ˌôTHenˈtisədē),
and then figurative(ˈfiɡyərədiv) language can be tools
to capture meaning even better,
not as words and technique to learn first,
for then a poem is made of Legos(ˈlegō) without a story
to bind them into the magic of meaning,

my grandson knows how to construct things
into a whole with a story,
of such is the challenge of an educator(ˈejəˌkādər):
to learn by being, and doing,
to be of the whole that only later knows the parts.

By Henry H. Walker

https://henryspoetry.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-instruction-book.html