It’s hardly the news of headlines and front pages, but for the last few years some of the city’s most prolific and profound teenage poets have come from Lane Technical High School, a north side public school best known for producing football players and engineers.
Bates’s secret, say the students, is that he takes the intimidation out of poetry. He teaches them irony, symbolism, and alliteration, and encourages them to write about things they can see, hear, and feel on any corner of the city. Most of all, he gets them to capture themselves as they are–impressionable, hopeful, and young, despite their skepticism. “He teaches us to write about what we know,” says Bora. “He makes us see the poetry in everyday things, like a guy waiting for a bus.”
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Nailed to an invisible cross
Of course teenagers have their limits. They feel almost compelled to conform, blocking their minds to things that are different for fear of seeming out of fashion. “My job is to get them out of themselves and into the world,” says Bates. “Given a totally free hand, their poetry would be very narcissistic and highly personal. I break them away from themselves so they can see that it’s a big world which doesn’t have to revolve around them.”
“In general, I don’t spend a lot of class time making them read poetry. I don’t want them to become intimidated. It’s intimidating to give them Frost’s “Acquainted With the Night,’ and say, “OK, you write one.’ That’s like playing one-on-one against Jordan. You’ll get smashed every time.”
“They gather beneath their corporate / totem pole. “To Dunkin’ Donuts! We won’t / need to depend on the system! We’ll rebel!”‘
