What Will Your Verse Be?

My friend, Jacquie, once told me that she was not talking to me again until I had watched the movie, Moulin Rouge.  Convinced that no one should walk the earth without having seen this film, she hounded me until I watched it, and I became a believer.  That is just how I feel about the movie Dead Poet's Society. It combines several things I love:  teachers, students, poetry, and Robin Williams.  When I am feeling discouraged and allow cynicism to creep in, this movie is medicine.  To steal a line from the script, it fills my soul.

There are all of these moments in the film where Mr. Keating, played by Robin Williams, builds a relationship with his students and inspires them to risk failure and to dare greatly. My fellow Dead Poet people will instantly connect when reminded of the opening scene in Keating's English class. As the high school boys gaze at old photographs of students from long ago, Keating reminds them how quickly time passes.  He whispers, "Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary." (I just got cold chills writing that, but then we established last week that I have nerdish tendencies.) From the very first day of class, he finds a way to make his message relevant to kids' lives. 

In the film, Keating uses poetry and words to connect with his students--to push them to be brave, to swim against the stream, and to find their voice.  In our school, I see teachers doing this for their students every day in diverse ways.  I was in a classroom today, and on the door the teacher had posted a letter to her students.  "I trust you," it said.  "I believe in you..."  And the teacher's actions matched her words--she interacted with students lovingly and respectfully, and they returned that respect. It was something to see.  The same thing happened in movie-land with Mr. Keating.  He listened to his students, and he challenged them to be their best selves.  Keating's lines from the movie that follow (my favorites) provide a challenge for us all.

"We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. Medicine, law, business, engineering-- these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love... these are what we stay alive for! To quote from Whitman, 'O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?' Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.

"What will your verse be?"