Clown School in France: Poem in My Post

Poem in My Post
Clown School in France by Lee Kisling

This week's poem is from my poetry class teacher Lee Kisling.  He offered a free 7 week poetry class at the Hudson library in Wisconsin and it has changed my life.  I have always written and appreciated poetry but now I have learned about different types of poems, I have discovered new poets to read and my poems are improving.  I actually feel like a real writer for the first time.  I feel confident, like I could actually publish one of my poems someday.  Thank you Lee for the great experience.

Lee recently published one of his poems in StoneBoat Literary Journal called We're Sorry.  It is an awesome poem and I wish I could print it here but I don't have access to it.  So instead I want you to read Clown School in France.  (It is a free association poem) This poem won Lee an award at Hamline College in St. Paul, Minnesota.  Just remember you heard of Lee Kisling poem's here first.

Clown School in France

How do these two things fit together-
the rain falls on the just and the unjust, and yet
all the umbrellas are made in the poorest countries?

How far away from your troubles do you need to get
in order to understand them?  The earth seen from space
doesn't show graveyards.  But it seems a long way to go.

And who is hee-hawing in the balcony
of the mad opera of desire?  And what is so funny
about the tumult of the heart?

I ask myself - if I had known these answers sooner,
then what would I have done?  I would have gone
to clown school in France.

Unschooled, I have learned
that the smaller half of what is sad is funny
and the larger half of what is funny is sad.

A younger man might consider a life in the big shoes,
with face-paint tears and drinking alone in the trailer,
but it's much too late for me, my dears.

The invisible child is in the park again
or does the wind just blow the swing?

If I could have seen into the future, then
what would I have done?
I would have gone.
To clown school
in France.

By Lee Kisling