Algo Poetry-Behind the Lines

Welcome to the second week of the stories behind the BE.aGaIN collection and to today’s …lesson!!!

An Abecedarian poem is one where each line begins with the next letter of the alphabet.As a not classically trained poet and one that exists in a flow state with whatever comes through,I wanted to stretch myself and learn and test some formal limits.So I thought-what better setting for ABCs than the classroom?

This piece is definitely set in a Catholic primary school classroom/prefab with the absolute saints that were underpaid female primary school teachers-part mother,part educator imbued with saintly patience.-“Devoted but Elated every mid term break”

My favourite line is “Querying the radiator”-those old classrooms normally in cold cold convents were Arctic in nature!.

Also just to explain one of the alphabet references-one of the Irish early years teacher’s responsibilities was the organization of the annual Nativity play “Virgin Mary cant remember her lines”.

I enjoyed writing this piece as an exploration of form in a state of reflection and retrospective genuflection to these unsung heroes of infancy!.

Enjoy!

Algo