Revising the Future


Our memory could have a past and lack only a future,

but we don't read what our forefathers wrote or read.











We select some figures, and then we fit them to our culture--
our fathers are what we make them once they're dead.
But we don't read what our forefathers wrote or read,
because we don't want to know if we believe a lie.

Our fathers are what we make them once they're dead,
and they make us in their image before we die.

Because we don't want to know if we believe a lie,
we design committees to transmit the truth,
and they make us in their image before we die;
we build them schools so they can also shape our youth.

We design committees to transmit the truth.
They are guiltless. They just believe what they've read.
We build them schools so they can also shape our youth,
and children have no reason to oppose how they're led.

They are guiltless. They just believe what they've read--
our fabricated heroes always do what they're told,
and children have no reason to oppose how they're led;
consequences always follow the ideas we hold.

Our fabricated heroes always do what they're told--
we select some figures, and then we fit them to our culture.
Consequences always follow the ideas we hold--
Our memory could have a past and lack only a future.

by Michael Minkoff, Jr
Christian School Teacher

Additional information:

This poem is a pantoum and was recently published in The Counsel of Chalcedon, ministry magazine of Chalcedon Presbyterian Church, Cumming, GA

Here's a link to MsRogers English Room/Poetry site with 30 different formats for writing your own poetry. I have a strong memory of trying to write a limerick in elementary school. That may explain my fondness for Ogden Nash, but thankfully no extant copy of my creativity remains.

I love this example of concrete poetry entitled Forsythia.

And the only other format I've completed is the list poem.

Here's my example.

Are you a poet?