The Question

I have read everything Nick Flynn has written: his poetry, his memoirs, even a guide to teaching poetry. 

Throughout all of this reading, this poem is the one that still strikes me the most:

When I began teaching it was Language Arts and Reading to 6th graders. The first time I approached teaching poetry, I had a boy ask me: Why should I care about poetry?

Despite my love for reading and writing poetry, I did not have an immediate answer for the boy. I think I fumbled through with some lame reasons. Whatever I said, I could tell he wasn’t convinced.

Thinking about it, I decided to honor his question by keeping it in front of us. I wrote it on a small poster board and hung it in the front of the room, right where we would see it all the time. I left it there for each student to decide for themselves: Why should I care? What does it matter?

I’d like to think that over the course of the rest of the year, we identified ways it mattered…but I have no clear recollection. What I do know is I took the question of an 11-year-old seriously.

Flynn says it is an unanswerable question, and I concur. I don’t have an answer for anyone else but myself. And even then, it is impossible to articulate. As I write this, I only know the feeling I have inside about it. When it comes to this question, no amount of words can do it justice. 

Like breathing, poetry just is. 

And there would be no life without it.