Second Edit: Professor of Poetics

[Szczepan]

Professor of Poetics <<< Like "Poetics" instead of "Poetry"

he is just a memory now-
part of a cruel dream
forever far
yet always close

he would lecture
about the clumsiness
of clichés:
“Grey leaden sky
is meaningless,” he would say <<< I like that he taught you well.

he would talk
of how poems were like candy
so sweet sounding
in our mouths <<< I like how this evokes the danger of a poet thinking what was in his mouth was necessarily sweet sounding.

he would also scare away
young poets
by dissecting their lines <<< I like how these 2 lines work together
like a mad surgeon <<< I like how these 2 lines work together
his plain pencil
a scalpel
most of his surgeries
unwanted

he never made steel
like my father
he never waited a table
like my mother
but he influenced me

he taught me
and prolonged my dream of poetics:
a cruel dream
forever far
yet always close <<< Like how the conclusion wraps back to the beginning.

What I didn't like is that I didn't write this. No butter dish job here. That's the truth.