This poem by David Morgan is a great 'pick-me-up' if you're feeling stressed - and if anyone should know about stress, it's a teacher. Read it below and enjoy. SUCK A PEPPERMINT Suck a peppermint, waste some time; Select your company well, captivate your breath, Pause between pauses, invest in a fruit bowl. Disregard small issues, stimulate with intent; Wear sensible shoes, steal thirty seconds, Clear out the clutter, suck a peppermint. Suck a peppermint; pat an orange blossom and another. Paint the town green, unwind with an aphrodisiac. Rest your fingers, listen for the silence; Be negative about Ions; rub a rose the right way. Take the back seat, control only when you can; Go from A to B, suck a peppermint. Suck a peppermint, have little successes. Breathe less, add a dab of lavender. Wear Jean Paul Sartre underpants, touch anything blue. Massage your eyebrows, sit in a church; Barricade the door, for God’s sake Barricade the door … suck a peppermint. Author David R Morgan teaches 11-19 year olds at Cardinal Newman School in Luton, and lives in Bedfordshire with his wife and two children. His eldest daughter lives in The Isle Of Man. "I wrote SUCK A PEPPERMINT after a particularly stressful day at school ( I teach 11 to 19 year olds in Luton ... 1600 of them, though not all at once !) I asked a colleague if she had an idea how to unwind, that did not involve considerable quantities of alcohol, and she said : ' Take some time and suck a peppermint. It sometimes works for me.' The poem then almost wrote itself and its form was natural and spontaneous. Remarkably, the writing of it helped me to unwind... although I did go for a drink afterwards." |
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