Suck a Peppermint

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.

©David Morgan March 2008 All rights reserved

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.”

Visit David’s website