In the ’74-’75 school year, when I was a beginning teacher, I had a
combined fifth-sixth grade math class in the spring semester. In an
(probably misguided) attempt to be a little bit inventive with mild
disciplinary infractions, I wrote stanzas of twentieth century poetry
on the chalkboard and made the occasional misbehaver write the stanzas several times. Selections included Brian Patten’s “Little Johnny’s Confession” and Wallace Stevens’s “The Snow Man.”

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Cooper Renner is the translator of ‘Chinese Checkers: Three Fictions’ by Mario Bellatin and the author of ‘Mosefolket’ (poems, under the name Cooper Esteban). His website is at cooprenner.com.