Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “The Professor” by Patrick Connors, which first appeared in Poetry Pause in November 2020.

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The Professor

By Patrick Connors

for Neil Peart

Floating on a grey-dark quiet-loud
wet-warm comfortable cloud
for, they say, the last time.

Tears run down my face
in total atonal harmony –
I did not plan it this way.

Staccato dreams of La Villa Strangiato,
Geddy’s definitive sound, Alex’s solos,
the beat of our collective heart.

You have turned the tip-tips and taps
and thump-thumps and ba-pa-dumps
of disenfranchised nerdy young men

into something resembling music—
the most meaningful music
I have ever known.

Begin the day with the friendly voice
to mould the new reality—
his love and life are deep.

For those who think and feel
good work is the key to good fortune
a thousand years have come and gone.

And the meek shall inherit the Earth.
And the meek shall inherit the Earth.

As it stands me and you may not collaborate
on the words which define two generations
transcending all religion

eliminating the need for politics
the exchange of currency other than
ideas and true love.

But thank you, just the same.

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Copyright © Patrick Connors

First appeared in Poetry Pause in November 2020.

Previously published in Part-Time Contemplative (LyricalMyrical Press, 2016)

Patrick Connors’ first chapbook, Scarborough Songs, was released by Lyricalmyrical Press in 2013, and charted on the Toronto Poetry Map. Other publication credits include: The Toronto Quarterly; Spadina Literary Review; Sharing Spaces; Tamaracks; and Tending the Fire. His first full collection, The Other Life, was released in 2021 by Mosaic Press. His new chapbook, Worth the Wait, was released in 2023 by Cactus Press. His next collection, The Long Defeat, is forthcoming from Mosaic Press.

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