Notes About The Poem

Wynnis Johnson 1939 ~ 1993 was my high school
math teacher at Rangitoto College in New Zealand. 
May she Rest In Peace.
Listen to poem:

For Wynnis Johnson

We are life unto death sealed in its hold
  when mortal limits fill a dateless urn,
a worldly spirit in a spirit world
  for dust you are and to dust you return.
To do and unto my lost cause to teach -
  did I not that nobility disgrace?
Yet still you sought to seek, to touch, to reach,
  and to look upon the soul and its face.
It grieves me so in your deathly still vale
  that your own fears did cruel fate forebode -
an honoured place far beyond this travail
  waits you O’ teacher and last tributes owed.
Real was my discontent, my foolery,
yet you never failed or abandoned me.


           Written: February 1994
Copyright © | Year Posted 2025

Poem

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Rodrigues Avatar
May 20, 2025 at 5:34 AM
A nice tribute to your teacher. She must have been a beloved teacher. May she rest in peace.
Trestrail Avatar
May 20, 2025 at 5:39 AM
She was a special lady that’s for sure. She saved me from myself more than once. Thanks Kim and God bless.
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