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Harding, Cody

Arrangement No.5, Shape of Glass

Whitaker, Kiya

In Memory’s Arms

Buckley, Mackenzie

The Teammate, Not the Player

Herbst, Samantha Katlyn

If Fate Could Hold Her Own

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A poem about English Teachers from a street poet

Jablonski, Joseph M.

Virginia English Journal 
Volume 73 
Issue 1 Volume 73, Issue 1 Spring 2025 Article 8 
March 2024 
Poem: "Meditation on Glass (Or, the Necessity of English 
Teachers)" 
Joseph M. Jablonski 
n/a, yourfriend@walkingmallpoet.com 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bridgewater.edu/vej 
 Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons, English Language and Literature Commons, and the 
Language and Literacy Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Jablonski, Joseph M. (2024) "Poem: "Meditation on Glass (Or, the Necessity of English Teachers)"," 
Virginia English Journal: Vol. 73: Iss. 1, Article 8. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.bridgewater.edu/vej/vol73/iss1/8 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals and Campus Publications at BC Digital 
Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Virginia English Journal by an authorized editor of BC Digital 
Commons. For more information, please contact rlowe@bridgewater.edu. 
Poem: "Meditation on Glass (Or, the Necessity of English Teachers)" 
Author Biography 
Joseph M. Jablonski, also known as the "Walking Mall Poet," is the typewriting street poet of Old Town 
Winchester. Since 2019. Joseph has written on-the-spot verse for pedestrians at Wnchester's Old Town 
Walking Mall with a typewriter collection that includes nearly 50 different writing machines. His writing 
often focuses on uplifting themes of eternity, taking transcendental philosophy and translating it into 
everyday, joyful poetry. He is also a member of the With Ink Typewriter Poets collective, doing live-writing 
at events. Previously published works include a collection entitled "Dropout" available from Jafansta 
Press, and individual works featured in Five2One's #thesideshow and in The Odyssey, a Long Island, NY 
based literary journal. Read more about Joe in The Winchester Star. You can also see his poetry on 
Instagram @walkingmallpoet. 
Abstract 
A poem about English Teachers from a street poet. 
Keywords 
poetry 
This article is available in Virginia English Journal: https://digitalcommons.bridgewater.edu/vej/vol73/iss1/8 
Meditation on Glass (Or, the Necessity of English Teachers) 
Joseph M. Jablonski 
 
Blessed be the  
Midwives of our lines,  
Poets who took up  
Practical salary of teaching  
To make a looking glass  
Of blind souls.  
 
The window light reaches in.  
 
I would not know sight  
If it were not for  
Mister Accardi  
Pleading the meaning  
Of “Tintern Abbey” to me.  
 
I break glass often  
In case of emergency.  
 
By the day  
It becomes more difficult  
To speak clearly.  
 
Teachers fury in desperate storms  
Trying to drown the drought,  
Their lightning striking  
Sandy, shifting cultures  
Over and over to  
Crystalize the concrete rose  
Colored glass by the sea.  
 
The truth is,  
A book binding does not make meaning,  
(I know nirvana  
1
Jablonski: Meditation on Glass (Or, the Necessity of English Teachers)
Published by BC Digital Commons, 2024
In the two mourning doves  
Nestled on the lawn.) 
  
But I needed words to say that,  
Words everywhere, words  
Piled in pages branching in  
Trees on night tables 
And shelves and carried through halls 
In backpacks by woodcutters 
In training.  
  
Electrified into light refraction,  
Even if stuttering, 
Glass elevators breaking ceilings 
Even if faltering  
 
At the front of the class,  
Student head buried in slide notes,  
Murmuring about a dead white man  
From long ago,  
 
Who told me,  
My deepest, most desperate me: 
 
Beauty will save everything. 
2
Virginia English Journal, Vol. 73, Iss. 1 [2024], Art. 8
https://digitalcommons.bridgewater.edu/vej/vol73/iss1/8


English

Poem:  Meditation on Glass (Or, the Necessity of English Teachers)

This project demonstrates compositional techniques and development. It provides a view on the writing process of musical compositions and an analysis on the different components of the pieces. The project included public speaking, where I spoke about each piece and different aspects of the pieces to listen for. A large portion of my role before the recital consisted of organizing musicians, creating a program, and writing my essay

Simmers, Hannah

Composition Honors Recital and Lecture

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Bridgewater College

Not a member yet

Bridgewater College, Portrait of William P. Albright on the Bridgewater Rescue Squad, undated

Bridgewater College, Portrait of Dr. Robert B. Andersen, undated

Arrangement No.5, Shape of Glass

In Memory’s Arms

The Teammate, Not the Player

If Fate Could Hold Her Own

Bridgewater College, Photograph of students, probably in a biology lab with plants and honeybees, 1950s

Poem: Meditation on Glass (Or, the Necessity of English Teachers)

Composition Honors Recital and Lecture

Bridgewater College, Photograph of Dr. Raymond Andes on his little red scooter, undated

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