The Monday Poem is brought to you by Professor Jim Gormley of the English Department. Enjoy!

John Correia, My College Chemistry Teacher
Jorge H. Aigla

The symbols of hexagons, surrounding circles
transformed into circles crossed by lines
get repeated with chalk, white on black board
many times as you talk to the young.

With the unfolding of years you continue to stand
at the junction of the child and the man,
you give advice to those few who reach you
and help them become who they are.

Your mind offered me knowledge of things
and your outstretched hand friendship, a light
more stable than any of those bonds
by which our dark center barely holds tight.

Those lonely walks through wide teeming halls
with students who think they know what they want
should ready your soul to breathe with a sign:
it is not senseless, this passage of time.

Aigla has worked as a medical examiner, a medical research fellow, and a professor of anatomy and physiology. He currently teaches in the classics program at St. John’s College, where he has been on faculty since 1985. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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