Ramone, there isn’t a whole lot I enjoyed about high school. I did enjoy Drama, English and Creative Writing. I remember very little about what I learned and I remember even less about my assignments. One assignment I do remember was an Independent Study Unit we had to do on a poet in my Grade 12 English class taught by Miss Misery.

When contemplating which poet’s work I wanted to study, I was leaning towards two rappers, KRS-1 of Boogie Down Productions or Chuck D of Public Enemy. Miss Misery vetoed both of those prospective picks. She also said nay to Bob Dylan. She did acknowledge that all three could be considered poets, but she was looking for poets who made their name through publishing written poems. She did make an allowance to do my project on Leonard Cohen, because he was a well respecte...

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