Greetings, gentlemen<\/p>\n
You\u2019re probably wondering
\nwhy I\u2019ve called you all together
\nYeah, I went for the clich\u00e9
\nbut would any of you
\nexpect any less?<\/p>\n
Even a cheap laugh is
\nbetter than
\nlesser alternatives
\nOne of those concepts none
\nyou never taught
\nbut I did learn.<\/p>\n
I hope you are all doing well.<\/p>\n
A group note not best
\nbut hey, I figure you all
\nended up in pretty much the
\nsame spot \u2013
\nquirk-purgatory for
\ninflicting me on life<\/p>\n
That cheap laugh thing again.<\/p>\n
Jocularity aside
\nI need to thank you all<\/p>\n
If it weren\u2019t for all you guys
\nI wouldn\u2019t be
\nwhere I am today which
\nis honestly a pretty good
\nplace to be<\/p>\n
Much like you guys
\nmost people would say
\nI done good.<\/p>\n
You can correct my grammar
\nbemused in irony that I
\nteach English to
\nrambunctious teenagers
\na few eye rolls, facepalms
\nwould be grammatically correct<\/p>\n
Truth is, I wish I could
\nconvey to students
\nwhat you guys did to me
\nNot so much the
\nnuts-and-bolts but
\nall that intangible stuff
\nhow life works
\nhow to handle it
\nwhy how you do it all
\ncounts for something<\/p>\n
There is rarely a day
\nwhere I
\ndon\u2019t pull something
\nout of my hat that
\none of you guys stuck in there<\/p>\n
Words of wisdom, advice
\nreinforced ideals
\ncommon sense
\nsome obtuse skill I need to
\nemploy to fix something or
\nexplain an aspect of life
\nto someone else. <\/p>\n
I hope all you guys
\nfind some pride
\npersonal satisfaction in
\nsome of what I have done
\nthings I have accomplished
\nhell, even in some of the
\nthings that I have tried that
\nhaven\u2019t gone
\naccording to plan<\/p>\n
As you all noted I would at
\none time or another
\nI have learned more from
\nthe screw ups than successes<\/p>\n
How I have carried myself
\nhas been noted
\nyou can take collective credit<\/p>\n
My life has, thanks to all of you
\nbeen so far more
\nsweet than bitter
\nin proportions larger
\nthan what you predicted<\/p>\n
That\u2019s all I wanted to say.
\nHope this finds you all okay. <\/p>\n
Be well guys
\nThank you.<\/p>\n
Love,
\nMe<\/p>\n
\u2013 Mark L. Lucker
\n\u00a9 2020
\nhttp:\/\/lrd.to\/sxh9jntSbd<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greetings, gentlemen You\u2019re probably wondering why I\u2019ve called you all together Yeah, I went for the clich\u00e9 but would any of you expect any less? Even a cheap laugh is better than lesser alternatives One of those concepts none you never taught but I did…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":694,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13],"tags":[3580,3442],"class_list":["post-65100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-miscellaneous","tag-2020hr4","tag-2020poetrymarathon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/694"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65100"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79422,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65100\/revisions\/79422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}