In a Classroom By Adrienne Rich

Talking of poetry, hauling the books

arm-full to the table where the heads

bend or gaze upward, listening, reading aloud,

talking of consonants, elision,

caught in the how, oblivious of why:

I look in your face, Jude,

neither frowning nor nodding,

opaque in the slant of dust-motes over the table:

a presence like a stone, if a stone were thinking

What I cannot say, is me. For that I came.

Talking about poetry can be difficult. Everyone thinks too much into poetry, when really poetry should be about what YOU think and what YOU feel. There is no right and there is no wrong. Usually your first reaction is right. The one student is so stunned, the poet does a great job at explaining that he's like stone. He doesn't know how to react, which is what happens to a lot of kids. Poetry shouldn't be intimidating.