1. We began the class with a discussion / review of topics we agree as being Universal Issues. Two questions were asked of students:
   1. What does it say about mankind (people) that we share some universal concerns?
   2. What does it say about the issues that they are universally important?
2. We looked at a poem I wrote on the board (by memory because I left my books at home!!) and read it together, discussing the tone and how it was evident. It seemed that the poem was about a man or woman mourning over a lost love. I asked the students, though, to consider how the poem would be different if the topic of it wasn’t a lost lover, but the lost love of a homeland. What if you lost faith in where you were raised or your country – could you mourn that loss in a similar way? It is one of my favorite poems, this one. See what you think!?

“I am Out of Love With You For Now”

I am out of love with you for now,
cold-sodden in my misery
your contours and allurements
cannot move me.

I murmur old endearments to revive
our old familiar glow again
-like sapless autumn leaves
they rasp in vain.