in the spring term,
I will endeavor to take one last kick.
I could teach a few more years,
but the bloom of future adventures
is too exciting and seductive.
I told them this morning,
in the modern way,
an email that said, "Dear..."
I will NOT get the Yaro party,
but there are many good friends,
who will repair with me to a bar.
And we will tell tales of how we've done,
the lessons neither learned nor taught,
the battles neither won nor lost.
And I will think of the old profs,
the ones who taught me,
and wonder,
Did I do it right?
Congrats, Herr Tingle!
ReplyDeleteNicely said, Dick. Congratulations on the upcoming retirement. You can REALLy go crazy in class this term!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Dr. T.
ReplyDeleteGood for you, D.T.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your retirement!
ReplyDeleteYes, you did.
ReplyDeleteCongrats!!
Oh, but we will all salute you with a special Dick Tingle celebratory swig. Congrats!
ReplyDeleteWhy wait?
DeleteCongratulations on your upcoming retirement. Please share with us how enjoyable it is.
ReplyDeleteWow! I'm proud of you and for you.
ReplyDeleteLet us know how much you enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! Of the many things you've done right, one is deciding this before your final semester. Think how many times you'll be able to relish the last time you'll ever have to do xyz.
ReplyDeleteGood for you! I will one day cut loose the labs and the kids and let the great state of Texas figure out to do what I do.
ReplyDeleteBut, I just had to jump in one last time to ask, isn't it profoundly filthy that one of our most beloved poets is named Dick Tingle. I mean, you can't get much worse / better than that! What a crazzy fucking place.
Congratulations! May you continue to Tingle.
ReplyDeleteCongrats! Definitely retire when you can--and enjoy all that life offers you! This is another good poem, Dick.
ReplyDeleteOh, you lucky dick! What does it matter if you did it right, since even if you had, the kids would resist, kicking and screaming?
ReplyDelete"I could teach a few more years,
ReplyDeletebut the bloom of future adventures
is too exciting and seductive."
Well, it sounds like you're definitely getting one thing right: the timing of your retirement. And I suspect you got a lot of the rest of it right, too, or as right as any of us manage to get it (it's the teachers who don't wonder at all, or who are sure they're doing it right, that I worry about).
Enjoy the adventures, and please, come back now and then to tell us about them (I seem to remember some very entertaining accounts of workshop-type gatherings and the denizens thereof).