Lost Stories

We have lost so much.
Our words on a page are to blame.
They save sentences and words,
Thoughts and beliefs held by many and few,
But we have lost our memories.
No longer can we tell stories,
Expecting them to be told and retold,
Knowing they will stay intact and true.
Listening to a tale, learning,
Absorbing all that can be heard,
And then telling other about it,
Not as a gossip, not to spread hate,
But to teach, to help people,
To share a beautiful  history --
That is what we've lost.
We've lost our oral culture,
Our story telling tendencies.
And as precious as books are,
As much as we learn from them,
They are lacking the heart,
The joy of hearing a really good story.

This is what I do when I'm board in a class. Write poems. Problematic? Possibly...

Until next time, tell a story.