Before John Lawless read his poem for Alan Reinstein's English class, he asked the students, "How many of you think poetry is for sissies? Because I spent half my life as an iron worker and that aint no job for sissies."
The students were not expecting John, the man they had previously only known as a South custodian, to have had a previous job building steel building frames; but they especially didn’t expect to find an inner poet.
But Lawless has always had a passion for poetry. He got into his first fight with a teacher over the interpretation of a poem. When his English teacher demanded that one interpretation of a poem was ‘right,’ Lawless was furious. “I disagreed with my teacher on the meaning of a poem he had assigned … I said that’s not what it means to me, it’s what it means to you,” Lawless said. “I told [my teacher] I would be happy to regurgitate what it meant to him in order to pass, but it’s not what it meant to me,” he said. After that incident in high school, Lawless developed a love for poetry and its never-ending possibilities. "I've always liked words and playing around with them, trying to find unique ways to use them," Lawless said.
Students, however, remained unaware of Lawless’ passion until Lawless’ granddaughter, sophomore Tiffany Jacobs, mentioned her grandfather last year during her English class’ poetry unit. “I said that my grandfather could come in and recite some poems,” Jacobs said. Soon enough, Jacob’s English teacher, Alan Reinstein, got in touch with Lawless and scheduled a time for him to come into the class to read some of his original poetry. Lawless was nervous to read his work. “Anyone who wants to share poetry is sharing a little part of yourself, and you don’t know how it will be received,” Lawless said. Jacobs, however, said she “thought it was cool that my grandfather got to come in and recite his poems.” Reinstein was especially looking forward to this experience because he knew it would show off a side to Lawless that most hadn’t seen. “I fear the mistreatment of custodians by students, but this is a chance to show someone who loves poetry and just wants to share,” Reinstein said. The experience went well. “It was good, enjoyable; the students that were there were pretty responsive,” Lawless said. As Reinstein predicted, however, some students were surprised to find out Lawless’ passion for poetry. “I think it’s interesting that [Mr. Lawless] writes, because most custodians do not do stuff that’s intellectual,” freshman Harold said. Freshman Curt Lyon believes that while custodians play an important role at South, students often overlook them. “[Custodians] kind of go under the radar for students, and we don’t really think too much of their presence here,” Lyon said. This year, Reinstein read some of Lawless’ poetry to his current freshmen class, hoping to continue to spread Lawless’ influence to students. “I think it’s neat that we get to hear the academic view from faculty other than teachers,” Lyon, a student in Reinstein’s English class, said. “It shines a new light on custodians about a topic that students never really would have associated with them.” Lawless is grateful that he has the chance to share his passion for poetry, an opportunity that faculty who do not teach in the English department rarely can do. “I encourage kids to write poetry, save it in a shoebox, and pull it out a couple of years later,” Lawless said. “It gives insight to what was going on in their lives at that time. [Through poetry], I found that I was encouraged to say things that I wouldn’t want to say elsewhere.” Lawless believes, however, that in order for kids to develop the same love of poetry that he has, it is important for them to be exposed to different, more modern poems. “I have my ideas and opinions on why lots of students don’t like poetry,” Lawless said. “A lot of the poems they read [at school] were viable and lively a hundred and twenty years ago, but have lost some of their edge in the current time.” Reinstein hopes to continue to let Lawless’ passion for poetry influence his students by posting Lawless’ poems on the wall of his classroom. For Lawless, the chance to inspire students is one of the best parts of sharing his poetry with students. According to Lawless, the most important thing is that students “see that there’s people other than teachers interested in reading and writing poetry.” Lawless sees poetry as an outlook for personal experiences and a way to release pain. "When we were working out there, doing long building projects we needed some way to be able to talk about climbing up the poles."
