Taylor Mali

Adam Verner

In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World

What Teachers Make

in praise of the greatest job in the world

What teachers make

Called "a ranting comic showman and a literary provocateur" by The New York Times, Taylor Mali writes eloquently and entertainingly about his experiences in and out of the middle school classroom. Bob Holman, the man who brought the poetry slam to New York City, calls Mali's poems "clear, funny, appealing, accessible. And smart." "What Learning Leaves" includes many of Mali's greatest hits, including "Like Lilly Like Wilson," "Totally L Whatever," and "What Teachers Make," which has been viewed on YouTube over five million times and is called "the most forwarded poem in the world."

New Edition

What Learning Leaves

An Anthology of Poems Powered by Metaphor Dice

Poetry by Chance

Bouquet of Red Flags

In praise of the greatest job in the world... The right book at the right time: an impassioned defense of teachers and why we need them now more than ever. Teacher turned teacher’s advocate Taylor Mali inspired millions with his original poem “What Teachers Make,” a passionate and unforgettable response to a rich man at a dinner party who sneeringly asked him what teachers make. Mali’s sharp, funny, perceptive look at life in the classroom pays tribute to the joys of teaching…and explains why teachers are so vital to our society. What Teachers Make is a book that will be treasured and shared by every teacher in America—and everybody who’s ever loved or learned from one.

With the perfect blend of wit, eloquence, and honesty, Taylor Mali's poems delight, haunt, and illuminate with equal measure every subject they celebrate. Bouquet of Red Flags is laced with more than the typical LSD (love, sex, divorce) of modern poetry. Here lie poems that elevate the overlooked daily miracles of coincidence ("The Luck I Crave") as well as the blessings of loss and longing ("Love as a Form of Diving"). Whether employing form or rhyme or merely crafting the artful prose he is known for, Taylor Mali delivers entertaining epiphanies spiced with the "Deepest Condiments."

You don't need a classroom to be a teacher, and you don't need to be a teacher to help someone learn a lesson. Taylor Mali's poetry explores this truth in entertaining and plainspoken ways because "the last thing this world needs is another poem" ("The Call to What We Know"). Whether discussing the language of love or the love of language, the poems contained in The Last Time As We Are prove that "He who dares to teach must never cease to learn." Not since Taylor Mali has there been a poet the likes of Taylor Mali-he is a man of unique properties. He is tagged as a performance poet, but his performances, rather than being frontal assaults, are leavened by charm and wit and could survive happily on the page. -Billy Collins, U.S. Poet Laureate In this latest collection, Mali's work buzzes, hums, snaps and zaps, the tour-de-force of Mali on stage having been properly captured and catalogued on the page. -Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, “Everything Is Everything”

Taylor Mali

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