CJ Leslie DAYUM: Future Poet Laureate
Surprisingly, I can't even find an OT post of this in the MGoBoard history, but what better day to acknowledge the academic pursuits of CJ Leslie than the day we play NC State. I don't really think this needs much of an introduction but here goes: CJ Leslie, NC State's forward and the main reason for their lofty preseason ranking, took a freshman poetry course last year and the assignment below is the result.
Bonus points for use of double entendre, even if it is...like...the easiest and most obvious one to use.
(Credit to Deadspin, poem pasted below for those of you with Deadspin blocked)
She Finally Came
Cj Leslie
Eng 289
2/14/11
she was hesitant…
about the lack of time we spent.
she said, "i barely know you,
and
i'm kinda sick."
i said
"calm down
… only as friends."
i waited it out,
and tried it again.
this time only to find out
that we had work til 10!
DAYUM
where did I go wrong?
just tryna find a beneficial friend…
i'm starting to think these excuses
are
other men…
the next time she cancelled,
it was for an emergency.
man
this chick is really avoiding me…
then i got a text.
"sex."
YES.
she finally came.
over
and over, and over, and over….
November 27th, 2012 at 11:37 AM ^
November 27th, 2012 at 11:43 AM ^
and the prof's attention to grammar vs. content, it could be an A or an F. This stuff is so subjective.
November 27th, 2012 at 11:45 AM ^
Seriously, its a poetry class where his assignment is to write a poem and he's writing about something relevant to himself. Would his work have really been that much more praiseworthy if he wrote some type of cheesy Shakesperean sonnet?
November 27th, 2012 at 11:48 AM ^
That's my point. Remember the scene from Dead Poet's Society where they explain how to write a proper poem? I don't know that anyone can say what makes a poem good or bad. It's all about what you are trying to convey. Based upon the course description, I would imagine he did ok on this one.
November 27th, 2012 at 11:38 AM ^
It's this stuff that makes me question "graduation rates." How valuable are they if you can graduate churning out crap like that? In this case he may go pro early and it won't even matter, but there ARE athletes out there taking these classes, graduating after being funnelled through bullshit courses for 4 years to maintain elligibility, and then being counted as success stories because they are "student athletes."
Terrelle Pryor's paper on Research is another good example. There needs to be a way to enforce that these students actually learn something practical in their four years or they are just unpaid development league players for the pros.
November 27th, 2012 at 12:09 PM ^
November 27th, 2012 at 12:35 PM ^
I remember having my AP Lit teacher in high school give us disclaimers about how dirty minded Geoffrey Chaucer and a lot of his subject matter was. People seem to regard him as a halfway decent poet...
For me, it's not so much that the poem is bad, it's more laughing at the thought process that must have gone on to publish this as a final product.
November 27th, 2012 at 12:38 PM ^
the best ever.
But really not bad.
November 27th, 2012 at 11:39 AM ^
I thought that was pretty good actually. Maybe Da'quan can have some collaborations with Leslie on his next mixtape.
November 27th, 2012 at 11:41 AM ^
Dayum, that kid has talent.
November 27th, 2012 at 11:43 AM ^
That's what she said.
November 27th, 2012 at 11:46 AM ^
buh dum tshhh
November 27th, 2012 at 11:44 AM ^
It doesn't fit the classic mold, but not everyone has to write about love and nature the same way we're used to. Just because it isn't Shakespeare doesn't mean it's not legitimate. The kid is using the way he speaks and words he actually uses in verse form, unlike trying to whip up a sonnet and using "wherefore" and "verily" in this day and age.
Also, you all know E. E. Cummings would have totally written a poem like this in our current vernacular.
November 27th, 2012 at 11:52 AM ^
less punctuation
and few
er capital letters
November 27th, 2012 at 11:53 AM ^
..."beneficial friend" as a nice little turn of phrase.
November 27th, 2012 at 12:00 PM ^
November 27th, 2012 at 12:01 PM ^
A masterpiece for the ages. DAYUM.
November 27th, 2012 at 12:04 PM ^
November 27th, 2012 at 12:25 PM ^
I have met Leslie and he's actually got a decent head on his shoulders. He falls into the same ridiculous grammar-traps that every kid falls into these days (stupid txt and twitter speak). But he's not dumb at all.
Can't speak to how he is doing in the classroom, but he's considerably brighter than a lot of guys playing college sports these days.
BTW...considering the amount of time these guys have spent in the gym and on the courts, it's amazing they can speak at all.
November 27th, 2012 at 12:46 PM ^
Anyone else think it's pretty shitty to try and drag out students' (illegitimately obtained) homework for ridicule? Oh, that 18/19 year old wrote some poetry for his freshman English class that you consider bad? Better put it online so we can all laugh at it.
November 27th, 2012 at 2:03 PM ^
I agree 10% with this. This seems to be how Deadspin generally gets any attention; post things that no one else is going to post regardless of its substantive merit or truth. Putting a college kid's homework assignment up there for the purpose of making fun of him is pretty pathetic and none of our business really.
With that being said, let's contain him tonight and get a big win on our home court.
November 27th, 2012 at 1:12 PM ^
I agree with GoBlueInNYC. I shudder to think of the ridicule I'd get for some of the BS papers I turned in my freshman year of college.
This is the same as that Terrelle Pryor "paper" that was floating around a few years ago (that I'm pretty sure was fake). Who the fuck cares?
November 27th, 2012 at 1:50 PM ^
November 27th, 2012 at 2:00 PM ^
November 27th, 2012 at 3:06 PM ^
Props to him for completing a poem. I always end up scrapping mine.
November 27th, 2012 at 3:16 PM ^
It doesn't matter
if the form was classical or didactic
or whether it offends
the aristocratic
the important thing was
the end was climactic