Oxymoron

It's ironic when a teacher tells you to write poetry;
a teacher is one who follows a set of instructions,
one who must convince you to follow guidelines,
one who is responsible for making the student think as the graders want him to think.
The school system is restrictive,
limiting creativity,
causing children to lose their imaginations
only to conform to the thoughts of their peers.

How can a teacher tell you to write a poem
when a poem is freedom?
A poem is an escape from the brainwashed,
mundane, repetitive feelings we are told to feel
and the thoughts we are told to think,
the beliefs we are told to believe,
the ideas we are told to keep.
A teacher can not tell you to write a poem, and then grade it,
for a poem is written for oneself, not for a grader,
for an audience that relates, not an audience that must imagine,
a poem is written out of the inner workings of one's mind.
You can not write a restricted poem.
That is an oxymoron.