The Poetry Eye-Roll

Okay, now imagine you work in a machine shop and you have to ask the foreman for the afternoon off for a poetry related event. Now, there's an interesting reaction, and it goes way beyond the eye roll.  If you take the afternoon off anyway, its a disciplinary issue.  Embarrassment is the least of your problems - even though you've just publicly emasculated yourself.  Count your lucky stars Stephen. Of course, it goes without saying, poetry is nothing to be embarrassed about, nor emasculating.  Except that there is a level of reality that is dictated by social context.  All you can do is defy it and hold your head high.