soccer karoo style poem essay

Clive Lawrance (1935- ) was born in Pietermaritzburg. At the age of six his family moved to Irene outside Pretoria. Educated at Pretoria High School he subsequently served a year in the navy, worked on the Kalahari gold fields, and spent three years in London before returning to Pietermaritzburg and embarking on career as a journalist.

• Mindset Network
• Analysis of Poems
• English First Additional Language
• RV - Literary Texts 1 and 2
• Studying poems
• LS - Listening for Information
• LSC - Statements and Sentence Structure
• WP - Writing Informative Paragraphs
• LS - Listening for Opinion
• LSC - Expressing Emotions
• WP - Writing Imaginative Paragraphs
• LS - Giving Opinions
• WP - Writing Letters and Dialogues
• LS - Reading Comprehension
• LSC - Direct and Indirect Speech
• RV - Literary Texts 3 and 4
• WP - Writing Narrative Essays
• LS - Listening to Song Words and Story Telling
• LSC - Revision of Verbs
• RV - Reading Graphs, Newspapers and Magazines
• WP - Writing Reviews
• Term 01 General Focus on Process Writing
• LS - Explaining Visual Texts
• LSC - Conjunctions
• WP - Writing Explanations
• LS - Formal Researched Speech
• LSC - Concord in Context
• RV - Literary Texts 5 and 6
• RV - Humorous Texts
• WP - Personal Recounts
• LSC - Figurative Language and Rhetorical Devices
• RV - Reading for Critical Awareness
• WP - Creating Adverts and Recommending Books
• Term 02 General Focus on Process Writing
• LSC - Logical Connectors and Conjunctions
• RV - Simple Arguments
• WP - Writing Arguments and Business Letters
• LS - Introducing Formal Debates
• LSC - Paragraph Structures
• RV - Literary Texts 8 and 9
• LS - Formal Prepared Speeches
• RV - Literary Texts 10 and 11
• WP - Writing and Justifying Opinions
• LSC - Meta Language
• RV - Literary Text 12
• Term 03 General Focus on Process Writing
• RV - Critical Language Awareness
• WP - Writing a Letter to the Press
• LS - Note Taking
• RV - Literary Texts 13 and 14
• WP - Writing Notes into Full Sentences
• LS - Listening for Appreciation
• LSC - Polite Forms and Stock Phrases of Thanks
• WP - Writing Letters of Appreciation
• LS - Informal Discussions
• LSC - Dictionary Work
• Term 04 General Focus on Process Writing
• RV - Literary Text 1
• LS - Unprepared Public Reading
• RV - Literary Text 2
• LS - Listening for Summaries
• LSC - Nouns
• RV - Summarising Informative Texts
• WP - Writing Point Form Summaries
• LS - Prepared Public Reading
• WP - Writing Narrative Texts
• LS - Listening to Different Texts
• WP - Writing and Interview or Dialogue
• Term 01 General focus on Process Writing
• LSC - Preopositions
• RV - Directions from a Literary Text
• WP - Writing Factual Descriptions
• LSC - Paragraphs Structures
• RV - Reading Informative Texts
• WP - Writing Agendas and Taking Notes
• LS - Debating and Listening for Position
• WP - Creating an Advert
• LS - Panel Discussions and Interviews
• RV - Reading for Summary
• WP - Writing Arguments
• LS - Discussing Issues Related to a Literary Text
• LSC - Verb Tenses
• RV - Literary Texts 7 and 8
• WP - Writing Descriptive, Narrative and Reflective Texts
• LS - Formal Prepared Speech
• LSC - Formats related to Writing
• RV - Mass Media Shorter Texts
• WP - Writing a Notice or Announcement
• LSC - Images, Symbols and Literacl and Figurative Meanings
• LS - Listening for Pleasure
• RV- Literary Text 9
• WP - Writing Shorter Texts in Response
• LSC - Passive and Active Voice
• LS - Critical Listening of Recorded Text
• RV - Reading for Critocal Language Awareness
• LSC - Verbs and Chronological Order
• LS - Listening for Sequence
• WP - Rewriting to Remove Prejudice
• LSC - Polite forms and Stock Phrases of Thanks
• RV - Literary Text 14
• Exam Preparation
• LSC - Formal Structures
• LS - Discussing Texts with Purpose and Structure
• RV - Skimming and Scanning
• WP - Summary Notes, Letters to the Press and Press Notices
• LSC - Passive Voice and Indirect Speech
• LS - Listening for Research
• RV - Literary Texts 2 and 3
• RV - Intensive Reading
• LSC - Verb Tenses and Concord
• LS - Listening for Comprehension
• LSC - Paragraph Structure in Discursive Writing
• LS - Themes and Messages in Visual Texts
• WP - Changing Visual Text into other forms
• RV - Reading Multimodal Texts
• WP - Writing Emails and Webpages
• LSC - Meta-Language in Multimodal Texts
• LS - Listening to a Job Interview
• LSC - Passive Voice
• RV - Reading and Advert
• WP - Writing Covering Letters and CVs
• WP - Writing Summaries
• LSC - Emotive Writing
• LS - Formal Speech on Visual Media
• RV - Viewing and Reviewing Films
• WP - Writing Pursuasive Letters
• RV - Literary Text 10
• LSC - Logical Connectors and Conjunctions and Generalisations
• LS - Listening to Media for Bias
• LSC - Pronouns
• RV - Reading for Critical Language Awareness
• WP - Writing Formal Letters of Apology
• LSC - Formal Style Elements
• LS - Setwork Discussion
• WP - Writing an Essay
• LSC - Style Elements Related to Written Work
• LS - Discussions for Exam Preparation

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David Brooks

The Quiet Magic of Middle Managers

By David Brooks

Opinion Columnist

Nobody writes poems about middle managers. Nobody gets too romantic about the person who runs a department at a company, or supervises a construction crew, or serves as principal at a school, manager at a restaurant or deacon at a church. But I’ve come to believe that these folks are the unsung heroes of our age.

Amid a wider national atmosphere of division, distrust, bitterness and exhaustion, these managers are the frontline workers who try to resolve tensions and keep communities working, their teams united and relationships afloat. At a time when conflict entrepreneurs (see: Tucker Carlson) and demagogues are trying to rip society apart, I’m beginning to think that these members of the managerial class, spread across the institutions of society, are serving as the invisible glue that gives us a shot at sticking together.

So how do these managers work their magic? When I hear people in these roles talk about their work and its challenges, I hear, at least among the most inspiring of them, about the ways they put people over process, about the ways they deeply honor those right around them. A phrase pops into my mind: “Ethical leadership.” This is not just management. Something more deeply humanistic is going on. Let me give you a few features of ethical leadership:

Knowing that moral formation is part of the job. Here we turn to the gospel of Ted Lasso. When Lasso was asked about his goal for his soccer team, he replied: “For me, success is not about the wins and losses. It’s about helping these young fellas be the best versions of themselves on and off the field.” The lesson is that if you help your people become the best versions of themselves, the results you seek will take care of themselves.

Creating a moral ecology. I love talking about my old boss Jim Lehrer. When I was starting out at “PBS NewsHour” and I said something he thought was smart, his eyes would crinkle with pleasure. When I said something he thought was crass, his mouth would turn down in displeasure. For 10 years I chased the eye crinkles and tried to avoid the mouth downturns.

Jim never had to say anything to me, but with those kinds of slight gestures he taught us how to do our jobs. He communicated: This is how we do things on the “NewsHour”; these are our standards. Jim is gone, but the standards and moral ecology he helped create live on. Morally healthy communities habituate people to behave in certain ways and make it easier to be good.

Being hyperattentive. The poet Mary Oliver wrote: “This is the first, wildest and wisest thing I know: that the soul exists, and that it is built entirely out of attentiveness.” The leaders we admire are paying close attention to those who work with them. They are not self-centered but cast the beam of their care on others, making them feel seen and lit up. In how you see me, I come to see myself. If you cast a just and loving attention on people, they blossom.

Knowing that people are watching more closely than you might think . We like to believe that it’s our fancy pronouncements that have a big impact on others. But what usually gets communicated most deeply is the leader’s smallest gestures — the casual gifts of politeness, the little compliment or, on the other hand, the cold shoulder of thoughtlessness.

The Anglo-Irish statesman Edmund Burke wrote, “The law touches us but here and there, and now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in. They give their whole form and color to our lives. According to their quality, they aid morals, they supply them, or they totally destroy them.”

Generativity. The economists tell us that people are basically self-interested, but there comes a time in the lives of many managers when the capacity to guide and foster the next generation is more rewarding than just serving themselves. And yet they do this mentoring with respect, not condescension. The most generative leaders don’t see themselves as doing things “for” people. They know that “with” is more powerful than “for.” The chaplain Samuel Wells once observed that modern societies often “attempt to construct a world that works perfectly well without love.” But, he adds, mature love between equals is walking “with” and not doing “for.”

The absence of a heroic sense. Albert Schweitzer was genuinely heroic. In 1905, he decided to leave his successful careers in music and academia to become a missionary doctor serving the poor in Africa. But he never thought that he was doing anything special, and he never hired people who thought of their work in those terms. If you’re going to last in a life of sacrificial service, he concluded, you have to treat it as something as normal as doing the dishes. He wrote, “Only a person who feels his preference to be a matter of course, not something out of the ordinary, and who has no thought of heroism but only of a duty undertaken with sober enthusiasm, is capable of becoming the sort of spiritual pioneer the world needs.”

The same humility is observed in the best organizations — the willingness to do the uncelebrated work, day after day.

Preserving the moral lens. People in most professions are driven by mixed motives. Doctors want to heal the sick but are pressured to speed through enough patients to make the practice profitable. Lawyers defend their clients but also have to rack up billable hours. In day-to-day life it is easy for the utilitarian lens of metrics to eclipse the moral lens that drew us to our work in the first place. Ethical leaders push against the creeping pressures of utilitarianism, so that the people around them remember the ideals that drove them into their work in the first place.

A posture of joy. We assume we are being judged on our competence, but mostly we are judged on our warmth. Ethical leaders communicate a joyfulness in what they do and attract followers in part by showing pleasure. Look at the example set by the great Russian martyr Aleksei Navalny. He was funny and teasing, even in the most brutal circumstances.

America’s founding fathers understood that when private virtue fails, then relationships fail and the constitutional order crumbles. The crucial struggle of our time is not merely the global macro struggle between democracy and authoritarianism; it’s the day-to-day micro-contest between the forces that honor human dignity and those that spread dehumanization.

The democratic fabric is held together by daily acts of consideration that middle managers are in a position to practice and foster. The best of them don’t resolve our disputes but lift us above them so that we can see disagreements from a higher and more generous vantage point. Democracy is more than just voting; it is a way of living, a way of living generously within disagreements, one that works only with ethical leaders showing the way.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .

David Brooks has been a columnist with The Times since 2003. He is the author, most recently,  of “How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen.” @ nytdavidbrooks

• Haiku Poems: Capturing the Essence of Soccer

Poetry has the extraordinary ability to capture the essence of moments, allowing us to experience them in a profound and concise way. Haiku, a traditional form of Japanese poetry, is particularly adept at distilling emotions and capturing fleeting moments in just a few lines. In this article, we explore the world of haiku poems inspired by the beautiful game of soccer.

The Art of Haiku

Haiku is a form of poetry that originated in Japan. It consists of three lines, traditionally following a syllable pattern of 5-7-5. Within these seventeen syllables, haiku poets aim to convey a sense of nature, emotion, or a brief moment in time. While traditionally focused on natural elements, haiku has expanded to encompass a wide range of subjects, including sports like soccer.

Soccer Haiku Examples

The whistle echoes Feet dance on the lush green field Goal! The crowd erupts

Golden sun above Players chase the orb below Victory awaits

Roar of the stadium Passes weave like poetry Net bulges with joy (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Barefoot in the sand Children dream of the World Cup Hope springs eternal

Rain splatters the pitch Slick ball glides through muddy turf Victory tastes sweet

The Beauty of Soccer Captured

Soccer, with its passion, skill, and drama, provides a rich tapestry for haiku poems. These concise verses encapsulate the essence of the game, allowing readers to experience the thrill, camaraderie, and beauty of soccer in just a few lines. Whether it's the sound of a whistle, the joy of scoring a goal, or the anticipation in the stadium, haiku poems about soccer manage to evoke powerful emotions and vivid imagery.

Haiku poetry invites us to slow down and appreciate the simplicity and beauty of the world around us. Through the lens of soccer, these poetic gems remind us of the universal language of the game and its ability to unite people across cultures and generations.

Haiku poems about soccer offer a unique perspective on the beautiful game, capturing its essence in just a few syllables. These concise verses distill the energy, excitement, and emotions associated with soccer, allowing readers to experience and appreciate the sport in a new light. So, the next time you watch a soccer match, take a moment to reflect on the magic of the game and perhaps even create your own soccer haiku to commemorate the occasion.

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