Tom, you must know I agree with you 100%. Nuns did more harm than good associating poetry with punishment. I have hated poetry ever since 7th grade, as you might imagine. I enjoy the English language and appreciate the expertise that is employed in writing good poetry, but the scar tissue from punishment has erased any interest in poetry for me.
Personally, I don't think there's a more ridiculous form of writing than haiku and I believe I have a lot of company, considering the ridicule that haiku regularly receives in one form or another.
And re: VCII, you'd think with names changing from Sister Mary Imelda to Sister Cecilia, or from Sister Mary Agnita to Sister Leslie that these deranged women would come off as a bit more human, but they didn't. If anything, it skewed things more as their regular names seemed less formidable but their actions remained just as fierce. I mean, who, after years of cowering from principal Sister Mary Agnes Loretta, could ever take a principal named Sister Muriel seriously? Still, it was always in your best interest to do so. The only one who skates here is Sister Mary Francis Ellen from 4th grade, who became Sister Lorraine. She was the coolest with either name, and the only nun instructor I ever had who didn't act like one. I was in her class on 11/22/63 listening to a radio program on a historical figure, when the program was interrupted with the most serious news bulletin I had ever heard up until I was commuting to work the morning of 9/11/01. She ran down to Agnes Lorretta's office as soon as she heard the news, since nobody else in the school had any sort of radio or TV going so we were first to hear. When she returned she had us all bow our heads and pray, and the radio remained on for the better part of that day. Just another experience in a St. Leo's classroom that gives me chills to this day.
But I digress. Back to poetry, everyone!
