Week 14 Draft

This is my workshop piece. I took a lot of the comments into consideration. Thanks! 

Draft 2: (10/25/2010)

In a Vegas Denney’s Thinking About My Lost Child, 1985

Looking out the window fogged with

scorched hash browns and hard coffee

the waitress aborts the flashing cowboy hats,

panty hosed sluts, and snapping impersonators

to the sands.

Here, in Denney’s, her chipped nails hold the past’s glasses

once filled with single malts and plastic ice until 5AM,

hands tinkering the ice, playing roulette and shooting craps,

and she hears the ancient roots of the desert call for another round-on

the house. 

 

Draft 3 (11/13/2010)

Inside the Denney's she looks out the window fogged with

scorched hash browns and hard coffee.

Thinking of floor 37, Room 2 when she

put bubbles in the champagne glass hot tub,

she lays a bent fork next to smudged spoons.

Taking out the soured towel, she wipes

that away, leaving the faint smell of bleach

and breast milk.

Out there the Vegas palms abort the flashing cowboy hats

where panty hosed whores strut.

The greats shoot craps and

drink single malts with plastic ice till 5AM.

The blades of newness slap

the salty, sweet, hard felt.

Clapping hands curl to embrace the feeling

of loss that surrounds the pyramids and

we all count plastic hardships in unison.

Water in the desert jolts to life tipsy roots

calling for another round-on the house.

Back inside, the waitress leaves

the check-all wrong and honest- getting

change for all she’s worth out here.

Week 12, How to Pick Bean Trees

Draft 2: (10/25/2010)

Gather up boat tires, flattened license plates, and excised Irish Catholics before heading

to the muddy ditches of creek bottoms.

Wash the burnt religion and the tacky smell of rotting bean flesh from the leathered skin

with dirt sneaking under square nail beds.

Split wood shells and mossy pods, dank with the backwoods of McGaha cove, before easing

in the masked stillborn cemetery.

Read the sacred heart notes and call before coming because the coffee might be

stale and the cards might still be on the table from the last wake.

Handle the snake, though the reading glass smudges with cyanide, before going out through the

deadheaded mums, the intoxicated hay and sterilized corn husks.  

Then, climb up, seeing the heavenly shoots, fall down into what you know too well to pick.

Week 11, Lady Aberline Likes Jazz Draft 1

Lady Aberline likes Jazz

You're not putting your hand up my dress.
Yes, I will build schools, figure puzzles and talk to animals-
but I am not open for your imagination.

Kin to puppets with weekday names, I shimmy
through life with a boring bun and blue jean jumper.
I crush the track with my bowed Sam and Libby's,
I can't work in the factory or
preside over the museum with ruddy cheeks--
but Handy Man Negri and I have our fun
in jazz clubs far from Make Believe Land.

The smoke thick rooms fill my hair as Negril
wails on the lost dings of the trolley that
makes it all real. Thinking on the delivery of
the day-the only human contact through the wall
and the change of the sweater vest leaves me trapped
unable to taste the flakes of real life slipping away.
I'm known for this because it is my name.

*This came from the exercise of writing from another character's voice. Lady Aberline is the woman in Mister Roger's Neighborhood. After doing some research about her and Handy Man Negril, I found out that both were someone famous on the jazz scene as well. There may be too many allusions here, but I like speaking from her voice. 

Week 10, Nero's Prosciutto Draft 2

Draft 2 from an Anaphora Exercise

Nero's Prosciutto

Here, where the frogs moan their tombstone solos and the rushes yawn,
I think of Venice and laundry, hanging like Nero's prosciutto.
The hemoglobin hues of summer dresses and last night's underwear
entwine. The pastels of past years and the staggering heat of canals
age the wind of middle school days.

There in the musty canals, I butcher the dog's hair like standing rib roast, little bones
wearing santa hats and leafy crowns in tandem.

Week 9, Improv

From "The Carcass" by Baudelaire
And the sky was watching that superb cadaver
Blossom like a flower.
So frightful was the stench that you believed
You'd faint away upon the grass.

There behind the rusty tire well of F150's
the glass eyed, rust colored raccoon quivers
behind the birdcage of desire and hears the
tick of drums and the useless trills of runner's heels
cutting through the dense woods of libraries and
the health department.

Week 9, Free Write

Translation  of Baudelaire's "The Carcass" 
My Words in Bold
Une Charogne
The Charger

Rappelez-vous l'objet que nous vîmes, mon âme,


Rapunzel mouses the object of venom, man and me.
Ce beau matin d'été si doux:
The blue martian eats suduko
Au détour d'un sentier une charogne infâme
And detours under the sentiment of the flaming cologne.
Sur un lit semé de cailloux,
Surrender the lite semen and Clorox.
Les jambes en l'air, comme une femme lubrique,'
The jambs in the air come and lubricate the feminine
Brûlante et suant les poisons,
The Brilliant sauna of poisons
Ouvrait d'une façon nonchalante et cynique
Nonchalant ovaries critique the falcons
Son ventre plein d'exhalaisons.
and venture the plain explosions.

Le soleil rayonnait sur cette pourriture,
Of solitude and rayon with cigarette points in the furniture.
Comme afin de la cuire à point,
Come to defend and cure the point of breaking
Et de rendre au centuple à la grande Nature
and the complete rendering of gratin.
Tout ce qu'ensemble elle avait joint;
Touching and reassembling the awaiting joint. 

Week 9, Pedagogy

This week, I am working to convince my students that poetry is a useful form of writing. Working with my student teacher, we developed lessons where we are reading poems in class required by the GPS, then we are having the students select lines to use as a starter. Although I had some rather good images "The city smells like crumbling buildings"-student and "the post it notes of life stare back through the cave"-student, for the most part, students were confused. I wonder if I went wrong somewhere. Perhaps we didn't work to establish a basis for this work, and so the students are confused about their purpose and their goal. The performance standards focus strongly on literature content, but when it comes to writing, they are more vague. I wonder, should I have done other exercises to set this up before actually having students write? 

Week 9, Response to Classmate's Journal -Darin Metters

In Response to Darin's Post regarding testing:

College for all students limits the opportunities for the majority of our students. Georgia is one of the few states that allows all students to take the SAT. Although I completely agree that all students who wish to go to college should be afforded that right, I do not believe that college for all students is the best path. However, the shift in education recently leans toward methods to prepare students for multiple paths instead of just college. For example, most classes in high school are taught by highly qualified teachers in their area instead of pedagogy, but schools working under Class Keys are focused on the concept of exemplary lessons that focus more on method, application and relevancy, rather than just content. This focus highlights skills verses content. Another example of this shift is happening at our school. We are focused mostly on helping the students who want to exceed, exceed. In doing so, we have found it has little to do with actual intelligence but instead, hard work. Before students attend to information, they must have a reason, instinctively or extrinsically, to focus on that activity. Although I don't have the answer for motivating all students or where the motivation comes from, motivation seems to be the answer to success for our students.

Week 9, Sign Inventory

"The Drowned Children" by Louise Gluck

1. The title of the poem controls the meaning. From her other poems, titling is very specific and important.

2. The speaker is addressing a general "you".

3. The word natural in the second line suggests multiple meanings: natural as in nature of the pond, natural as in how is should be.

4. The use of "they" makes the drowned children generalized and less personal.

5. The personification of the pond "lifting" and "dark arms" gives nature more agency than the children.

6. The second and third stanzas begin with conjunctions: "and" and "but."

7. The list of household items at the end of stanza two that ends in "their bodies" aligns the children with just things laying around the house.

8. The italics at the end are interesting. Could it be the voice of the drowned children?

9. The idea of naming in the third stanza seems contradictory to the anonymity of the children so far in the poem.

10. The idea in the second stanza that death comes to people differently is an interesting characterization of death. 

Week 9, Calisthenics

The dusty violet eye shadow matches the hat of the man at bus station 13.
He says to the urn "By the way, that never worked."
If the world be flesh, the transient sits full of signs weaving to the flashy tunes of tango.
Ditches brim, knock and grind oil from the elaborate affairs of houses.

The supplicants lift great book to anyone-please.
Bridge to bridge he says "Tu sai che l'loco" and brings the allocated souls to metal folding chairs
in milk chocolate.
The exposed ancient pit reads doorways to backyards where pilgrims rub maggots
in the spinning room-always leading to Demeter.

Week 9, Junkyard Quotes

1. "Writers cannot be creative if they are constrianed by the possible evaluation of their work."
Educational Psychology Textbook in a Chapter about Writing
*This is in the creative writing section which is only about a page in the whole book. 

2. "Retinol-A penetrative mask is like the difference between a teenager and a nursing home."
* The lady doing my facial kept saying this as she hooked me up to some face probes. I still don't know what happened, and I don't want to know.

3. "Did Blake really see angels?" -one of my students as we were preparing to read "The Lamb" and "The Tyger".

4. "Chocolate Peanut Butter Smore Brownies" -Paula Dean
I don't how she is still alive. 

Week 8, Improv

"A thinking woman sleeps with monsters.
The beak that grips her, she becomes. And Nature,
that sprung-lidded, still commodious
steamer-trunk of tempora and mores
gets stuffed with it all:"
"Snapshots of a Daughter-In-Law" by Adrienne Rich

A cooking woman sleeps with moths.
The sticky, dust fuzz that sticks to Clorox. Add webs,
that cling to rice, ceremoniously
like the coronas of kings, hand on beard.
The cheeze-its caught like mosquitoes.

Week 8, Reponse to Classmate's Journal

After attending the Billy Collins reading, I was struck with his originality, and fresh, witty commentary. His ability to read with intention was also impressive. His voice was generally flat, but with the slightest inflection, he made his musings more interesting. It was clear that he's been doing readings for a while.

I was also struck by the various reactions to his performance. Most students were impressed, while some considered him too "safe." While it may be true that Collins doesn't tackle very controversial topics, he is undoubtedly a rare talent. And while popularity doesn't necessarily equal quality (see Justin Bieber or Katy Perry), Collins satisfies the harshest critics and poetic ignoramuses alike. He is great for the art because he exemplifies how influential it can be. Even if budding poets realize that they most likely can't make a living writing poetry, the potential for touching others is definitely inspiring. 

I agree that the Billy Collin's reading is a great way to discover poetry and have fun with it. I noted after we left that students would really enjoy that reading because it was so entertaining and fast paced. When I got to school on Wednesday morning, my colleges were shocked to find out that no, it wasn't in a coffee house; no I did not snap or drink coffee; and no, I didn't wear black. I think that most peoples' misconceptions about poetry push them away from wanting to hear it read aloud. Another classmate noted how different a live reading is compared to silently reading to yourself. For Billy Collins, I think this couldn't be more true. In order to get people interested in poetry, they have to enjoy and feel like it's not something above their intellectual or social reach. Although I'm not much of a giggler, and I don't clap very often, overall, the reading offered a different, relevant approach to poetry that "non-poetry" people can enjoy. 

Week 8, Free Entry

This weekend, my husband and I went on a small trip up into the Smoky Mountains. No, no Pigeon Forge for us or even Gatlinburg. We went to see my grandma who lives in Cosby, TN. On the trip up and back, I started a game of counting Flea Markets. I lost count, but there were plenty. Then, I started thinking about all of the "faux" county things I spotted. Here are a few:
"Kuntry Kitchen or Cookin" 
"Come see um!"
"Batatoes" or "Taters"
"Yall ........"
Dixie Stampede
Anything about Sweet Tea is just overdone.  
A sign in our cabin's bathroom called "Rules of the Outhouse"
(It makes it even more ridiculous that this was a really nice, expensive cabin.)

I started thinking: Does something original become cheesy and kitschy when other people outside of that culture say it/do it?  If so, how can we ever avoid cliches in our writing? 

Week 8, Calisthenics

"How to Pick Bean Trees"


Gathering up old boat tires and Irish Catholics,
heading to the creek and washing the burnt religion
happens before heading to the mud ditches covered
in rotting bean flesh.

Moss green pods and split wood shells rot in
the backwoods of McGaha Church in the cove beyond
the masked cemetery.

Here, the mums sings soprano, the hay sings bass,
and the corn husks pick up tenor. The bean trees
read the sacred heart notes, handling the snake
through its reading glass.

Pick up there, climb up,
and you will see the heavenly shoots.

Week 8, Pedagogy

This week, we had a 1/2 day for parent/teacher conferences. Since I only had 1/2 of my students, and I didn't want to start anything new, my students did a poetry project. I handed out 4 poems from varying modern writers. I chose those because my students always like a poem more if the poet is still alive. We read the poems aloud together in class. Then, I had the students re-read the poem and choose three out of the four to work with. Together in partners, they had to answer the following questions:
1. Find one thing that you really like. I told them it could be a word, image, etc. 
2. Find one thing that is really weird or strange. Again, I told them it could be a word, image, etc.
3. Find one thing that you would like to copy.
My students, who usually never work on 1/2 days, started really talking about the poems. I heard them saying things like "those words are really cool together" or "I wonder what they're saying here" or even "what is this about?". Although they are not using the types of specific, academic language we use in class, they still have the essential quandaries for reading and enjoying poetry. It was an interesting assignment that just popped up, literally-I came up with it that morning before class.

Week 8, Sign Inventory

"Empty Glass" from Wildwood Flower by Kathryn Stripling Byer.

Last night I stood ringing
my empty glass under
the black empty sky and beginning, of all

things, to sing.
The mountains paid no attention.
The cruel ice did not melt.
But just for a moment the hoot owl grew silent.
And somewhere the wolves hiding out
in their dens opened, cold, sober eyes.

Here's to you
I sang, meaning
the midnight
the dark moon
the empty well,

meaning myself
upon whom the snow fell
without any apology. 

1. Action in this poem is passive.

2. The "me" and "I" speaker in the poem speaks differently at the end then the beginning.

3. Nature's reaction (or lack of) to the speaker. 

4. Enjambments are violent in comparison to the subject. 

5. The short chopped middle stanza in comparison to the fuller first two stanzas.

6. The use of adjectives are associated, but seem to create a new way to look at cliches.

7. "upon whom" are extremely passive.

8. The speaker are acted upon by other forces, but Nature is active.

9. The "you" is an interesting character.

10. Signing seems like an interesting notion in a quiet, dark setting.

Week 8, Junkyard

1. "Solitude is deep water...."
Emma Bell Miles, The Spirit of the Mountains

Wildwood Flower by Kathryn Stripling Byer
2. "a lone woman haunting the trail
till it ended in chimney-stone cast among
wood sorrel"
"At Kanati Fork"

3. "I have moved as a mule
moves, without joy"
"Thaw"

4. "On the line they are tossed like lost souls"
"Lost Soul"

Week 7. Improv: Late

"Fishing on the Susquehana in July"

I have never been fishing on the Susquehana
or on any river for that matter
to be perfectly honest.

Not in July or any month
have I had the pleasure--if it is a pleasure
of fishing on the Susquehana.

I am more likely to be found
in a quiet room like this one--
a painting of a woman on a wall.

I have never made toast in the Waffle House
or fried ham or eggs
in fact.

Not at midnight covered in drunk
have I made the crispiest, dripping toast-
it sucks, but it pays the tumors of real life.

I dream to be found in Hollywood
going to prison and rehab--
a painting of me on the wall.

Week 7, Sign Inventory

Another Reason Why I Don't Keep A Gun In The House

Billy Collins 

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark
that he barks every time they leave the house.
They must switch him on on their way out.

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
I close all the windows in the house
and put on a Beethoven symphony full blast
but I can still hear him muffled under the music,
barking, barking, barking,

and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra,
his head raised confidently as if Beethoven
had included a part for barking dog.

When the record finally ends he is still barking,
sitting there in the oboe section barking,
his eyes fixed on the conductor who is
entreating him with his baton

while the other musicians listen in respectful
silence to the famous barking dog solo,
that endless coda that first established
Beethoven as an innovative genius.

1. Most of the stanzas are controlled, 4 line stanzas. There are two exceptions in the middle of the poem, a 5 line stanza followed by a 3 line stanza.

2. "Barking" appears 12 times.

3.  Shift in time and space in the 3rd stanza.

4. Use of music terminology in the last stanza.

5. The title-like we discussed last week-changes the meaning with this poem.

6.  The last line of the 1st stanza, the speaker guesses about the life of his neighbors. Interesting characterization.

7.  Repetition of the same line for the beginning of stanza 1 and 2. It seems that the poem starts over again.

8. "Symphony" and "full blast" are dissonant ideas. Usually, symphonies are typically thought to be calming, not something that causes you to head bang.

9. The dog is in the oboe section.  Specificity.

10. Who is the conductor character leading the whole situation. The relationships of characters in this poem seems significant. The speaker is watching from a window, the dog is alone, the conductor leads, etc.

Week 7, Free Entry

Draft 1: When I Go to Bed
When we go to bed, the frogs moan
and I think of Venice, glass and laundry.

When we go to bed, did I brush the dog's hair
until it was fine with the butcher to pay Tuesdays?

When I go to bed, the fox tickles
the broom, the moss and her-all asleep.

When I go to bed, the elves buzz
the cave with slut's work.

When I go to bed, the faded flower linoleum
curls and rusts for her.

Draft 2: Nero's Prosciutto

Here, where the frogs moan their graveyard trombone,
I think of Venice and laundry, hanging like Nero's prosciutto.
The hemoglobin hues of summer dresses and last night's underwear
entwine. The pastels of past years and the staggering heat of canals
age the middle school wine.

There, where the eel shined water runs from the mold,
I butcher the dog's hair like a standing rib roast. Santa hats,
protrude on the cracked bone.
Linoleum curls the faded flowers and all sleep, except her
who waits for lemoncello to freeze.

Week 7, Response to Classmate's Journal

One of the aspects of creative writing I'm struggling with the most is the time spent in the classroom working on it. Block scheduling does have some advantages, because we have 90 minutes a class. On the other hand, we have so much material to cover in a semester along with all the standards that are on the American Literature EOCT. Right now, I'm doing it about once a week, but I'm not sure if that is enough. It's hard to balance the two things with all the other writing that we have to do. Does anybody else feel the same way? It's just something that I'm struggling with right now.--Chris 


Chris, I felt the same way last year. I tried a few things this year that worked really nicely with my students. As I have mentioned before, my students have a difficult time with purpose. I know that you are seeing this in your classrooms as well due to Facebook, texting, etc. For that reason, we looked at examples from both Facebook and text messages and corrected them. Then, students are responsible for answering a Blog Question each week online. (If you don't have access to myschooldesk.net --you need it). This allows them to write in a technical way that is still appropriate. Another thing I tried was having Writing Wednesday. I started this because last year, my students were not writing enough. I made it like workouts; I picked a day and stuck with it. My students like it because they don't have to bring anything but paper and pen on Wednesday. Also, we may do anything from writing an analytical paragraph to making a brochure. This has helped me integrate High Order Thinking as well as some of the strategies from class. Now, I know that all of these seems nice but useless in the face of testing. Actually, my students have been retaining the information and doing better on common assessments if they write about it. In fact, that's how I've been teaching literary terms. They define setting, they read setting, they write setting.

Week 7, Pedagogy Forum

This week, I worked with my students to create sign inventories for their end of the Nine Weeks Paper. We have been working with signs without actually discussing or naming it. However, I listed everything we have read so far on the board. Then, I asked them to just give me words and things they remember from the literature. This became really interesting for me to see what they actually remembered and what they found interesting and worthwhile. Together, we made a huge list of ideas, characters, and objects. Some of the students were even historicizing the reading by asking, "Did this have anything to do with the Feudal System?" among other questions. Then, as a class, we chose which one seemed most intriguing for that class. I teach 6 different classes, and all of them selected a different sign or nuance of the sign to discuss. Although it takes much preparation, the students really appreciate the fact that they were able to select their topics. This also gave us an opportunity to talk about the nature of "work" when you are writing. One student said, "this didn't take too much time, but you really have to think." That was the best thing he could have said.

Week 7, Junkyard Quotes

"I was born with an abundance of inherited sadness"-Whiskeytown /Ryan Adams

"superfluous ham" -My friend Patrick Whittier describing the dishes at Samba Loca

"Help-my stomach is falling out"-Girl (with her stomach falling out) at Chaos Hunted House
*They have a shack with smoked meats outside, which I found even more frightening.

" But what do the dead care for the fringe of words,
Safe in their suits of milk?" -"Homage to Paul Cezanne by Charles Wright

Week 7, Calisthenics

Lady Aberline likes Jazz

You're not putting your hand up my dress.
Yes, I will build schools, figure puzzles and talk to animals-
but I am not open for your imagination.

Kin to puppets with weekday names, I shimmy
through life with a boring bun and blue jean jumper.
I crush the track with my bowed Sam and Libby's,
I can't work in the factory or
preside over the museum with ruddy cheeks--
but Handy Man Negri and I have our fun
in jazz clubs far from Make Believe Land.

The smoke thick rooms fill my hair as Negril
wails on the lost dings of the trolley that
makes it all real. Thinking on the delivery of
the day-the only human contact through the wall
and the change of the sweater vest leaves me trapped
unable to taste the flakes of real life slipping away.
I'm known for this because it is my name.

Week 6, Improv

"Einstein's Bathrobe" by Moss  (p. 153 in The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry)

"I wove myself of many delicious strands
Of violent islands and sugar balls of thread
so faintly green and small white check between
Balanced in the field's wide lawn, a plaid
Gathering in loose folds shaped around him"

"Sampson's Loin Cloth"
I wove myself of putrid animal strands
of greasy bones and flyaway tufts in stumps
so biblical and sexual. A small token of humor
balancing the flow of hair, and Delilah's intent
to trim and control gathering in the loose folds
and glistening shears around him.

Week 6, Free Entry

Oscar the Grouch Recycles

I don't wear pants, sing or count.
The galvanized plastic taps the
indiscretions of Elmo and the humans.
Bannana peels, moldy bird seed and
dry Count Chocular bars crowd around me.
Soon, I'll be on Hoarders: Buried Alive.
Don't be like me-the parents say.
The Baker Street dump-far from this place
crushes lessons and crayons.
The only trash here is me.

Week 6, Junkyard Quotes

1.

"Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,  
    Singest of summer in full-throated ease."

Keats--I was thinking today how well Keats can focus on one 

thing for so 

many lines and not be boring or repetitive.

2.  "She was danger on two legs."-Anthony Bourdain on Ava Gardner

3.  "satisfying flavors of blackberry and currant" -Wine Bottle 

4. "Yeah, I stay there." -My students don't live anywhere..

they just stay. At first, 

the transient attitude worried me, but now, 

I think that's a great way to say where

you live.   

Week 6, Calisthenics

I am kinda sad that my computer does not have a floppy disk drive because I wanted to pull up some of my poetry I wrote one summer at camp while reading a lot of Sylvia Plath and wearing my Smashing Pumpkin's t-shit. This will just have to do....

Love Song for a Loser in A Smashing Pumpkin's T-shirt-Draft 1

The lamenting moon shames me 
knowing what I did..
asking..why did you? how could you?
The shame cuts through the broken glass
of mirrors, lockers, and this letter.

My soul cries out to the blistering moon..
but no reply.
My voice sinks deeper into the cavern that is his heart.
Wishing, waiting for more..but only getting less. 
Wash me, clean me, make me whole again..

whole so I can be torn apart and wasted
like trash or chalkboard dust.  Will he love me?
Can he love me?  Silence.


Draft 2 
 The Cork Maker

The lamenting cork maker rolls the cask of impostors. 
The lime filled crust guts the smell of mold. 
Real of Plastic?
The facade of broken glass, floral notes, and this
takes away the stains.
The blistering of pulpy wood demands attention and

My voice sinks deeper into San Leolino .
Wasted like chalkboard dust,
labor and towel girls envelops the rotting flesh,
sealed with me.

Week 6, Response to Classmate's Journal

You're totally right about the five paragraph essay not providing a worthwhile framework for our students' writing skills. However, I believe that evaluators for statewide writing tests are specifically trained to target these kinds of formulaic essays and fail them! There is a move to grade these essays on their ability to express sound ideas with good reasoning that are organized efficiently and are interesting due to word choice, sentence fluency, voice, and conventions. Transitions are also highly important so as to increase the flow of the work.

I always tell my students that four paragraphs are just as good as five, so long as they are well-developed, reasoned, and interesting. As teachers we need to continue creating better thinkers as we teach writing, and quality writing will inevitably follow. As you say, "the signs are what is important." 

I'm so glad that both of you brought this up because it is still a battle zone at my school regarding this idea. If you look over the past decade, the standardized tests almost required a formulaic, 5 paragraph essay that followed the "I'm going to tell you about..Now, I told you about" method. However, if you look at the new rubric for the GHSWT, students will fail if they write in the traditional, formulaic method. The rubric uses language like "repetitive". So, what do educators do?  We create a new formula for students to follow that we know will get them the passing grade. I know this seems terrible and restrictive, but so many students do not know how to write for purpose.
Our conversations about writing in our department always lead to the same issue, Purpose. If we could teach students that different writing calls for a different purpose, then they could create their own formula for the writing test. For example, I'll have my students create a brochure persuading fellow students of the best food in the cafeteria. Then, I'll say, now you are persuading a foreign exchange student, a nutritionist, etc. This shows them that depending on who you are writing to, you change everything. For me, teaching purpose of writing would clear up all of these arguments based on "formulaic writing". 

Week 6, Sign Inventory

Page 366-367 in The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry
"Axe Handles" by Gary Snyder

In the spirit of "Thing Poems", I wanted to look at this one by Gary Snyder.

1. The mention of Ezra Pound instantly places this poem in literary history.

2. The tendency to mythologize past culture is strong here in this poem similar to Semaus Heaney's poem, "Digging".

3. The object is missing in the beginning of the poem. The speaker must go get the axe handles.

4. The idea of time moves from present "One afternoon last week in April" to "fourth century AD".

5. The speaker also moves place in this poem, from the stump to the shop, back to the stump. This enriches the reading of time movement because the speaker doesn't really go anywhere.

6. 7 lines begin with "and". This is the most consistent line beginning in the poem.

7. The use of "I" as the object: "I am an axe". The son becomes the object as well: "my son a handle". This metaphor confuses the simplicity of the object.

8. The speaker uses the axe to create it's handle. This poem makes a comment on the nature of creation.

9. The speaker references "Essay on Literature". Perhaps in the same way that "Digging" discusses the process of writing, this focuses on a different aspect, criticism.

10. Throwing hatchet heads with your son seems like a violent, manly, purposeless activity that leads to a cultural revelation. Why this activity specifically? 

Week 6, Pedagogy Forum

I really like Amy Ellison's idea of distributing her old papers to her class to see their comments. Often, I take off the names of students and distribute past work, but I have never shown the class any of my writing for workshop. I like the attitude that this process fosters in the classroom and the workshop environment. By giving students my work, it would allow them to see that no one reaches the perfect pinnacle of writing. I think in public education, we too often rely on the teacher as the authority and the students are expected to copy that perfection. That will never work with writing. I even notice this attitude in my comments to student writing and in my workshop comments. I use words like "I would," and "we should", etc. This language reinforces the idea that I have all the answers, and the students will just never understand. I am making a concerted effort to change this belief because it goes against the nature of teaching writing.

Week 5, Pedagody Forum

The exercise on pages 72-74 in The Writing Experiment made me think of all the uses of collage in the high school classroom. Everyday, we ask the students to collage by taking bits of information needed to pass a test. We ask them to paste the bits according to no real categories at all, but instead how it will be presented on the test. But, what if we asked them to collage in order to create their own relationship between literary periods, terms, and ideas? A collage to me, and in this exercise, is a way to take things you do not understand and arrange them in a way that gives it meaning to you. What a great solution for the cram sessions and study sheets we make for the students. Next week, we are preparing for the Georgia High School Writing Test. Due to this exercise, I'm thinking how I can apply this to analytical writing. I could have students cut out images and words that will give them a visual image of what they are being asked to do on the writing test. Perhaps some will relate to this relevant exercise.

Week 5, Improv

The Hanging Man by Plath

By the roots of my hair some god got hold of me.
I sizzled in his blue volts like a desert prophet.

The nights snapped out of sight like a lizard's eyelid:
A world of bald white days in a shadeless socket.

Breakfast-R. Jones

By the crumbs in my toaster some thought done gone and done it.
I crinkled the dark char like a paper fan in a drain.

The eggs cracked out of the pan like an eyeball popping and clinging to the socket.
A place of carbs and grease in the plunge of 15 pounds.

Week 5, Sign Inventory

The Bean Eaters
by Gwendolyn Brooks
They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair. Dinner is a casual affair. Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood, Tin flatware. Two who are Mostly Good. Two who have lived their day, But keep on putting on their clothes And putting things away. And remembering . . . Remembering, with twinklings and twinges, As they lean over the beans in their rented back room that is full of beads and receipts and dolls and cloths, tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes. 1. The rhyme scheme is irregular. AABA , BCDB , etc.  2. Use of personification in the last stanza, twinkling and twinges.  3. Tone of a guided tour with the use of "they".  4. Impulse to count and separate: "two..two"  5. The last two lines of the second stanza begins  with conjunctions: "and, but". 6. The speaker only refers to the beans  one time in the last stanza.  7. It's interesting that the poem ends with a list.  Most poems that we have read in class or in the anthologies  either begin or have one in the middle, not the end.  8. "the rented back room": This poem emphasizes  the lack of ownership. 9. The poet uses many "to be" verbs.  The verbs are not very descriptive or active. 10. The tense shifts often from past to gerund form.

Week 5, Reponse to Classmate's Journal: Zac Cooper Sign Inventory

I really like how localized Zac keeps his sign inventory. Reading Dr. Davidson's comments in our email this week, I realized that I often miss all of the little things in class because I am trying to think globally. I challenged myself with Zac's poem to look at the small things. After I finished, I looked at Zac's and realized all of the smaller, local signs I missed. It really is a new way to read poetry because I think the common mythology of poetry is that the reader must look for deep meaning. Without the small signs, the process can not begin. It's too overwhelming. The smaller the sign, the richer it seems for interpretation. I think the way he categorizes the way that the poem describes earth is so pointed, but it calls attention to a really notable moment in the poem.  Thanks Zac for that close read and inventory.

Week 5, Junkyard Entries

*All of my junkyard quotes are things that I found not only interesting but

useful for my own writing.  

1. "Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood"

-The Bean Eaters by Gwendolyn Brooks 

*This discusses something plain, but it is not plain at all. 

2. "is full of beads and receipts and dolls and cloths,
    tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes."

-The Bean Eaters by G. Brooks 

*These lines are such a common place list done in an interesting way.

3. "Abortions will not let you forget."

-The Mother by G. Brooks

*This is so useful because of her tone here about such a huge issue, and I like

how she has abortions as a character of action. 

4. "It is just that you never giggled or planned or cried."

-The Mother by G. Brooks

*What an interesting way to look at life. 

Week 5, Free Entry

Keep moving-"900 times more!".
Sand tastes like the frog's freshly yellow guts
with pixie sticks.

Sex hates work more than AIDS and
the movement switches on the laugh
following the joke I never get.

We move from bar to bar, but I
can't see through the hair and motor oil
that seasons my thoughts.

I am trying to produce as much as I can because I just do not know what to bring to the workshop for next week.

Week 5, Calisthenics

Trans-Am Superman

We are ten and uber-nerds drumming and
conducting Latino music in our gold, fire bird Trans-Am
tuned to 105.3-The Heat Beat.

Queenie drives us to underwater
castle and causeways clinging with
algae that shiver with one stir of
Ursala's ventilation.

I wear Velcro camo with a fat,
Roma tomato belly
protruding onto the doughnut of flamingo floats.

Superman saves the silly straw-one sip at a time.
The viruses in multitudes choreograph a smile
to the click of the soggy box on that lazy river day. 

Week 4, Improv

From "Meaningful Love" by John Ashbery 

The Atlantic crawled slowly to the left
pinning a message on the unbound golden hair of sleeping maidens,
a ruse for next time,

where fire and water are rampant in the streets,
the gate closed—no visitors today
or any evident heartbeat.

The Cajun Critters chicken gushed openly to the first cousin

trapping the wrapper to the straggling wish of park rangers, 

a guide for every time

where fire and water never do the trick, 

"the gate closed-no visitors today"

or any use for the wildlife anymore.   

* I am trying to make objects do unxpected actions. 

Now, this is a little out there; 

I have to admit, but I am so often giving things actions that are expected.

Trees are swaying everywhere and dogs are barking. 

I am trying to use Ashbery to get me out of that habit. 

Week 4, Sign Inventory

"My Erotic Double" by John Ashbery
from The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry, pages 284-285

1. The speaker speaks to and about another character. The double speaker seems unique in the context of Ashbery's other poems.

2. The beginning of each line is capitalized although the lines before it are not punctuated. The speaker does not complete the thought.

3. Uses words such as: Behind, Between and Before. Time and place shift several times.

4. The line "Throw some away, keep others." exemplifies simple language.

5. The speaker and other character have a conversation at the end without quotations. "Thank you" and "Thank you". A nice polite exchange.

6." hide, shade, protected" all suggest safety or danger.

7. Repeats "feeling" three times. This is contrasted with the use of "thinking" at the end of the poem.

8. Short, clipped sentences are used in relation to long, descriptive sentences.

9. "go-around, afloat, shot-through" are all types of movement. This poem seems occupied with physical movement and mental movement.

10. Latin words, like "pleasant" contrast with the more Germanic words in this poem. The Latin words seem fake in relation to more concrete images.

Week 4, Free Entry

Exercise: 
The Palmolive nectar hums down throats
as the oily dispersion fondles swamp waters.

The cinder block bark coating
the ball goal knows where the puss
filled claws live.

Signaling hate from the pissy woods
the primordial klan dusts the tables
knowing it never goes away.

The children near the port-a potty
stop the choking motors with cotton candy.

Meaning to lose themselves in the laughing
liquid and algae, the yellow jackets suck for
salvation.

Exercise 2: Expansion
The green Palmolive liquid encircles the sink with greasy lemons and plastic gloves.
The humming drains the dinner to China and further as it swirls and leaves us all clean.
Yet, the swamps, sitting silently, never knew clean. Covered in goop, wanting to be ignored, the
green grows without shame or Clorox.

The gray and green of the ashen bark crumbles like a cinder-block. Heavy as it is, it acts as plates and homes for snakes. Small, disease filled rodents scratch the bark to reveal the buffet of worms and death. Towering ball goals, nets filled with leaves, learn on the trees? The trees, becoming the goal grow like old man legs needing a cane.

The woods smell of piss and Coors and hate. The learning trees cover the sins of the past and give shelter to the haters of now. The dust of our history fills our lungs and clouds our vision as we try to climb out, to move on, to get a life. But, all we are left with are cliches and niceties. "How ya doing?" "Fine, and you?".

The purple and pink fluff of sweaty cotton candy sticks to the hair of the little girl wearing Hannah Montana boots--covered in glitter. The pinkness never goes away but is covered with the smells of the port-a-potty. Moving from place to place. Does it take the excrement with it? Or does it leave it for someone else?

Week 4, Pedagody Forum

I would like to add to Zac Cooper's comments. I couldn't agree with him more. So often, teachers focus on the breadth of information we should cover to prepare students for the standardized tests, that we often forget to focus on depth. By depth, I mean what Zac refers to in his last few sentences, skill based learning. I have noticed that almost all questions on the Georgia High School Graduation Test require the students to apply the skill of "reading", whether for comprehension or analysis on many different levels. We have found from our scores that our students are having difficulty with the questions that ask the students to read on a deeper, interpretive level, but they are correctly answering the recall or more basis summary questions. Using signs to teach the skill of reading gives purpose to reading for many of our students. It's almost as if we are teaching them to go on a reading mission or treasure hunt. Great point Zac. Thanks for that post.

Week 4, Response to Classmate's Journal: Jeff's Pedagogy Forum

I think that Jeff makes an excellent point regarding using the concept of a Triggering Town to involve students in the creative process. One of the most difficult concepts to teach when teaching writing is brainstorming. I have often wrongly left school, defeated, thinking "These students have no imagination!" Looking at his entry, I realize I haven't given them a framework within which to work. If we came in and Dr. Davidson said, "Just write a great poem full of great ideas--GO!", I would be so nervous I couldn't think. I might want to leave or just not do anything. Many of my students take this approach, and I can honestly say, I understand why. Using Jeff's method, I hope to employ this same method to help students determine a research topic and questions next week. 

Week 4, Junkyard Entries

No Parking. All Violators will be Baptized. 

-Church Sign in Murray County, GA. 

Ahhh, but I wore my debating jeans today! 

-Student upon finding that the debate scheduled for that day was going to be moved. 

"Like a shipwreck we die going into ourselves"

-"Nothing but Death" by Pablo Neruda 

"death is inside the bones,
like a barking where there are no dogs,"

-"Nothing but Death" by Neruda 

Week 4, Calisthenics

 "Meaningful Love" John Ashbery 

My words in BOLD.   

What the bad news was

 conducts curses worse than

became apparent too late

the sailors too late for morning coffee 

for us to do anything good about it.

who whistle and spit on rocks. 

I was offered no urgent dreaming,

although I applied for one and an American Express,  

didn't need a name or anything.

that requested no name or even existence.  

Everything was  taken care of.

Everything was played and plundered. 

In the medium-size city of my awareness

In the rack room city of blues 

voles are building colossi.

where sweating mats fill with bulk.  

The blue room is over there.

Out of the red one. 

He put out no feelers.

Pinching the ass of the waitress.  

The day was all as one to him.

Having just begun with her 

Some days he never leaves his room

covered in coffee and baby saliva 

and those are the best days,

before noon. Who could pass up? 

by far.

Near to no one. 

Draft 1:  

Sailors too late for morning coffee
conduct curses and hock in dishpans.
Everything, quilted and plundered went to AMEX holders,
smiling with green, plastic teeth in the rack city of blues.
Rooms, squeezed with sweaty mats gulp and bulk.
The red one pinches her ass-covered in grease and baby sweat.
She wonders, "Who else?" Near no one could. 

Week 3, Response to Classmate's Journal: Darin M. Pedagody Forum

A valuable lesson brought up in class this week was the concept of letting a student learn for themselves. A mistake that teachers can sometimes make is ‘over teaching’. They drown the students in information and directives, which robs the student of the experimental learning process. From what I’ve seen of education, far too many teachers will not allow their students to realize concepts for themselves, but rather cram information into them which is to be regurgitated a designated time in the future, and then very often forgotten forever. However, if a teacher is available to offer guidance to the student as they stumble and find their footing within a given subject or concept, the student can make mistakes for themselves and learn from them. The student should hopefully not only be able to reproduce the information from memory, but understand it as well, which can only come from within. 
Darin M. 

Although I said something similar in my Pedagogy Forum, I really appreciate how you isolate one of the main issues in teaching writing. I have students who complain all of time, "But, so and so told us to do it that way!"-crash of pencil, paper in floor, student leaves mad and defeated. Teachers, myself included, so often get wrapped up in writing for a specific purpose (the Georgia High School Writing Test, Writing Contests, the SAT, etc) that we forget to teach students the actual purpose of their own writing at all. Students are always amazed when we take time to actually discuss what writing can be, a dialogue, a process, a learning tool, an outlet, etc. Students fail to understand the differences in writing for purpose because they do not understand the fundamentals of why they write in the first place. Wouldn't it be great to have students write their own writing mission statement at the beginning of  a class?  Then, as facilitators, we could help them reach their goals. Thanks for that insight Darin M.

Week 3, Pedagody Forum

As a public school teacher, I do not give my students enough one on one instruction and discussion about their writing. I noted this because this week, as a student, I was feeling insecure and unprepared for this class. I'm sure that many of my students feel this way as well due to years and years or bad scores, failed tests, and teachers telling them "No, that is not how we write".  Instead of giving up, as many of my students do, I was able to meet with Dr. Davidson to discuss the particulars. I left the meeting re-energized about my writing and confident that I could do this and maybe even do it well. As I walked back to my car, I thought about how many students feel as overwhelmed as I did on a daily basis but have no outlet for it because of the type of whole class writing instruction I often offer. This week, we are writing a paper for a school wide writing contest, and I am going to take the time to sit down with each and every student, one on one, and discuss their writing. Some may love it; some may hate it, but at least I have given them the opportunity to voice their ideas and opinions about their own writing. I spoke in one of my fist journals of letting the students "speak the language of writing". I think this is a perfect opportunity. 

Week 3, Improv

"Her Kind" by Anne Sexton

I have gone out a possessed witch
haunting the black air, braver at night;
dreaming of evil, I have done my hitch
over the plain houses, light by light:
lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.
A woman like that is not a woman quite.
I have been her kind. 

*Playing with the anaphora by keeping it the same made me think within the confines of the form. After doing a sign inventory on this poem, the specific form and lapse in form seems vital to this poem, so I kept it in my improv.

I have ridden shotgun a dressed Barbie doll
seeking trophies and funnel cakes, chubbier than most;
dreaming beauty, I have done my call
around the dirty fairgrounds, post by post:
sexy little thing, eyelashed, teased, out of mind.
A girl that goes from coast to coast.
I have been her kind.

Week 3, Calisthenics

Draft 1: 

When we go to bed, the frogs moan
and I think of Venice, glass and laundry.

When we go to bed, did I brush the dog's hair
until it was fine with the butcher I pay Tuesdays?

When I go to bed, the fox tickles
the broom, the moss and her-all asleep.

When I go to bed, the elves buzz
the cave with slut's work.

When I go to bed, the faded flower linoleum
curls and rusts for her. 

Draft 2: 

Here, where the frogs moan and the springs ask for more,
I think of Venice and laundry hung to dry like days old communion bread.
The pale chips of shirts, socks, and his girlfriend's underwear try to rustle-but fail.
The bribing salt and heat of the canal cook the sardine linens like chalk.

And there, on Tuesdays, the butcher sells the hanging feet and brains
to the old woman covered in burlap looking for a steal. The haunches
of her gondola colored mutt tumble with life wanting escape--and kibble.
The days old wounds heal too fast.

But here, the faded linoleum curls and rusts looking for the magic
of magnolias and pale blue chickens to restore the glory before grease traps
and washing machines. Humming with slut's work, the termites cuss
the melting of their yawning oaks.

Week 3, Free Entry

The one wheeled Mazda rattles
and the stick rubs my leg.
We go everywhere in that damn thing.
Over the chicken house, through flea markets
and the drive thru, on one side.
The rubber escapes the horse.

The man without a family takes
the Walkman, the girl, and the vomit pink Barbie car.
We all go for a ride to the lichen filled sping
where the Indian headdress wears us out.
Poor Lucy covered in TB rags
rides all night.

The loamy dirt swallows the blood
while the grass puts left foot on blue.
The bologna sandwiches feed the flies
and history drinks the Jungle Juice.
The meaning of colors in nature?
Ask the man in the ditch-he's been there.

Week 3, Sign Inventory

"Her Kind" by Anne Sexton
The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry p. 304

1. "twelve fingered, out of mind" - The mythology in this poem seems rich as it does in many of Sexton's poem. 

2.  The next to last line of the stanza breaks with the rhyme scheme. Otherwise, the rhyme is regular.

3.  The poem searches for place. "I have gone out", "I have found", "I have ridden" at the beginning of each stanza.

4.  The mix of words like "whining, rearranging the disaligned" seem to suggest a jump in time from present to past.

5. The movement of the poem suggests where women fit in. Wondering the moors like a witch?  The caves of domesticity? Riding in the cart with a man driver?

6.  Simple rhymes at the end relate to the idea of fairy tales. 

7. As a confessional poet, the speaker seems to reveal something secret. " I have been her kind".

8. "I have been her kind" suggests that she is not anymore. In fear of intentional fallacy, the author's obsession with her own death and later suicide, seems to suggest a definite confessional nature in "have been".

9. "innumerable goods" seems so general when the rest of the poem is interested in specificity. It's just a better way of saying stuff, but in an interesting, obvious way.

10. the speaker flies over houses in stanza one, the speaker lives and creates meals for elves in stanza two, the speaker rides through and is crushed by the villages. The movement of home to the relation of the speaker....

Week 3, Junkyard Entries

1. Is that the Jesus dragon?
Student during a discussion about "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"

2. "Female Dudes"
Dr. Charlesworth

3. A lot of boning in that temple!
Anthony Bourdain "Beirut Episode"

4. There's the pool where we spent the war.
Bourdain "Beirut"

Week 2, Sign Inventory

"Providence" by Yusef Komunyakaa
(The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry, pages 534-536)

Komunyakaa discusses the "power of words" in an essay discussing Jazz Poetry on poets. org. Of all the poems I read and listened to, "Providence" seemed to tap into that power in a most interesting way.

1. Simple words paired together to create new, specific nouns. Examples: love apples, perfect hunger, moon-pulled fish, dung-scented ark, black hush, night weather, 1/2 stunned yes, fat juice, naked wing. 

2. Each of the new nouns are closely followed by regular, almost cliche pairings. Examples: seven roads, red bird, wet leaves, dull day, dark lipstick, western horizon, hanging fruit.

3. The expected and unexpected are at odds in this poem. The expected pairings of words closely followed by the unexpected pairings.

4. Use of ampersands instead of writing the word "and". This symbols causes you to read it differently than if it were a word. The connection does not seem as clear as when you have a word. The symbol almost stops the connection and gets in the reader's way.

5. 7 lines per stanza, 9 stanzas with 7-10 syllables in each line. Perhaps this has something to do with the rhythm and meter of jazz poetry.

6. Only three stanzas start with pronouns. The first and third stanzas begin with "I" and the sixth stanza begins with "We". This is not the only time pronouns are used, but it is the only time they are used a the beginning of a stanza.

7. Most of the verbs used are in the past tense. However, the 1st line of most stanzas contain a gerund. No pattern is immediately apparent, but they seem to be mixed evenly through the poem. 

8. Most of the words are Latinate and appeal mostly to abstracts. Examples: requited, memory, glimpse, nestled.

9. .Aletheia. Is the only thing italicized in this poem. Aletheia: the state of not being hidden-truth.

10. The title-Providence (god centered care or direction for humans) becomes an interesting name for this poem in light of all of the personal pronouns and past and active verbs. The title seems to suggest a disconnect between the speaker, the title, and some higher power.

Week 2, Response to Classmate's Journal (M. Brown/Calisthenics Week 2)

I think that Michael touches on an interesting conundrum with his statement " Meaningful?  Probably Not. Pretty neat? Oh, yeah.". I meant even add, "Hells Yeah". My reasoning for agreeing is my own calisthenics exercise this week where I did something similar to Micheal. In doing so, I found all of these words that I wouldn't usually encounter in my daily grind. For example, Xanthus. I found it; I looked it up; I wrote it; I learned. (It's the horse Achilles rode into the Trojan War given as a wedding gift from Poseidon. The horses were created by Zephyrus.) In using that allusion that I pulled randomly, it actually gave my practice some weight, an anchor to hold onto for perhaps future sign inventory and work. Micheal's recognition of the Greek references acting as a common thread in his "found poem" can be a great jumping off point for other exercises that may lead to richer imagery and specific language.

Week 2, Improv

As I read through Moore's poetry and essays, I found it interesting that she was a huge baseball fan. I think often sports and poetry are represented as opposite sides of the spectrum. Yet, it seems that both contain a great deal of art and a specific, almost coded, language. So, since I spend about most of my life watching football in the Fall, and now, I am spending the other half practicing poetry, I wanted to improv off of this poem.

Baseball and Writing - Marianne Moore
Post Game Broadcast

Assign Yogi Berra to Cape Canaverdi
he could handle one missile
He is not feather. "Strike!...Strike 2!
Fouled back. A blur,
it's gone. You could infer
that the bat had eyes.
He put the wood to that one.
Praised, Skowron says, "Thanks, Mel.
I think I helped a little bit."
All business, each, and modesty.
Blanchard, Richardson, Kubek, Boyer.
In that galazy of nine, say which
won the pennant? Each. It was he.

Give Bear Bryant the mic
he can inspire any bonehead-that hits.
He is no dog fight-just the dog. "Blitz!...Sack!"
Dead ball. A bomb,
it's fumbled. She could interfere-
the skin at midfield.
He picked off that kid.
Encroached, Payton said, "Fourth Comeback-
I'm the best Manning."
All business, turf, and green.
Walker, Green, Kinnick, Ruettiger.
In the clash of many, stands
all one ring. Them? It was all me.

Week 2, Free Entry

I love looking at the audience members' faces during poetry readings. Here are the types of people you see:

1. The undergraduate student there for extra credit texting secretly on their phone hoping no one will see them there.

2. The wanna-be poetry lover. They usually are wearing odd clothes with a part or large parts of their hair over their eye(s).

3.  The bearded man--always there. At some intriguing moment of the reading, he will stroke his beard.

4.  The poet groupy. You know, the one that laughs at all the jokes, stays after to buy all the books and gets them signed and then usually heads home, still needing more. 

5. The serious poetry aficionado. They are writing words like "split couplet" and "villanelle" in some type of leather bound journal along with a Pulitzer Prize winning idea.

6. Then, there are people like me, the skeptic, wishing I had bought a coffee before I came--yet, leaving with a sense that I was part of something I don't even understand-even if I don't want to.

Week 2, Pedagody Forum

The nature of "work" in this class differs greatly from any other type of class that I have ever taken. I've noticed that when I let creative work for this class consume me, the work becomes fun. If you let a traditional class consume every thought, insanity ensues. I feel that understanding this is so important because it changes the goals for learning. Looking at the class though a creative process verses a final product, frees me, a self-proclaimed overachiever, to calm those thoughts and really do some interesting, meaningful work. I have found it very liberating to "play" with language instead of focusing on just interpretation and analysis. Through a little experiment of mine, I  began thinking of this class differently this week (a different type of work), and so far, I can't wait to get home from work to examine my journals and practice writing.  

Week 2, Calisthenics

When I got home from class last night, I went to poets.org and started gathering random lines.

1st Draft:
I see a lily on thy brow
its loveliness increases, it will never
you, my love still asleep in August as fair art thou, my bonnie lass
exposes dusty fissured yellow pearls
As Xanthus once, its gliding trout
Hung by a faded cord from a hole
mad-eyed from stating the obvious
your hands that I could see
and scaffolds my faith to scorn
Enters--and is lost in Balms
the rules of propagation.
In the open world green dips the leaves
and nobody comes while my husband
hoes this earth until I think of nothing.
It turns mine to wax--tiny core of two sycamores
peeling to bone white
The body's shadow turns to shape in time.

2nd Draft:
I see a lily on the brow--
its loveliness increases, it will never
sleep in August. Xanthus exposes dusty, yellow pearls
hung by a faded cord from a mad-eyed hole. Your hands scaffold
my faith and is lost in the rules of propagation
in the open world, green hoes this earth until I think of nothing.
The body's shadow turns to shape up time. 

3rd Draft:
When danger's loveliness increases, it will never sleep in August.
Xanthus exposed dusty, yellow pearls
hanging by a faded chord.
A mad-eyed hole scaffolds my faith--lost in the rules of propagation.
In the open world, the earth hoes the core until I think of nothing.
The body's shadow turns, to shape up disaster.

* The underlined words are words that I came up with lists of different choices. I feel like I could continue on that venture.

Week 2, Junkyard Entries

I am devoting this week to Marianne Moore.

1. "So that in looking at some apparently small object, one feels the swirl of great events"-William Carlos Williams, Essay "Marianne Moore" (1925)
Specificity. 

2. "Poetry", Marianne Moore (1919)
"I, too dislike it" 

3. "James Joyce has been wrongly subjected to indignity by stupid people"-Marianne Moore to Ezra Pound in a letter (1921).
She goes on in the letter to use stupid several more times. I like the bluntness.  

4. "mongrel art"-Marianne Moore to Ezra Pound in a letter (1921).
This makes me think of what we made today during the calisthenics. 

5. I am so sorry to have missed the game at the polo grounds but I miss so much, nearly everything, that I am hardened to loss"-Marianne Moore to William Carlos Williams in a letter (1935). 
Connections of loss and losing from "One Art" by Bishop. This sentence comes after a discussion of WWII and Hitler.

Week 1, Sign Inventory

"One Art" Elizabeth Bishop

1. "Losing" and "Filled" in lines 1-2 suggest that loss can fill things. The suggestion seems to relate losing to a tangible object that acts and creates responses from other objects. 

2. The three tenses in the 1st stanza: "losing", "lost" and "loss" insinuate more than one way of losing. There exists multiple ways into the art of losing something. The word "art" parallels multiple ways into creating and writing.

3. The speaker doles out advice and instruction in this poem. The pedagogical approach forces the reader to act as student.

4. The juxtaposition of the important with the mundane. For example, " lost door keys" and "the hour badly spent" suggests that losing isn't a specialized talent--anyone can do it.

5. The connection between the mundane and the important. For example, "lost door keys" and "the hour badly spent" read as the same thing. Looking for lost door keys turns into an hour lost.How can something small lead to something encompassing.

6. What if we replaced lose with write?  "Write something every day". How is losing and writing similar?  What do you lose when you write?  Control? 

7. Repetition (last and last, losing and losing, disaster, master). The art of repetition plays out in this poem insisting that the reader not forget, to not lose the words. The repetition makes the words easy to remember.

8. Punctuation in the last stanza stops the sing-song repetitious reading of this poem. First, the dash cuts this stanza away from the others. The parenthesis separates the things the speaker hasn't lost because she remembers them ("the joking voice, a gesture"). 

9. I think of Shelley and "Ozymandias". Once written down, words are not lost. Poetry directly confronts "the art of losing". 

10.  (Write it!) This poem concerns itself with the art of writing. Again, here the pedagogical voice of the poem switches to an encouraging mentor's voice.

Week 1, Free Entry

I have been playing with some exercises from Writing Poetry: Creative and Critical Approaches

Page 97: Flat to Flesh
1. Off the coast, the water is sort of icky.
Mine: Sterile needles caress the sand.
2. The skunk looks into the trashcan.
Mine: The steamy buffet of trash waifs into the skunk's nostrils.
I just have to add this in from "Skunk Hour" by Robert Lowell
"She jabs her wedge-head in a cup / of sour cream"
3. The big monument bothers the people in the city.
Mine: The granite eye oversees the stifling city.
4. Ice moves out of the bay very slowly.
Mine: Creeping, the ice takes its final bow.
5. I looked through a bunch of stuff and saw the river out there.
Mine: The river wound through the oaken path.

Response to Laura Lindsay's Junkyard Week 1, Quote 1

I find the use of "mines" intriguing in this instance for several reasons.  First, I love that a problem with correct usage led to a discussion where students were explaining and reasoning their own speech--with their language. Obviously, the students felt confident in their own speech to argue with the teacher regarding the use of the word "mines". Second, I think that it eludes to an underlying theme with students: Ownership and Identity. Clearly, this student identifies with the object, whatever it may be, her homework, her book bag, her lunch, and more importantly she identifies it as belonging to her and only her. Being an English teacher myself, I can't help but see the irony that the students were able to carry on a meaningful discussion about their language, correct or not. Then, the student continues to offer a reasoning behind her language (1. You know what it means and 2. It sounds good.). If you notice your explanation for correct usage never really gives a clear, determinate reason for WHY we say " I have my"  instead of "I got mines". So, who really has this language thing figured out, the cringing teacher sweating at the board covered in dry erase marker or the student who knows just exactly what me and mines want to say? 

Week 1, Calisthenics

Chapter 3: Assumptions from Triggering Town by Hugo

My Assumptions about my town: 

• All the dogs bark in unison. 
• All shitzus bark in unison to Madonna songs.
• People cover their cars in Christmas lights to see at night. 
• The town stays dark to see the falling stars. 
• Everyone buys unleaded gas for their diesel engines.
• One armed stylists cut in the beauty shops. 
• She used to be Miss America before she got fat. 
• The barbers sing along with the dogs to "Material Girl". 
• On November 1st, all the stores close. 
• All the stores open on November 2nd with nothing to sell. 
• Although thought to be named after a WWII hero, the town's namesake was a whore. 
• All banks are connected to a taco/coffee stand. 
• No one eats tacos or drinks coffee. 
• Cereal hangs from trees on Easter. 
• No one likes eggs or candy or rabbits. 
• The mayor forbids white paper-only aquamarine or orange. 
• The poker table runs the mayor. 
• There is no mayor and never will be. 
• Everyone eats egg salad on Tuesdays. 
• No one eats on Tuesdays. 
• The church eats every day. 

Week 1, Improv

Elizabeth Bishop "At the Fishhouses"

The water seems suspended
above the rounded gray and blue-gray stones.
I have seen it over and over, the same sea the same,
slightly indifferently swinging above the stones
icily free above the stones
above the stones and then the world.

_________________________________________________________________

Words prize punishment
across the tortured white and dirty-white pages.
I have seen it push and push, the pale preponderance, the pale
politely purposefully playing above the pages
inkyly free across the pages
across the pages and then the tongue.

Week 1, Pedagody Forum

At the first meeting, I appreciated how switching papers unnerved me. Thinking about this after class, I realized that to better ourselves as writers, nervousness helps. It forces writer accountability to someone else. The next day, I employed a similar technique in my class. The students switched papers to highlight and discuss their own writing they completed the week before. Mimicking the exercise of passing our papers certainly opened my eyes to how "safe" I play in when work shopping in my own classroom. Surprising to me, the students gladly accepted the help from their peers. Also, this allows students to practice the language of writing. So often, teachers posses this "secret" writing language, and we are the only ones to speak it. I can't wait to have my students practice this language more.

Week 1, Junkyard Entries

1. texative
A student asked me if they could use this work to describe themselves for an assignment. Of course! I love this word. It seems to really describe our youth today because they prefer texting to talking.

2.  "in a hell / Not hell but earth" (Beowulf)
I am really drawn to this repetition. See next item.

3. "an old man sits netting,/ his net" or " herring / while he waits for a herring boat" (Elizabeth Bishop from "At the Fishhouses")
Something about this repetition in relation to Beowulf seems beautifully archaic. Even the repetition of "h" in Fishhouses just seems awkward in an interesting way.

4.  "And his heart laughed, he relished the sight" (Beowulf)
My students related this to Grendel walking into the Golden Corral. A human trough.