Li Po, "Zazen on Ching-t’ing Mountain"

Today:

1. Sew your book!

2. Prepare your presentation! Memorize your poem! Make a video! Ask questions!

3. Fill your Moleskine!

4. Read!

Today, three poem videos. Here are two from the Poetry Foundation.

Robert Hayden, "Those Winter Sundays."

Maruice Guevara, "Dona Josefina Counsels Dona Concepcion Before Entering Sears."

Headquarters

Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Music, when soft voices die"

Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory,
Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.

Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heaped for the beloved's bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.


Hi everyone. Posting from my living room today. I love this point in the semester because by now you know all you need to know to finish this class, pretty much. So today, just spend your time doing what you know needs to be done.

You should continue the process of making your chapbook file. If you have questions, refer to the instructions on the notes page. Or ask around. My hope is that by Friday you can have your chapbooks printed and ready to sew with me. I will try to have paper you can buy from me on Thursday, though supplies may run low.

If you have not already, you should re-read the requirements for the anthology presentation, also found on the class notes page. Please understand that the poetry video assignment can be challenging. If you don't think you can record your own reading, you will have to find your poet's poem online, which is not a real likely proposition. The Foundation site has some audio, as does this one, where you can search by author.

You should also consider doing an exercise or two in our textbook to prepare yourself for the test tomorrow.

I can't believe how fast this semester is going.

See you tomorrow.

Po Chu-i (772-846), "Night Snow"

I wondered why the covers felt so cold,
and then I saw how bright my window was.
Night far gone, I know the snow must be deep --
from time to time I hear the bamboos cracking.

Sharon Olds, "First Thanksgiving"

This week is "Make Week"! You've done all of the intellectual work--now it's time for something more purely creative:

• Make the template that you will print to make your chapbook!
• Print and bind the chapbook itself!
• Prepare your semester presentation!
• Memorize a poem you want to feature in your presentation!
• Edit a poem video for your presentation!

This week is about giving you the time and support you need to create. Let me know when you need help, because presentations begin next Monday, and chapbooks are due when you present.

Moleskines, btw, are due not this Friday, but next Friday.

from Postsecret

Today: eBooks are due by 5:00. If you are having trouble pasting in your poems, you may paste in links instead, but please, only as a last resort.

Today: our final work on our editor's notes! Have a conference with me, or get started on your eBook! See the Notes section for the directions.

Today's poem?

Today: Student's choice.

Remember: the Unit 10 Vocab test takes place on Friday.

And: the final draft of your editor's note is due next Tuesday. You will be submitting the editor's note electronically, with your poems, as an "eBook" to my Homework page by no later than 5:00 pm, that Tuesday.

Class time until then will be devoted to revision, the preparation of your presentation components, your Moleskine, and independent reading.

Today's poem: student's choice

Yusef Komunyakaa, "We Never Know"

So, today concludes the last week that you will be reading and writing about your reading for this class. For this last official post, call it "Finally," maybe, I would like you to compose a 250 word informal response to any of the following questions:

How would you characterize yourself as a reader when you started this class? How independent were you? What kinds of things would you read on your own? How often would you read on your own? Where or why would you read?

During the course of this semester, what kind of reading did you do? Was it easy to find things that interested you? Did you have trouble finding something you could stick with? How did you choose the things you read? Did you have trouble meeting the weekly page quota?

Where and when did you find yourself sitting down to read? Do you tend to read with music on, or in silence? By the computer? Did you find yourself checking your phone a lot, or do you ever lose yourself in the reading? Do you ever talk about the books you read with your family or friends or teachers?

Now, at the end of the semester, have you changed in any way as a reader? Do you read the same types of books you did at the beginning, or have you discovered any new types of writing that you like? Are you more or less likely, do you think, to read independently this summer? What do you think you might read next?

After considering these questions, consider reading, visiting and commenting on your friends blogs, or continuing work on your anthology.

W.S. Merwin, "When the War is Over"

Jan Owen, "First Love"

Titian’s Young Englishman with a Glove, circa 1530

It happened in Physics,
reading a Library art book under the desk,
(the lesson was Archimedes I recall)
I turned a page and fell
for an older man, and anonymous at that,
hardly ideal-
he was four hundred and forty five,
I was fourteen.
“Eureka!” streaked each thought
(I prayed no-one would hear)
and Paradise all term
was page 179
(I prayed no-one would guess).
Of course
my fingers, sticky with toffee and bliss
failed to entice him from his century;
his cool grey stare
fastened me firmly in mine.
I got six overdues,
suspension of borrowing rights
and a D in Physics
but had by heart what Archimedes proves.
Ten years later I married:
a European with cool grey eyes,
a moustache,
pigskin gloves.