The Final Blog!

We have a mere two days of class left before our presentations begin. I'd like one last blog post from you, a final reflection about the reading you have done this semester. What form it takes is up to you, but I'd like it to be at least 250 words, and it should be done by the end of class Friday.

Reflections like this help me to make this course as personal and challenging as possible. But you need to be honest--don't say things just to make me feel good about the class.

So, in your final blog post, begin with some statistics: As accurately (and honestly) as possible, tabulate how many pages you have read this semester for this class. If you like, you can also break that down by categories: (fiction / non-fiction, or pop fiction / literary fiction).

Then, in a free-written response, contemplate any or all of these questions:

(1) 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?

(2) 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?

(3) 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?

(4) 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?

(5) As for poetry . . describe your attitude toward it at the beginning of the semester. Was poetry treated any differently in this course compared to other English classes you've had? Was the type of poetry read here any different? Has your attitude toward poetry changed in any way?

Again, please be honest in your responses.

I've loved teaching you all this semester--thanks for taking the course and making every day a fun one.

Mr. Hill

"Togetherness," Yusef Komunyakaa

Someone says Tristan

& Isolde, the shared cup

& broken vows binding them,

& someone else says Romeo

& Juliet, a lyre & Jew’s harp

sighing a forbidden oath,

but I say a midnight horn

& a voice with a moody angel

inside, the two married rib

to rib, note for note. Of course,

I am thinking of those Tuesdays

or Thursdays at Billy Berg’s

in LA when Lana Turner would say,

“Please sing ‘Strange Fruit’

for me,” & then her dancing

nightlong with Mel Torme,

as if she knew what it took

to make brass & flesh say yes

beneath the clandestine stars

& a spinning that is so fast

we can’t feel the planet moving.

Is this why some of us fall

in & out of love? Did Lady Day

& Prez ever hold each other

& plead to those notorious gods?

I don’t know. But I do know

even if a horn & voice plumb

the unknown, what remains unsaid

coalesces around an old blues

& begs with a hawk’s yellow eyes.

"Barking," Jim Harrison

The moon comes up.

The moon goes down.

This is to inform you

that I didn’t die young.

Age swept past me

but I caught up.

Spring has begun here and each day

brings new birds up from Mexico.

Yesterday I got a call from the outside

world but I said no in thunder.

I was a dog on a short chain

and now there’s no chain.

"Today," Billy Collins

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,

so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw

open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,

indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths

and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight

that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight

on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants

from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,

holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,

well, today is just that kind of day.

"You and I Are Disappearing," Yusef Komunyakaa

The cry I bring down from the hills
belongs to a girl still burning
inside my head. At daybreak

she burns like a piece of paper.

She burns like foxfire
in a thigh-shaped valley.
A skirt of flames
dances around her
at dusk.

We stand with our hands

hanging at our sides,
while she burns

like a sack of dry ice.

She burns like oil on water.
She burns like a cattail torch
dipped in gasoline.
She glows like the fat tip
of a banker's cigar,

silent as quicksilver.

A tiger under a rainbow
at nightfall.
She burns like a shot glass of vodka.
She burns like a field of poppies
at the edge of a rain forest.
She rises like dragonsmoke
to my nostrils.
She burns like a burning bush
driven by a godawful wind.

"Self Help," Bruce Covey

A chicken soup for the rainbow lover’s soul.

A chicken soup for the lover of chicken soup.

A carnage of birds, a devastation.

Chicken soup for the dried-up garden—

It’s been a lousy summer sucking us dry.

Chicken soup for the grocery list.

Chicken soup for unwanted potatoes.

Chicken soup for extinct animals.

In the west, the sun sets upon chicken soup.

With or without noodles or rice or barley,

Or vegetables—canned or otherwise—

Carrots and celery or egg drop chicken soup—

Chicken eggs, of course—or the alphabet

Or chili sauce. Chicken soup for chili lovers,

For the spicy soul. Chicken butchered

& boiled specifically for your cold.

A chicken soup for the cold soul,

A chicken soup for the sole of your shoe.

A chicken soup for decision making:

Does she love me? Or love me not?

Knots tied with chicken soup.

Chicken soup tied and sold in knots.

38 ways to tie your soup, to be tied.

Chicken soup for the protection of others.

A prayer to chicken soup, may it bring me

A winning lottery ticket. Chicken soup

For recovering alcoholics who still

Need hydration. A hydrangea’s

Chicken soup—to be loved like no other.

A chicken soup for Barry Bonds—

May he break Hank Aaron’s record.

Stick a pin in the chicken soup & bet

On its opponent. 30-Love. Match point.

A chicken soup for winners.

A chicken soup for losers.

Chicken soup for those who tie or draw.

The 60-plus occupations of soup.

Chicken for Sue, born in the year

Of the snake. The snake that ate

An alligator and died. They both died.

A chicken soup for the one who is eaten.

A chicken soup for the one who eats

Things other than chicken soup.

Transcending the bowl. A meta-bowl

Chicken soup for the transcended bowl.

Chicken soup for the transcending soup.

Chicken soup for the Marxist, steering

Away from values associated with heirarchies.

Chicken soup for the mud wrestler,

The roller derby queen. Chicken soup

For dairy queen, for the queen of hearts,

For Lady Di and the paparazzi,

For clean and dirty kings and queens.

For kiwis with wings, for the royal

Food pyramid. Chicken soup in

January, it’s so nice

To slip upon the sliding ice.

"Self Help," Charles Bernstein

Home team suffers string of losses.—Time to change loyalties.

Quadruple bypass.—Hold the bacon on that next cheeseburger.

Poems tanking.—After stormiest days, sun comes out from behind clouds, or used to.

Marriage on rocks.—Nothing like Coke.

Election going the wrong direction.—Kick off slippers, take deep breathe, be here now.

Boss says your performance needs boost.—A long hot bath smoothes wrinkles.

War toll tops 100,000.—Get your mind off it, switch to reality TV.

Lake Tang Woo Chin Chicken with Lobster and Sweet Clam Sauce still not served and everyone else got their orders twenty minutes back.—Savor the water, feast on the company.

Subway floods and late for audition.—Start being the author of your own performance. Take a walk.

Slip on ice, break arm.—In moments like this, the preciousness of life reveals itself.

Wages down in non-union shop.—You’re a sales associate, not a worker; so proud to be part of the company.

Miss the train?—Great chance to explore the station!

Suicide bombers wrecks neighborhood.—Time to pitch in!

Nothing doing.—Take a break!

Partner in life finds another partner.—Now you can begin the journey of life anew.

Bald?—Finally, you can touch the sky with the top of your head.

Short-term recall shot.—Old memories are sweetest.

Hard drive crashes and novel not backed up.—Nothing like a fresh start.

Severe stomach cramps all morning.—Boy are these back issues of Field and Stream engrossing.

Hurricane crushes house.—You never seemed so resilient.

Brother-in-law completes second year in coma.—He seems so muchmore relaxed than he used to.

$75 ticket for Sunday meter violation on an empty street in residential neighborhood.—The city needs the money to make us safe and educate our kids.

Missed last episode of favorite murder mystery because you misprogrammed VCR.—Write your own ending!

Blue cashmere pullover has three big moth holes.—What a great looking shirt!

Son joins skinhead brigade of Jews for Jesus.—At least he’s following his bliss.

Your new play receives scathing reviews and closes after a single night.—What a glorious performance!

Pungent stench of homeless man on subway, asking for food.—Such kindness in his eyes, as I turn toward home.

Retirement savings lost on Enron and WorldCom.—They almost rhyme.

Oil spill kills seals.—The workings of the Lord are inscrutable.

Global warming swamps land masses.—Learn to accept change.

Bike going fast in wrong direction knocks you over.—A few weeks off your feet, just what the doctor ordered.

AIDS ravaging Africa.—Wasn’t Jeffrey Wright fabulous in Angels in America?

Muffler shot.—There’s this great pizza place next to the shop.

Income gap becomes crater.—Good motivation to get rich.

Abu Ghraib prisoners tortured.—Let’s face it, shit happens.

Oscar wins Emmy.—Award shows are da bomb.

FBI checking your library check-outs.—I also recommend books on Amazon.

Gay marriages annulled.—Who needs the state to sanctify our love?

President’s lies kill GIs.—He’s so decisive about his core values.

Self-Help.—Other drowns.

"What I learned from my mother," Julia Kasdorf

I learned from my mother how to love

the living, to have plenty of vases on hand

in case you have to rush to the hospital

with peonies cut from the lawn, black ants

still stuck to the buds. I learned to save jars

large enough to hold fruit salad for a whole

grieving household, to cube home-canned pears

and peaches, to slice through maroon grape skins

and flick out the sexual seeds with a knife point.

I learned to attend viewing even if I didn’t know

the deceased, to press the moist hands

of the living, to look in their eyes and offer

sympathy, as though I understood loss even then.

I learned that whatever we say means nothing,

what anyone will remember is that we came.

I learned to believe I had the power to ease

awful pains materially like an angel.

Like a doctor, I learned to create

from another’s suffering my own usefulness, and once

you know how to do this, you can never refuse.

To every house you enter, you must offer

healing: a chocolate cake you baked yourself,

the blessing of your voice, your chaste touch.

"The Bagel," David Ignatow

I stopped to pick up the bagel
rolling away in the wind,
annoyed with myself
for having dropped it
as if it were a portent.
Faster and faster it rolled,
with me running after it
bent low, gritting my teeth,
and I found myself doubled over
and rolling down the street
head over heels, one complete somersault
after another like a bagel
and strangely happy with myself.

"Fate," Carolyn Wells

Two shall be born the whole world wide apart,

And speak in different tongues, and pay their debts

In different kinds of coin; and give no heed

Each to the other’s being. And know not

That each might suit the other to a T,

If they were but correctly introduced.

And these, unconsciously, shall bend their steps,

Escaping Spaniards and defying war,

Unerringly toward the same trysting-place,

Albeit they know it not. Until at last

They enter the same door, and suddenly

They meet. And ere they’ve seen each other’s face

They fall into each other’s arms, upon

The Broadway cable car – and this is Fate!

"Everybody Who is Dead," Frank Stanford

Today's poem: "Everybody Who is Dead," by Frank Stanford

Today's action list:

1. Write one reading log. Only two logs a week needed now.

2. Complete your draft for tomorrow.

"Weeds," Wesley McNair

Today's poem is at the Writer's Almanac.

"Your voice, your eyes," Paul Eluard

Anna Karina, from Godard's Alphaville

Your voice, your eyes
your hands, your lips
Our silences, our words
Light that goes
light that returns
A single smile between us both
In quest of knowledge
I watched night create day
while we seemed unchanged
beloved of all, beloved of one alone
your mouth silently promised to be happy
Away, away, says hate
never, never, says love
A caress leads us from our childhood
Increasingly I see the human form
as a lover’s dialogue
The heart has but one mouth
Everything ordered by chance
All words without aforethought
Sentiments adrift
Men roam the city
A glance, a word
Because I love you
Everything moves
To live, only advance!
Aim straight for those you love
I went towards you, endlessly towards the light
If you smile, it is to enfold me all the better
The rays of your arms pierce the mist

For a link to Anna Karina's reading of Eluard, click here.

"To You," Kennth Koch.

Today's poem can be found at the Poetry Foundation.

Action List: 3 May 2011

Robert Desnos

After discussing the Anthology Project, we will not have as much time as we usually do today for our blogging, so here is a simplified action list:

1. Compose one log to catch us up on what you have been reading lately.

Choose one of the following:

a. Read as much as you can of "Behind the Hunt for Bin Laden," the background on how they developed the intelligence to find the world's most wanted man, on the New York Times and make a brief response post (what surprises or interests you the most).

b. Read this article on what it means to be a "wired family," and write a post in response--how much does your family resemble the families described here?

"I said it to you," Paul Eluard

I said it to you for the clouds
I said it to you for the tree of the sea
For each wave for the birds in the leaves
For the pebbles of sound
For familiar hands

For the eye that becomes landscape or face
And sleep returns it the heaven of its colour
For all that night drank
For the network of roads
For the open window for a bare forehead
I said it to you for your thoughts for your words

Every caress every trust survives.