Nancy Devine

Happy Friday

2012-02-10T05:53:00.000-06:00

There's been not much writing here. It seems my time has been occupied with school, meetings and then relaxing at the end of the day. This weekend must include some writing and some organizing of this writing.

The weekend must and will include work on writing and the organizing of said writing. I've got to put finishing touched on a chapbook and figure out what my next project will be. I look forward to it.

I continue to really, really want to see the movie Shame. It will never be at theaters here in Grand Forks, so I've got to depend on Netflix or Amazon or a local video store. And I've got to wait and wait and....

Still winter

2012-02-09T05:57:00.000-06:00

That mid-winter malaise has set in here, even though the weather has been mild and quite manageable. Perhaps it's the lingering gray that can be exhausting. Maybe it's the routine of enduring cold weather that gets people down. I'm not sure. But, despite relatively mild temperature and little snow, people in these parts are getting sick of winter.

I used to be out in the cold weather much more than I am now. I'd go cross-country skiing or walking around the neighborhood. It was my way of facing winter, of not shunning it. Now I exercise inside; it simply takes much less prep work to get going.

Winter's not as grim as the movie advertised in the trailer below. So by contrast, our plight here in North Dakota isn't all that bad.

Will Amazon be our new best friend?

2012-02-08T05:35:00.000-06:00

Amazon and Viacom might sign a video deal as soon as this week, bringing Amazon one step closer to launching a standalone video streaming service, Reuters reports.

Amazon’s Prime Instant Video is currently a part of Amazon Prime program, which provides members with unlimited two-day shipping and other benefits for $79 per year.

In September, Amazon inked a video deal with Fox; previously, the company signed deals with CBS, NBC, Sony, Warner Bros. and others.

The above comes from a Mashable piece by Stan Schroeder.

Is Amazon poised to rule the online world?

Monday evening's 'Midnight in Paris'

2012-02-07T05:54:00.000-06:00

If we could only get food delivered to our house every so often, we wouldn't have to leave it. And now that we've streamed a movie via Amazon, the lure of staying home has significantly increased.

Last night we watched Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris for 99 cents. Yes, 99 cents. And it was so easy and oh so pleasurable. I had almost no knowledge about the movie except that Owen Wilson is in it and that Paris is involved. (I've been so busy keeping track of Michael Fassbender films, that I've neglected the rest of modern cinema.)

I recommend Midnight in Paris, if only for the beautiful shots of Paris. But there's more to the movie, much more and to say anything at all about the plot is to offer a spoiler alert, which I won't do.

Enjoy the trailer below.

A bit of Monday, again

2012-02-06T06:20:00.000-06:00

Weekends seem to grow shorter and shorter. Monday arrives practically the minute Friday night is done.

Much of my writing work lately includes sending pieces to contests and finishing up projects that have been hanging out undone for some time. I've been hoping that completion would engender new work, or, that it would at least free up my mind a bit for something. And I think it has.

Currently, I'm working on a chapbook written from the perspective of a particular character. I find I like trying to write a collection of poems around a given theme from a perspective other than my own. It's interesting to try to imagine another person's life, and, I often find myself wandering around Wikipedia trying to get background on a topic or topics about which I'm not all that familiar.

Life is good

2012-02-03T05:30:00.000-06:00

Perhaps it should have occurred to me years ago, but it wasn’t until recently that I fully realized that everybody hates something about their computer keyboard. I was in the company of several family members and friends, and had just mistyped my Gmail password for the 458th time in calendar 2011. I knew straightaway what had gone wrong—caps lock was depressed by accident—but instead of simply taking my lumps and re-entering my password, I vented: “Is there anything on the computer keyboard more annoying than the caps lock key?” (Matthew J.X. Malady at Slate)

It occurs to me, as I'm considering the above excerpt and the piece from which it comes, that life is pretty good if a person's got time to reconsider keyboard design. So I guess this post is about reminding myself that life is good when I've got time to think about my computer or when I can spend ten minutes or so cleaning up my Netflix's queue. Sure, I could have better hair, our house could be cleaner...I could finish the novel lounging on my hard drive.

So, as the results from the many contests I've recently entered come in and when those results do not include my name, I must remember that I've got the luxury of entering contests.

Lovely...for a Thursday

2012-02-02T05:44:00.002-06:00

Moving it along

2012-02-01T05:36:00.000-06:00

I've got a poem up at Referential Magazine, and, because this is my second piece in the magazine, I've now got a contributor's page.

One of my goals as a writer is to be published in more than one genre in a few journals. I've got a poem and a piece of short fiction at Referential Magazine, a goal achieved, something about which makes me quite proud.

One of my other goals----perhaps my most pressing goal---is to get a collection/chapbook published, something that would tell the world that I've arrived as a writer. That might be a silly, indulgent notion, but it is the truth. I've got stuff out, so I'm doing what I can to achieve this goal.

A film that won't get me to read the book

2012-01-31T05:36:00.001-06:00

Jesus' Son is one of those books I feel slight guilt about for not having read. So as I was cruising through my Netflix streaming queue last night and found Jesus' Son, I figured watching the movie might assuage a bit of my guilt.

The movie was uninteresting, so I bailed early. And now I'm not so sure I'll ever jump into the book, because the characters grated on me. I've known people like them...wtf-types who wander about doing what's ever immediately available....drugs, sex, quasi-lawless Tom Foolery. While I have no personal grudge toward any of these types (nor do I condone their acts), I just don't find them engaging.

So I've abandoned the guilt and will remind myself not too feel bad about what I haven't read and to celebrate what I have.

Dressed for genuine success

2012-01-30T06:03:00.000-06:00

As you might expect, a whole lot of silly and just-plain-mean people aren’t happy about this nascent pajama craze. A number of school districts have banned sleeping clothes on the theory that they somehow inhibit students’ motivation. The idea, I guess, is that taking the time to dress up for school makes you ready to learn—which sounds plausible until you think about it for five seconds. Isn’t spending time worrying about what you’ll wear an even bigger distraction from academics? (Farhad Manjoo at Slate)

The above Slate excerpt is about wearing pajamas in public, something about which I get excited. Why? Because it makes me think of director Julian Schnabel, a guy who's out in the world in his pajamas sometimes. And, since I'm really into movies these days, I suggest you learn about Schnabel and watch two of his best films, The Divingbell and the Butterfly, and Before Night Falls.

More than 'Breathing Lessons'

2012-01-28T07:49:00.001-06:00

I watching "Breathing Lessons" last night on my SnagFilms Roku channel. Here's the synopsis from Snag Films:

ACADEMY AWARD WINNER! According to Mark O'Brien, ""The two mythologies about disabled people break down to one: we can't do anything, or two: we can do everything. But the truth is, we're just human."" O'Brien was a frequently published journalist and poet, and a contributor to National Public Radio. He contracted polio in childhood and, due to post-polio syndrome, spent much of his life in an iron lung. Yet for more than forty years, he fought against illness, bureaucracy and society's conflicting perceptions of disability for his right to lead an independent life.

Breathing Lessons breaks down barriers to understanding by presenting an honest and intimate portrait of a complex, intelligent, beautiful and interesting person, who happens to be disabled. Incorporating the vivid imagery of O'Brien's poetry, and his candid, wry and often profound reflections on work, sex, death and God, this provocative film asks: what makes a life worth living?

I've had some interest in the film, "The Surrogate," which is about O'Brien hiring a sex surrogate, so when I saw that SnagFilms has "Breathing Lessons," I had to watch it. I suggest you also watch it, and I've embedded it in this blog post, so that it's ready to go.

Friday arrives

2012-01-27T05:20:00.000-06:00

The last few days at work, I've been reading student writing like crazy. Such activity is the most intellectually demanding task I do as a teacher, because I not only read but offer immediate feedback. And I've got to try to gauge how each student will respond when I suggest ways to improve his or her work.

Reading and responding to student writing is the best part of my job; it makes a day zoom by. And I think that students, who aren't always at first thrilled with this, begin to see and enjoy their writing improve.

So, Friday is very welcome this week. I'll try to gather up some energy to work on my own writing and enjoy the returning late afternoon light January brings.

The verdict: not dirty enough

2012-01-26T05:07:00.001-06:00

My husband and I tried to watch Meek's Cutoff the other night. Heck, I've seen it on a number of best of lists for 2011, and Netflix streams it. I bailed on the movie and went to bed; my husband endured until the end.

The odd thing is that this movie has gotten good press. (I looked at a few reviews). But for us, the film presents credibility problems right up front. Here's why. The movie follows a group of pioneers on the Oregon Trail. They seem lost, both literally and existentially; in other words, the tasks seems much too difficult for them. But everyone looks so clean in clothing with hardly a speck of dirt. My husband and I works lots of hours outside in the summer, and we've got ready access to hot running water.

One might think we're too picky here at the Devine household. But c'mon. If a movie is about people who are outside who've got no access to modern plumbing and they look clean....well.... It's a problem.

Are the Oscars becoming obsolete?

2012-01-25T05:55:00.000-06:00

The Oscar nominations are out, and I'm pretty uninterested. The films and performances I saw this year that amazed me are nowhere to be found among the nominations. While I'm not surprised, I am disappointed.

And I wonder if the Academy Awards are even relevant anymore. In past years, I've found myself less and less willing to sit through the televised ceremony, which has been mostly boring. This year, with some of my favorites not acknowledged, I probably won't tune in.

I used to use the nominations as a selection list for what I'd see. And because movies choices were limited back in the day, that worked. But no longer....I can check out best of 2011 lists all over the places and then seek out the listees on Netflix and from other sources and I'm good. Mostly, what I've found to watch has been terrific, challenging, interesting with amazing performances. And the clunkers...I can turn the channel.

Can the Oscars really represent and reward all the best movies made in any given year? I don't think so.

Enjoy!!

2012-01-24T05:47:00.000-06:00

Whew...

2012-01-23T05:52:00.003-06:00

Perhaps the best way to think about today is that the following is not in my planner.

Marina Bay Sands Skypark BASE Jump. Singapore 2012. from Snow R. Shai on Vimeo.

'Hunger' is a difficult film to watch

2012-01-22T08:01:00.000-06:00

The buzz around Steve McQueen's Shame has piqued my interest in not only McQueen's work but also that of Michael Fassbender who plays the lead in the movie. I suspect Shame will never make to theaters here, so I've got to wait for dvd and/or Netflix viewing.

In the meantime, I watched McQueen's Hunger, which stars Fassbender as Bobby Sands, an Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and member of the British Parliament who died on hunger strike while imprisoned in HM Prison Maze.

I'm not sure I can really evaluate the movie, because it was so hard to watch because of the violence, the graphic way in which Sands' decline and death are portrayed, and some scatalogical stuff. What I can say is that the film is still with me and probably will be for a while, and now I want to see Shame even more.

If you opt to watch Hunger, I suggest you read about Sands and the hunger strike. The movie really drops you into the thick of things with little explanation...which is not a criticism. Perhaps the trailer below, which hints at the intensity of the movie, will help you decide.

Revision and students

2012-01-21T06:43:00.000-06:00

How does my brain work when I'm writing? In particular, what does it do when I'm revising, which is, really, the bulk of writing? These questions have been pressing since the beginning of the school year, and lately, they've been pressing even more?

Despite the persistence of these questions, I haven't quite figured out what I'm considering when I move a big chunk of text or when I delete a paragraph or line. I do know that I'm looking for something...but what/

Perhaps you should watch 'Weekend' this weekend

2012-01-20T05:54:00.004-06:00

So I re-watched Weekend. I missed a lot of dialogue the first time through (Brits speaking softly and a bit unclear at times) and fell asleep as well. (No reflection whatsoever on the film. I was tired)

Wow, I'm so glad I turned up the volume and stayed awake. Weekend is masterful. I'm not sure I've seen such a genuinely intimate piece, so much so that I was a bit uncomfortable at times, as if I had not earned the right to get this close to the lives of the main characters Russell (Tom Cullen) and Glen (Chris New).

Here is the IMDB tagline:
After a drunken house party with his straight mates, Russell heads out to a gay club. Just before closing time he picks up Glen but what's expected to be just a one-night stand becomes something else, something special.

And it's a good thing that my first encounter with the film was just this bit. Weekend is so much more. I think what mostly makes it compelling and terrific is that it moves the audience right inside the relationship that unfolds between Russell and Glen. You're there as they navigate from a one-night stand to something else; you're in the room with them and you remember the complexities of falling for someone, no matter if you're straight or gay.

Cullen is brilliant as Russell, a man struggling to come out...even to himself, at times. He should get an Oscar nomination for best actor, but I won't hold my breath on that one. New makes Glen wily and illusive, a bit of a jerk at times, though you want to forgive him...you want to tell him things will be okay.

The film is certainly for adults not just because of sexual content but also because it immediately transports you to a time when you met someone for whom you really, deeply felt something; in other words Weekend takes you somewhere you may've forgotten about.

And kudos to Weekend writer and director and editor Andrew Haigh who most certainly should get some sort of Oscar nod.

The stuff a Thursday is made of

2012-01-19T05:22:00.001-06:00

The not winning continues. In other words, one of the many contests I've entered has listed its winner(s) and my work is not among them. Though I'm mildly disappointed with each not-win, I'm not surprised. Additionally, these contests and the preparation they take to get an entry ready have forced me to complete projects and abandon others that needed to be left.

In other news, it is really cold here; we've got an extreme cold warning with a wind child of minus 18. Our temperate fall and winter have made me a bit weak; I noticed this yesterday as I walked from my car to work. YIKES!!

And, if you've got Netflix and/or access to a range of films, watch Senna.

2012-01-18T07:09:00.002-06:00

Not quite sure

2012-01-17T05:40:00.000-06:00

As I watched Forget Me Not, I felt myself falling in love...in love with an ostensibly sweet story of "two ships that meet in the night." But then, things took a turn for the worse and I found myself manipulated a bit too much as the movie ended. So now, I'm re-thinking Forget Me Not, wondering if it's film I'd recommend.

Below is a blurb from the movie's official website.

Forget Me Not is a moving, modern day love story set against a stunning London backdrop.

Taking place over the course of one night and the following day, the story centres on Will Fletcher (Tobias Menzies: Atonement, Rome), a passionate musician, and Eve Fisher (Genevieve O’Reilly: The Young Victoria, Spooks, Star Wars III Revenge of the Sith), a beautiful free-spirited woman who works in the local bar.

Without revealing the ending, I'll just say that this film is best when it's simply about two people coming together. The revelation that comes at the end pushes the piece into the land of made-for-tv movies

I hadn't figured....

2012-01-16T05:56:00.001-06:00

I used to watch a lot of figure skating. I watched so much that it would be impossible to find hyperbole that wouldn't be merely literally in describing it. Then, figure skating coverage tended toward slick media packages about skaters instead of skating. Slowly, I watched less and less and then...

But yesterday, I stumbled upon Improv-Ice, an engaging show during which major figure skaters perform pieces that they've choreographed in a few hours. And, if that weren't enough, Styxx performed and skaters skated to Styxx music. And it was amazing. And there was Johnny Weir and when he performed, I was reminded why I love figure skating so much.

So enjoy the Weir performance above.

Sunday's River of Stones and more

2012-01-15T07:53:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I figured out something important. If you're watching a marathon----the end of it---it's hard not to keep going on the elliptical trainer. Some thin, thin woman is running in a midriff top and briefs that look like underwear and she's approaching the finish line, her face expressionless. Just as she gets there, her facial features soften and she begins to cry. There is no way I can get off the machine and just go clean up. I must persist.

Speaking of persistence, today's main tasks include getting two manuscripts off, each to separate contests. And the contests have NO FEES. I've repeatedly said online, entering a writing contests slightly increases your chances of winning (over not entering). Still...

Though the Golden Globes are on tonight, I'm not sure I can/will watch. The host---whose name I won't mention---is the reason. Watching a great film on Netflix will most likely be how I wrap up this day.

A moment to reflect

2012-01-13T05:29:00.002-06:00

Cold's shown up here, a certain reminder that it really is winter. I must admit that the drop in temperatures is a bit shocking. Still, I'll try not to let it get me down.

The school year is half over. Wow! Tuesday a new semester begins and, for me, that means three new classes, a nice change although my first semester semester-long classes were a delight.

Enjoy the short video below.

Vowels from Studiocanoe on Vimeo.
This short film is based on an archival sound recording taken from the 1945 Linguaphone series 'English Pronunciation - A practical handbook for the foreign learner.'

Watch this but be ready to be spent

2012-01-12T06:09:00.001-06:00

Last night I watched one of those movies that makes you ache. The movie? Poetry. I'm not quite sure if I should recommend it, because, quite frankly, it left me exhausted and disturbed.

Here's a blurb from Wikipedia.

Poetry (Korean : 시; translit. Shi) is a 2010 South Korean drama film written and directed by Lee Chang-dong . It tells the story of a suburban woman in her 60s who begins to grow an interest for poetry while struggling with Alzheimer's disease and her irresponsible grandson. Yoon Jeong-hee stars in the leading role, which was her first role in a film since 1994. The film was selected for the main competition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival , where it won the Best Screenplay Award . Other accolades include the Grand Bell Awards for Best Picture and Best Actress.

There are scenes in Poetry that feel like documentary, and perhaps that's what makes the film so difficult to watch. To say that what is depicted in these scenes is hard to watch...not because the "what" is graphic or obscene. No. What is depicted in these scenes is intimate, painful human interaction. And actress Yun Jung-hee who plays the main character Mija is beyond brilliant.

LImitless: worth a watch

2012-01-11T05:49:00.003-06:00

Yep a movie about a writer. The scenes with lead character Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) not-writing when he's supposedly writing are priceless. (Yes, I've done similar though not identical things when I later claimed to be writing) Would I consider taking a pill that would let me access more of my brain's powers? No. I need rest. ;)

Some lack of focus

2012-01-10T05:53:00.000-06:00

These last few days have been marked by extreme lack of focus for me. Perhaps I've got too much of something going on somewhere; I'm just not sure. My theory is this: I have lots of work out to contests, so my brain is swirling inside my head.

I have reservations about entering contests. Can someone really determine the best poem or short story of a batch? Should artists and their art compete against other artists and their art? Yet, like any red-blooded American, I'm drawn to the possibility of winning a prize and the prestige---real or not---associated with such a win.

The best attitude to have about the contests I've entered would be a sort of "what will be will be" sentiment. The results of these contests is certainly out of my hands; no amount of wishing or willing can change any outcomes. There's so much about my life that winning would not change. I'd still have to put on concealer to try to cover the dark circles under my eyes, and I'd still have to watch what I eat and I'd still have to keep writing to keep myself close to sane and aimed toward happy.

Exciting Monday stuff

2012-01-09T05:25:00.004-06:00

I've got two pieces up in newly published editions of online journals. The first is a short story, Let Go, at Ever After Literary Review. Thanks to founder/head editor Chase Cline and his staff for their work and dedication. The second is a poem, Cower Smallpox, in Entasis Journal. Thanks to the Entasis staff Luke Reid, Robert Anasi and Greg McClure for their work and dedication.

It's rather amazing to think that people I've never met can take such care with my work, work that, even if
it's not autobiographical, is personal. I suppose it's one of the things that makes publication so rewarding

for me. (Come to think of it, it's also strange in a very appealing way.)

I feel especially good when I get different genres published....like a short story and a poem to carry me through Monday and more.

Sunday's River of Stones

2012-01-08T08:40:00.000-06:00

Night ice----the water that's melted during the day and refrozen as darkness has returned--- on local parking lots looks clear lava captured. It's an indicator of late March not January. What a strange winter we have going here.

River of Stones continues on Saturday

2012-01-07T07:17:00.000-06:00

It is the strangest winter here with a January of melting, a kind of mis-placed March. When I left work yesterday and walked to my car, I was mindful of puddles and slosh; it was weird.

Winter here is taxing, January, in particular. Sub-zero temperature take a hold and don't let go. People tend to hate it. I tend to like it. Sick, I know.

But this odd warm winter (at least, thus far) has made things here easier....getting to work, running errands, etc.

Friday reflections

2012-01-06T05:55:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow I'm giving a short presentation about getting published to some Red River Valley Writing Project teachers, and I'm hopeful that some will want to work on their writing and send it off. I know that sending out work to journals can be overwhelming and daunting, so I'll have to make sure I'm both encouraging and empathetic.

Sometimes I can't believe how much time sending out work takes. (Or else I'm really slow at it). Lately, I've been sending out quite a bit of work, mostly to contests. While I'm well aware that my chances of winning are small, I'm willing to try....which is what I hope for with my students....that they will try.

Consequently, I've not drafted much new work. It has seemed that I don't have new ideas. But in the last couple of days, I've just written stuff with no regard for whether or not what I type on the screen is new or interesting. And wow....this has given me such pleasure. How could I deny myself this delight? And, when I read what I'd written, I was pretty happy with the results.

So, while I must keep sending out my work, because I do want to be published, I must also be sure to draft new work, because I do love to write.

Showing up is important

2012-01-05T05:49:00.000-06:00

T he U.S. Department of Education is now allowing states to seek No Child Left Behind Act waivers to develop multiple measures of judging schools, rather than relying heavily on standardized-test scores. Chronic-absence rates can help determine why a school is faltering and how much progress it has made.

Beyond that, Congress is in the process of rewriting the nation’s main K-12 education law. No Child Left Behind, which is the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, calls for tracking average daily attendance and truancy, but not chronic absence. (Hedy Chang and Robert Balfanz at Education Week)

The above links to a compelling piece that argues absenteeism is a huge problem for public schools and that the rewrite of No Child Left Behind should include provisions for tracking such absenteeism.

I'm still not sure how I feel about NCLB, let alone a rewrite of it. But I do know that when students miss school, they miss important classroom activities that are impossible to replicate as homework communicated through an email or call home. Because I missed a couple of days because of illness, I know that missing school could easily create a disconnect from it.

Yes, it's January

2012-01-04T06:11:00.000-06:00

Students yesterday seemed as shocked as I was to get back to school. Patterns of staying up late and sleeping in are quick to stick and hard to shirk. Suffice to say, in the first class of the day, I got a lot of looks that said, "Please, teacher, let me just sit and stare." Yet, as the morning unfolded, we all woke up and resigned ourselves to reality: it's January and we're back at it.

Part of my new year is going to include watching movies that appeared on "Best of" lists for 2011. Luckily, I've found a number of these on Netflix...streaming. When I find something terrific, I'll post about it here.

The video below gets at something to which I'm trying to aspire. Enjoy!

The Holstee Manifesto Lifecycle Video from Holstee on Vimeo.

A book you must read

2012-01-03T05:49:00.000-06:00

The River of Stones writing challenge continues. Read below.

Half a Life: A Memoir by Darin Strauss

Darin Strauss' "Half a Life" might well claim the top spot for best books I've ever read. As I think about it---which I will as 2012 goes along--it certainly might nab the prize.

In this book, Strauss not only recounts a car accident near the end of his senior year in high school in which he killed a classmate but also what happened to him after. In breath-taking prose, he reveals layers of grief and guilt and self-discovery, and in this provides genuine hope rather than the platitudinous stuff that gets bandied around in its place.

You must read this; move it to the top of your queue and put down what you're reading now. It is exquisite.

View all my reviews

January's beauty

2012-01-02T08:11:00.000-06:00

January is a lovely time of year in these parts. Early evening (late afternoon) darkness begins to slowly recede and the quality of light that arrives defies description.

Perhaps it's the cold that makes the light so clean and clear. But that's not all. Certainly, at night, sound travels easily in the cold, the whack of hockey pucks slapped across local ice rinks impossible to miss. I imagine some of my students---the hardcore hockey players---out there, whipping around, vision of Alexander Ovechkin in their heads.

It must be hard, maybe even shocking, to move here from some warmer spot. (We have an air base in the vicinity, so folks do arrive here....perhaps wordless about the weather) When I lived in Bakersfield, California long ago, I couldn't get used to the outlandishly hot temperatures and the strange fog that would settle in during the fall. And I longed for the four seasons of North Dakota, even winter.

Late night

2012-01-01T09:41:00.000-06:00

Today is the day to start. I've decided to participate in the River of Stones January 2012 writing challenge, and this blog space will be where I put my work. If you want to learn more about project, click the badge above.

Here goes...

The drive home last night was unbelievably quiet for New Year's Eve. I expected to see a police car here and there in parking lots, the officers inside waiting to catch drunk drivers. Perhaps I wasn't out late enough; I'd attended a get-together with friends and left in time to be home by a bit past eleven.

Still, as I drove I thought of this poem:

Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter

It is a cold and snowy night. The main street is deserted.
The only things moving are swirls of snow.
As I lift the mailbox door, I feel its cold iron.
There is a privacy I love in this snowy night.
Driving around, I will waste more time.
– Robert Bly

A good year

2011-12-30T07:51:00.000-06:00

This is the last post of 2011, a year that ultimately was a good one for my husband and me. We harvested quite a bit of fruit from our young fruit farm in Minnesota as well as from our yard here in Grand Forks. Though that has meant work---quite a bit of it---it has been rewarding and interesting.

I had success with my writing. I had poetry, short fiction and an essay published, a sort of personal hat trick that I'm very happy with. And I won the Spire Press Annual Chapbook award, but the press folded, so I wasn't able to enjoy the part of the reward I was most excited about---publication of my chapbook. Another of my chapbooks was a finalist in the Qarrtsiluni chapbook contest. Plus my poem Lock, which appeared in Hobble Creek Review, was nominated for the Best of the Net.

The take-away for 2011 is this: relish process, be it that process of harvesting or the process of writing.

Haunting

2011-12-29T07:46:00.001-06:00

Above and Below from Stefan Werc on Vimeo.

Navotas Cemetery, Manila, The Philippines.

Manila is one of the most overpopulated places on Earth. There are over 2000 families living above the dead in the Navotas Cemetery. Babies are born and the dead are buried in the same place. Life goes on.

'Making the Boys' definitely worth watching

2011-12-28T07:05:00.013-06:00

I saw The Boys in the Band in the mid 1980s. It made me uncomfortable and irritated; I was certain it perpetuated homosexual stereotypes, the sort that I thought would be ammunition in the hands of homophobes and bigots.

I've sort of had plans to watch it again. Still, I've shied away from it, though I'm not certain why.

But yesterday I watched Making the Boys, a fascinating documentary about how Mart Crowley's play The Boys in the Band came into being and how the movie based on that play finally hit theaters.
Here's a bit from the Making the Boys website:

Before Prop 8, Milk or Will & Grace, before the AIDS epidemic, gay pride parades or the Stonewall Rebellion, "The Boys in the Band" changed everything. On this, the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Gay Rights Movement, MAKING THE BOYS explores the drama, struggle and enduring legacy of the first-ever gay play and subsequent Hollywood movie to successfully reach a mainstream audience. Beloved by some for breaking new ground, and condemned by others for reinforcing gay stereotypes, "The Boys in the Band" sparked heated controversy that still exists four decades later.

Warning: the trailer does include that "f" word that makes me so uncomfortable.

This documentary provides rich history of the gay rights movement while giving the viewer a sense of what it can take to create something, in this case an important play and movie based on that play. Will I re-watch The Boys in the Band now? Maybe...

Do read this terrific book

2011-12-27T06:22:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I finished Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a book so interesting I could barely put it down. Below is a description of the book tfrom Skloot's website.

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance.

Skloot's prose is clear and cogent, an utter pleasure to read. Lacks comes alive on the page, and the research Skloot did for the book, which included coming to know some of Lacks' family, feels immediate, as if you're right there with her, learning as she does.

Let's get creative

2011-12-23T05:41:00.000-06:00

Howard E. Gardner, a professor of cognition and education at Harvard University, considers creativity one of five "minds," or ways of thinking—along with discipline, synthesis, respect, and ethics—that will be essential for young people to succeed in the future.
"We live in an era where everything that can be automated will be," he said at the Learning and the Brain research conference last month. "Only individuals who can regularly go beyond the conventional wisdom will be valued.
"While cognitive capacities are obviously valuable for creating," he said, "only those of a robust, risk-taking personality and temperament are likely to pursue a creative path." (Sarah D Sparks at Education Week)

The above comes from an extremely interesting article about creativity at Education Week. I'd say the piece is a must-read for anyone who works in education.

I'll not even begin to summarize the article. Rather, I've got something else to address when it comes to creativity.

In some circles, calling someone "creative" is the equivalent of calling that someone a flake, a nut....an uncooperative miscreant. To the folks in this sphere, a creative person cannot engage in linear, clear thought and because of that, this person flouts so-called social norms by not following predictable paths. In other words, some people don't understand creativity and are, therefore, threatened by it.

Because the word "creative" is, in some circles, a pejorative, I've thought it should perhaps be supplanted by the word "generative." It's not because I'm into considering the subtleties of meaning for each word, including how the meanings differ. It's that the word "generative" has not yet been tarnished by those who are threatened by someone they perceive as "creative."

Mellow Christmas music

2011-12-22T05:46:00.002-06:00

Last night I heard this song playing at Ruby Tuesday. I hoped and thought that it was Chris Rea. And it is. You might remember Rea's Fool (If You Think It's Over).

I've never liked this song until now

2011-12-21T05:33:00.000-06:00

I must admit that Glee is starting to bore me. The behavior of the characters seem odd from time to time, random, as my students would say. The songs still work but what's in between them is not enough to keep me going.

But Darren Criss keeps coming through, thus, the above video posted here today.

Invoking the 1970s isn't always wrong

2011-12-20T06:02:00.000-06:00

Was it Meatloaf who famously said, "Two outta three ain't bad?" (My lack of certainty stems from the time I've spent intentionally trying to forget some of the songs that served as the soundtrack for my high school years.)

Whatever the case may be, I can only really invest energy in two of three important activities at time. The three activities are: reading, watching movies and writing. The combined cognitive load for these three endeavors is more than I can handle, so I do two....not even on purpose. And lately, the two have been reading and watching movies.

I sort of feel like I should have some guilt about not having guilt about not writing. (Is this meta-guilt?) But I don't. Rather, I love the way my mind feels when I'm doing two out of three---no matter what the three are. There's a heightened awareness to my thinking when I'm doing two out of three, a weird and comfortably dreaminess that makes me feel as though I'm navigating several planes of living at a time.

So our winter holiday break is coming up, which means I'll have time to keep doing what I'm doing.

Not sure if I'd recommend this

2011-12-19T05:50:00.000-06:00

On the recommendation of a friend, I watched Red State, a disturbing film in which no character can muster up much for morality.

Here is the Internet Movie Database summary:

Set in Middle America, a group of teens receive an online invitation for sex, though they soon encounter fundamentalists with a much more sinister agenda.

Do I recommend Red State? I don't know. I do suggest, however, that you follow a few of the links in this post, read about the film and its distribution, and then decide from there.

New work published

2011-12-16T06:06:00.000-06:00

I'm excited to have a poem in the new issue of The Fiddleback. And I'm also excited to investigate the work there by other writers and artists. The editors suggested a couple of changes to my poem, changes which really made the poem better....changes I probably would not have seen on my own.

It can be difficult, maybe even impossible, to see one's work in a new way...a way that suggests changes. Often, I can look at the work of someone else and re-imagine it. But my own? Not always. I'm less wedded to the parts of my work than I used to be. That does make changes, in particular deleting unnecessary bits, easier.

As always, publication is a nice kick in the rear to keep and/or get writing.

More movies

2011-12-15T06:03:00.000-06:00

There are years when one’s top 10 list runneth over, when there are so many eligible candidates it becomes necessary to start disqualifying on technicalities. 2011, for me, was not one of those years. If anything, there are a few movies here that sort of sneaked in past the bouncer. Not every film on this list qualifies as a perfectly honed masterpiece—I could have done without whole subplots in a few of them—but every one of these left me, as the closing credits rolled, in need of a spatula to scrape myself off the floor. The Golden Spatulas of 2011—in alphabetical order, not order of preference—go to: (Dana Stevens at Slate)

Movies are on my mind lately, so I've got to follow up yesterday's post about ten minutes that you might have missed with a list of the ten best of 2011 from Slate magazine. To see the list, click the above hyperlinked text.

Movies to find and watch

2011-12-14T05:50:00.000-06:00

It’s that time of year again, when the movies with the biggest advertising budgets and the pushiest publicists get a second infusion of attention from end-of-year best lists. While hundreds of films were released in 2011, the same 25 or so are going to dominate most of these lists, and many worthy films that failed to make a splash during their theatrical release will sadly continue to go unrecognized as 2011 draws to a close. Here are 10 movies, listed in no particular order, that deserve better. These movies aren’t perfect, but all of them are worth your time. (Grady Hendrix at Slate)

This fall we quit the Netflix's dvd in the mail service and opted for streaming only. And wandering through the list of streaming fare can be taxing. (My husband just picks a movie and then watches it;) So a list of movies to watch, like the list in the above hyperlinked article, is helpful. Later, I'm going to seek out what movies from the list Netflix streams and add them to my streaming queue.

A new love

2011-12-13T05:54:00.000-06:00

Don't Look Back by Telepopmusik feat. Angela McCluskey from bernadette stuff on Vimeo.

The moment I heard Telepopmusik's "Don't Look Back," I fell in love with it. I'm not just sure why every so often I'm instantly taken with a song. The above video is what I found when I did a search for the song and added Vimeo to that search.

Poetry in school

2011-12-12T06:00:00.000-06:00

Today's major task is to begin helping my ninth grade students learn how to analyze something, in particular, a piece of writing. What I hope to do is show them a way to think about whatever it is that is being analyzed.

This is something I've done with seniors in composition classes in a progression of activities that gets them to analyzing a piece of literature, most likely a poem. And I've learned something important about poems when my students struggle to analyze them: most of them don't ever read any contemporary poetry.

Why don't students read poetry? I'm not entirely sure, but I do have some theories.

First, the poems in our literature books tend to be rather dull. (Yes, there are exceptions.) The books tend to include poems from major poets from long ago; typically these poems are far-removed from the kind of language students are used to, so they don't provide much of an entry point.

Secondly, the contemporary poems in the literature books are rather tepid. Most aren't even slightly provocative or controversial, so they mostly sit on the page and remain inert for the reader.

Thirdly, I think (and I think this based on what I've inferred when we talk about poems) that students perceive poems are puzzles that must be solved. In other words, the poems means something and that something is hidden behind the language of the poem. The reader's job is to figure out what that something is.

Students need to read lots of poetry, in particular interesting contemporary poetry, to move beyond this.

Staying in education

2011-12-09T05:52:00.000-06:00

A recent report from the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute have spurred yet more shouting matches in an already hopelessly ungrounded debate about today’s teachers. The report claimed that teachers are overpaid and raised the ire of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “Money is not the reason that people enter teaching,” he said. “But it is a reason why some talented people avoid teaching – or quit the profession when starting a family or buying a home. (Laura Bornfreund at Slate)

The above comes from a too-short piece about what keeps teachers in teaching. (The piece is worth reading despite its length) Bornfreund, a former teacher, argues that it's not money but other the factors---including bureaucracy, inadequate prep time, frequent classroom interruptions----that spur teachers to leave the field.

All this got me to thinking about why have I stayed in teaching as long as I have-over 20 years. Here's one thing that says it all. While my creative writing students were working on their villanelles, one young woman asked if they should use enjambment in their villanelles.

Thursday's dancing

2011-12-08T06:14:00.000-06:00

A trip through the dance videos at You Tube means the chance to view pieces I've loved as well as discovering new work. Today's post comes from SYTYCD; it's a number I've seen before. Yet, it stands up to lots of viewing.

Whenever I watch such a clip, I'm reminded of how little dance is on TV.

Not a flash in the pan

2011-12-07T06:01:00.000-06:00

I think I'm totally falling in love with writing flash fiction that's 500 words long. For me, 500 words is the perfect length for capturing a moment and enough history of that moment to give it import and resonance.

A particular word limit makes for an engaging and challenging writing task for me, especially if I make that limit a target rather than some number I can't exceed. Revision then becomes really examining each word, deciding whether or not it's doing the kind of heavy lifting it needs to do in order to advance the piece. In this regard, I suppose a 500 word flash fiction piece is like a form poem that has specific parameters, and revision means working within those parameters.

And, I think we often believe that creativity comes from some unbounded thing, a sort of whatever you want realm. I think that creativity often comes from working within restrictions and under conditions that force you to consider every step, every word, every(I also believe that creativity can come from complete freedom.)

Word up? No, word down

2011-12-06T05:50:00.000-06:00

Zielschmerz

n. the exhilarating dread of finally pursuing a lifelong dream, which requires you to put your true abilities out there to be tested on the open savannah, no longer protected inside the terrarium of hopes and delusions that you created in kindergarten and kept sealed as long as you could, only to break in case of emergency. (from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows)

One does forgot what one doers subscribe to in one's Google Reader. An excursion there can reveal something interesting, like The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.

Really, I can't always keep track of my online stuff; there's simply too much. But with my penchant for terms describing angst and its companions, I must read The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows more often.

Moving portrait

2011-12-05T05:50:00.000-06:00

Videorative Portrait of Randall Okita from Sergio Albiac on Vimeo.

I'm not exactly sure that I understand the means by which the portrait in the video is made. Still, I'm taken by it....drawn in.

Time to think about time

2011-12-02T06:03:00.000-06:00

A year ago today, my husband and I put our dear lab cross Whitey to sleep. The time had come, though it was painful, nonetheless.

And 19 years ago today, my husband and I met....at a bar. It was love at first sight for me, and I drove home to my apartment, figuring the chances were good that we would marry.

I marvel at the carriage of time, that distant events can seem both distant and immediate...right at the gut but yet you can't quite put your hand on them.

So here's a poem---in a strange and unfixable font---that considers time. It comes from the Academy of American Poets.

Carpe Diem
by Robert Frost

Age saw two quiet children Go loving by at twilight, He knew not whether homeward, Or outward from the village, Or (chimes were ringing) churchward, He waited (they were strangers) Till they were out of hearing To bid them both be happy. "Be happy, happy, happy, And seize the day of pleasure." The age-long theme is Age's. 'Twas Age imposed on poems Their gather-roses burden To warn against the danger That overtaken lovers From being overflooded With happiness should have it. And yet not know they have it. But bid life seize the present? It lives less in the present Than in the future always, And less in both together Than in the past. The present Is too much for the senses, Too crowding, too confusing— Too present to imagine.

Terrific reading at Orion

2011-12-01T06:11:00.000-06:00

My newest source of delight is Orion Magazine online, something I found as I was looking at some video of an octopus walking on land (who knew?) and then followed some link somewhere. The piece I read in Orion is about the intelligence of an octopus; my students read it and were as interested by it as I was. I highly recommend it.

I've been exploring the poetry archives at Orion, which further added to my delight. Do read First Freeze by John Calderazzo. Wow.

I'm pretty sure I've only begun to scratch the surface of Orion. I look forward to reading and learning more.

Wednesday report

2011-11-30T05:55:00.000-06:00

It's the end of November, and we don't have any snow on the ground. On a number of levels, this is terrific. Driving gets tougher when you've must consider slippery road conditions. Going places gets more complex when you've got to consider outer wear. And, when you're walking outside when it's cold, you don't exactly stand up; rather you sort of bend into the frigidity...make yourself into a lower profile vehicle.

And less snow in the winter here means less stress about flooding in the spring.

I'm up to the same stuff: trying to make sure my students read and write a lot; working on my own writing and getting it out there. (I'm also looking forward to snow)

Oh the time it takes

2011-11-29T06:04:00.000-06:00

Last night I spent quite a bit of time re-paginating my poetry collection, so I could send it out to another contest. As I printed and double-checked what I'd printed, I thought about how much time all this writing works takes. I wondered, as a I re-read a poem or two, how many hours I've spent on my writing and sending it off to try to get published. And, in my wondering, I really came up with no answer.

Additionally, I thought about how many people have read my work.....in particular, a collection of it put together as carefully as I can. Again, I didn't have much of an answer.

Then I tried to consider the amount of time I've spent on work compared to how much my work has been read. And though I wondered aloud if it's worth it. I really do know the answer. It is most definitely worth it...the work and the thought and the revision and re-thinking. The pleasure and satisfaction and sense of accomplishment I derive from all this sustains me in a way that nearly nothing else does.

So tonight will be another round of prepping one of my chapbooks for entry into a contest. I look forward to it

SYTYCD clip for Monday

2011-11-28T05:59:00.005-06:00

Every so often, I must watch a clip from my all-time favorite show, So You Think You Can Dance.

Until Monday

2011-11-24T06:25:00.002-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving!!

What I'm thankful for this year

2011-11-23T05:57:00.000-06:00

It's hard to believe that we're cruising toward the end of November. When people tell you that time goes quicker the older you get...well those people are right.

And tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I have tons for which to be thankful. First off, I'm grateful for my family...my indefatigable husband and my much-too-sensitive bearded collie mix. They get me through the stuff I couldn't take alone and they provide me with joy. My husband gets more done than anybody I've ever known. And our dog likes to hold "hands" and put her snout to my nose in a "kiss." I'm thankful for the rest of my family and that, this summer, I got to see family I hadn't seen in years.

I'm fortunate to live in a comfortable home and to have health care. These things seem like such a "given" in my life, that I need to remind myself that not everyone has them. And I'm thrilled to have my health.

I'm thankful that I have terrific friends who know me well and keep hanging out with me anyway.

School is going well. My students this year are genuinely nice, eager to learn and ready to work. I look forward to working with them each day. My co-workers are supportive and kind, and the administrators where I teach are the best around.

This has been a great year for my writing and for connecting with online writers.

The trick for me is not to forget what I have; rather easily I succumb to longing for things I can't even always identify.

I wish all of you the good fortune that I have as well as the ability to know it.

Great poetry news

2011-11-22T05:55:00.000-06:00

The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services have partnered with the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers to launch the National Student Poets Program (NSPP), the country's highest honor for youth poets presenting original work. Five outstanding high school poets whose work exhibits exceptional creativity, dedication to craft, and promise will be selected annually for a year of service as national poetry ambassadors.

National Student Poets will be chosen from among the national medalists in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards by a jury of literary luminaries and leaders in education and the arts. Student Poets will receive college scholarships and opportunities to present their work at writing and poetry events, and will be featured at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC, in cooperation with the Library of Congress. Awards will be presented in September 2012.

This is terrific news. From more, click the above hyperlinked text.

Vegetables anyone?

2011-11-21T05:43:00.000-06:00

In the absence of scientific rigor, we slog through the marsh of culture. One of the squishy criteria used to determine whether a plant is a vegetable is how sweet it is before it’s cooked. Thus the controversy over tomatoes, which seem to be in a gray area when it comes to raw sweetness, but the lack of controversy over butternut squash, a fruit (universally acknowledged as a vegetable) that tastes like candy after a long roasting. (Benjamin Phelan at Slate)

A new story on the "is pizza a vegetable" debate was playing just as I was reading around for this blog. And, of course, I found this piece at Slate, an interesting read about our classification of some of what we eat.

Language play

2011-11-18T06:01:00.000-06:00

Playing around with language is, perhaps, my favorite part of writing. I love to ask myself what if questions about words and how they might hang out together. And, when I act on my "what if" questions, what results, no matter how trite or dull, entertains me.

The bonus in this school year is that my English nine students seem to share some of my love of language play. Poems they wrote this week were a delight. (We're working on summarizing and focusing on how poetic language can present particular challenges in summarizing) When students read their work, the whole class was entertained....applause sort of erupted.

So, while I'm glad it's Friday, I'm quite heartened by my students.

Dizzying parkour

2011-11-17T06:12:00.000-06:00

Just when I think I've got nothing to post here today, I find this terrific parkour short film at Vimeo. Enjoy...it's pretty cool.

SAMPARKOUR from Wiland Pinsdorf on Vimeo.

It hasn't officially arrived but...

2011-11-16T06:16:00.000-06:00

Despite what the calendar says, winter has shown up here in the form of snow and cold. And with the first of winter comes bad roads or perhaps that we've forgotten here on how to drive when the streets are icy.

With winter comes the complaints about it. And while I do understand that things get require more energy when it's cold and snow, I've got to say that winter brings to me a kind of peacefulness that I don't really feel any other time of the year.

Here's some video that kind of gets at the peacefulness of winter.

Dutch Winter from Kasper Bak on Vimeo.

Getting it out there

2011-11-15T05:55:00.000-06:00

I'm nearly obsessed with sending out my writing these days. And, as part of enacting that obsessed, I've got a collection of poetry out to four contests. While I'm ambivalent about contests, I still feel inclined to enter them.

For me, the key to getting a collection out it this: I have to stop fussing around, stop moving poems in and out of this or that configuration with their pals...basically, I've got to stop trying to figure out the perfect assortment of poems and how they would hang in the perfect order. Stopping this has boiled down to merely telling myself to quit. It's really that easy.

Compiling short fiction is less difficult. The possibilities of pieces referencing one another or echoing one another is less than with poems. So I can put stories together with less interest in how they interact with each other. I know that if I were putting together a series of linked stories that would be different.

So the obsession will continue here for a while.

Are we what we eat?

2011-11-11T07:36:00.000-06:00

The consumption of “fast foods” tends to elicit a host of negative reactions from those around us, since our eating habits broadcast our social identity. That’s according to the “impression-management theory” of food consumption, as summarized by Cornell University’s Lenny Vartanian and his colleagues in a 2007 issue of the journal Appetite. Although social psychologists haven’t explored people’s perceptions of those who scarf down heavily battered drumsticks, per se, data in this area imply that people who shrug off dietary concerns by eating fried chicken are tarred with the unattractive attributes of the product itself. A bucket of fried chicken may suggest nasty racial stereotypes by virtue of its unwholesome image (one that is entirely unbecoming of our country's leader) as much as by its particular history as a plantation staple. “Food choice is a means by which one expresses one’s philosophy of life,” argue Vartarian and his co-authors. “What one eats has important consequences for social judgements.” (Jesse Bering at Slate on the so-called "Obama Fried Chicken" incident)

This week my students and I had an interesting discussion about food because of a poem we were studying. As is often the case with class discussions, I can never anticipate what a student will say, and one student did talk about his family making and eating blood klub, a Norwegian dish. A quick search of the Internet yields no solid recipes; suffice to say, blood klub has blood in it. (I know klub as potato dumplings cooked in water in which a ham bone has been boiled, though I'm not just sure how this version of klub relates to blood klub)

Of course, much of the class was significantly grossed out and moderately incredulous. But the discussion did center around what food says about it, though we arrived at no set-in-stone conclusions...except for on maybe. Most of us aren't really interested in eating blood klub.

Some David Lynch

2011-11-10T06:18:00.000-06:00

When Blue Velvet came out, it was so shocking we couldn't appreciate how straightforward the movie really was. I first caught it at the Lumiere Theater in San Francisco, where waves of revulsion swept over the crowd. A few nights later, at a late-night showing in Berkeley, theatergoers got up, singly and in pairs, to leave during the film's most horrific moments. (Bill Wyman at Slate on the special Blu-Ray release of Blue Velvet)

It's been some time since I first saw Blue Velvet, and Wyman's piece does make me consider watching it again. But really I've often tried to get others to watch David Lynch's Eraserhead, simply so I'd have someone to talk to about it. Below is the trailer...anybody interested?

Working and farming

2011-11-09T06:17:00.001-06:00

IN this verdant lawn-filled college town, most people keep their lawn mowers tuned up by oiling the motor and sharpening the blades. Eddie Miller keeps his in shape with salt licks and shearing scissors. (Kevin Roose at NYT)

Miller is in the lawn business. He has sheep that can be hired to munch on yards....sheep in lieu of a mower.

Interesting? Yes, most certainly. But the article includes a reference to World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms----WOOF. Here's a bit about WOOF from its website.

WWOOF organisations publish lists of organic farms, smallholdings and gardeners that welcome volunteer help at certain times. The diversity of hosts available offers a large variety of tasks and experiences. Volunteer helpers ("WWOOFers") choose the hosts that most interest them and make direct contact to arrange a stay. Volunteers usually live as part of the family.

As someone who's dug up most of her yard to plant fruit and vegetables, I love finding out about how others in non-urban areas deal with and/or make use of their yards. And, after picking quite a bit of fruit this year---we've got two apple trees in our yard---I really love learning about how farmers and growers get help in harvesting their food.

Poetry in the classroom

2011-11-08T05:42:00.001-06:00

My creative writing students are quite a delight; they are smart and funny, and typically cooperative when need be and slightly rebellious when that's fitting. (Note: high school creative students often fit the profile I just wrote) But, I'm surprised, to some degree, about their taste in poetry.

But I shouldn't be, should I? Let me explain. I had students find poems they like from reliable websites (The Poetry Foundations, Poetry 180...) These poems were to be ones they would share. Yesterday they shared those poems. And here is the thing....they picked rather traditional poems with obvious rhyme and rhythm. Many explained that they picked poems they thought had lots of emotion and that poems tend to have a lot of emotional content. In other words, poems, more than other text types, are about feelings.

People don't read much poetry. My students are people. My students don't read much poetry. (Is this a syllogism of sorts?) So my job is to get my students reading a variety of poems while capitalizing on their current view of poetry. Add to this I've got to find poems that pack a bunch and that are appropriate to a high school classroom...something that leaves a couple of my favorite poems out of the mix.

SNL's back in my queue

2011-11-07T05:47:00.001-06:00

Nothing lately cracks me up more than SNl's Stefon, one of Bill Hader's characters. Stefon has helped re-energize my love of Saturday Night Live, one of my favorite shows when I was an angsty teen.

See the music

2011-11-03T05:50:00.000-05:00

There's some copyright issue with the music in this video of the Miami City Ballet performing a bit of Twyla Tharp's The Golden Section; therefore, it's silent. And for a time, I thought posting such video here would be pointless, because you can't listen to the music to which the dancers perform. But as I re-watch this video, I realize that without music, you must really pay attention to the movement, because the movement is a kind of music....music you can see.

Perhaps times change

2011-11-02T06:04:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe it's November already. Leaves persist on our elderberry plants, our Nanking cherry bushes and our apple trees. I guess they're stubborn.

I recently got a short piece of fiction accepted for publication in Spittoon. And although I consider myself essentially a poet, I do love writing fiction, especially when I get it accepted for publication.

In a probably unrelated note, here's news from Brevity's blog.

Numbers, as the introduction to the 2010 VIDA count of gender disparities in publishing puts it, don’t lie. The under-representation of women in English language letters proves remarkably consistent, with dismal numbers found everywhere from smaller literary journals to publications like the Atlantic. Susanne Antonetta, Barrie Jean Borich and Joy Castro—three members of the VIDA Genre Advisory Committee for Nonfiction—are working together to guest-edit an issue of Brevity that aims to go beyond regretting the numbers and find work by women, including transgendered women, that will further the conversation. Titled “Ceiling or Sky: Female Nonfictions After the VIDA Count,” this issue will foreground the women’s writing we have not been seeing and the lingering reasons behind its persistent absence.

A little parkour for a Tuesday

2011-11-01T06:12:00.000-05:00

This is one of those videos I've watched a number of times that I can go back to over and over....as if I've never seen it. And yes, there are some slow spots, but I think those help you take in the scary/thrilling stunts.

Dance, dance...yes, dance

2011-10-31T06:14:00.000-05:00

On Friday night, I watched the Miami City Ballet perform George Balanchine and Twyla Tharps works on PBS. Here's a bit of what I watched.

Great reading

2011-10-28T06:04:00.002-05:00

Phillip is fascinated by interfaces.

Skin is his favorite organ.

Here I, object, am.

(from a Mitchell Metz's poem Fish-Holes at 42opus)

I did some wondering around the Internet yesterday, following links to poems and short fiction, and reading whatever I found. I got myself to a poem I really love---one I've read before--- that I had to read again. That poem is excerpted above.

I also read this great piece by Lindsay Sproul at Freshly Hatched at Freerange Nonfiction.

Here's an excerpt from Sproul's The Truth about Sadie Brown:

When I think of Sadie Brown, she is standing in front of the secondary school library and the bees are trying to pollinate her sundress. Her knees are turned in toward each other in a way that makes her seem repentant of her existence on earth, but even in her shyness her knee-length sundress provokes curiosity rather than stifling it.

Finding reading material

2011-10-27T06:00:00.002-05:00

In the 1980′s science serial, Cosmos, Carl Sagan showed that if one was to read a book a week, and if that person was to live to an average age of 80 or so, one will only read a few thousand in a lifetime. This is a fractional percentage—a fearsomely minute number—of all that’s available out in the stacks. The trick, Sagan says, is to know which books to read. Alas. (from Vouched)

The above hyperlinked text comes from great piece at Vouched about not being able to read everything you want to. As someone who has an odd and perhaps uneasy relationship with reading, I found the rather comforting in a disturbing kind of way.

I never really read for pleasure; I read to find something out.....to learn. And it is that quest that gives me pleasure when I read. Often I am at a loss over what to read; what I read must help me learn something. The paucity of what I know frequently reminds me that there is so much to know that I have no idea what I don't know. All this comes together to make finding reading material of any length extremely difficult.

Often I read short stuff, and in that, the Internet is a terrific resource. I can read blogs and news and myriad other sites that provide smallish piece for me. Also I read poetry, because I know I'll learn something from the poetry I read. What will I learn for sure? Ways to write poetry and what to avoid in writing poetry.

So the piece at Vouched makes me feel a bit better about reading. It's certainly among the things I've chosen to read.

Still amazing

2011-10-26T05:47:00.001-05:00

I continue to be impressed by JR Martinez on this season of Dancing With the Stars. Actually, I'd say he's inspiring, a descriptor I rarely use, simply because it seems to be tossed around too much.

Regrouping for Tuesday

2011-10-25T05:51:00.001-05:00

Last night I opted for no news, something I rarely do. When I don't watch the nightly network news, I feel like I miss something, like I'm shirking some responsibility to at least try to pay attention to the world around me.

Yet, it was relaxing to skip the stuff about government and politics---as if the two are separate things. It was nice not to hear about someone who's gone off the deep end and done something horrible. There was peace in listening to my Pandora stations and let the day slide off me.

And I got some writing work done. I sent off a piece of short fiction and made sure my records of what piece is where were up-to-date. Such work solidified for me my next writing goal: to get a collection of poetry published.

Readers may remember that my chapbook "The Dreamed" won the Annual Spire Spring Chapbook contest, certainly an exciting and encouraging thing. The problem is that Spire is going (or has gone) out of business, so the publication that reward was supposed to include isn't happening. Now I'm regrouping, trying to figure out next steps as well as whether self-publication is an option.

MIA: Scrabble letter

2011-10-24T06:05:00.000-05:00

The upshot? Scads of publicity, for sure. But consider the plight of poor Ed Martin, by all accounts a nice fellow and a world-class Scrabble player, who was publicly accused of suspected cheating at the game he loves despite there being no evidence that he’d done anything wrong. Martin wrote on the World-Scrabble listserv that the widespread media reports had caused him “considerable distress,” complete with reporters showing up at his house uninvited. “This has taken quite a toll on my family and me,” he wrote. (Stefan Fatsis at Slate)

Somewhere recently, I heard of or read about a Scrabble letter was missing in a high-level Scrabble game. This is the kind of stuff that gets into my head. Perhaps it's because Scrabble is one of the few games I'll play, and/or perhaps it's because unusual events are often more interesting to me than the usual blah blah blah about the United States government's failure to make sense.

Join me in wearing purple

2011-10-20T05:56:00.002-05:00

Thursday, October 20, 2011

In honor of “Spirit Day” we're encouraging our hundreds of thousands of supporters online—like you—to join the millions wearing purple in support of LGBT youth.
Stand with LGBT youth by wearing purple for Spirit Day on Thursday, October 20, 2011 then spread the word by emailing your friends, tweeting about #SpiritDay and posting to facebook.

What is Spirit Day? (via GLAAD)
Millions of Americans wear purple on Spirit Day as a sign of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth and to speak out against bullying. Spirit Day was started in 2010 by teenager Brittany McMillan as a response to the young people who had taken their own lives. Observed annually on October 20, individuals, schools, organizations, corporations, media professionals and celebrities wear purple, which symbolizes spirit on the rainbow flag. Getting involved is easy -- participants are asked to simply "go purple" on October 20.
For more information about Spirit Day and what you can do online, visit http://www.glaad.org/spiritday.

It is also the National Day on Writing. To learn more about it, click here.

It does make sense

2011-10-19T06:32:00.002-05:00

Some I know might be surprised that I don't always complete understand the ways that I perceive the world. I'm sort of anomaly in my family as well; my slant on things is a bit unlike my genetically similar ones. Please understand that this is not boasting about my take on the world. Rather it is a mere statement of what's it's like to be in my head, something many hope will never happen to them.

So when I'm around other poets, as I was on Monday night when I attended a reading at the University of North Dakota, I make more sense to myself. I'm not sure I can put my finger on any of this. But when I'm around poets---not the pretentious, obnoxious kind---I find myself going "that's it" or "exactly" quite often.

Maybe it's not only what poets address in their poems but also what they talk about in general that rings familiar. I'm not sure, so I can only really address the poetry part. I suppose it could be that, for me, a poem is often a meditation, a close examination.....I liken it to this. Imagine looking at the interior of a piano...the wires and the hammers that come down on those write to make notes. Now consider a hammer repeatedly hitting one of those strings, playing only one note. Eventually the one-noteness becomes a melody. You find subtle but important tone differences each time the hammer strikes.

When I step away from time with other poets and come back to the world in which I live, I do feel quite odd for a few days, sort of alienated among people who are not poets. (Again....this is not judgment on the people I'm around.)

Great night of writing

2011-10-18T06:08:00.000-05:00

Last night I went to a terrific reading given by Juliet Patterson and William Stobb at the University of North Dakota. Both Patterson and Stobb went to UND, so the reading was slated to be about UND alumni. Patterson read from a nonfiction project she's working on. Stobb read poetry.

One could argue that the reading was delightful for me, because I was in a great mood. (School is out Thursday and Friday this week) Actually, I was tired and had sort of a headache. One could argue that the reading was great, because there was huge audience. Actually less than ten people attended.

The reading was wonderful because Patterson and Stobb shared work that was personal and honest, ripped right from the heart and given to us, the audience, for consideration. And I was reminded of the power of clear language, its ability to move quickly beyond the surface and reveal what's in someone's heart.

I suggest a little Googling of Patterson and Stobb, so you can read some of their week.

Grim and fascinating

2011-10-17T06:04:00.000-05:00

The Curious Fate of Humankind from Laura Sicouri on Vimeo.

More thoughts on compiling poems

2011-10-14T05:32:00.001-05:00

As if I'd assigned him a topic based on my post here yesterday, Justin Hamm has written about collecting poems... in a chapbook. Here's a bit of his post. I hope it's an enticement for you to hop on over to his blog and read the rest.

To me, the chapbook is the poetic equivalent of an album. Sit down and read a chapbook aloud all the way through. The approximate read time is probably similar to (or maybe just a bit shorter than) the run time of an album. So it makes sense that the chapbook could be structured in the same way as an album, and when I was arranging the poems in Illinois, My Apologies, the point at which I finally figured out a cohesive arrangement was the same point that I began thinking in terms of albums and playlists.

Collecting poems

2011-10-13T06:07:00.000-05:00

Some poems come into being in a flash, written down in one go on whatever paper comes to hand, or held whole in the mind of the poet until they can be recorded. Other poems are written deliberately, to order or to fulfill an assignment, or to fulfill the poet’s determination to produce a poem of a certain kind or on a certain subject. And some poems are born only after a long and patient struggle, the poet coaxing them out of the seed of an idea, teasing out reluctant threads. However they arrive, good poems tend to begin as entities unto themselves, unruly and independent, and corralling them into a book is a whole other kind of work from writing them. (Bob Holmen and Margery Snyder at About.com Poetry)

Over the past ten years or so, I've combined many of poems into quite a few different collections. Mostly, I've been do so to create a collection for a contest. This summer I told myself that the collections I put poems into could not be fiddled with. And I've obeyed my own rule.

Still, I find putting poems together with other poems extremely interesting. Poems change when they hang out with other poems. Unexpected meanings arise, and I get hooked thinking about all the possibilities.

Trying to wake up Wednesday

2011-10-12T05:46:00.000-05:00

Enjoy!

More competition for education dollars

2011-10-11T06:09:00.000-05:00

Environmental-literacy advocates are welcoming the launch of the federal Green Ribbon Schools program, suggesting it will help build on momentum they say is already evident for fostering across schools a deeper awareness and understanding of environmental issues. Just days after the U.S. Department of Education unveiled criteria for the new competition late last month, a districtwide environmental-literacy initiative was announced for public schools in Virginia Beach, Va., that involves outside partners, including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Meanwhile, experts say states are working on or have recently devised plans for environmental literacy. (Erik W. Robelen at Education Week)

Do students need to know about the environment? Yes, they do. Will a competition for money to create curriculum and/or programs to do so work? I'm not sure. I have doubts that the Obama administration's penchant for competition will really reform education. Do all school districts have the kind of resources they need to compete for available funds?

Fruits of our labors

2011-10-10T06:12:00.000-05:00

Monday's arrived after a busy weekend of dealing with the produce of our gardening. I've been freezing and/or drying and/or cooking what we've gone on and off since the end of July. It's been exhausting yet satisfying.

In all this, I've not sent much work to magazines. And I'm restless and/or slightly listless because of it. But I have realized something important: the next goal for me is getting a collection published.

Yes, I won the annual Spire Press chapbook contest, and the prize was money and publication. But the press is going out of business (or it already has). So I'm left wondering what to do with the manuscript that the won the contest. I've sent it a couple of places; it was rejected.

The fruits of our labors are nearly under control here. I've no excuses for not sending work out, for not working hard to get a collection published.

Thinking on writing

2011-10-07T06:01:00.000-05:00

The National Day on Writing is October 20, 2011. To learn more about it, click here.

Last year I did not doing anything particular to commemorate the National Day on Writing. Why? Perhaps I was bogged down with work or home or....something. This year I ought to do something specific to note the day, something to remind myself why writing is central to my life.

Some of the resources for the National Day on Writing include essays in which writers explain why they write. Bumping into those essays makes me consider the question in my life: why do I write?

I write for a variety of reasons...to figure things out, to explore ideas, to make my mark on paper, etc. When I work with students on their writing, I am reminded of the thing I love the most about writing----playing around with language. Writing satisfies my need to explore "I wonder what would happen if...." questions.

Too nice?

2011-10-06T06:19:00.001-05:00

Selflessness gone awry may play a role in a broad variety of disorders, including anorexia and animal hoarding, women who put up with abusive partners and men who abide alcoholic ones.
Because a certain degree of selfless behavior is essential to the smooth performance of any human group, selflessness run amok can crop up in political contexts. It fosters the exhilarating sensation of righteous indignation, the belief in the purity of your team and your cause and the perfidiousness of all competing teams and causes. (Natalie Angier at NYT)

The above excerpt comes from a very interesting article about altruism gone too far. To read more, click the bottom half of the above hyperlinked text.

Grace personified

2011-10-05T05:31:00.000-05:00

Every so often (or do I mean rarely?) someone comes along and forces us to rethink something. J.R Martinez on "Dancing with the Stars" is that person for me right now.

I'd sort given up on DWTS....too many packaged stories about the lives of the celebrities. Yuck! These bits seemed contrived and were utterly irritating to me. But, for some reason, I thought I'd try the show one more season.

And then J.R. Martinez comes along, dancing with unbounded joy. And I cannot take my eyes off of him; the beauty he makes is astonishing.

Here's a bit of background on Martinez.

In 2003, Martinez sustained severe burns to over 40 percent of his body while serving as a United States Army infantryman in Iraq . Following his recovery, he has traveled around the country speaking about his experiences to corporations, veterans groups, schools, and other organizations.

Midwestern Gothic issue three available for purchase

2011-10-04T05:41:00.001-05:00

The latest issue of Midwestern Gothic is out and available for purchase. I am among the writers in it. I'm particularly pleased with this publication, because two poems I've been trying to place for quite some time show their faces in it.

Issue two of Midwestern Gothic was a delight to read. I can't imagine issue three will be any different. And though I get a pdf contributor's copy, I prefer to read the hard copy. (My hard copies have not yet to arrive in the mail).

Find information about ordering the magazine, click here.

Go on and jump

2011-10-03T06:13:00.002-05:00

Experience Zero Gravity from Betty Wants In on Vimeo.

Monday always finds me a bit tentative about who knows what. This video is a reminder to let it go....

Cool Quizlet

2011-09-30T05:23:00.000-05:00

What is Quizlet exactly? We start with flash cards. Students can make their own, or choose from millions of flash cards sets created by others. But that's just the beginning - once you've got flashcards, you can use several study modes including multiple choice tests and study games. You can add images and listen to audio, and even study on the go with one of dozens of Quizlet-compatible mobile apps.

In my quest to find vocabulary resources for a literacy blog for which I am the admin., I found Quizlet, a really cool learning website. To read more, click the above hyperlinked text. And for some fun, try the Quizlet game embedded below. (Being embeddable is huge asset for me in the online world) And I'm wondering if there's a way I could use this in my writing...perhaps to play around with language....something.

Study these flash cards | Study music flash cards

Students and feedback

2011-09-29T05:56:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe the end of September is almost here; the month is a blur, a whirlwind of going from room to room at school, because I don't have a classroom. Why? The school where I teach is in the midst of remodeling, so an art teacher has my regular classroom.

This school year I think I'm going to try something I'm not entirely fond of. I'm going to have students give more feedback on the writing of their peers more than I have been. It means that I've got to teach students to do this.

I've got reservations about peer-revision. It's often very difficult to figure out how to help someone improve a piece of writing. Can I teach students to do this well enough that their feedback is genuinely helpful?

Take a listen

2011-09-28T06:15:00.001-05:00

My chapbook Messiah auditions Saturday was a finalist in the Qarrtsiluni's Third Annual Contest. And Qarrtsiluni is currently featuring poems from chapbook finalists with audio recordings. The title poem from my chapbook is up at Qarrtsiluni. To get to the poem with its audio, click here.