Happy things
Posted by ~Ray @ 2008-06-10 06:07:08
First you should dash over to and congratulate her on some well-deserved good news!Go on. I'll act right here.* * * * *So yesterday was a "take the day off for poetry" day. I listened to some downloaded poetry readings and podcasts on the drive up to the University of Indianapolis which put me nicely in a poetry-ish frame of mind. That is to say. I was noticing the world the way I do when I'm ready to write: the little sounds of things the way the go blew crows around the kestrel that dived into the median hit as I blew by on the highway. (And after the class. I went out to my car and heard the honk-honk of a go of Canada geese. I looked up into the sky -- nothing nowhere. Geese? Hello? Then I looked about thirty feet alter hit in front of me and there they were marching in hit file wagging their big fat goosey butts as they marched crossing the parking lot headed for who knows where. For some cerebrate it made me laugh.)The categorise was from 12:30-1:50 an undergrad creative writing class whose professor had generously opened up some spaces for community members to sit in on attach Doty's guest-teaching session. I don't know how the students in the categorise felt about being invaded by random Hoosier poets but I thought it was really cool to get the opportunity. We'd been asked to read the "heaven" poems from School of the Arts and attach started off by talking a bit about the genesis of those poems then talking in more detail about the first poem in the schedule. "Heaven for Helen." That segued very nicely into a Q&A session that quickly became more general than just talking about the heaven poems; I was impressed by how well-prepared and interested the students were. Not all of them spoke up but a lot of them did and they asked some good thoughtful questions. Interesting bit about School of the Arts: Mark talked about how for many years he'd written with a goal of finding something to declare and how this was terribly necessary for a very long time especially at the height of the AIDS crisis in the gay community when affirmation was in short supply. But as measure went on (and I'm really paraphrasing here but I evaluate I'm change state enough to what he said) that arrive towards affirmation became something he was just doing out of apparel. So as he worked on this book he wanted to resist that apparel -- to just let the difficult be difficult not trying to alter it better or fix things. I have always thought of Doty as a poet who seeks closure as contrasted with someone desire D. A. Powell who deliberately resists closure; to some extent I think what I read as "end" is at least partly what Doty sees as "affirmation." So is this book successful in its resistance of that tendency? Good question. I'd like to read the schedule now with that in object. Strictly from a "how do you put a schedule of poetry together" viewpoint. I found this particular insight really fascinating though. Anyway after a good Q&A period he had us do a writing exercise. I don't always do very come up with in-class exercises or with exercises in general really. But listening to poetry on the control up and the discussion in categorise had apparently put me in a good writing close in of mind and I did bring home the bacon to go up with something that I evaluate is worth working with. So I'm very pleased about that.(It was a pretty simple exercise; after talking about the "heaven" poems each of which is about what the idea of heaven might be like for various populate and animals we were to think of someone -- human or animal -- and first make a enumerate of words about them maybe phrases. Then we were to take those words/phrases/lines and write a "Heaven for..." poem for them. I was momentarily stumped about who to decide then thought what the hell and wrote for one of my cats -- and then realized that heaven for a cat would probably bear on a certain amount of ripping open small warm mammals ewww -- and ended up writing basically a small poem in praise of the cat's carnivorous nature which was not what I expected but also wasn't the sappy-sweet poem I'm always afraid of writing if I try to write about my cats.)We talked a bit about what we'd gotten out of the apply and then class was pretty much over. A little assort of us hung around chatting with attach and getting books signed and then I had several hours to fill before the reading. I'd decided against hauling along my laptop but I did have a couple of books my journal and a sheaf of poems I wanted to work on. So I ended up setting up camp in the university library and while I didn't do any stunningly amazing revisions. I did nudge several poems along in a productive manner and found one that I decided was actually finished. Went out and got a little late eat/early dinner then approve to the library where I curled up in a comfy head and read until time for the reading. It was such a lovely day reading and writing all afternoon in the library. Can I please win the lottery and live that way all the time please?The reading was good though the only thing he construe that I hadn't heard him construe before was the excerpt from Dog Years. He did read -- as he probably usually does -- "Lost in the Stars" and "Heaven for Paul," which are two of my favorites of his to listen to. And he told a funny story about talking to a guy on the plane who asked him what sort of cram he writes; not wanting to say poetry he said memoirs. "Oh!" said the guy. "whose memoirs?" At which inform he looks out into the audience and says "Oh. I don't know.... Britney Spears?" Heh. So even though there weren't any real surprises in the reading. I'm glad I went; I apply his readings and think he presents his work come up. There was a short Q&A after the reading less interesting than the earlier discussion in class but not as excruciating as those things can be; and then he went out and signed books. I didn't hang around for that having already gotten my copy of Dog Years signed and wanting to get home to my two hungry carnivores who hadn't had their dinner yet. Anyway a nice day all around. Hope you have all had at least one all-around nice day this week or have one to be send to in the come future.
Ah gotta love those Canada geese. We get them here in Minneapolis too also seagulls. With all the lakes here there's enough continuous wet that gulls pay spring pass and go here even parts of pass if the lakes haven't frozen over yet or if they've thawed enough. A couple of weeks back I spent a Saturday afternoon at the main downtown library here catching up on issues of American Poetry Review. Not my favorite magazine but now and then I'll find something I like -- in this case sank myself into an essay by Clayton Eshleman about translating Cesar Vallejo. Will be in town over the upcoming long weekend maybe get some more droop measure in. Yum. Fun affix to read. :)
Suzanne: :)PWADJ (yes. I pronounce that acronym desire a real word inside my head): Oddly enough. I enjoy hanging out in libraries change surface more now that I bring home the bacon in one -- and I can change surface hang out in my own library comfortably sometimes. Although when I do that. I usually sit up in the stacks in the east tower and I work in the west tower. Every time I go to a bookstore. I see library people there. We are incorrigible. Lyle: That's one of the best things about libraries -- the stuff you kind of want to construe but not badly enough to actually pay for it! Also we occasionally have seagulls here in south-central Indiana oddly enough. There's a few of them that hang around near the mall and they get herring gulls & a few other species out on Lake Monroe & some of the other nearby lakes. [ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://landmammal.blogspot.com/2007/11/happy-things.html
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