Instead of our usual Watch/Liste/Read today, we’re celebrating an extra special part of National Poetry Month with Poem in Your Pocket Day. We keep so many things there, literally and metaphorically. Today we’re asked to tuck a poem on a piece of paper into our own pockets. A poem on paper is small. It’s something…
Tag: Poetry
Paradise Lost: #EpicFail
I thought it might be fun to write about how to read a difficult book. I mean a book that’s literally difficult to understand. I’m going to take Paradise Lost for my example but I think these ideas apply to most difficult literature. Reading Outside your Comfort Zone The thing about reading as a hobby…
Not all Poems are about Flowers… This one is, Though
A Gift of Flowers It might have been tulips. I think they were yellow. A smiling man handed them to a woman in a crowded bomb shelter.I saw the picture over the shoulder of some talking head on my screen. Thousands of miles away in my bedroom I’m thinking of these stories I’ve been writing…
Kissing Rosalyn
When I was a teenager, I spent several summers at a Montessori-inspired hippie socialist utopian creative-and-performing arts camp. The eight weeks I spent at camp were a respite from trying to contort myself to fit in enough during the rest of the school year. Camp was a place to be myself. It was a place…
Introduction to Literature*
I ask them to write an essayon Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”and compare it to real life’s victimizing, scapegoating, mob mentality, human cruelty. I say exercise close readingand let your argument lead the way; textual evidenceshall follow. Explore, excavate, then explicate.Find your own voice. I want them to enjoy freedomof speech (in this course at least). But all…
Charlotte Smith (Caturday Questions)
Folks, Little Cat is in a bit of a rut. There’s only so many times you can run away from Human-Mom and scare the living hell out of her. Or sit on her shoulder and lean out over whatever she’s trying to see. Everything gets old. Even the classics show their age eventually. The other…
A Peek at Poetry (The Letter is Delayed)
Plan for the Unexpected, Right? Circumstances have conspired to delay Adam’s latest letter from Bangalore. I’ve seen it already. When we do publish it, I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did. We still want you to have something to read though. So…how about a little poetry talk? National Poetry Month is only…
Revise, Review, Revisit…and Welcome
Hello World Hello and welcome. And if you’re new here, perhaps you have come to visit after hearing us on the Master of None podcast, we’re glad you’re here. If you haven’t heard the podcast, give it a listen. Adam and Erika had the chance to sit down with Cheryl Woodhouse, who hosts Master of…
Finishing a Poem (Big Cat, Little Cat)
Big Cat has decided to draw on his experiences (sitting on his Human-Mom’s head while she’s trying to write poetry; and listening in on conversations with Human-Mom’s friends when they trade poems back and forth) to bring you this handy guide. Which you shouldn’t really need. I mean. Finishing a poem can’t be that hard,…
Mr. Misunderstanding: Prof. Parker
In loving memory of David Parker (1943-2015) A Good Teacher is Hard to Find, Episode 2 As there’s no good place to start, let me walkbackwards till, I bump into you. Mr. Misunderstanding On numerous occasions, Prof. Parker asked me to call him David, but for some unknown reason, I had never been able to…