tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1961329014644015562024-03-05T07:51:59.393-08:00 Deeper Writing (and Reading) of the WorldRobin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.comBlogger219125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-88821922508219778652017-04-18T11:35:00.003-07:002017-05-23T12:13:47.255-07:00 CELEBRATING POETS AND POETRY<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "ar blanca"; font-size: 26.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> POETRY </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "ar blanca"; font-size: 26pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">POEMS</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "ar blanca"; font-size: 26pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> POETS</span></div>
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It is April.<br />
National Poetry Month.<br />
<br />
It is April<br />
and we are reading<br />
and writing poetry<br />
celebrating<br />
possibilities<br />
of language<br />
and images<br />
to process<br />
and paint our world<br />
to infuse our words<br />
with hidden layers<br />
of meaning<br />
and depths of understanding<br />
<br />
<br />
It is April<br />
and we are celebrating<br />
poets<br />
who have<br />
saved our lives<br />
and taught us how<br />
to write<br />
our own poetry.<br />
<br />
<br />
In celebration, I share two recent discoveries.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Out-Wonder-Poems-Celebrating-Poets/dp/076368094X/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1492460455&sr=8-1&keywords=out+of+wonder+kwame+alexander&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=0f25bf8924c3068513c108b827e7a950" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=076368094X&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=li3&o=1&a=076368094X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/2oQ1YqV">Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets</a> by <a href="http://kwamealexander.com/">Kwame Alexander</a> with <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2015/08/its-music-to-our-ears-kwame-alexander-and-chris-colderley-explain-why-poetry-matters/">Chris Colderley</a> and <a href="http://www.marjorywentworth.net/newmarj/">Marjory Wentworth</a> offers a marvelous collection of poems in which the authors honor 20 poets.<br />
<br />
In the preface, Alexander shares the context of his collection:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I believe that by reading other poets we discover our wonder. For me, poems have always been muses. The poems in this book pay tribute to the poets being celebrated by adopting their style, extending their ideas, and offering gratitude to their wisdom and inspiration. </blockquote>
I was delighted to find the among the 20 poets Alexander has selected to honor many of my own personal favorites (Nikki Giovanni, Pablo Neruda, Billy Collins, Mary Oliver, and Naomi Shihab Nye to name just a few), I was also pleased to discover three new-to-me poets (Judith Wright, Chief Dan George and Okot p'Bitek) to enjoy and explore.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Alexander further suggests that we:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
... use (the poems) as stepping stones to wonder, leading ( us) to write, to read the works of the poets celebrated....to seek out more about their lives and their work, or to simply read and explore more poetry. At the very least, maybe (we) can memorize one or two.</blockquote>
The result is a collection of poems that delights our ears and our eyes, as well as our hearts and our minds. I smiled as I recognized the styles of my favorite poets recreated skillfully by the authors. affording me an opportunity to intentionally consider style, form, and craft. I lingered over <a href="http://www.ekuaholmes.com/">Ekua Holmes's</a> lush mixed-media collages which illustrate each poem, seeming to visually capture the style of the poet.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Death-Hat-History-Poetry-Objects/dp/0763669636/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1492470684&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Death+of+the+hat&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=3b8546f6a5a50d881751ac351c25152e" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0763669636&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0763669636" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> In <a href="http://amzn.to/2nWBHYF">The Death of the Hat: A Brief History in 50 Objects,</a><a href="http://www.paulbjaneczko.com/"> Paul B Janeczko </a>has gathered poems representing each period in history beginning with the early Middle Ages (from 400 AD) up through our current age of contemporary poets.<br />
<br />
In summing up more than 1000 years of history through poems about objects, surrounded by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Raschka">Chris Raschka's </a>easily recognized illustrations, we consider the actual objects that were important in each age, the styles of the poets in each period, and most importantly, how poetry developed and changed.<br />
<br />
Like Kwame Alexander, Janeczko also hopes that this collection will lead us beyond the collection to more poets and poetry:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I hope that ..(the collection) gives you a better idea of how poetry has evolved. I hope, too, that you enjoy a handful of the poets enough that you decide to explore their work further.... Finally, I believe that poetry is meant to be shared--that's what anthologies are all about-- so I hope you share a couple of these poems with someone close to you.</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
It is April.<br />
We are reading and writing poetry.<br />
These beautiful, coffee table-quality, gift -worthy collections are two of the best places to start this year... and to return to often.<br />
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<h3>
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
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Select a favorite poet and reread several of her poems. If she has published new poems, seek out those also.</div>
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What is is that you admire about this poet and her writing?</div>
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<br /></div>
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Write a poem in the same style or form, intentionally echoing her ideas, topics, and thinking.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>or</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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Select an object that has importance for you. Find poems about that object. Can you locate poems about the object from several time periods?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
How are they similar? different?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Write a poem about your chosen object incorporating elements suggesting our contemporary culture and time.</div>
Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-81623994435028016112017-03-18T11:23:00.000-07:002017-03-18T11:23:25.507-07:00STEPPING STONES AND SINGING BONES: TELLING OUR STORIES<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvW9qYUEJUZMouZIWK-vFR7rmotzPnHm5y-e7o15CZnjEONjCG3z_iBfa0jy2R9ppfy1s3z2VxJQznq_XRty-8b8wN_uV2GgRGu-LKu1URSH4mSEcXSoHzNRvN5ckw8d_igpY_kSrJ535-/s1600/Bag+of+Rocks.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvW9qYUEJUZMouZIWK-vFR7rmotzPnHm5y-e7o15CZnjEONjCG3z_iBfa0jy2R9ppfy1s3z2VxJQznq_XRty-8b8wN_uV2GgRGu-LKu1URSH4mSEcXSoHzNRvN5ckw8d_igpY_kSrJ535-/s320/Bag+of+Rocks.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />
Stones.<br />
the solid presence of<br />
the undeniable truth of<br />
the heavy power of<br />
the ontological history of<br />
the metaphysical magic of<br />
Stones.<br />
<br />
<br />
I have always collected stones, even as a child, recognizing some unusual, unnamed treasure in small ordinary pieces of earth, pieces that could be held tightly in hand, giving strength, granting a wish, advancing a prayer, blessing the one whose fingers warmed the surface ...and closed into a fist around the life and story that was contained therein. (Read my related poem, <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VPimRKtJRmjPbHy5PlDoECN0ZWdFgYe_dkLy1gEpmX0/edit?usp=sharing">Stones in Our Pockets here.</a>)<br />
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I have always collected stones--- as stories-- I was here, I was in this place, and this small piece of this place can now go with me, be with me, always<br />
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Stones that glitter, found as I walked the labyrinth at Proctor (the conference/retreat center for the Diocese of Southern Ohio)<br />
<br />
Larimar, that I got in the Cayman Islands-- pale blue stones, the color of the Carribean Sea, the only place in which it is found.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjljTxfr3EteUP2kT4lOBtiHqB5PB-Xf9CCFrSuiIawTPUa397GXjX-MVUV8LLz7EQokNzG57ZrPRgfsebwUhkLcOQ3kS75Ls6ttgs2J7_PJJxIRRF9VX19rDOsSW5dzekvEzVGG3yQuYig/s1600/Rock+with+Cross+etched.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjljTxfr3EteUP2kT4lOBtiHqB5PB-Xf9CCFrSuiIawTPUa397GXjX-MVUV8LLz7EQokNzG57ZrPRgfsebwUhkLcOQ3kS75Ls6ttgs2J7_PJJxIRRF9VX19rDOsSW5dzekvEzVGG3yQuYig/s200/Rock+with+Cross+etched.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
The stone etched with a crooked cross after laying for eons on the bottom of the ocean before I found it one Easter morning on a beach in St. Thomas.<br />
<br />
And the strings of stones-- the rosaries and prayer beads, I collect as I travel.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Stones.<br />
Stones have the power to hold our stories, to tell our stories,<br />
<br />
We dream and hope and hold on to the little pieces of the earth to anchor us to the most important paragraphs of our own stories and to imagine the sentences that construct the stories of others.<br />
<br />
<br />
Stones and I have a history.<br />
<br />
<br />
So it was with surprise and delight that I discovered two books that honor the power of stones and their connection to our human stories.<br />
<br />
We have all seen lovely editions of the Grimms' Tales. We may even own several.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Singing-Bones-Shaun-Tan/dp/0545946123/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1489781369&sr=8-1&keywords=the+singing+bones&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=e37b31df9e96f61cdaae8d392afe4e45" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0545946123&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a>But in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Singing-Bones-Shaun-Tan/dp/0545946123/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1489781369&sr=8-1&keywords=the+singing+bones&linkCode=ll1&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=da96c6f64049689139f446d61f73a49a">The Singing Bones</a>, <a href="http://www.shauntan.net/about.html">Shaun Tan </a>offers a uniquely beautiful and haunting edition, forcing us to<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0545946123" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> see these timeless tales with new eyes, to consider their power to evoke our individual and collective lives in symbol and archetype and trope.<br />
<br />
In the Forward, Neil Gaiman reminds us<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
People need stories. It's one of the things that make us who we are. We crave stories, because they make us more than ourselves, they give us escape and they give us knowledge. They entertain us and they change us, as they have changed and entertained us for thousands of years.</blockquote>
<br />
Tan has created stone-like sculptures to illustrate each story... or what he calls " the hard bones" of each story. Each full-page illustration is preceded by just a paragraph, a short abstract, representing "what matters". In the Annotated Index there are brief summaries of each tale for those who want to know more. In the Afterword<i>,</i> he explains how as an adult he "came to appreciate these tales for their complexity, ambiguity, and endurance."<br />
<br />
Of his sculptures, Tan says<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
What matters above all else are the hard bones of the story, and I wanted many of these objects to appear as if they've emerged from an imaginary archaeological dig, and then been sparingly illuminated as so many museum objects are, as if a flashlight beam has passed momentarily over some odd objects resting in the dark galleries of our collective subconscious. Like the tales themselves, they might brighten in our imagination without surrendering any of their original enigma.</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Arrival-Shaun-Tan/dp/0439895294/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1489781758&sr=8-3&keywords=the+arrival&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=a50fca9502efd3bb08b4a433f32d50ea" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0439895294&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a>.<br />
In his work, Tan has consistently exhibited the power to make the familiar strange and the strange familiar.<br />
<br />
<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0439895294" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />My first encounter with his work was his near novel-length picture book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Arrival-Shaun-Tan/dp/0439895294/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1489781758&amp;sr=8-3&amp;keywords=the+arrival&amp;linkCode=ll1&amp;tag=deewriandreao-20&amp;linkId=ed3d36e61a19d5da5d0666de66536dcf">The Arrival</a>, which wordlessly illuminates the journey of a man leaving his home country and his family, then arriving and surviving in a new and strange land. This was one of my students' favorites, and still remains one of mine.<br />
<br />
To see more works by Shaun Tan<a href="http://www.shauntan.net/books.html"> click here</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Stepping-Stones-Refugee-Familys-Journey/dp/1459814908/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1489782279&sr=8-1&keywords=Stepping+Stones:+a+Refugee+Family%27s+Journey&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=d753a3ccdf4cac57dbd72a074fc9f8c8" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1459814908&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=li3&o=1&a=1459814908" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<br />
While Tan created stone-like sculptures to illustrate his book, in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Stepping-Stones-Refugee-Familys-Journey/dp/1459814908/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1489782279&sr=8-1&keywords=Stepping+Stones:+a+Refugee+Family%27s+Journey&linkCode=ll1&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=586a771aa013e9b7d4fc0f7270af30bd">Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family's Journey</a> by <a href="http://www.margrietruurs.com/">Margriet Ruurs</a>, <a href="https://syriancreativehavens.com/portfolio/syrian-artist-nizar-ali-badr/">Nizar Ali Badr</a> created illustrations with found stones or pebbles of varying sizes as his medium.<br />
<br />
The author, Margriet Ruurs, says of his work in the Foreword:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Nizar's work spoke to me strongly. In his art I saw people changing--from happy, carefree children into people burdened and fleeing. There was hurt and sorrow. But ultimately there was also love and caring. and amazingly, all of this told with stones. </blockquote>
She describes being inspired to create a story that could be illustrated by this amazing artist.<br />
<br />
Their timely and unique collaboration is written in both Arabic and English. Her poetic prose illuminates the stone pictures and tells a story of freedom and loss, war and fleeing, fears and hopes, and finally arrival, after much walking, to a new nation, a new home.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.timescolonist.com/life/tale-of-refugee-family-s-flight-is-set-in-stone-1.2362119">My favorite illustration</a>, very similar to the cover image, is accompanied by these words:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A river of strangers in search of a place<br />
to be free, to live and laugh, to love again.<br />
In search of a place where bombs did not fall,<br />
where people did not die on their way to market.<br />
A river of people in search of peace</blockquote>
To see more amazing pebble art by Nizar Ali Badr <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pg/Ines.Safi22/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1647070332252937">click here.</a> or simple <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=nizar+ali+badr&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSsPP3uN7SAhXk8YMKHS5wBGgQ_AUICSgC&biw=1366&bih=638#imgrc=_">search his name in Google images</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
At a time when our government has made a journey such as the ones described in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Singing-Bones-Shaun-Tan/dp/0545946123/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1489781369&sr=8-1&keywords=the+singing+bones&linkCode=ll1&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=da96c6f64049689139f446d61f73a49a">Stepping Stones</a> or <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Arrival-Shaun-Tan/dp/0439895294/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1489781758&amp;sr=8-3&amp;keywords=the+arrival&amp;linkCode=ll1&amp;tag=deewriandreao-20&amp;linkId=ed3d36e61a19d5da5d0666de66536dcf">The Arrival </a>an impossibility for many, the very stones cry out as witnesses for those dreaming, wanting, needing to make the journey... and those same stones sing in celebration with those who have already come to new homes.<br />
<br />
<br />
Stones.<br />
the solid presence of<br />
the undeniable truth of<br />
the heavy power of<br />
the ontological history of<br />
the metaphysical magic of<br />
Stones.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
<br />
Shaun Tan and Nizar Ali Badr both represented stories in a unique way-- with stone-like sculptures and pebble art.<br />
<br />
What story in your life can you tell using only objects? Can you use stones--- or perhaps another medium-- like sticks, buttons, leaves,.. the possibilities are endless?<br />
<br />
Write about how rendering your story through a tangible medium changes your perspective.<br />
<br />
Write a poem or essay to illuminate your illustration.Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-81292971298046070692016-11-30T11:33:00.001-08:002016-11-30T11:33:46.507-08:00E Pluribus, Unum?<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Mint-made_error_-_1994_Lincoln_cent_with_trails_coming_of_E_PLURIBUS_UNUM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="121" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Mint-made_error_-_1994_Lincoln_cent_with_trails_coming_of_E_PLURIBUS_UNUM.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/By%20By%20the%20wayside%20(Own%20work)%20[CC%20BY%201.0%20(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0)],%20via%20Wikimedia%20Commons">By the wayside (Own work) [CC BY 1.0 </a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
We are broken.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
We are broken</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
at the very least.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
We are broken </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
and destroyed</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
at the extreme worst. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
We have long hidden</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
the chasms, the schisms</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
fraying</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
seams </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
are pulling open</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
stitches</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
no longer holding</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
the resentment</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
the anger<br />
the hostility</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
the hate<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
the deep divide</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
widens</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
as tamped down</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
"deplorability"</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
racism,</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
sexism</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
genderism</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Islamophobia</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
--indiscriminate</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
all encompassing</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
xenophobia</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
bubbles and oozes</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
to the surface</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
threatening to tear</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
apart</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
the democratic fabric </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
we wear</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
so unaware.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
We watch in dismay</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
as freedom of speech</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
becomes a civil war</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
rather than a civil responsibility</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
a civil right.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Our tongues and pens</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
are swords</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
cutting into</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
our Pluribus</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
destroying</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
our fictitious Unum.</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Broken-SapnaChand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Broken-SapnaChand.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">S<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Broken-SapnaChand.jpg">apna Chand [Attribution], via Wikimedia Commons</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
How do we talk to each other?<br />
How do we walk back from the abyss to a place safe enough to have a conversation-- to a space of critical and constructive, yet compassionate and kind discourse?<br />
<br />
And what conversations need to be had to close the distances between us?<br />
<br />
How do we tell our stories and be heard?<br />
How do we hear the stories others tell us?<br />
<br />
How do we integrate facts accurately and significantly into our discourse?<br />
How we humanize data and statistics so that we understand the human stories represented by each number, each percentage, each bar graph and pie chart?<br />
<br />
How do we respectfully lift the invisible--that which we don't see, choose not to see, out of the context in which it remains hidden?<br />
<br />
How do we train ourselves to see?<br />
<br />
How do we foster talking <i>with</i> rather than talking <i>to</i>, <i>at</i>, <i>past, </i>and<i> around</i> each other's Truths.<br />
<br />
How do we talk to each other?<br />
<br />
<br />
Some of my past blog posts may be helpful as we individually and collectively figure out how to talk to each other and how to teach our children and our students.... and ourselves to also listen.<br />
<br />
Included in most of the posts are books and other resources that may be useful for current and necessary conversations.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2014/10/we-are-all-alike-we-are-all-different.html">We Are All Alike, We Are All Different</a><br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2014/09/remaking-our-world.html"><br /></a> <a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2014/09/remaking-our-world.html">Remaking Our World</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2014/08/open-season-on-black-men.html">Open Season on Black Men</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2014/12/ferguson-and-other-nightmares-reading.html">Ferguson and Other Nightmares</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2014/03/social-justice.html">Social Justice</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/08/walls.html">Walls</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2014/02/against-forgetting-poetry-of-witness.html">Against Forgetting: Poetry of Witness</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-poetry-of-resilience.html">The Poetry of Resilience</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/02/i-too-am-america-thereare-seven-days.html">I, Too, Am America</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/07/who-are-we-in-america.html">Who Are We in America?</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2015/10/black-lives-mattertoo-lets-talk.html">Black Lives Matter..., Too: Let's Talk</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2015/01/an-american-lyric-claudia-rankine.html">An American Lyric: Claudia Rankine</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-rights-of-children.html">The Rights of Children</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-danger-of-single-story.html">The Danger of a Single Story</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/08/you-do-not-define-me-telling-our-own.html">You Do Not Define Me: Telling Our Own Stories</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
Identify a person with a different perspective, opinion, or experience than your own.<br />
<br />
Have an extended conversation with that person-- listening to understand her point of view and how she arrived at her thinking and understandings. Share your own point of view-- identifying, if possible, places where your thinking converges, <br />
<br />
Write a reflection or poem about your conversation, clearly explaining both points of view, and points of agreement.<br />
<br />
Include any questions that remain about your partner's position and your own.Also identify any surprising points or lessons learned.<br />
<br />
If possible, share your writing with the person with whom you had the original conversation<br />
Encourage them to write their perceptions and memories of the same conversation and share with you.<br />
<br />Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-6829479752698521352016-07-12T13:52:00.000-07:002018-04-18T06:48:35.476-07:00 NO, NOT, AND NEGATIVE SPACES<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "ar darling"; font-size: 90.0pt; line-height: 107%;">NOT</span></b></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Writers are always searching for perfect words to paint powerful images. We shade with appropriate adjectives, we color with clauses, we expand our definitions with details; we specify , we clarify, and we bring our images to life by describing what they <i>are,</i> what they<i> have, </i> and<i> </i>what they <i>do</i>.<br />
<i><br /></i> Another often overlooked way to create powerful images is by telling what something or someone or somewhere is <i>not</i>.<br />
<br />
We can approach objects, places, people, situations, and events from the opposite or unlikely side, from a new perspective, by examining what our subject <i>is</i> <i>not</i>, what it <i>does not have,</i> or what it <i>cannot </i>do.<br />
<br />
Like looking at the negatives of old photos, we can examine the negative spaces as a means of creating a similar, yet different image- -a shadow image.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Angel-Solomon-Singer-Cynthia-Rylant/dp/0531070824/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1467917467&sr=8-1&keywords=A+angel+for+solomon+singer&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=e9063bd0f948977c2c36fe282ee80906" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0531070824&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><i><br /></i><a href="http://amzn.to/29pAa7z"> An Angel for Solomon Singer</a> by <a href="http://www.cynthiarylant.com/">Cynthia Rylant</a> contains a powerful and poetic<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0531070824" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> description of a room, considering all that it is not, and all the features it does not have, and all the things Solomon is not allowed to have or do in this room-- all things for which he longs.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Solomon Singer lived in a hotel for men near the corner of Columbus Avenue and Eighty-fifth Street in New York City, and he did not like it. The hotel had none of the things he loved.<br />
His room had no balcony ( he dreamed of beautiful balconies). It had no fireplace (and he knew he would surely think better sitting before a fireplace). It had no porch swing for napping and no picture window for watching the birds. He could not have a cat. He could not have a dog. He could not even paint the walls a different color and, oh, what a difference a yellow wall or purple wall would have made!</blockquote>
<br />
With these negative words, we not only see the dismal hotel room in which Soloman dwells, but we also feel his loneliness, his weariness, and his pain. A description of what the room actually contains, what it actually looks like, would not have created an accurate image for us, nor fill us with the same empathy.<br />
<br />
Once I noticed the power of this not/no in this passage, I began to see this technique in other texts and to experiment with it in my own writing.<br />
<br />
One of my attempts with this technique is this third section of a longer five-part poem,<i> The Dancer's Dream Suite</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
She never planned to be a dancer.<br />
She was not the ballerina who befriended each neophyte dancer that entered the company. She never immediately smiled as visitors entered the studio to witness, to gawk-- to envy the lithe bodies stretching and bending on the highly polished hardwood floor.<br />
She had none of the easy dancer banter hidden in her mind that fell effortlessly from the mouth of her sisters in pink. She had never been like the current starling darling of the company, a little girl dreaming of elegantly spinning from the time she was three.<br />
She never wore a tutu for Halloween or ran into her yard in ballet slippers before her mother could remind her to change.<br />
Dancing was not what she intended to do and she never intended to stay in this place.<br />
The company was not her family, as the Russian proclaimed, and most of them were not even her friends.<br />
No one applauded her successes and waited with flowers for her after the last performance to take her to a late dinner as Jake’s Café around the corner where the other dancers gathered and stayed long into the night dancing wild unstructured gyrations that were not part of classic ballet.<br />
No-- instead she exited the stage door, caught the train home, riding silently, neither looking out the window or at her fellow riders.<br />
No-- instead she returned home to feed her cats and read trashy grocery store novels until she fell asleep alone, dreaming of children she didn’t have and their father whom she had not yet met.<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> © RobinWHolland</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
This dancer comes to life as we consider what she is not, how she has none of the expected characteristics of a dancer. Again, her loneliness is tangible and resides in the negative space.<br />
<br />
I recently was introduced to two additional and powerful uses of negative space.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Voyage-Sable-Venus-Other-Poems/dp/1101875437/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1468267588&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=voyaage+of+the+sable+venus&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=52fdc9939ee867daa57207953433f13f" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1101875437&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a>As I read the poem Lure by Robin Coste Lewis in the collection <a href="http://amzn.to/29wl6P6">Voyage of the Sable Venus</a>, winner of the 2015 National Book Award for Poetry, I was struck by the quiet horror that we feel as the narrator recounts an incident of incest that "did not take place" in her childhood. The negative statements recounting her truth render the images and events all the more disturbing and haunting.<br />
<br />
Her poem begins:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I am not there.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
(We are not in that room.<br />
I am not sitting on your lap.<br />
I am not wearing the yellow<br />
and white gingham skirt so pretty<br />
Grandmother just made for me<br />
this morning....</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
In a <a href="https://pen.org/interview/pen-ten-robin-coste-lewis">recent interview about her work </a>with <a href="https://pen.org/nicole-sealey">Nicole Sealey</a> at <a href="https://pen.org/">PEN America</a>, in response to a question about the most daring thing Lewis had ever put into words, interestingly, she responds by discussing Lure and what she was<i> not</i> intending to do with this piece.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "neutraface"; line-height: 20px;">.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">.. “Lure,” is an exploration of incest and its long-term impact on survivors. That was challenging to write because... I wasn’t interested in being shocking, or even cathartic. If all I can do is to get my poem to go “Boo!” that might be thrilling for a second, but it would be cheap, gimmicky. I’m also disinterested in catharsis as a goal. As a tool, sure, but as a goal I remain suspicious. So what if we all cry. Who cares? A poem is not an Oprah episode. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against crying. I hope my work allows the reader to access sensations that have been locked away or ill-considered. But when we make that the sole mark or goal—“I cried...” —we miss out on poetry’s deeper properties, which can take us far beyond emotional release. And so when thinking about how to write about incest, I knew catharsis was not enough. I wanted more. I assumed my reader was more intelligent than me, so then there was no need to over-explain, or to trick my reader with a gimmick, even a gimmick about abuse. Also, I never want my work to be a sly narcissistic invitation that requires the reader to look at me instead of the poem. </span></blockquote>
You may read the entire interview <a href="https://pen.org/interview/pen-ten-robin-coste-lewis">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
E. Lockhart begins her young adult novel, <a href="http://amzn.to/29MXagh">We Were Liars </a> by having one of her characters tell us about the negative spaces of the family who populates her novel--who they are not.<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/We-Were-Liars-E-Lockhart/dp/038574126X/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1468271719&sr=8-1&keywords=We+are+Liars&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=2fe8c703afcfc8113af3b4f9bd7a4aec" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=038574126X&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Welcome to the beautiful Sinclair family.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
No one is a criminal.<br />
No one is an addict.<br />
No one is a failure...</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
On the <a href="http://amzn.to/29MXagh">first page of this novel</a> we are immediately intrigued as she alternates between what the Sinclairs are and are not, leaving us wanting to know this privileged family, to understand their particular pains and specific situations, as they gather each summer on their private island.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
And finally, as I was looking for something unrelated on the internet this week, I re-encountered one of the most well-known protest poem/songs --<a href="https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tuaqbvo36fr5a7dnmbgntgoegoi?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-lyrics">The Revolution Will Not Be Televised </a>by one of my favorite artists from the 70's, Gil Scott-Heron. ( This song is the first cut on <a href="http://amzn.to/29wgh8X">Pieces of a Man</a>.)<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px; padding-bottom: 10px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span a="" href="https://www.amazon.com/Pieces-Man-Gil-Scott-Heron/dp/B00IL2U8GU/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1468353596&sr=1-1-mp3-albums-bar-strip-0&keywords=the+revolution+will+not+be+televised&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=93c0dce2071c262a5af7c0bf63cf2c4f" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00IL2U8GU&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" width="200" /></span></div>
<br />
<div style="padding-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You will not be able to stay home, brother<br />You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out<br />You will not be able to lose yourself on skag<br />And skip out for beer during commercials<br />Because the revolution will not be televised</span></span></div>
<div style="padding-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The revolution will not be televised<br />The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox<br />In 4 parts without commercial interruptions....</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
I smiled as I realized the entire structure of his poem/song is in negative space--- the revolution will <i>not.</i>.....<br />
I also smiled at how times have changed--- and how not being televised, not being streamed, not being seen instantly, everywhere, is no longer an option.<br />
<br />
<br />
You can listen to to the entire song <a href="https://youtu.be/QnJFhuOWgXg.">here</a> and read the complete lyrics <a href="https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tuaqbvo36fr5a7dnmbgntgoegoi?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-lyrics">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
The power of no, not and negative spaces.<br />
The underside, the shadow image.<br />
<br />
We can use these negative statements and views to look with new eyes at objects, places, people, situations, and events.<br />
<br />
What is<i> not</i>?<br />
<br />
<h3>
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
<div>
Reread the samples and others you may locate.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Describe an object or a place by telling about what it is not.</div>
<br />
Write about a person, their circumstances and situation--- tell their story using only negative descriptions and statements.<br />
<br />
Write about an event- a trauma, a sadness, regret, or a celebration by detailing what did not happen--either as a technique to describe what actually happened in the manner of Robin Coste Lewis in Lure- -or to examine what truly did not occur.<br />
<br />
<br />Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-67970585400812131662016-06-28T11:25:00.001-07:002016-06-28T11:25:16.159-07:00WELCOMING WRITING AND ESSAYING<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirvEakiIVkxHz10IjFH-R-X2auku10fQ4k2c1TwxWU95aSuMv8XhoSDHx8mOa04L6s1lRp7xJXufRRqgJB2YNvpHES1HGXw1L4gNBg2cwrvxahyphenhyphenaTWHl-xzqEyoAMxNIe1DxyVpscXrlsI/s1600/angel-statue-writing-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirvEakiIVkxHz10IjFH-R-X2auku10fQ4k2c1TwxWU95aSuMv8XhoSDHx8mOa04L6s1lRp7xJXufRRqgJB2YNvpHES1HGXw1L4gNBg2cwrvxahyphenhyphenaTWHl-xzqEyoAMxNIe1DxyVpscXrlsI/s320/angel-statue-writing-2.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Writing comes<br />
and I welcome it<br />
grabbing it as it enters--<br />
a passing phrase<br />
a fleeting image<br />
gossamer words<br />
fashioned into<br />
half-finished sentences<br />
coming<br />
as I wait<br />
in the places<br />
where writing<br />
has visited me before.<br />
<br />
<br />
In <a href="http://www.kenyoninstitute.org/programs/beyond-walls-spiritual-writing-at-kenyon/">Beyond Walls</a>,<a href="https://readymag.com/u57216444/526866/welcoming/"> Amy Frykolm describes poet William Stafford's habit</a> of rising to write poetry each morning before dawn.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Stafford didn’t write before dawn only because it was quieter then. He wrote in the early morning because he had greater access at that time of day to the unknown. His method for writing poetry was based on something he called “welcoming.” He would sit and welcome the language that came to him. Once an interviewer challenged him on this practice. ‘Don’t you ever revise?’ the interviewer asked. I do, he said, but only by welcoming still further. “I drift back through the poem with something of the same welcoming feeling I had when I began it.” He didn’t set out with an idea. He set out with an intention to welcome whatever came, almost always something that hadn’t been known before.</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
I know this "welcoming"--this process of language that comes unbidden, yet indirectly invited, always. And, although, I do not intentionally arise early each morning to write, I remain in what Donald Graves calls a "constant state of composition."<br />
<br />
I have always explored these "comings" in poetry, feeling free to wonder and wander as I write, exploring, expanding, and transforming ideas, language... and myself.<br />
<br />
I have found myself in the last few years, however, reading and writing more nonfiction, creative nonfiction..... essays, if you will.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Journey-Everything-Teaching-Essays-Students/dp/0325061580/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1466778063&sr=8-1&keywords=katherine+bomer+the+journey+is+everything&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=eb1c6592eaa24c4a0517e96b9c158608" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0325061580&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a>I have become interested in this form as I continue to experiment, in general, with the many possibilities for blending genres. This form seems most like poetry to me in its ability to build and arrive where I may not have intended to go, but am so glad I did.<br />
<br />
It was with great delight that I discovered Katherine Bomer's newest book, <a href="http://amzn.to/294fH3u">The Journey is Everything</a>. about teaching essay writing.<br />
<br />
Bomer also discusses the connection between poetry and essays, confirming my suspicions and intuitions:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
To me, the essay is most like a poem in tone. Like poems, essays might focus on something minuscule and with luminous language, render it enormous; or they might find something considered ordinary and demonstrate how extrordinary it is. Essays stun me the way poems do, inviting me to consider an aspect of the world that I did not know about or to look with fresh eyes at something I thought I already knew. (page 18)</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Michel-Montaigne-Complete-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140446044/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1466779611&sr=8-1&keywords=Montaigne+The+complete+essays&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=6b07c094c80ac642e65fb5569b69b090" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0140446044&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0140446044" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />Both Bomer and Fryholm remind us of the origins of the word <i>essay, </i>and of<i> </i>this literary form , as well as the role of<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_de_Montaigne"> Michel de Montaign</a>e in the genre's creation.<br />
<br />
Montaigne retired from his role as a French statesman and retreated to his estate around 1571. There he began reading and writing and <i>essaying--</i>trying words, ideas, and language. He wrote about his everyday world, philosophy, religion, politics, human nature, and more. In <i>Book 1</i>, his essays included such titles as: <i> </i><br />
<i><br /></i> <i><br /></i> <i>On Sadness, </i><br />
<i>On Idleness, </i><br />
<i>On Liars,</i><br />
<i>Our Emotions Get Carried Away Beyond Us, </i><br />
<i>On Punishing Cowardice, </i><br />
<i>On the Power of Imagination.</i><br />
<br />
His many essays ( 3 books) were ultimately published in a massive volume entitled <i>Essais</i>-translated <i>Attempts or Trials. </i>Project Gutenberg offers The <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3600/3600-h/3600-h.htm"> <i>Complete Essays of Michel De Montaigne </i></a><i><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3600/3600-h/3600-h.htm">. </a></i><br />
<br />
For more on the background, context, intentions, and writing processes of Montaigne, you may find helpful this article, <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/09/07/me-myself-and-i">Me Myself and I</a> by Jane Kramer from The New Yorker.<br />
<br />
Amy Fryholm closes <a href="https://readymag.com/u57216444/526866/welcoming/">her article</a> about the essay with an invitation to explore our own worlds in the manner of Montaigne :<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Essay writing, in particular, is an invitation into the “not yet” of our own experience where the unknown has an opportunity to speak to and through us.</blockquote>
<br />
So I want to try--- I want to<i> essay </i> my world, my memories, my experiences. I want to welcome the inklings, the tiny thoughts that come that lead to <a href="https://us.corwin.com/en-us/nam/deeper-writing/book237931">deeper writing</a>.<br />
<br />
As with any writing we are learning-- or trying, it is useful to immerse ourselves in that form, to take time to notice and name what we see-- and to think about how we might, then, translate into our own writing what we have noticed.<br />
<br />
Several collections have been useful for me as models, mentor texts, for exploring the form..... for pushing me, pulling me toward welcoming, experimenting --- trying ---essaying.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Brief-Encounters-Collection-Contemporary-Nonfiction/dp/0393350991/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1466858007&sr=8-1&keywords=Brief+Encounters&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=161335387cdb5418f3e98ba3dc551ed2" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0393350991&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0393350991" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=li2&o=1&a=0393326004" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Short-Takes-Encounters-Contemporary-Nonfiction/dp/0393326004/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&dpID=515W3WHCHZL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR104,160_&psc=1&refRID=N1ZFQJR8GD76AB10KM3J&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=793309cb410669d3a6526e98f4da0ddf" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0393326004&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0393326004" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Brief-Short-Takes-Personal/dp/0393319075/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&dpID=51DQMR1NEFL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR105,160_&psc=1&refRID=S347C026NJB9RZ65GF39&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=1d5477605d6f5978e52dbb50cbf08dcc" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0393319075&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0393319075" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Short-Collection-Brief-Creative-Nonfiction/dp/0393314928/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&dpID=51YjRe06prL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR107,160_&psc=1&refRID=ZR7MREGPSNQQ68HY80BP&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=09ecb0f5be08655cf0f76a50d7d6ce48" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0393314928&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0393314928" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<br />
<br />
I also recommend " The Best" Series published each year:<br />
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Best-American-Essays-2015/dp/0544569628/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&dpID=41RSKH3HoWL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR107,160_&psc=1&refRID=Y2NWADSPC80563AWQCNS&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=aea6b726c262f956b73a2f8d78d7fad9" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0544569628&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2015</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Best-American-Essays-2014/dp/0544309901/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&dpID=41XSxweN3zL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR107,160_&psc=1&refRID=CXQ53BVR455CE222BGE0&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=8781ca87461204bc478cff495d58c407" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0544309901&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2014</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
And finally, I offer books that give advice, suggest exercises, and other ways to practice as you grow in essaying. The first I own, the other two are currently on my To Be Read Pile, ready to assist me in my latest journey.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tell-Slant-2nd-Brenda-Miller/dp/0071781773/ref=as_li_ss_il?_encoding=UTF8&me=&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=fbae328fffa30e3ac19863bb77640a64" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0071781773&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0071781773" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Metal-Press-Field-Writing-Nonfiction/dp/0984616667/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&dpID=51U7Yos0eVL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR113,160_&psc=1&refRID=Y2HEHHZPFF0PEDFPP33J&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=f68402b6c67ce9595865535e8ccc6c90" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0984616667&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0984616667" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Far-Edges-Fourth-Genre-Explorations/dp/1611861217/ref=as_li_ss_il?_encoding=UTF8&me=&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=19cdffdc2a942489a472c9c652f14cc3" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1611861217&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=li3&o=1&a=1611861217" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<br />
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<br />
<h3>
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
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<div>
Select a topic to explore in the manner of Montaigne, starting with a title such as On___________.</div>
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<div>
In your writing explore what you know and what you don't know about this topic. What is uncertain or troubling ? Is there a call for change or growth for you or for your community? </div>
<div>
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<div>
What do you discover as you write?</div>
<div>
What questions arise, suggesting further exploration and writing?</div>
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<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Or spend some intentional time attentively observing your surroundings, encounters and conversations as you go about your day. Write an essay about one observation, exploring why this particular observation is important to you.</div>
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</div>
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<div>
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<div>
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<br />
<br />Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-53243312421284633732016-05-23T08:57:00.002-07:002016-06-28T11:04:13.159-07:00 BECOMING ME : LILY AND DUNKIN... AND THE DANISH GIRL<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/BiopolarCoverNIHcrop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/BiopolarCoverNIHcrop.jpg" width="194" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.3px; line-height: 21.28px;"><a href="http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/bipolar-disorder-tr-15-3679/tr-15-3679_152248.pdf">United States National Institute of Health</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
We are all unique.<br />
Although that sounds trite, this is the truth we tell our children and each other.<br />
<br />
<br />
And it is true.<br />
<br />
But it is also true....that some folks are a bit more unique than others, face challenges not faced by most, learn lessons that remain unlearned by many, and have much to teach us all about living.<br />
<br />
A <a href="http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2015E2/Bills/House/PDF/H2v4.pdf">new law in North Carolina </a>has highlighted challenges and prejudices faced by transgender people, bringing them to the front pages of our newspapers, to the nightly news on our television screens, and directly into our dinner conversations.<br />
<br />
This law, which is a solution looking for an imagined problem, discriminates against, and in some ways criminalizes, an entire segment of our society, but also provides opportunities for discussions in which we all may learn, increase our compassion and understanding, and become more truly ourselves.<br />
<br />
I have had several frustrating conversations lately in which people have made definitive statements and bold proclamations regarding transgender people, the new law... and bathrooms, all without the undergirding of facts-- no biological, medical, or other scientific information.<br />
<br />
In so-called religious arguments, there has been no solid biblical, doctrinal, or canonical basis.<br />
<br />
In purported safety and security assertions, there has been no statistical, historical, or incidental evidence.<br />
<br />
In no case was there a specific or personal experiential basis.<br />
<br />
In each of these conversations, perhaps out of fear or benign ignorance, or more sadly, hatred or malice, people simply expressed as their own, the unexamined opinions of someone else.<br />
<br />
In each of these conversations, there was no willingness to critically analyze or explore their own position or other possible views.<br />
<br />
This reminds me of similar conversations in the past when folks denounced <a href="http://amzn.to/1qrznF5">Harry Potter books</a> or <a href="http://amzn.to/1NxcxY2">The Satanic Verses</a>, but hadn't read the books-- or when people were picketing <a href="http://amzn.to/1WD5yiN">The Last Temptation of Christ</a>, but hadn't seen the movie.<br />
<br />
How do you have a conversation in this empty context? How do you have a conversation where there is no information of any kind to examine?<br />
It is impossible.<br />
<br />
As so often happens, books show up when you didn't know that you were looking for them.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0553536745&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0553536745&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a>On the heels of these several discussions, I encountered <a href="http://amzn.to/1qrB5X7">Lily and Dunkin</a> by <a href="http://www.donnagephart.com/">Donna Gephart</a>, a perfect book to enter into these recent frustrating conversations.<br />
<br />
This book offers a fictional, yet realistic slice of two lives lived in the bodies of people struggling to become who they really are.<br />
<br />
In Gephart's thoughtful portrait of Lily, we enter the mind, the heart, and the everyday struggles of a transgender girl as she seeks to become herself, honestly and openly.<br />
<br />
We also enter the challenges of Dunkin, as he struggles with Bipolar Disorder.<br />
<br />
I believe that understanding comes when we are able to look into the eyes and faces of another, when we can walk with them through their lives, when we can listen with open ears and hearts to their desires, hopes, and fears. Books and movies along with personal encounters and interactions, allow us to do this.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://us6.campaign-archive2.com/?u=0bcd62516ffe48a23a1231c56&id=0a25b6e761&e=bedecf5cf7">In a recent blog post, Benedictine Sister, Joan Chittister, reflects</a> on the movie,<a href="http://amzn.to/1WcEc2Z">The Danish Girl</a> which also deals with a transgender journey:<br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px;">A universal call to authenticity for some, it is, at the same time, a call for universal love from those who companion us through any of life’s moments of disjunction and despair.</span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px;">It is everybody’s story at one level. And its ending is meant as a life lesson for us all. The fact is that until we become what we are meant to be, none of us can ever be truly happy.</span></span></blockquote>
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<br />
How do we become who we are? How do allow and support others to become who they are?<br />
How do we answer this universal call to authenticity and compassion?<br />
<br />
We all find ourselves unique in many ways.<br />
<br />
And as you search for additional books that will provide opportunities for honest conversations about differences and our struggles to be who we are, these few may be a place to begin:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Out-My-Mind-Sharon-Draper/dp/1416971718/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1464013542&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=Out+of+muy+mind&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=48232589de57f269b9ab224d8a07384f" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1416971718&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cerebral Palsy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wonder-R-J-Palacio/dp/0375869026/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1464013718&sr=8-1&keywords=Wonder&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=2de7b7d8f3b72b5a316061dfa0954638" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0375869026&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Facial Differences</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/My-Name-Mina-David-Almond/dp/0375873279/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1464013898&sr=8-1&keywords=My+name+is+mina&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=5a32d49f47832c25d59c2ce2df22df02" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0375873279&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eccentric Creativity and Intelligence</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0375869026" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0375873279" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mockingbird-Kathryn-Erskine/dp/0142417750/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1464014361&sr=8-1&keywords=Mockingbird&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=9c7c9afb136bda979522e70f46262df6" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0142417750&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Asberger Syndrome</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/El-Deafo-Cece-Bell/dp/1419712179/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1464014507&sr=8-1&keywords=el+deafo+by+cece+bell&linkCode=li3&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=f8f060dcbdea0064ac7aa54159517f6d" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1419712179&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hearing Differences</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=li3&o=1&a=1419712179" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;"><br /></i> <i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;"><br /></i> <i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;"><br /></i> <i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;"><br /></i> <i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;"><br /></i> <i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;"><br /></i> <i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;"><br /></i> <i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;"><br /></i> <i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;"><br /></i> <i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;"><br /></i> <i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;"><br /></i> <i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;"><br /></i> <i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;"><br /></i> <i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;"><br /></i> <i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;"><br /></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These books and many others which are available help us begin to answer these questions:</span></span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;"><br /></i> <br />
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20.79px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What does it feel like to be different?</span></i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20.79px;"></i><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20.79px;">How do I respond to those who are different?</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20.79px;"></i><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20.79px;">How do I respond to others who mistreat those who are different?</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>How do I become me?</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>How do I support you as you become you? </i></span></blockquote>
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<h3>
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities </h3>
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Because of a new law passed in North Carolina, transgender issues are in the news.</div>
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Read several related news articles and respond in poetry.</div>
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Or you may choose to read and write about an issue in the news that is important to you.</div>
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<span id="goog_547106393"></span><span id="goog_547106394"></span><a href="http://www.rattle.com/">Rattle,</a> one of my favorite poetry journals, has a feature entitled <a href="http://www.rattle.com/respond/">Poets Respond.</a></div>
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You may want to submit your poem for publication.</div>
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<br />Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-25602673676054282212016-01-05T05:30:00.000-08:002016-01-05T15:06:09.186-08:00 WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO?: RESPONDING TO WRITING<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUzawm-yZd7Da8FJKKmR-RGzw0n_2JsfSJOBbO564z6Li-erd0r0ioxjpJHSGt1qpu8bwG6oJewFHC1DWVqckd-olQIzT6w2IAaNoXC4pg7E9AQ3_QPU__V30knA_NAckoNobunXkq-n96/s1600/2200500024_33038620af_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUzawm-yZd7Da8FJKKmR-RGzw0n_2JsfSJOBbO564z6Li-erd0r0ioxjpJHSGt1qpu8bwG6oJewFHC1DWVqckd-olQIzT6w2IAaNoXC4pg7E9AQ3_QPU__V30knA_NAckoNobunXkq-n96/s320/2200500024_33038620af_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/colinkinner/2200500024">by Colln Kinner</a><br />
<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/"> Creative Commons License</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Writing is hard.<br />
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We struggle to make ourselves visible.<br />
We wrestle with memories, experiences, and everyday living.<br />
We heal ourselves, we expose ourselves---and we hide.<br />
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Writing is personal.<br />
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We drain our veins.<br />
The blank page welcomes our greatest joys, our deepest secrets, and our unsuspected fears.<br />
No one else can tell our individual, unique stories.<br />
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Writing is satisfying.<br />
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We silently cheer when we find just the right word.<br />
We sigh with relief and release when it ends.<br />
We grow a bit taller and glow a bit brighter when a reader <i>gets</i> what we are trying to do,<br />
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<b><i>What is the writer trying to do?</i></b><br />
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That becomes the crucial entry point into the writing of another.<br />
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Our first action, if we are sincere about reading and responding in a useful, supportive, and generative way, is to find out what the writer is trying to do.<br />
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<i><b>What is the overarching vision held by this writer for this piece of writing?</b></i><br />
<i><b>What is her intention as she writes?</b></i><br />
<i><b>What comprises her content?</b></i><br />
<i><b>What </b></i><i><b> form or genre</b></i><i><b> is used to present her ideas?</b></i><br />
<i><b>What </b></i><i><b> structure </b></i><i><b>or framework supports and undergirds her work?</b></i><br />
<i><b><br /></b></i> <i><b>What is she trying to do?</b></i><br />
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Ignoring these questions results in feedback that is less than helpful at the very least and dismissive at its worse. In my own experience, responses that do not begin with these questions and honor the answers leaves the writer with little direction for moving forward. <br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>To support us as we ask this crucial question,<a href="https://www.marist.edu/writingcenter/pdfs/respond.pd"> Peter Elbow, in a memo to the Marist College Writing Center on responding to writing,</a> suggests asking students to write a brief piece describing what they as writers are trying to do, where they are is in this process--contextualizing the writing, so that it can be considered in its intended context..<br />
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Therefore if I have to write substantive comment on student papers, I try to ensure that I can do so on the basis of some information from them about “where they are at” with this paper. That is, I ask for a short piece of “process writing” or “writer’s log” or “cover letter” with any major assignment. I ask them to tell me things like: what they see as their main points; the story of how they went about writing and what it was like for them as they were writing; how did they get their ideas; what were some of the choices they made; which parts went well or badly for them; were there any surprises; and above all what questions they have for readers. If it is a revision it’s particularly helpful to ask what changes they made and why. Reading the cover letter usually helps me decide what to say in my comment. Often I can agree with much of what the student has said--sometimes even being more encouraging about the essay than the student was.<i> With process writing, my comment is not the start of a conversation about the writing but the continuation of a conversation that the student started. </i>(Italics added by blog author)</blockquote>
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In concluding <a href="https://www.marist.edu/writingcenter/pdfs/respond.pd">his memo</a>, he explains why this contextualized consideration is important:<br />
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... In my view, these are the things that in the end are least likely to waste our time or cause harm: to get students to want to write; to read what they write with good attention and respect; to show them that we understand what they have written--even the parts where they had trouble getting their meaning across; and respecting them and the dialogue to tell them some of our thoughts on what they are writing about. Surely what writers need most is the experience of being heard and a chance for dialogue.</blockquote>
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If you are new to responding to the writing of students or fellow writing group members, most universities offer practical strategies and principles. A small sampling of what is available includes: <a href="http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/p8_1">The University of Michigan</a>, <a href="http://writingproject.fas.harvard.edu/pages/responding-student-writing">Harvard University</a>, and <a class="" href="http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/writing-groups/responding-to-other-peoples-writing/">The</a><a href="http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/writing-groups/responding-to-other-peoples-writing/"> University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.nwp.org/">The National Writing Project</a> also offers a<a href="http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource_topic/responding_to_writing"> wealth of articles and other resources about responding</a> to writing.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0787998591/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0787998591&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=LHDXG4OQJOMMCJZ2" rel="nofollow" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0787998591&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a>In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0787998591/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0787998591&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=YYSD43UOWMQBNGX7" rel="nofollow">Writing to Learn: Strategies for Assigning and Responding to Writing Across the Disciplines: New Directions for Teaching and Learning, </a>editors Mary Deane Sorcinelli and Peter Elbow offer us a variety of alternative, creative, and sometimes unusual strategies for considering and responding to writing by others.<br />
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<i><b>What is the writer trying to do?</b></i><br />
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<i><b><br /></b></i> As a writer, not asking me this question, or asking me and then ignoring the answer, is a rejection of my work.<br />
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The first publishing company to which I sent my book proposal for <a href="http://www.corwin.com/books/Book237931">Deeper Writing</a>, sent me 30 pages of feedback ( yea!), a lot of it positive and complimentary toward my work (also yea!). Yet, they ignored my intentions-- my answer to the crucial question.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1452229945/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1452229945&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=D42UOWXIF3KEXM4K" rel="nofollow" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1452229945&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1452229945" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> I was writing a book of writing prompts or suggestions. The book assumed the reader/teacher knew how to teach writing, manage writing workshop and so forth. This was clearly stated in the introduction.<br />
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Yet, this company, despite all the positivity, wanted me to write a " how-to" for writing workshop.-- rejection of my intentions and my work.<br />
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What do we do with rejection? <a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/05/rejection-letters.html"> </a><br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/05/rejection-letters.html">In a previous post. Rejection Letters, I considered this related question.</a><br />
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What do we do when what we are trying to do is ignored?<br />
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Corwin, my publisher, on the other hand, asked this question and helped me achieve my intentions.<br />
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<b><i>What is the writer trying to do?</i></b><br />
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<h3>
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
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<i><b>What are you trying to do in your writing?</b></i><br />
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When was the last time someone asked you this question?</div>
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When was the last time this question should have been asked, but was not?</div>
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Write about the effect on your writing and you as a writer.</div>
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<br />Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-74544849715122769512015-12-16T12:04:00.001-08:002015-12-16T12:04:27.708-08:00REVISITING HUMANS OF NEW YORK<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250038820/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1250038820&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=KE6ACLXBN6C6YGXG" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1250038820&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a></div>
<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1250038820" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I have been fascinated by the <a href="http://www.humansofnewyork.com/">Humans of New York (HONY) project</a> s</span>ince its inception in 2010, <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">as documented in my</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/11/humans-of-new-york-photographic-census.html"> previous post: Humans of New York: a Photographic Census</a>. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">There is a new book with expanded stories to accompany images. And now even little ones can join in the HONY project with the recent picture book.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250058902/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1250058902&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=WMDC535BB6R7YPZZ" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1250058902&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374374562/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0374374562&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=X7N3HDNEJPUGI2WM" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0374374562&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0374374562" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I continue to be drawn to the images and accompanying quotes and stories as<a href="http://www.humansofnewyork.com/about"> Brandon Stanton</a> travels our world, providing us with faces to illuminate the complex news stories bombarding us from every direction.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I continue to be provoked to deeper thought about current events and issues as I read brief stories of individuals who are involved, immersed, or impacted by these same events and issues.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Most recently he has shown us<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/syrian-refugee-stories-told-by-humans-of-new-york-2015-12"> the divergent faces of Syrian refugees</a>.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span>
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Not everyone is a fan, however.<br />
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Critics range from appreciating the fact that these photos and stories<a href="https://theconversation.com/humans-of-new-york-isnt-journalism-but-it-helps-us-get-beyond-the-headlines-48403?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest+from+The+Conversation+for+October+8+2015&utm_content=Latest+from+The+Conversation+for+October+8+2015+CID_70434abaf5e658c904c056661fc8b407&utm_source=campaign_monitor_us&utm_term=Humans%20of%20New%20York%20isnt%20journalism%20but%20it%20helps%20us%20get%20beyond%20the%20headlines"> are not journalism, yet are able to take us beyond the headlines, to openly recognizing the pull on our heartstrings</a>, to hard critics who judge them to be mer<a href="http://in%20the%20world%20of%20humans%20of%20new%20york%2C%20however%2C%20humans%20are%20actually%20caricatures.%20the%20people%20stanton%20photographs%20are%20reduced%20to%20whatever%20decontextualized%20sentence%20or%20three%20he%20chooses%20to%20use%20along%20with%20their%20photo.%20and%20so%20the%20nattily%20dressed%20klein%2C%20cigar%20in%20hand%2C%20lectures%20us%20about%20how%20we%20should%20all%20follow%20our%20dreams%2C%20while%20the%20woman%20whose%20photo%20was%20posted%20near%20his%20tells%20us%20that%20she%20wants%20things%20at%20work%2C%20where%20she%27s%20under%20the%20boss%27s%20thumb%2C%20done%20%22my%20way.%22%20but%20both%20photographs%20and%20%22stories%2C%22%20as%20stanton%20calls%20them%2C%20even%20if%20they%20are%20a%20mere%20sentence%2C%20exist%20to%20fulfill%20stereotypes%3B%20the%20evidently%20rich%20fellow%20gets%20to%20brag%20about%20his%20achievements%2C%20the%20nonwhite%20woman%20gets%20to%20complain%20about%20her%20lot%20in%20life./">e caricatures and stereotypes</a>,<a href="http://www.warscapes.com/opinion/sentimentality-critique-humans-new-york"> sentimental</a> and <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/humans-of-new-york-and-the-cavalier-consumption-of-others">shallow</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://in%20the%20world%20of%20humans%20of%20new%20york%2C%20however%2C%20humans%20are%20actually%20caricatures.%20the%20people%20stanton%20photographs%20are%20reduced%20to%20whatever%20decontextualized%20sentence%20or%20three%20he%20chooses%20to%20use%20along%20with%20their%20photo.%20and%20so%20the%20nattily%20dressed%20klein%2C%20cigar%20in%20hand%2C%20lectures%20us%20about%20how%20we%20should%20all%20follow%20our%20dreams%2C%20while%20the%20woman%20whose%20photo%20was%20posted%20near%20his%20tells%20us%20that%20she%20wants%20things%20at%20work%2C%20where%20she%27s%20under%20the%20boss%27s%20thumb%2C%20done%20%22my%20way.%22%20but%20both%20photographs%20and%20%22stories%2C%22%20as%20stanton%20calls%20them%2C%20even%20if%20they%20are%20a%20mere%20sentence%2C%20exist%20to%20fulfill%20stereotypes%3B%20the%20evidently%20rich%20fellow%20gets%20to%20brag%20about%20his%20achievements%2C%20the%20nonwhite%20woman%20gets%20to%20complain%20about%20her%20lot%20in%20life./">In the Problem with Humans of New York, Daniel D'Addario</a> voices his concerns about the decontextualized and stereotypical nature of the presentation:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 16px; line-height: 29px;">In the world of Humans of New York, however, humans are actually caricatures. The people Stanton photographs are reduced to whatever decontextualized sentence or three he chooses to use along with their photo. And so the nattily dressed Klein, cigar in hand, lectures us about how we should all follow our dreams, while the woman whose photo was posted near his tells us that she wants things at work, where she's under the boss's thumb, done "my way." </span><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; font-size: 16px; line-height: 29px;">But both photographs and "stories," as Stanton calls them, even if they are a mere sentence, exist to fulfill stereotypes; the evidently rich fellow gets to brag about his achievements, the nonwhite woman gets to complain about her lot in life.</span></span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> <a href="http://www.warscapes.com/opinion/sentimentality-critique-humans-new-york">Melissa Smyth, in Sentimentality: a Critique of Humans of New York</a> attacks the curated lens of sentimentality through which we are invited to view these images:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 15.4px; line-height: 23.1px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sentimentality offers an escape from the difficult conclusions that must come from honest scrutiny of social reality in the United States. In today’s media landscape, photographs most viscerally ferry this indolence, for the nature of the medium facilitates sentiment’s purpose: to obscure the operative social structures with cloying cases of the individual.... </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 15.4px; line-height: 23.1px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The problem with sentimentality here is not the infusion of emotion into a political issue; on the contrary, it is the funneling of emotion into mute forms, preventing the marriage of thought and feeling that produces the most concentrated social action.</span></blockquote>
<br />
<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/humans-of-new-york-and-the-cavalier-consumption-of-others">In Humans of New York and the Cavilier Consumption of Others, Vinson Cunningham</a> tackles the shallowness in intent and in ramifications of HONY when juxtaposed to photgraphic documentary projects of the past, as well as questioning our uncritical consumption of the images..<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 28px;">By comparison, [ to the well-known work of Jacob Riis, James Agee, Walker Evans, and Gordan Park] “Stories” betrays shallow notions of truth (achievable by dialogic cut-and-paste) and egalitarianism. Both come too easily. Instead of the difference acknowledged by Caldwell and Bourke-White’s </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">You</em><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 28px;"> and </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Their</em><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 28px;">, Stanton’s all-encompassing title implies a vague, flattening humanism, too quick to forget the barriers erected—even here, and now, in New York—against real equality...</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 28px;"></span></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The quick and cavalier consumption of others has something to do with Facebook, Humans of New York’s native and most comfortable medium. The humans in Stanton’s photos—just like the most photogenic and happy-seeming and apparently knowable humans in your timeline...</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1501125834/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1501125834&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=IRZCOUUAPGUTK7TD" rel="nofollow" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1501125834&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a>And then there are the humorous parodies and mocking satires. Is imitation always flattery or does it call us to look with a more critical eye? Are we to laugh or take a social stance?<br />
<br />
Things worth appeciating or criticizing often become food for our humor.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://observer.com/2015/10/the-9-best-humans-of-new-york-parodies-you-should-be-following/">Several websites mimic or mock HONY</a>, including: <a href="http://felinesofnewyork.com/">Felines of New York</a> and <a href="http://observer.com/2015/08/these-humor-writers-are-perfecting-satire-with-millennials-of-new-york/">Millennials of New York</a>.<br />
<br />
Regardless of where we stand, however, on the concerns and cricitisms of HONY, we can't help but recognize its widespread reach and influence.<br />
<br />
We can't look away from the images and we can't erase the lingering shadows of the images and thoughts long after we have left the site or closed the book.<br />
<br />
Even our president looks in from time to time comments on stories that touch his heart, like a <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/09/04/437497182/obama-posts-personal-comment-on-humans-of-new-york-photo-of-iranian-father-and-">photo of a Iranian father and his son</a>, or <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/02/05/streets-brownsville-brooklyn-oval-office"> a image of a principal and student from a Bronx school whom he later invited to the White house.</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<div>
Most recently,<a href="http://www.ktvu.com/news/56718516-story"> he has responded to a post about a Syrian refugee, welcoming him to Michigan and the United States.</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Humans of the New York<br />
<br />
Humans of our World.<br />
<br />
What is your response to this project, this phenomenom?<br />
<br />
<h3>
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Visit the Humans of New York website and read several articles about the project shared above.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Create a list of positive and negative aspects and features.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Write a review praising the site and project.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Write a second reviewthat is critical of the site and project.</div>
</div>
Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-16963990990916091062015-11-18T09:20:00.000-08:002015-11-18T09:20:22.218-08:00BAD NEWS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://profit.bsa.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/bad-news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://profit.bsa.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/bad-news.jpg" height="199" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<br />
<div class="quoteText" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px 5px 10px 0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
“No one loves the messenger who brings bad news.”</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
― <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1002.Sophocles" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;">Sophocles</a>, <span id="quote_book_link_7728"><i><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1052210" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;">Antigone</a></i></span></div>
</div>
<br />
<br />
The news is bad.<br />
<br />
How do you tell it?<br />
<br />
Do you jump right in, bluntly speaking words that will bring tears or utterly crush?<br />
<br />
Do you arrange a supportive environment, preface the hard-to-bear news with soft words, serve a meal, perhaps offer a drink-- all preparatory measures designed to delay or soften the blow of hard words?<br />
<br />
<br />
Do you muse for days, planning a speech, arranging your body to tell the news, while indicating support with your eyes, your face, you hands? How do you fix your eyes to share disappointments? How do you pose your face to say<i> I know, I know, I know </i>as you bring down the hammer? What should your hands do to show <i>I got you.</i><br />
<i><br /></i> <i><br /></i> Do you write and rewrite the email in your head? Do you write seven drafts, deleting and starting over, each time striving to achieve the desired effect?<br />
<i><br /></i> The last time it was my turn to deal the doom, I was physically sick and emotionally distraught for two weeks. I alternatively denied, delayed, and thought about how to dilute the news.<br />
How could I completely avoid this task?<br />
<br />
As much as we agonize about the time, the place, and the words, the bad news has to be told.<br />
<br />
In the medical world where bad news must be routinely delivered, it is still not easy. Examples of extensive and complex medical protocols for sharing bad news can be considered <a href="http://theoncologist.alphamedpress.org/content/5/4/302.full">here </a>and <a href="http://www.aafp.org/afp/2001/1215/p1975.html">here</a> and <a href="http://www.ama-assn.org/ethic/epec/download/module_2.pdf">here</a>.<br />
<br />
The business world also plays by preordained rules for sharing bad news. See more on delivering bad news at work<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2012/05/30/10-commandments-for-delivering-bad-news/"> here</a>.<br />
<br />
But who wants to hear bad news?<br />
Not only is it hard to deliver bad news. It is equally difficult to be on the receiving end.<br />
<br />
We all remember the Wicked Witch in the Wiz and her enthusiastic rendition of <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQT-QFy5Nig">Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News</a></i><br />
.<br />
Often times, we have no warning. We don't believe what our ears have taken in. Our hearts sink and we try to return to the moment before the words were delivered.<br />
<br />
But other times there are signs.<br />
And we all we know the signs.<br />
<br />
The friend who won't look us in the eye.<br />
The conversation that comes to a halt when we enter the room or the whispers that we can't quite hear.<br />
The phone ringing late -- never good.<br />
<br />
Certain phrases put our ears and our hearts on instant alert.<br />
We hear the ritual opening words on tell-all talk shows:<br />
<br />
<i>You know I love you, but...</i><br />
<i><br /></i> <i>I don't want to hurt you, however...</i><br />
<i><br /></i> <i>I know you don't want to hear this...</i><br />
<i><br /></i> What follows these words is never good. It is usually devastating at worst and disconcerting at the very least.<br />
We brace ourselves to hear, yet not wanting the words to be uttered.<br />
<br />
Like my reaction to delivering bad news, the moment we realize the next words we hear are not going to be pleasant, we may have a physical reaction as our bodies prepare to support and guard our hearts.<br />
<br />
<br />
Sometimes we manage to find a drop of blessing in a downpour of negative news.<br />
<br />
<i>The news was bad, but there was this one good part</i>.<br />
<br />
<i>This is the bad news, but the good news is....</i><br />
<i><br /></i> These books for children highlight this conflicting reality.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1452101108/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1452101108&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=S5IAZIHT7V7GZY3U" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1452101108&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1452101108" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0689716605/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0689716605&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=DTCE2AY23Y5IVH27" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0689716605&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0689716605" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062224085/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0062224085&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=5CCEIXPDIBYYY54A" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0062224085&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0062224085" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<br />
<br />
<br />
And finally, as we think about all the bad news scenarios, it is crucial to make certain that the news we are delivering is accurate.<br />
<br />
We all remember Chicken Little (sometimes known as Henny Penny) and her the bad news-- her untrue news--that the sky was falling. She not only passed on this news to her friends and neighbors, but enlisted them to help her tell more folks.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0688070450/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0688070450&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=N5RRIHGH6ALCNRL6" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0688070450&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0688070450" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0899192254/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0899192254&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=VH4STM3CEDZM44R4" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0899192254&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0899192254" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<br />
<br />
I will never forget my embarrassment on the day I posted on Facebook (from a reliable source) that Nelson Mandala had died... more than a year before his actual death.<br />
I was not alone in passing on this premature, erroneous news. But that does not excuse my error.<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/06/facebook-faux-pas.html">Read the blog post about my Facebook error and other news media and social media errors</a><br />
<br />
<br />
We all receive bad news and often times must be the bearer of such news.<br />
How do we deliver unwelcome news?<br />
How do we receive it?<br />
<br />
I leave you with the final lines from <a href="http://ivonprefontaine.com/2012/10/12/it-is-i-who-must-begin-vaclav-havel/"> It Is I Who Must Begin by Vaclov Haved</a> offering a helpful perspective toward our unwelcome news and resulting situations:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px; text-align: center;"><i>...I suddenly discover,</i></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><i>to my surprise, that</i></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><i>I am neither the only one,</i></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><i>nor the first,</i></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><i>nor the most important one</i></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><i>to have set out upon the road.</i></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><i>Whether all is really lost</i></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><i>or not depends entirely on</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #121212; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px; text-align: center;"><i>whether or not I am lost.</i></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Reflect on the last time you were the bearer of bad news</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
How did you prepare?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
When did you last receive unwelcome news?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
How did you respond?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Wrtie a protocol or guide for others to deliver or respond to bad new.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Write an essay on the effects of bad news.</div>
Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-90424742472381678552015-10-29T12:15:00.000-07:002017-05-23T12:17:41.102-07:00BLACK LIVES MATTER...TOO: LETS TALK<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhySumWj1JXn4-e7fS3M-nmVE0kGX5jvBQg9gZJfNDNwHyFwqFOfpSu8mwUQt9Js86A4q7S7XyRuf5ewpuruspkVoARsbRGn-sdkJUhlElAwjnMzMAi0rf2kFR9hGMbGYW5xD7UZFDEmE4r/s1600/MyCloud.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhySumWj1JXn4-e7fS3M-nmVE0kGX5jvBQg9gZJfNDNwHyFwqFOfpSu8mwUQt9Js86A4q7S7XyRuf5ewpuruspkVoARsbRGn-sdkJUhlElAwjnMzMAi0rf2kFR9hGMbGYW5xD7UZFDEmE4r/s320/MyCloud.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>I</b><br />
<b>A Statement</b><br />
<br />
<i>Black lives matter.</i><br />
<br />
It happened again<br />
and again yesterday<br />
and still yet again today.<br />
<br />
<i>All lives matter</i> was the retort<br />
ignoring<br />
canceling<br />
the first statement<br />
speaking from a stance<br />
of moral certainty<br />
of statistical, historical, and societal privilege<br />
assuming the right<br />
to change, not just the topic<br />
but the entire conversation<br />
and in the process<br />
missing the message<br />
losing the focus<br />
diluting<br />
denying<br />
deleting<br />
the critical point.<br />
<br />
<i>Black lives matter.</i><br />
<br />
When the conversation gets changed<br />
Black lives get lost<br />
forgotten<br />
amidst the politically correct<br />
pretense of equity and inclusivity<br />
of <i>all </i>concerns<br />
that swallows the specificity<br />
of this one concern<br />
and deliberately<br />
systematically<br />
systemically<br />
eliminates<br />
Black bodies<br />
and lives.<br />
<br />
No one denies that All Lives Matter.<br />
We just want Black Lives to be included in All... always)<br />
<br />
Black lives matter<br />
not instead of but<br />
in addition to.<br />
<br />
Black lives matter... too.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>II</b><br />
<b>A Question</b><br />
<br />
In your classroom all of your students matter. They all have individual and specific needs. Together they also have general and collective needs.<br />
<br />
But for the past four days, one student has been coming late, hungry, dirtier than normal, without her homework. Once in the classroom, she is unable to concentrate, sits and rocks, mumbles to herself, and cries often. On day four you notice bruises and swelling on her face and arms. She flinches when you walk toward her.<br />
<br />
All of your students matter, but right now this is a crisis. This student matters.<br />
<br />
What do you do?<br />
<br />
Do you ignore this singular, elevating, obvious crisis and keep insisting that all students matter?<br />
<br />
Or do you address the immediate concern at hand and acknowledge that this student matters right this minute?<br />
<br />
What do you do?<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>III</b><br />
<b> A Conversation?</b><br />
<b><br /></b> Black lives matter.<br />
<br />
No, All lives matter.<br />
<br />
But black lives matter, too.<br />
<br />
We need to talk.<br />
<br />
We really need to talk.<br />
<br />
So, let's talk.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>IV</b><br />
<b>Resources For the Conversation</b><br />
<b><br /></b> Let's talk, indeed.<br />
There are lots of places we can begin our conversations.<br />
We can simply tell our own stories.<br />
We can listen to each others' stories respectfully and deeply in order to hear and learn and digest.<br />
<br />
<i>How do our stories differ?</i><br />
<i>Where do they intersect and connect?</i><br />
<i>What does the space where our stories meet signify?</i><br />
<br />
Depending on who you are, who you know, and where you live, you may not know about or understand the experiences of people of color in general and African Americans specifically, that have led to a nationwide discussion about black lives and reopened a conversation that should have been ongoing. You may know only about the many police killings, but not much about daily life experiences.<br />
<br />
Two recent and excellent books offer perfect places to begin our consideration of<i> daily-walking- around-driving around-wanting- to- just- live-our-lives</i> lives of black folks.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1555976905/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1555976905&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=V4JW245CMINVHAZM" rel="nofollow" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1555976905&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1555976905/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1555976905&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=V4JW245CMINVHAZM" rel="nofollow">Citizen: An American Lyric</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1555976905" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, Claudia Rankine offers us glimpses into her own daily life and that of<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1555976905" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> others in the public eye, including Serena Williams. In an<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2015/01/an-american-lyric-claudia-rankine.html"> earlier blog post about this book I wrote</a>:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;">Her poems/prose call us to look again and again at isolated incidents, that taken one by one might be hurtful or dismissive or disrespectful, but because of their familiarity, perhaps not given a second thought.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;">Her poems/prose hold up a magnifying glass to those encounters that we have experienced, yet not truly registered and processed fully because they happen every day.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;">What happens if we pile them all together creating a landscape we can't escape?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;">Incident after incident, comment after comment.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;">The powerful subtleties and toxicities of living black in America-- every day</span></blockquote>
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2015/01/an-american-lyric-claudia-rankine.html"> Read the entire post, An American Lyric:Claudia Rankine here</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812993543/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0812993543&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=ACFHGZ37E3HS2ZY2" rel="nofollow" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0812993543&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a>Ta-nehisi Coates offers in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812993543/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0812993543&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=ACFHGZ37E3HS2ZY2" rel="nofollow">Between the World and Me</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0812993543" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, an opportunity <img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0812993543" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> to also consider the experience of inhabiting a black body in this world, as he writes a letter to his son explaining and exploring how he came to understand his person. place, purpose, as well as ways forward.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679749861/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0679749861&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=FJH3PNYGLXKLNDOO" rel="nofollow" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0679749861&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a>And in eight thought-provoking essays, Cornell West addresses<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0679749861" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> controversial and relevant issues concerning race in America in his now classic <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679749861/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0679749861&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=FJH3PNYGLXKLNDOO" rel="nofollow">Race Matters</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0679749861" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhMmnO7xVXC5Fk_MPF-021yFBBNyb8F_u89HsLJ8NXjLKEe6_wyQAy1OYQl-h5e2A9kUPCyxOaTQHjs-RoFVnoB-jXguuy__46MXUcNULdWyNg6BdrXhxhWr-8cBUpFR1ZpUN7378Ur-yXPuo6bV4kLvZramzPF8mgq0cvC6efRubalijsBCpmV4wqf9LppyzVDLdwqglO3RRcvXtRqy4Fs4yk5hs6bF9NGmGprDHQidKqpJo6r6fGr_tjMGD1CXoAOzBPBJzgFVccGVXw3UeB8C_7vqSLdyRO5BfF2_U1HYwGhN_zLZbIx=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0064462269&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a>Julius Lester offers many suggestions for possible conversations for both children and adults in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0064462269/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0064462269&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=2N3JT3BBMK7QF6XI" rel="nofollow">Let's Talk About Race</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0064462269" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0064462269/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0064462269&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=2N3JT3BBMK7QF6XI" rel="nofollow" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0064462269" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></a></div>
<br />
History will enter your conversations. Here are several resources to help remind you of the history you know, as well as inform and correct the misconceptions you may have been taught or the events and concepts you were not taught at all.<br />
<br />
<br />
In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061730793/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0061730793&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=VZA4VVJTH4YFQUHP" rel="nofollow">Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0061730793" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, Kadir Nelson presents a powerful view of both our proudest and most shameful moments in history along with his characteristic illustrations.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061730793/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0061730793&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=2K2ZTE2BCH4RUA32" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0061730793&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a></div>
<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0061730793" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<br />
Additional books, online resources, and conversation suggestions are listed in these previous blog posts:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/02/i-too-am-america-thereare-seven-days.html"> I,Too, Am America </a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2014/08/open-season-on-black-men.html">Open Season on Black Men</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<b> And Few Final Items for Consideration in your Conversations and Dialogues: </b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.rethinkingschools.org/ProdDetails.asp?ID=RTSVOL29N1&gclid=CjwKEAjwyqOwBRDZuIO4p5SV8w0SJAAQoUSw-kKIMo5djehx5tyg4yY3x_yzYvDjQ3JXLq5oaqgedRoCCA7w_wcB">Teaching in Black and White -Rethinking Schools- Fall 2014</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/open-letter-dialogue-race-and-poetry">Open Letter:A Dialogue on Race and Poetry</a>. by Claudia Rankine<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.rethinkingschools.org/restrict.asp?path=archive/15_01/Emmu151.shtml">Embracing Cross-Racial Dialogue</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://thisibelieve.org/essay/14142/">Invitation to Dialogue.</a> This I believe essay.<br />
<br />
<div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0891062750/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0891062750&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=6SWQ2UCHGCHBQKU3" rel="nofollow">What If?: Short Stories to Spark Diversity Dialogue</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0891062750" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
</div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0891062750/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0891062750&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=6SWQ2UCHGCHBQKU3" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0891062750&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0891062750" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What if we all begin to talk?<br />
What if we begin now?<br />
How many lives could that save?<br />
What kind of future would we create?<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Write a poem about race. Explore several perspectives in your poem.</div>
<div>
What did you learn about yourself? What did you learn about others?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Write a dialogue about race-related events or #Black Lives Matter. It may be an actual conversation or speculative.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Write a personal narrative about a time race was a factor or made a difference in your life.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Share your writing with someone as a way of starting a conversation.</div>
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<br />
<i><br /></i> <i>The Real Teachers of..... Insert a City.</i><br />
The music begins. Seven teachers-- five women and two men-- theatrically pose holding stereotypic teacher items-- an apple, a ruler, a plan book, a red pen. They boldly state their taglines.<br />
<br />
<i>I don't just teach... I reach.</i><br />
<i><br /></i> <i>I can grade with the best of them.</i><br />
<i><br /></i> <i>I am more than a textbook.</i><br />
<i><br /></i> <i>I am not your grandfather's schoolmaster.</i><br />
<br />
And so on ...<br />
<br />
More music...transition to commercial.<br />
<br />
It hasn't happened yet, but we can all imagine the opening of the first reality show about teachers.<br />
<br />
Reality shows thrive because we are nosy-- interested in prying into the private lives of people we haven't met, or those we have seen in the news or on our favorite program. We feast on vicariously experiencing new lives, and seeing what other people say and do when out of the spotlight or precisely because they are in the spotlight. Teachers are not exempt from this curiosity.<br />
<br />
I can imagine the above opening scenario becoming a reality soon.<br />
<br />
Teacher.<br />
<br />
When you think of <i>teacher,</i> what images do you conjure?<br />
<br />
Perhaps the older woman with glasses on her nose and hair in a bun, a pencil sitting behind her ear and a sweater buttoned at her throat over pearls, in front of rows of desks explaining the rules of grammar.<br />
<br />
Or maybe a young woman with her back to you, writing on the blackboard ( when educational note boards were not yet green, and definitely not white) demonstrating how to solve an equation.<br />
<br />
Do you imagine an older man in a tweed jacket and mustache slowly reading poetry that you don't understand, but something about the way he reads makes you desperately want to understand?<br />
<br />
Teacher.<br />
<br />
Whoever your real teacher is, you probably imagined her or him in the classroom, actively teaching.<br />
<br />
And if you are not a teacher, I bet you have said or heard someone say that they <i>could be a </i><i>teacher...</i> <i>do what a teacher does</i>...<i> </i><br />
<br />
Of course, they could not do what a teacher does any more than they could do what a doctor does.<br />
<br />
If we are truly honest with ourselves and each other, we would recognize the complex space that is the classroom-- the layers of interactions, the cultures colliding, the multifaceted decisions made instantaneously, the wealth of knowledge and information held collectively in that space and all the learning facilitated by the real teacher.<br />
<br />
If we look carefully we would acknowledge and honor the complicated, messy world that is the reality of every real teacher.<br />
<br />
And rightfully so.<br />
<br />
But rarely do we picture real teachers <i>outside </i>their place of work, that space where they work their magic (and intelligence and craft and science and art and skill.)<br />
<br />
Shelves of books document what teachers do in classrooms. Short snippets of classroom life are routinely offered, along with lessons learned and more lessons to be taught. Longer portraits are collected of that life over time, some captured by observers, researchers, journalists, or by the teacher herself.<br />
<br />
My own shelves are stacked with these books.<br />
<br />
But who is the real teacher that we think we know so well?<br />
Who is she before she gets up in the morning, eats breakfast, drinks coffee, kisses her husband, pats her dog, and drives to work? Who is he before he went to bed last night, before he helped his special-needs son with homework, before he washed dishes or prepared the evening meal?<br />
<br />
What was her childhood like? How did he grow up?<br />
<br />
What do you really know about your teacher-- the one you conjure at the mention of the word teacher, the one who lives next door to you, the one on the news last night?<br />
<br />
How did your real teacher become a teacher and why? What path led them to enter that amply documented classroom space?<br />
<br />
Who served as examples, inspirations, and mentors?<br />
Who were detractors? What hindrances were encountered?<br />
What places offered reflective retreat?<br />
<br />
Which recurring themes wove through their lives before arriving at the classroom door?<br />
What patterns emerged that converged in that place?<br />
<br />
Those are the stories in which I am interested.<br />
Those are the realities that I want to know about.<br />
I am fascinated with the <i>becoming and the being</i> that happened before the doing, that still ever undergird and surround the doing in that classroom, <a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2015/09/teaching-learning-knowing-always.html"> See related blog post: Teaching, Learning, Knowing: Always Becoming a Teacher.</a><br />
<br />
In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743243781/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0743243781&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=KZDHVYJI7BX6NBNC">Teacher Man: A Memoir</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0743243781" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, Frank McCourt brings his classic dark humor to the difficulties, discoveries, and dignity of his high school classroom as he reflects on the mismatch between expectations and what we actually find on that anticipated first day:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743243781/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0743243781&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=KZDHVYJI7BX6NBNC" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0743243781&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a>You think you'll walk into the classroom, stand a moment, wait for silence, watch while they open notebooks and click pens, tell them your name, write it on the board, proceed<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0743243781" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
to teach... Principals and other figures of authority passing in the hallway will hear sounds of excitement from your room. They'll peer through the door window in wonder at all the raised hands, the eagerness and excitement on the faces of these boys and girls...You'll be nominated for awards: Teacher of the Year, Teacher of the Century. You'll be invited to Washington. Eisenhower will shake your hand. Newspapers will ask you, a mere teacher for you opinion on education. This will be big news: A teacher asked for his opinion on education. Wow. You'll be on television.</blockquote>
<br />
And fortunately for us, if we want to know this real teacher<i> </i>outside of his classroom, as well as how he became the teacher who entered that classroom, we can read the first two books in this memoir trilogy.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/068484267X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=068484267X&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=UCPAIMSRGKYR6ZHG"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=068484267X&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=068484267X" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684865742/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0684865742&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=PZ722DFGZXJRSAI3"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0684865742&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0684865742" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<br />
For shorter excerpts of teachers' lives, how they became and why they remain teachers, I offer Sonia Nieto's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807745936/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0807745936&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=XV7XW5X4WXC2KBMT">Why We Teach</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0807745936" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />.<br />
<br />
In one of the essays, <i>Teaching Outside the Lines</i>, Elaine Stinson reflects on her early years in school<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807745936/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0807745936&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=XV7XW5X4WXC2KBMT" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0807745936&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a>"I hate school!" I often would lamented as a student.... The divide between my home life <img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0807745936" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
and my experiences at school was made wider becasue I was too shy to initiate friendships. My teachers did not come to my aid and I can only conclude that they were uanware of the social challenges I encountered as a 6-year-old. They lacked knowledge about my home life and how it contributed to my experience as a learner. ....</blockquote>
<br />
She goes on to describe the reading groups (with obvious levels like bluebirds and robins where everyone knew who was the smartest) and history lessons endured in which all the answers were given and no questions invited.<br />
<br />
Her early experiences shaped the teacher she became and determined the practice in which she later engaged.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Perhaps teaching is my way of providing something that was missing in my own experience as a student. I've found that meaningful learning happens through meaningful interactions whether it's with peers, teachers, music, authors, or poets, or through nature. When children feel liked and accepted for who they are, they are more willing to open up and share their ideas, ... As a teacher I have learned that unpacking the "facts with a community of unique and critical eyes is essential to engaging learners and allowing learning to unfold.</blockquote>
<br />
And fortunately, as with Frank McCourt, we are able to read how this important conversation about teachers' lives began and continues in other collections edited by Nieto,<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807743119/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0807743119&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=JCI3GZVG5762JBNT"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0807743119&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807755877/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0807755877&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=YMZ3K6ZZPJI36FUQ"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0807755877&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><br />
<br />
While McCourt offers us a narrated life and Nieto offers many essayed lives, William Ayers offer his life in comics.<br />
<br />
In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080775062X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=080775062X&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=CXJXQLGQ7Y6QY4T6">To Teach: The Journey, in Comics</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=080775062X" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, he challenges us to think about how we define teacher:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080775062X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=080775062X&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=CXJXQLGQ7Y6QY4T6" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=080775062X&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a>To name oneself as a teacher is to live with one foot in the muck of the world as we find it-- with its conventional patterns and received wisdom-- and the other foot striding<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=080775062X" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
toward a world that could be but isn't yet. <br />
Even the most commiteed caring teachers will make mistakes along the way but they won't be disastrous. Teaching at is best is not a matter of technique-- its primarily an act of love... Welcome to the classroom where instruction jumps off the page and overflows with love.... Welcome to learning as an act of construction and reconstruction. </blockquote>
<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0807755877" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807750638/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0807750638&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=PLYA5OWPD5U4APJY" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0807750638&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0807750638" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> If comics are not your thing, Ayers narrates his story, the same story in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807750638/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0807750638&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=PLYA5OWPD5U4APJY">To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Who is the person who names herself a teacher?<br />
<br />
<br />
As we ponder that question, as we search for the real teacher, the whole teacher, the one who enters the classroom, Parker Palmer, in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0787996866/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0787996866&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=E63DDJII4Z73NGWA">The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life,</a> continues to help us seek not answers, but better questions and understanding.<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0787996866/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0787996866&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=E63DDJII4Z73NGWA" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0787996866&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">I was exploring the inner landscape of this teacher’s life, hoping to clarify the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual dynamics that form or deform our<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0787996866" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
work from the inside out. I wanted to find ways to deepen the self-understanding and thus the practice of anyone who cares about teaching as much as I do. </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">In the midst of a culture that devalues the inner life, I hoped to do more than make the case that good teachers must live examined lives and try to understand what animates their actions for better and for worse</span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Who is she who enters the classroom?<br />
Who is the one who names himself teacher?<br />
Who is the real teacher?<br />
<br />
<h3>
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
<div>
If you are a teacher, consider your story or select portions of your story to examine.</div>
<div>
How did you enter the profession? Did you always feel called or come to it later in life?<br />
Who were your mentors and supporters, your detractors and stumbling blocks?<br />
<br />
What patterns and themes emerge as you reflect on your journey?<br />
<br />
Write your story. Include memories, journal entries, poems, letters, as well as quotes that have informed and transformed your life and ultimately led you to the classroom door.<br />
<br />
If you are not a teacher, find a teacher to interview, asking some of the above questions.<br />
<br />
Write a letter to that teacher about what you have learned and discovered.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-16306307415365795132015-09-27T15:14:00.000-07:002015-09-27T15:14:51.831-07:00TEACHING, LEARNING, KNOWING: ALWAYS BECOMING A TEACHER<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQl7PEiNo52L_dz-VlJ12Xugtb7UhuLE-MDUkjHHkFAz2UUZKSbZLOz9K-WZ-Gj2mVsYVF-JhjqFm04lRylxu3Q5JCwV8hnqxlN0_XQ1XgQg-lD3zc2toR9q2Z5SC2MKSIeNBQ3dkJDvS5/s1600/Teacher-Learner.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQl7PEiNo52L_dz-VlJ12Xugtb7UhuLE-MDUkjHHkFAz2UUZKSbZLOz9K-WZ-Gj2mVsYVF-JhjqFm04lRylxu3Q5JCwV8hnqxlN0_XQ1XgQg-lD3zc2toR9q2Z5SC2MKSIeNBQ3dkJDvS5/s320/Teacher-Learner.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #f3f5f6; color: #212124; font-family: 'Proxima Nova', 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 600; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Musings of a dark overlord: Leveraging 21st-century education with open source</span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/"><span style="background-color: #f3f5f6; color: #212124; font-family: 'Proxima Nova', 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;">Created by </span><span style="color: #006dac; font-family: Proxima Nova, helvetica neue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f3f5f6; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; text-align: start; transition-delay: initial; transition-duration: 150ms; transition-property: color;">Libby Levi</span></span><span style="background-color: #f3f5f6; color: #212124; font-family: 'Proxima Nova', 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;"> for opensource.com</span></a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I know.<br />
<br />
I know what I know.<br />
<br />
The question is how.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
My niece is beginning her first year as an intervention specialist in the district from which I retired.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
What does she know and how did she come to know?<br />
How will she come to know more and/or differently?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As we enter the teaching landscape, we enter ongoing conversations.<br />
<br />
Conversations about the nature of teaching, the qualities of great teaching, the role of education in our lives as learners, as teachers-- conversations that identify and name<i> what </i>we do.</div>
<div>
Conversations that attempt to explain <i>how</i> we do what we do and <i>why</i>. <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Conversations about <i>how we came to be</i> the people who do what we do. </span>Ongoing conversations</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
For more about the ongoing conversations and the changing nature of our participation in those conversations, see these previous blog posts:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2014/05/teachers-as-intellectuals-entering.html">Teachers as Intellectuals: Entering the Conversation.</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/08/i-used-to-thinkbut-now-i-think.html">I used to think... But now I think</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
How do we archive <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">what we know, have experienced, and remember?</span></div>
<div>
And who interprets the validity of the same?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As teachers, we enter the classrooms, as composites of all we have seen, heard, experienced, learned, and read.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
These words, retweeted, shared and<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/776207-you-are-the-books-you-read-the-films-you-watch"> quoted</a> on a number of social media sites capture this notion:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span data-reactid=".0.1.0.0.0.2.1.0.0.1" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span data-reactid=".0.1.0.0.0.2.1.0.0.1.$text0:0:$end:0" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"You are the books you read, the films you watch, the music you listen to, the people you meet, the dreams you have, the conversations you engage in. You are what you take from these. You are the sound of the ocean, the breath of fresh air, the brightest light and the darkest corner.</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span data-reactid=".0.1.0.0.0.2.1.0.0.1" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br data-reactid=".0.1.0.0.0.2.1.0.0.1.$newline3:0" /></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span data-reactid=".0.1.0.0.0.2.1.0.0.1" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span data-reactid=".0.1.0.0.0.2.1.0.0.1.$text4:0:$end:0" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">You are a collective of every experience you have had in your life. You are every single second of every single day, so drown yourself in a sea of knowledge and existence. Let the words run through your veins and let the colours fill your mind." -Jac Vanek</span></span></span></span></blockquote>
</div>
<div>
<br />
Sometimes our personal curriculum collage -our individual hodge-podge of learning--the how we came to know what we know-- conflicts with how others think we should have learned.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.burkinsandyaris.com/six-ways-to-start-the-school-year-back-to-school-stories-from-great-books/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BurkinsYaris+%28Burkins+%26+Yaris%29">Burkins and Yaris</a> illustrate this as they discuss how Scout learned to read and write in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060935464/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0060935464&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=4P7NYGMMYDRKC5IY">To Kill a Mockingbird</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0060935464" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060935464/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0060935464&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=4P7NYGMMYDRKC5IY" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0060935464&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" height="320" width="211" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">In chapter 2 of </span><i style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">To Kill a Mockingbird</i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">–a classic text, ...</span><i style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">–</i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">Scout begins first grade and meets Miss<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0060935464" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
Caroline who “accuses” her of being taught to learn to read at home and tells her to tell her father to stop teaching her lest it “interfere with her reading.” Scout is appalled by Miss Caroline’s suggestion that her father “taught” her anything and begins to think back on how she began to read. To add further insult to injury, Miss Caroline also discovers that Scout can write–in cursive–a skill that she learned from her housekeeper, Calpurnia. Scout quickly learns from Miss Caroline that “we don’t write in first grade, we print. You won’t learn to write until you’re in the third grade.”</span></span></blockquote>
Burkins and Yaris go on to urge teachers to listen to their students and meet them for learning/teaching where they are rather than where the curriculum dictates.<br />
<br />
What do our early experiences look like when we pull them out of our past to examine in our present?</div>
<div>
What if we learn new names and theories for what we have experienced and had named otherwise earlier? Does that change the original experience?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We encounter ideas, concepts and theories as we learn, as we teach--- we are <i>always</i> becoming ourselves. We are <i>always</i> becoming teachers.<br />
<br />
We are a constantly changing amalgam of all we have consciously chosen to accept and make our own, to revise, to renegotiate, or to reject altogether.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Cochran-Smith and Lytle conceptualize teacher knowledge in three ways that may be helpful here.</div>
<div>
<br />
<ul>
<li><i>Knowledge for Practice</i> is that formal knowledge generated by researchers, the big thinking that becomes theories of teaching and learning. <i>What have researchers and theorists said?</i></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807749702/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0807749702&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=RKRIXULJVOIKMPLT" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0807749702&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a>
<li><i>Knowledge in Practice</i> is that practical knowledge resulting from our time, experience, and reflection in our own classrooms. <i>What have I learned as I have taught and reflected on that experience?</i></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><i>Knowledge of Practice </i>is that learning we gain from intentional inquiry into our own classrooms, our own<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0807749702" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> practice, our own thinking. Our own classrooms become sites of interrogation and investigation. <i>What are the implications and applications of my knowledge and practice? How can I build on my own thinking? What new thinking can I generate from the body of theories that other researchers have generated? How can I interrogate all of this?</i></li>
</ul>
<br />
For more from Cochran-Smith and Lytle on these three kinds of knowledge see:<br />
<a href="http://rre.sagepub.com/content/24/1/249" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit;">Chapter 8: Relationships of Knowledge and Practice: Teacher Learning in Communities</a><br />
<a href="http://rre.sagepub.com/content/24/1/249"> <abbr class="slug-jnl-abbrev" style="background-color: white; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #333300; font-family: inherit; line-height: 12.6px; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Review of Research in Education">REVIEW OF RESEARCH IN EDUCATION</abbr><span class="slug-pub-date" itemprop="datePublished" style="background-color: white; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #333300; font-family: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 12.6px; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> January 1999 </span><span style="line-height: 12.6px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333300; font-family: inherit; line-height: 12.6px;"></span></span><span class="slug-vol" style="background-color: white; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #333300; font-family: inherit; line-height: 12.6px; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">vol. 24 </span><span class="slug-issue" style="background-color: white; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #333300; font-family: inherit; line-height: 12.6px; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">no. 1 </span><span class="slug-pages" style="background-color: white; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #333300; font-family: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 12.6px; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">249-305</span></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
As we continue to think about how we gain or "grow" knowledge, we have to consider what takes place as we encounter new concepts, ideas, and theories<br />
<br />
Sometimes we find exactly what we are seeking---- or what we did not know we were seeking-- and our knowledge and experiences are affirmed.<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
Other times we know in our soul, but have not or cannot articulate what we know until we encounter a particular person, book, idea or theory.<br />
<br />
Often times we encounter ideas that challenge us, conflict with our current thinking, and create dissonance.<br />
<br />
It is these times when we most have the opportunity to transform our thinking, to witness a revelation ... or ultimately to reject the ideas.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
Which<a href="http://www.learning-theories.com/"> theories </a>explain your understanding of learning, in your own classroom, in your own head.... and in life? Have your theories changed? What do you know? How do you know?<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What are you current<a href="http://www.learning-theories.com/"> learning/teaching theories</a>? How did you come to develop these theories? How have they changed over time?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Write an essay explaining to a new teacher what you believe about teaching and learning.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
How can you apply Cochran-Smith"s and Lytle's conceptualization of knowledge to life in general?</div>
<div>
Write a poem identifying ways you know what you know.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What does it mean to be <i>always becoming</i>? Explore this concept in a personal essay.</div>
<div>
<h1 class="pdf-extract-article-title" style="border: 0px; color: #403838; line-height: inherit; margin: 10px 0px 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
</h1>
</div>
Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-64724520845324406802015-08-14T07:46:00.001-07:002015-08-14T07:46:35.783-07:00WAITING...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI8Cibkg13Q2X9kdn5F_SLwFOxZCK4dLKyy4hJu2hku9LfdsYMIvzcNQPOeTbCB7wLY4CfoOAfZDNE8RxDBEyJxfa9ghDvDM1v8T42AFu6_w7vuHqW8r9iUBjY23m8zmmnh5HgBTwLGTf6/s1600/waiting-71011_640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI8Cibkg13Q2X9kdn5F_SLwFOxZCK4dLKyy4hJu2hku9LfdsYMIvzcNQPOeTbCB7wLY4CfoOAfZDNE8RxDBEyJxfa9ghDvDM1v8T42AFu6_w7vuHqW8r9iUBjY23m8zmmnh5HgBTwLGTf6/s320/waiting-71011_640.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
It is our nature to wait.<br />
It is our destiny to wait.<br />
<br />
As the seasons change, we read the signs and we wait.<br />
For the first green shoots to peek through the snow.<br />
For the first red and orange leaf to float to the ground.<br />
For the sun to ride high in the sky.<br />
<br />
When I was a kid we waited for the mercury on our outside thermometer to read 75 degrees. That was the temperature it had to be before my mom allowed us to swim in our pool.<br />
<br />
Christmas morning we got up early... after the long wait... to see what Santa... and my parents... had brought us.<br />
<br />
The first day of school was a day I waited for, looked forward to always, even as an adult and teacher, anticipating the new school year with joy.<br />
<br />
At this moment, I am waiting to hear news and results on several fronts.<br />
<br />
What are you waiting for?<br />
<br />
We all remember being little<span style="background-color: white;"> and told <i>maybe </i>as we asked about an upcoming possibility or <i>soon</i> as we one more time asked when an event would occur or <i>later</i> as we asked when mom could play with us or dad could walk us to the corner store. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1922077038/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1922077038&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=TPIN7DL6F57J53LB">Waiting for Later</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1922077038" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> by <a href="http://ttinamatthews.com/books/waiting-for-later/">Tina Matthews</a>, Nancy finds a wonderful way to wait for the promised later.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="253" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YtHmT8S9nWQ" width="450"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
How do you wait?<br />
<br />
What makes your waiting easier or harder, shorter or longer?<br />
<br />
Waiting can be exhilarating as we anticipate the good, the wonderful, and the desired.<br />
Waiting can be unbearable, as we wait for results which could be negative--medical tests, academic hearings, or judicial verdicts..<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062368435/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0062368435&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=D7QRQCKDIOGSPJ3F" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0062368435&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a>What do we do with the time when we cannot act, but are forced to simply wait?<br />
<br />
<br />
Early childhood educators are waiting for September 1.<br />
<br />
That is the day the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062368435/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0062368435&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=D7QRQCKDIOGSPJ3F">Waiting</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0062368435" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> by <a href="http://www.kevinhenkes.com/">Kevin Henkes</a> will be released. I can't wait to read about how five friends (actually five toys) wait by the windowsill for something to happen.<br />
<br />
They each wait for their own something.<br />
<br />
The pig with the umbrella waits on the rain. The bear with his kite waits on the wind. The dog with his sled waits on the snow. The owl waits on the moon... and the rabbit is content just to watch and wait.<br />
<br />
<br />
We wait our turn. We wait in lines. We wait in traffic.<br />
We wait to hear about Y... We wait for X to meet us... We wait...<br />
<br />
And as we wait, some of us create reasons and worst case scenarios. <i> I am not good enough</i> or <i>He never wanted to go in the first place</i> or <i>I should have never agreed to this </i>or <i>It will never come</i>.<br />
<br />
How do you wait?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080214442X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=080214442X&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=KDYJBTUVTXSFVKHH" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=080214442X&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=080214442X" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />Waiting can be in the eyes of the beholder, in the mind of the "waiter". Your waiting is not my waiting. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Beckett">Samuel Becket</a> offers absurd possibilities and a tragicomedy vision of waiting in his two-act play, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080214442X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=080214442X&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=KDYJBTUVTXSFVKHH">Waiting for Godot </a>, <br />
<br />
Two characters are waiting in vain for the mysterious Godot. Their waiting continues.... comically, repetitively, and endlessly.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/lawrence-ferlinghetti">Lawrence Ferlinghetti </a> elevates us from childhood waiting pushes us beyond comic waiting to thoughtful, sophisticated, collective waiting.<br />
<br />
In <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171598">I Am Waiting, </a>he challenges us to critically consider that for which we wait.<br />
And more importantly, he asked <i>What should we be doing to end the waiting?</i><br />
<br />
His poem begins<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811200418/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0811200418&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=OPF3RHPUTLB3BEFL" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0811200418&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a></div>
I am waiting for my case to come up </div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
and I am waiting</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
for a rebirth of wonder</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
and I am waiting for someone</div>
<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0811200418" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
to really discover America</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
and wail</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
and I am waiting </div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
for the discovery</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
of a new symbolic western frontier </div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
and I am waiting </div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
for the American Eagle</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
to really spread its wings</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
and straighten up and fly right...</div>
<br />
As he continues to list that for which he waits, I note with sadness that this poem, published in 1958 in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811200418/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0811200418&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=OPF3RHPUTLB3BEFL">A Coney Island of the Mind: Poems</a>, still resonates today. We don't read it as just historical commentary, but current social and political commentary on our own time, as well.<br />
<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0062368435" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171598">Read Ferlinghetti's entire poem here.</a><br />
<br />
What are you waiting for?<br />
How are you waiting?<br />
<br />
<h3>
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Make a list of small and big things for which you are waiting</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
List the thoughts and activities in which you engage which you wait.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Write a poem about waiting.</div>
Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-72684220081691132042015-08-01T07:52:00.003-07:002015-08-01T07:52:27.930-07:00SONGS OF MY GRANDMOTHER<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7_WeNZs3kgjvCdmeFx1EBIOjbzzmAzrJjj-YV80nWOcqChfcFuDslzZ6ZMBm-wnlZ-dwNM5bYUPpQ1y2yD4Ta1KSYUcdipwjPXAqpsWQKo2BGm22U0n2M4DLQt1eBszamxx77WqmHBdOM/s1600/The+Old+Rugged+Cross.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7_WeNZs3kgjvCdmeFx1EBIOjbzzmAzrJjj-YV80nWOcqChfcFuDslzZ6ZMBm-wnlZ-dwNM5bYUPpQ1y2yD4Ta1KSYUcdipwjPXAqpsWQKo2BGm22U0n2M4DLQt1eBszamxx77WqmHBdOM/s320/The+Old+Rugged+Cross.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On a hill far away....<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cobaltfish/7993792074/"> The Old Rugged Cross -Photo by Andy Rogers</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
The Old Rugged Cross. I often sing this hymn, Its words and melody are embedded in my soul and my spiritual DNA. As a small child, I heard this song several times a day by paternal grandma as she worked in the kitchen. There were others she sang, others I remember, but this one remains with me always.<br />
<br />
The Old Rugged Cross. It was among a host of songs my sister recorded on the piano to play for my father when he was in the hospital - first very sick, then dying. He would listen --and smile as he listened, even as he slept. As a small child, he also heard this same song, several times a day.<br />
<br />
<div>
The songs we heard as children carry knowledge of our family, our community, our collective lives.<br />
<br />
Heard again, songs can evoke smells, images, and feelings.<br />
<br />
Heard again, sung again, these songs transport us to an earlier time, to childhood fun, to perfect memories.. to romantic moments. They remind us of funerals, wedding, parties and other celebrations.<br />
<br />
As I hum, as I sing, as I work, I am back in my grandmother's kitchen eating homemade ice cream and drinking a hot toddy for a sore throat. I am in the living room watching Queen for a Day and General Hospital or I am being tucked in bed under her homemade quilts.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
As I sing, I am reminded of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805049037/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0805049037&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=F2OTDIE2TXZ75ZNX">Grand Mothers: Poems, Reminiscences, and Short Stories About The Keepers Of Our Traditions</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0805049037" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> edited by Nikki Giovanni.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805049037/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0805049037&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=F2OTDIE2TXZ75ZNX" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0805049037&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a>In this treasury of memories, Giovanni has invited her friends, including some folks we know for their own writing, to share their meaningful moments, precious memories, fictional accounts, and gathered wisdom from their grandmothers.<br />
<br />
<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0805049037" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<br />
So we peek into the minds and grandmother memories of Gloria Naylor, Gwendolyn Brooks, Maxine Kong Kingston, Nikki Giovanni, and others whom we meet through their grandmother memories.<br />
<br />
What do you remember about your grandmothers?<br />
What songs did they sing?<br />
What words of wisdom did they impart to you?<br />
How are they embedded in your cultural and spiritual DNA?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0819229938/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0819229938&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=IOH3RBE2UWT5YTIL" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0819229938&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0819229938" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />I just finished reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0819229938/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0819229938&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=IOH3RBE2UWT5YTIL">Songs My Grandma Sang</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0819229938" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> by Michael B. Curry, the newly elected Presiding Bishop of my denomination, the Episcopal Church in the United States.<br />
<br />
Bishop Curry revisits the spirituals and traditional hymns he heard as a child, extracting the life lessons and wisdom found there, reaping the cultural history and theology planted in those words, remembering the energy and spiritual strength rising in the melodies.<br />
<br />
Our grandmother sang life into our lives.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0049WAVVI/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0049WAVVI&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=VD77MRTOK42YYBFN" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B0049WAVVI&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a>Our grandmothers did not sing only the songs of faith and the church.<br />
<br />
Sometimes the songs they sang were the pop songs of their time, the songs played on the radio or heard in the juke joints and honky tonks. Pop and country singer Brenda Lee's first album,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandma,_What_Great_Songs_You_Sang!"> <i>Grandma, What Great Songs You Sang</i>,</a> recognized this both in title and content.</div>
<div>
<br />
What did you learn about life from your grandmother's songs?<br />
What did her songs teach you about faith?<br />
How did the songs your grandmother sang teach you about history and culture?<br />
How did they explain your family and community?<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0049WAVVI" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
</div>
<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2014/08/grandmothers.html">For additional thoughts on grandmothers, see my previous post.</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
<div>
Reflect and remember:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What do you remember about your grandmothers?<br />
What songs did they sing?<br />
What did you learn about life from your grandmother's songs?<br />
What did her songs teach you about faith?<br />
How did the songs your grandmother sang teach you about history and culture?<br />
How did the songs explain your family and community?<br />
How are their songs embedded in your cultural and spiritual DNA?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Write a personal narrative or essay about a song (s) your grandmother sang.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Compose a hymn or song like the ones your are remembering. Write lyrics and create a melody.<span style="text-align: center;">.</span></div>
</div>
Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-7629766445385737392015-07-28T15:12:00.003-07:002015-07-28T15:12:58.387-07:00THIS IS A POEM THAT HEALS FISH: DEFINING POETRY<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd8ubPYMKYoPIe-xhAXEAvPpTYVVyFsa97qJSVyQxeclJ-fhSjKwk3WERsjELKiVr4PpKoBcJD3f4IkU2ire4eSNZ-7CwTd4U6xMBpbic_XPjWrVJZwjpYar4YSiudpDND0Gie5dRFt1L7/s1600/POETRY+POWER+CLOUD.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd8ubPYMKYoPIe-xhAXEAvPpTYVVyFsa97qJSVyQxeclJ-fhSjKwk3WERsjELKiVr4PpKoBcJD3f4IkU2ire4eSNZ-7CwTd4U6xMBpbic_XPjWrVJZwjpYar4YSiudpDND0Gie5dRFt1L7/s320/POETRY+POWER+CLOUD.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<i><br /></i>
<i><br /></i>
<i>What is a poem?</i><br />
<br />
I have written many answers to that question. Here is one of my favorite answers that I shared, along with other remarks about poetry, at <a href="https://plus.google.com/communities/111879884417438537523">Kevin Cordi's Poetry Box</a> Celebration and Reception back in April, and also in a<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/11/essential-poetry-collections.html"> previous post, Essential Poetry Collections</a>.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">Poetry is....</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">A moment frozen</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">in time and words</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">that</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"> I</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"> remember</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">and </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">you</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"> recognize</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">as truth</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">and reality</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">a tiny slice</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">of everyone</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">and all life</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">Poetry is...</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">everywhere</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">waiting</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">for us to notice</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">a word in the air</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">a phrase turned</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">just right</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">Poetry is...</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">the wiggle</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">the shimmer</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">an iridescent light</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">shining</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">on what was</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">always there.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
In my classroom, I regularly offered possible explanations and models of poetry. Together, we wrestled with definitions and parameters as we read and wrote pieces of writing that we called poems.<br />
<br />
I am always asking myself: Does this event, this experience, this feeling want to be a poem?<br />
<br />
What is poetry?<br />
<br />
I am ever finding new responses to this question.<br />
<br />
I recently discovered a delightful answer in a picture book.<br />
<br />
In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592700675/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1592700675&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=VQPJJN443NSETPM3">This is a Poem that Heals Fish</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1592700675" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> by Jean-Pierre Simeon, Arthur's fish is sick. He is dying of boredom. His mother suggests with an eye roll that he write him a poem, but Arthur is not sure just what that means.<br />
<br />
What is a poem?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592700675/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1592700675&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=VQPJJN443NSETPM3" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1592700675&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1592700675" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<br />
Arthur searches the house, asks a number of people, including shop owners and neighbors, his grandparents, and even his canary. <br />
<br />
The answers vary greatly, delight us trremendously , and in the end form a poem which defines poetry.<br />
<br />
<br />
Arthur finds, in part, that a poem is:<br />
<i><br /></i> <i>...when you have the sky in your mouth. </i><br />
<i>It is hot like fresh bread,</i><br />
<i>when you eat it, </i><br />
<i>a little is always left over..</i>.<br />
<br />
This book is perfect for introducing.... or continuing ... or deepening the discussion of poetry.<br />
<br />
<br />
When I was younger and struggling to define my own poetry personality, I discovered with relief and pleasure, the poetry of e.e. cummings. His work opened the doors and released me from the prison of "school poetry" with its rhyme and measured meter, with its one acceptable explanation, and structured, square shape.<br />
<br />
I was freed to experiment, explore and create my own style, to stamp my personal poetic imprint.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.matthewjohnburgess.com/">Matthew Burgess</a> has created a new biography that offers that same discovery and transformative experience to younger readers.<br />
<br />
In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159270171X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=159270171X&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=WY3NC36CRVIPZ775">Enormous Smallness: A Story of E. E. Cummings</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=159270171X" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, we meet Edward Estlin Cummings ( e.e. cummings) before he is a famous poet. We travel with him on his journey of discovery of words and experimentation with forms.<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159270171X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=159270171X&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=WY3NC36CRVIPZ775" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=159270171X&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><br />
We watch as he watches the birds and speaks his first poem at three-- His mother began to write his poems down in a book she kept.<br />
<br />
We witness both his ever growing imagination and fascination with words.<br />
<br />
<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=159270171X" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<br />
We travel with him through many life experiences that all lead to his poems being "<i>alive with experimentation and surprise</i>!<br />
<br />
Woven throughout the narrative are Cummings's poems, creating a text in which we learn his story, as we taste his words and creativity.<br />
<br />
This book, too, will spark much discussion about the nature of poetry.<br />
It will also answer questions we have not yet introduced: <i>Who are poets?</i> <i>What do they do?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
And finally, as I continue to seek to define poetry, my newest favorite blog, <a href="http://thepoetryquestion.com/">The Poetry Question</a>, offers a thought-provoking answer.<br />
<br />
You absolutely must<a href="http://thepoetryquestion.com/2015/07/23/the-power-of-poetry-18-the-vineyard-owner-lewis-mundt/"> read the entire post</a>-- for its beauty, for its answer to our question-- and to see why<span id="goog_233751821"></span><span id="goog_233751822"></span><a href="http://www.lewismundt.com/"> Lewis Mundt </a>wrote the following words in <a href="http://thepoetryquestion.com/2015/07/23/the-power-of-poetry-18-the-vineyard-owner-lewis-mundt/">The Power of Poetry #18: The Vineyard Owner:</a><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">anything can be a poem, and that I think it’s that universality, almost a </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">yes we can make this moment something else can’t we?</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"> that’s the true power of poetry and the reason it’s been a celebrated art form for thousands of years. We don’t love cave paintings because they’re breathtakingly artistic; we love them because we’re drawn to these windows into someone else’s record of the world...</span></blockquote>
What is poetry?<br />
<h3>
Related Blog Posts</h3>
<div>
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/07/ars-poetica.html"><br /></a></div>
<div>
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/07/ars-poetica.html">Ars Poetica</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2015/04/poetry-single-moment.html">Poetry: A Single Moment</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-art-of-losing-poems-of-grief-and.html">The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Mourning</a></div>
<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/04/poetry-in-time-of-pain.html">Poetry in the Time of Pain</a><br />
<br />
<h3>
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What is poetry? What is a poem?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Who are poets? What do they do?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Poems about poetry are called <i>ars poetica.</i> </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Write several poems about poetry ( ars poetica) that offer answers to these questions</div>
Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-4148922875242233232015-07-17T15:30:00.000-07:002016-03-10T09:26:06.463-08:00FALLING FROM GRACE<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Nicht_herunterfallen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Nicht_herunterfallen.jpg" width="314" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">By Gerbil (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
We all have heroes, folks we look up to, admire and adore, folks we worship beyond measure.<br />
We all have heroes who save our world, make our world.... contain all of our worlds.<br />
<br />
We may know our heroes personally; they may be family or friends, co-workers or mentors.<br />
<br />
They may be friends-in-our-head--movie stars, politicians, business entrepreneurs.<br />
<br />
These folks we follow and imitate. These heroes we quote and cite as our reasons for.... everything.<br />
<br />
And then.... comes the affair, the bankruptcy, the murder, the lurid past catching up, the surprising present revealed.<br />
<br />
<br />
What do we do when our heroes fall from grace?<br />
<br />
What do we do with the now hollow praise, the expansive admiration with no object?<br />
<br />
<br />
We are used to folks falling from grace-- the scandal, the frantic, almost gleeful media reports, the viral explosions on FaceBook and Twitter. The talk shows. The witnesses coming out of the woodwork, from under rocks, from behind 30 years of silence, to collaborate, to denounce, to attest and announce their version of betrayal, each new report adding to our horror or causing us to nod in that cynical "I am not surprised" way.<br />
<br />
For months, I defended Bill Cosby. <i> These are only accusations. </i>I said. <i>He has not been arrested or charged. </i>I argued. <i>Why have they waited so long if this is true? </i>I asked. <i>What are they gaining? </i>I wondered.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/07/us/bill-cosby-quaaludes-sexual-assault-allegations/">But now we have his own words corroborating everything or at least some accusations.</a><br />
<br />
What do we do with this?<br />
<br />
How do we now separate the man from the character that we all loved? That character that brought the first professional upper-middle class black family into our living rooms each week..<br />
<br />
How do we separate that lovable Huxtable Dad who always knew just what to say and how to help from the man and husband who has caused so much hurt.<br />
<br />
Do we still watch the old reruns? Are we still allowed to enjoy them or have we been betrayed so deeply that this is now an impossibility? Will they even remain on the air or be erased from air wave memory?<br />
<br />
And then we have to ask who knew and didn't tell, swept it under the rug, or excused-- for whatever reason?<br />
<br />
There are bigger issues.<br />
<br />
What does all of this say about how we treat women and girls? Would we have believed these women individually? Did we believe them collectively? There was a lot of talk about conspiracies and economic gain? I participated in that talk with lots of other people.<br />
<br />
I was wrong... along with many others.<br />
<br />
And it is not just Bill Cosby.<br />
<br />
We witness this falling from grace often.<br />
<br />
Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, Bill Clinton, The Subway spokesperson... a host of politicians, sports figures....<br />
<br />
We hoist people onto pedestals and when they come crashing down we are shocked and disappointed.<br />
<br />
Despite the frequency of public falling , we never see it coming and we still take it personally.<br />
<br />
What can we do?<br />
<br />
As we witness the falling of others this may be a perfect time to assess our own precarious positions on pedestals that other may have erected for us... with or without our knowledge or consent.<br />
<br />
Who will be disappointed if/when we fall?<br />
<br />
We can only come to terms with fallings and failings if we recognize the universality of imperfection in both ourselves and others.<br />
<br />
And we may cope more easily if we accept the realities and paradoxes of <i>both/and</i> rather than expecting our world to be <i>either/or.</i><br />
<br />
Where can we turn?<br />
<br />
When in doubt I turn to poetry.<br />
I write poetry to question, wonder, wrestle, think, figure out what I think... tell you what i think...<br />
<br />
I read poetry in an effort to name my questions, my wonderings, my uncertainties...my un-name-able.<br />
<br />
In her poem<a href="http://ivonprefontaine.com/tag/elizabeth-carlson/"> Imperfections</a>, Elizabeth Carlson reminds us to love our own bumps and foibles (and I would add those of others, as well):<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;">...I am learning to love</span><br style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;" /><span style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;">the small bumps on my face</span><br style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;" /><span style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;">the big bump of my nose,</span><br style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;" /><span style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;">my hairless scalp,</span><br style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;" /><span style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;">chipped nail polish,</span><br style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;" /><span style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;">toes that overlap.</span><br style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;" /><span style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;">Learning to love</span><br style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;" /><span style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;">the open-ended mystery</span><br style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;" /><span style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;">of not knowing why...</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;"><br /></span></span></span> <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;">Robert Frost reminds us that <a href="http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/nothing-gold-can-stay">Nothing Gold Can Stay</a>.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;"><br /></span></span></span> <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #121212; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;"><br /></span></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #121212; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;">Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</span></span></span></h3>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #121212; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Remember a time someone you know and/or loved fell from grace.</span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #121212; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #121212; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Write a list of questions you have about the surrounding events.</span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #121212; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Your questions may be addressed to the person, to others involved, or even to yourself.</span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #121212; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #121212; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Write a poem based on your list of questions.</span></span></span></div>
Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-1857295740691776972015-07-09T07:52:00.001-07:002015-07-09T07:52:43.938-07:00WRITING IS HARD<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Budape%C5%A1%C5%A5_0158.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Budape%C5%A1%C5%A5_0158.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="language cs" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.3000001907349px; line-height: 21.2800006866455px; text-align: start;" title=""><b>Čeština:</b></span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.3000001907349px; line-height: 21.2800006866455px; text-align: start;"> Budapešť, socha neznámého (</span><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Writer in Budapest) by Dezidor</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Writing is hard.<br />
<br />
Writing is hard when<br />
ideas get stuck<br />
in the crowded funnel<br />
interrupting or stopping<br />
the easy flow of words<br />
<br />
Writing is hard<br />
when ideas get stuck<br />
in the tunnel carrying<i> our</i> words<br />
from <i>our </i>heart to <i>our</i> brain<br />
to <i>your</i> ears and <i>your </i>eyes... and beyond.<br />
<br />
We are not being honest<br />
when we portray writing<br />
as an easy thing<br />
or when we think writers are just sitting<br />
at a table or a desk,<br />
somewhere in a cozy retreat with a view<br />
churning out pages<br />
and pages<br />
and pages<br />
<br />
stopping<br />
every now and then<br />
to take a walk<br />
to smell the lilacs<br />
to sip their bourbon<br />
and feed their dogs<br />
while words are sparring<br />
offering themselves<br />
to be first from the pen<br />
or onto the screen.<br />
<br />
No<br />
Writing is hard.<br />
<br />
Words are scratched<br />
from the dirt,<br />
once fertile<br />
now famine dry<br />
<br />
Words are ground<br />
between our teeth<br />
as we chew and reject<br />
taste and spit out<br />
or swallow whole<br />
missing the savory flavor<br />
for which we search<br />
<br />
Writing is hard.<br />
we sit still ...waiting<br />
for an angle, a hook, ..one word<br />
to follow another<br />
to follow another...<br />
<br />
Writing is hard.<br />
<br />
<br />
In June, I spent two weeks with a group teachers from the Columbus Area Writing Project, engaged in the hard work of writing, I wrote beside these fellow teachers as they were also engaged in that same hard work.<br />
<br />
We were remembering and examining our lives as teachers, retelling and reflecting our journeys--including the highs and the lows, the warts and the beauty marks, the inevitable failures and the great moments of success.<br />
<br />
As we wrote, we recognized patterns and echoes woven through our stories, individually and collectively.<br />
<br />
We identified turning points and critical moments that split time into a before and an after.<br />
<br />
We cried and laughed as we narrated the complexities and messiness of the personal lives that backgrounded our equally complex and messy teaching lives.<br />
<br />
We marveled at how we had survived --and arrived at our present points, our current pages in our stories.<br />
<br />
Writing is hard.<br />
<br />
We got stuck between words sometimes... sandwiched between too many memories or trying to push out that one irretrievable nugget.<br />
<br />
Time stood still when we were in the moment and words were tumbling over each other like waterfalls in hidden tropical caves splashing onto the pages in fresh satisfying drops.<br />
<br />
Time raced as deadlines loomed and words deadlocked in the recesses of our blocked writing brains.<br />
<br />
Writing is hard.<br />
<br />
We offered our pages to the group-- holy sacrifice and sacrament.<br />
<br />
We mourned when they suggested a word, a sentence, a paragraph needed to be changed, reworded--- or even deleted.<br />
<br />
We worked to shape nuances and tones and moods. <br />
<br />
We modified the irreverent, and politically incorrect. Our task was to share and reveal, not offend and negatively provoke.<br />
<br />
We walked and snacked on nuts and fruit. We sipped water and coffee and an occasional soft drink.<br />
<br />
We talked quietly. We sat... alone. We sat.... in company<br />
<br />
And. we wrote...<br />
<br />
Writing is hard.<br />
<br />
<br />
In a previous post, <a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2014/03/writing-wells-writing-ideas-for-when.html">Writing Wells: Writing Ideas for When the Well is Dry</a>, I offered ways to get started writing when the ideas are not flowing. You may find inspiration there for when writing is hard.<br />
<br />
Both the<i> New York Times </i>and the <i>Washington Post</i> have long carried columns in which writers have shared their lives, their processes, their worries and their joys, as well as the hardships and difficulties of living their writer's lives. <br />
<br />
Both editors of these columns, <a href="http://johndarnton.com/">John Darnton</a> and <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/marie-arana">Marie Arana</a>, have published collections of the columns, which may serve as companions on your own writing journey.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805070850/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0805070850&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=H5VWFO6JNNZR7HYK"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0805070850&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0805070850" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805075887/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0805075887&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=G4NPJCODC4FJD2WK"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0805075887&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0805075887" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1586481495/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1586481495&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=CRIXTOJUSF6P5FNY" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1586481495&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1586481495" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<br />
If you are looking for lighter inspiration spinning the <a href="http://www.bookarchitecture.com/wheel/">The Wheel of Process</a> at <a href="http://www.bookarchitecture.com/">The Book Architect </a>site may be just the ticket for those days when showing up at the computer, the typewriter, the page is just not enough. <br />
<br />
This unique feature offers 40 articles on writing "from inception through editing through completion." Their seven articles on writer's block may just what you need to jolt you back into productive composing.<br />
<br />
Some days... nothing works... and we just have to acknowledge it.<br />
<br />
Writing is hard.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
When has writing been hard for you? </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Reflect on a piece that you are currently involved in writing.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What has been most difficult so far? How did you work through, write through the hard parts?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Write a poem about writing this particular piece or about your writing life.</div>
Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-50684743551118225292015-05-29T14:08:00.002-07:002015-05-29T14:08:26.421-07:00SILENT SPACES <div class="spacer" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
</div>
<div class="dek" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/The_Silent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/The_Silent.jpg" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)],%20via%20Wikimedia%20Commons">By Miguel Virkkunen Carvalho from Lahti, Finland (The Silent Uploaded by Markos90) [CC BY 2.0 </a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i><b>One ambition of poetry is to create a reverberant silence in its wake, one that means more or differently than the silence that preceded the poem.</b></i></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
-- <a href="http://academyofamericanpoets.cmail19.com/t/y-l-ikdldik-jrjudrluyu-k/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mark Doty</a>, Chancellor, American Academy of Poets</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I encountered the above quote in </span><a href="http://poets.createsend.com/t/ViewEmailArchive/y/6462A1854FE81BD7/C67FD2F38AC4859C/">The Nothing That Is</a>, <a href="http://poets.createsend.com/t/ViewEmailArchive/y/6462A1854FE81BD7/C67FD2F38AC4859C/">April 15, 2015 Newsletter of the Amerian Academy of Poets</a>.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We don't like silence.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It makes us nervous.</span><br />
We rush to fill the seemingly dead air.<br />
We twitch and fidget.<br />
We begin to chatter when intentional sound does not quickly enough drown previously unnoticed background noises.<br />
We rattle on, grasping for words and topics.<br />
Sense may not be considered.<br />
Eradicating the silence is all that counts<br />
Nonsense may be the result<br />
Anything-- just so the silence doesn't overtake us.<br />
<br />
Poet and mystic Kahlil Gibran understood this fear of silence, this fear of being alone in the quiet, as well as the importance of silent spaces for fruitful thinking. In<a href="http://www.katsandogz.com/ontalking.html"> Talking</a> he writes:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts; </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered. </span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="background-color: white;">For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but canno</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">t fly.</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">There are those among you who seek the talkative through fear of being alone.</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">The silence of aloneness reveals to their eyes their naked selves and they would escape...</span></span></span></blockquote>
<a href="http://www.katsandogz.com/ontalking.html"> Read <i>Talking</i> in its entirety here.</a><br />
<br />
Silence is not a bad thing-- or something to be feared.<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/08/silences.html"> (In a previous post I pointed to more positive aspects of silences</a>.)<br />
<br />
We have simply forgotten how to be silent.<br />
<br />
We have forgotten the delight of having an idea or a thought percolating while we wait in silence for it to bubble up ---in a new form, a generative organism.<br />
<br />
We have forgotten the joy of being surrounded by silence.<br />
<br />
<br />
What does the silent space to which Doty refers sound like?<br />
<br />
I know that silence well.<br />
I have seen it in my former classrooms, in writing groups of both children and adults, and during the daily read-around in the Columbus Area Writing Project<br />
<br />
It is that<i> aaaaaaah! </i><br />
<br />
It is that contemplative space that remains after we have heard remarkable words read aloud. These words hang in the air caressing us, begging us to savor them, daring us enjoy them, beckoning us to follow them into subsequent thought, challenging us to converse with them, creating new conversations.<br />
<br />
It is that silent space which acknowledges that no words can express our appreciation of what we just heard.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2014/06/deeper-writing-silence-and-response.html">In a previous post, I wrote about silent response to what I call deeper writing.</a><br />
<br />
Aaaaaah!<br />
<br />
We all recognize that auditory space of reverent and "reverberant" silence to which Doty calls our attention.<br />
<br />
<br />
Poetry and other types of writing, however, also provide another kind silence--visual spaces of silence.<br />
<br />
Using spaces on the page--- between lines and stanzas, between paragraphs and pages, writers force us to pause, to breathe, to come to a full stop.<br />
<br />
In that visual space, we ponder the words we just read-- the meanings conjured, the philosophies presented.<br />
<br />
Poets spend as much time choosing spaces as they do choosing words and combinations of words to express their meanings.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Do I start another stanza here?</i><i><br /></i><i>Do I leave a space at the end of this line?</i><i><br /></i><i>What shape is the space around my words?</i></blockquote>
I searched through my notebooks to find a poem in which space is evident and can be considered.<br />
<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/12WLSRitO_8MjI1dXFDegKw6Q9330EgJnzSdmh5WR1pg/edit?usp=sharing">Click here to read Staring at the Blank Page</a>. Does the spacing work? To what purpose? How might the spacing work differently?<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080474016X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=080474016X&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=5INGRPUKXZB2NKUS" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=080474016X&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Even spaces between words, which we take for granted, are a relatively new development, with<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=080474016X" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> manuscripts originally written with no spaces between words. Paul Saenger traces this development and the subsequent rise of silent reading in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080474016X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=080474016X&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=5INGRPUKXZB2NKUS">Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading</a>.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I am currently reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0439874025/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0439874025&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=4FRBT4B2WPDZ3UCO">Echo</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0439874025" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> by Pam Munoz Ryan.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Each of the four parts of her intricate novel is linked to the other parts, by a harmonica--- and by loneliness, war, and choices.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span> Each new part ( and new story ) is separated by blank pages before and after the page numbering and announcing that next part.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0439874025/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0439874025&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=4FRBT4B2WPDZ3UCO" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0439874025&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0439874025" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />Each blank page is a space inviting us to pause to consider what we have just experienced, what might happen next in the narrative we are leaving, what is about to happen in the story we are now entering.<br />
<br />
Each silent space calls us think about the several echoes in this story.<br />
<br />
As readers, we often encounter silent spaces.<br />
Spaces in which we reflect and remember, react and respond.<br />
Spaces that call us to stop-- reverent and reverberant silences.<br />
<br />
As writers, we create these same spaces.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Consider the book you are currently reading.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
How has the writer used silent spaces?</div>
<div>
In what ways do these spaces foster the reflective pauses as described by Mark Doty in the opening quote?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Consider a piece of your own writing.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
How have you created silent spaces?</div>
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Write a personal essay outlining your process and thinking as you created these spaces.</div>
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Write a poem about silent spaces.</div>
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Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-6775182663920954592015-04-30T15:02:00.003-07:002015-05-05T13:31:27.983-07:00REVERSO POEMS<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2XpF7A0gOhv8gFWd3vu108IzbpuJz83WCxrBW9WyDgapywUr5kdJJWH-DLYybkc35pgNWZRZhyZ4V4EwEbMPEJWasqUxueJfMZDmhwMy09ygYi-LddWOYgJQ5J7SA6k81iimmWjhU-4HB/s1600/mirror4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2XpF7A0gOhv8gFWd3vu108IzbpuJz83WCxrBW9WyDgapywUr5kdJJWH-DLYybkc35pgNWZRZhyZ4V4EwEbMPEJWasqUxueJfMZDmhwMy09ygYi-LddWOYgJQ5J7SA6k81iimmWjhU-4HB/s320/mirror4.jpeg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://marilynsinger.net/">Marilyn Singer</a> was recently <a href="http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/About/Awards/PR-2014PoetryAward.pdf">named the winner</a> of the<a href="http://www.ncte.org/awards/poetry"> 2015 NCTE Excellence in Poetry for Children Award.</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525479015/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0525479015&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=RIG7B5IS5PSZBSNA" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0525479015&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0525479015" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />As soon as I heard the news, I thought about the <i><b>reverso,</b></i> a poetic form to which I was introduced through Singer's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525479015/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0525479015&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=RIG7B5IS5PSZBSNA">Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reverso Poems</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0525479015" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />.<br />
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Each reverso in this collection turns a familiar fairy tale upside down--literally. We are forced to look at the tale from different angles and perspectives. <br />
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Portraits of well-known characters shed new light on their stories, relationships, and motives.<br />
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Reading down and then up again, changes our tales in surprising ways. We are<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0803737696" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> given many reasons to pause, puzzle, ponder... and smile.<br />
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If these poems delight us, we can enjoy more in Singer's second and most recent offering, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0803737696/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0803737696&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=KV2OIU63O7CQCGJM">Follow Follow: A Book of Reverso Poems</a>. This one also focuses on traditional tales.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0803737696/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0803737696&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=KV2OIU63O7CQCGJM" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0803737696&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><br />
Singer explains how she created the reverso in response to her own question:<br />
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We read most poems down the page. <i>But what if we read them up?</i> That's the question I asked myself when I created the reverso. When you read a reverso down. it is one poem. When you read it up, with changes allowed only in punctuation and capitalization it is a different poem. </blockquote>
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According to her author's note, her first reverso was about her cat.<br />
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A cat<br />
without<br />
a chair:<br />
Incomplete.</blockquote>
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Incomplete:<br />
A chair<br />
without<br />
a cat. </blockquote>
Singer's reversos deal with fairy tales, reversing our familiar fictional worlds, creating topsy-turvy reflections.<br />
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Reversos, however, don't have to be fun and flirty. They can just as easily, powerfully, and effectively turn serious, sad, or current issues on their ends.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1608194663/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1608194663&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=YJLY5IDRKTQCTBCP" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1608194663&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a>After my father died last year, I was drawn to poems on grief. I discovered <i><a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/244906#poem">Myth</a></i> by <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/natasha-trethewey">Natasha Trethewey </a>in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1608194663/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1608194663&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=YJLY5IDRKTQCTBCP">The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1608194663" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> edited by<a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/kevin-young"> Kevin Young</a>.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1608194663" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0618872655/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0618872655&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=INCZ45ITR5CWB4PZ" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0618872655&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0618872655" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />Trethewey's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0618872655/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0618872655&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=INCZ45ITR5CWB4PZ">Native Guard: Poems</a>, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007, also contains <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/244906#poem">this poem</a>, as well as <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/244906#about">others examining grief</a>, but I don't remember noticing the reversible structure when I initially read this poem in this collection. Perhaps because, as yet, I had no name for it.<br />
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As I researched reversible poetry, I discovered much interest and many variations on the structure.<br />
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Reversible, mirror, or palindrome poems can be created by reversing each line, each word, or even more challenging, each letter.<br />
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A quick search online results in varied instructions and many samples.<br />
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A<a href="http://missrumphiuseffect.blogspot.com/2010/04/poetry-stretch-results-reverso.html"> challenge to try writing a reverso </a>is issued on <a href="http://missrumphiuseffect.blogspot.com/">the Miss Rumphius Effect</a> Blog's <a href="http://missrumphiuseffect.blogspot.com/2010/04/poetry-stretch-results-reverso.html">Poetry Stretch</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://www.poemfarm.amylv.com/">Amy Ludwig VanDerwater </a>has <a href="http://www.poemfarm.amylv.com/2010/10/reverso-poetry-peek-tarantula-oh-my.html">written on reverso each day</a> since she was introduced to the form.<br />
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Read <a href="http://www.wattpad.com/story/121812-reverse-poems">PJ Perry's reVerse Poems: A Reversible Poetry Collection.</a> His reVersed poems reverse word by word, which is a little more challenging.<br />
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No consideration of reversible poetry would be complete without considering two internet favorites:<a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jordan-nichols-generation-poem-teenage-3207707"> Our Generation by 14-year-old Jordan Nichols</a> and<a href="http://thisismy-generation.tumblr.com/post/2682565691/a-poem-lost-generation-by-jonathon-reed"> Lost Generation by Jonathan Reed.</a><br />
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And finally,<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v0B6SppJdK6sn1GWnOMd1AwN4kPJVf_A6NETsbhFD1g/edit?usp=sharing"> here is my first attempt at writing a reverso, Baltimore April 2015</a>, my way of processing recent events.<br />
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Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
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Read several sample reversos or other forms of reversible poetry.</div>
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What makes this structure a powerful form? What are hindrances of this form?</div>
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As you try your own, what do you find comes easily and naturally? What proved difficult for you?</div>
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<br />Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-73003561246727757652015-04-22T12:02:00.002-07:002015-04-22T12:16:57.500-07:00THE AMERICAN SENTENCE<br />
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Discovering the American Sentence, I muse<i> why now</i>-- <i>why not!</i><br />
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I bathe in the freedom to write small-- unrestrained by lines and limits.<br />
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One new sentence of wisdom and flashes of insight mark this moment.<br />
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The American Sentence opens new writing frontiers and choices.<br />
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Each of these sentences represent my initial attempts at a form I have just discovered.<br />
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Invented by <a href="http://allenginsberg.org/#!/">Allen Ginsberg</a>, the American sentence offers us the beauty and brevity of haiku but removes the strict line limits usually imposed in English, making it a more fluid, flexible form.<br />
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The rules are simple. A complete sentence 17 syllables long.<br />
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This form captures all that attracts in the haiku but seems better suited to English.<br />
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I have always loved haiku-- As I go about my daily life, small moments compose themselves into haiku. Many times these are never written down, but simply serve as my special way of savoring a feeling, an observation, or a memorable moment.<br />
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I guess my natural instincts have been searching for this form for a long time.<br />
I have always felt that if I needed to add or subtract a syllable for the sake of sound, beauty, or meaning, my Japanese writer-mentors would forgive me and nod in agreement.<br />
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Likewise, I teach my students, both children and adults, that poetic rules should not lead to rigid structuring that won't bend and wave. Meaning is always first, while structure and form provide frames and containers to enhance that meaning.<br />
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In teaching haiku, ironically, one tip I usually provide is to begin with a sentence that holds your intended meaning, one that causes readers to notice a shift or juxtaposition, to pause---- only then play with sounds and syllables.<br />
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A discussion of haiku on Wikipedia includes the following:<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku">The essence of haiku</a> is "cutting" (</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">kiru).</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">This is often represented by the juxtaposition of two images or ideas and a </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">kireji</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"> ("cutting word") between them,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"> a kind of verbal punctuation mark which signals the moment of separation and colors the manner in which the juxtaposed elements are related.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">In Japanese, haiku are traditionally printed in a single vertical line containing </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">seventeen Japanese characters, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">while haiku in English often appear in three lines to parallel the three phrases of Japanese haiku. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">That single vertical line seems to more closely resemble our linear sentence then the 3 lines of phrases that we have traditionally used to compose haiku in English.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"><br /></span></span> <span class="heading" itemprop="name" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://poetry.about.com/od/poems/a/ginsbergsentenc.htm">Bob Holman & Margery Snyder write</a> that </span>although Ginsberg is a staunch advocate of sparing words and condensed writing:<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #191919; line-height: 23px;">...(He) never went for the </span>haiku<span style="background-color: white; color: #191919; line-height: 23px;">. In talking with him, he spoke of how the 17 characters of this Japanese form just don’t cut it as 17 syllables of English, and that divvying them up in 5-7-5 syllable lines makes the whole thing an exercise in counting, not feeling, and too arbitrary to be poetry.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As with any new form that I want to explore, I needed to read many American Sentences, allowing them to </span>teach me how to write them.<br />
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I found many references and samples online<br />
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<a href="http://paulenelson.com/american-sentences-2/">Paul Nelson</a> has devoted several pages of his website to the American Sentence and, since his introduction to the form, has written one each day.<br />
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His article,<a href="http://paulenelson.com/american-sentences-2/shadow/"> American Sentences: Catching the Shadow of the Moment</a>, includes samples of Ginsberg's earliest American Sentences:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060926236/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0060926236&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=HCR3CQ5BOHSDYR27" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0060926236&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">American Sentences</em> as a poetic form was Ginsberg’s effort to make American the haiku.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0060926236" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
If haiku is seventeen syllables going down in Japanese text, he would make American Sentences seventeen syllables going across, linear, like just about everything else in America. In <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cosmopolitan Greetings</em>, his 1994 book, he published two and a half pages of these nuggets, some of which had scene-setting preambles. For example:</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tompkins Square Lower East Side N.Y.</em>Four skinheads stand in the streetlight rain chatting under an umbrella.<br />1987<br />Rainy night on Union square, full moon. Want more poems? Wait till<br />I’m dead.<br />August 8, 1990, 3:30A.M.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #191919; line-height: 23px;">According to Nelson, Ginsberg also reflected on the number 17--</span>17 syllables <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">like haiku in Japanese <u>and</u> like the mantra at the end of the Heart Sutra in Buddhism: </span><em style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Gate, gate, paragate, parasam gate, bodhi svaha ( </em><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">which translates loosely: </span><span style="background-color: white;">Gone, gone, gone beyond altogether beyond, Awakening, fulfilled!-- He was interested in Buddhism in later life.) He began to wonder about the recurrence of 17 and whether it had a universal property. </span></span></div>
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Paul Nelson gives us some<a href="http://the-tenth-muse.com/eventsandhappenings/poetry-in-shockoe-workshops-critique/allen-ginsbergs-american-sentence/"> keys for getting started with American Sentence</a><br />
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Here are <a href="http://terebess.hu/english/haiku/aginsberg.html#4a">more samples from Ginsberg</a> and <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/search/americansentence">samples from other folks</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://stevekowit.com/">Steve Kowit</a>, editor of <a href="http://www.servinghousejournal.com/amsenissue4.aspx">Serving House Journal published American Sentences (#4, Fall 2011) </a><br />
and<a href="https://americansentence.wordpress.com/"> here are even more samples.</a><br />
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These books contain useful sections about the American Sentences.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0884481492/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0884481492&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=DVWEP2NLMDLCJZS2" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0884481492&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See Chapter 8</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393334163/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0393334163&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=ZSIGS4P6JXT2FT76" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0393334163&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See Chapters 4 and 5</td></tr>
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<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0884481492" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0393334163" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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What do American Sentences seem to have in common?<br />
What isessential to this form--besides the 17 syllables and a complete sentence?<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Will I abandon haiku, the form I have loved and embraced most of my life? Of course not! But I now have a new form to add to my writing toolbox. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"><br /></span></span> <span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">And I now have a new decision to make when writing small--haiku or American sentence?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"><br /></span></span>
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Previous Posts Related to Short Poetry</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"><a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2014/04/haiku-meditations.html">Haiku Meditations</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/09/oulipian-exercises-and-text.html">Oulipian Exercises and Text Transformations</a></span><br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/04/book-spine-poetry.html">Book Spine Poetry</a><br />
<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2014/04/conversations-in-poetry.html">Conversations in Poetry</a><br />
<h3>
<br />Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
<div>
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<div>
The American Sentence is a short poetic form created by Allen Ginsberg.</div>
<div>
Read samples of American Sentences using the links in this post.</div>
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<div>
Write several American Sentences marking moments you wish to savor or explore.</div>
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Remember to use 17 syllables, if possible.</div>
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<div>
Can you write a poem or short prose piece composed entirely of American Sentences?</div>
Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-51436044088800636612015-04-15T09:52:00.000-07:002015-04-15T09:52:16.164-07:00 POETRY AND MUSIC: DANGLING ROOTS<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #f3f5f6; color: #212124; font-family: 'Proxima Nova', 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;">Image by John Bebbington FRPS</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s34" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s34" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<div class="s35" style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 72px;">
<span class="s9" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-weight: bold;"><b><i>These Days</i></b></span></div>
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<span class="s8" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i>whatever you have to say, leave</i></span></div>
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<span class="s8" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i>the roots on, let them</i></span></div>
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<span class="s8" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i>dangle</i></span></div>
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<span class="s8" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i>And the dirt</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i><span style="padding-left: 144px;"></span><span class="s8"> Just to make clear</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i><span style="padding-left: 144px;"></span><span class="s8"> where they come from</span></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s8"> <i> -Charles Olson</i></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s8"><br /></span></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s8">Whenever we write, it is always in the context of what else has already been written. This is particularly true in academic writing, in which we are careful to contextualize our work within the knowledge previously constructed and the ongoing conversations already taking place in our area of interest and address. </span></span><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/087220944X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=087220944X&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=7GKYAOQJ4AESXS6S" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=087220944X&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s8"><br /></span></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s8">In the first words of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/087220944X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=087220944X&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=7GKYAOQJ4AESXS6S">Writing with Sources: A Guide for Students</a>, Gordon Harvey reminds us of this:<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=087220944X" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s8"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s8"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Knowledge never stands alone. It builds upon and plays against the knowledge of previous knowers and reporters, whom scholars call sources. </span></span></span></span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s8"><br /></span></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s8">We include literature reviews in our academic writing, in which we share this context with our readers--summarizing, evaluating and clarifying the work that has gone before us. We set our writing in the midst of this work-- highlighting similarities and differences, questioning aspects, and outlining new directions for our own work. (<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2014/05/writing-with-sources.html">See previous post on Writing with Sources</a>)</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s8"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s8">The poem, <a href="http://www.riehlife.com/2009/04/15/riehlife-poem-of-the-day-charles-olsons-these-days/">These Days</a></span></span><span class="s8"><a href="http://www.riehlife.com/2009/04/15/riehlife-poem-of-the-day-charles-olsons-these-days/"> by Charles Olson</a> reminds us as teacher-researcher</span><span class="s8">s</span><span class="s8"> </span><span class="s8">that we are part of a larger community a</span><span class="s8">n</span><span class="s8">d that our work has roots</span><span class="s8">.</span><span class="s8"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="s8">In academic writing, the roots are purposely left dangling.</span><br />
<span class="s8"><br /></span> <span class="s8">If we consider the larger world, we find that everything has roots. But the dangling roots are not always visible. Looking for those roots and examining them in detail enriches any area of observation, study, or pursuit in which we might engage.</span><br />
<span class="s8"><br /></span> <span class="s8">Several beautiful picture books of poetry provide a musical illustration of this academic principle of "dangling roots".</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0892392126/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0892392126&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=A5S3WAA7U6TECOOV" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0892392126&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s34"><span class="s34">Just as we examine the larger context of our written work, </span></span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s34"><span class="s8"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0892392126/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0892392126&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=A5S3WAA7U6TECOOV">I see the rhythm</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0892392126" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> details the history and progression of African American music, beginning with <img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0892392126" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />its African roots—including all of its historical</span><span class="s8"> and more current</span><span class="s8"> iterations.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="s8"><br /></span> <span class="s8">Through poetry and magnificent images, each book below deals</span><span class="s8"> with </span><span class="s8">a singular and specific aspect of this larger context of African/African American musi</span><span class="s8">c (blues or jazz, or one’s own experience in general</span><span class="s8">) </span> and locates it clearly in this same larger context.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0823420795/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0823420795&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=IG3ZAMPALZNUTW7S"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0823420795&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0823420795" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span a="" class="s34" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0823421732/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0823421732&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=GXDPRTREJDFLEE54" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0823421732&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span a="" class="s34" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0823421732/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0823421732&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=GXDPRTREJDFLEE54" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s34" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008SMACOG/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008SMACOG&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=7H6TKDAJDX2KVVPA"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B008SMACOG&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B008SMACOG" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> </span></span> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525469494/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0525469494&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=WOY36WFLPB5DBOKW"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0525469494&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0525469494" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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As a side note, and to further extend the notion of roots, I realized the creators of these four texts are two father-son pairs--Walter Dean Myers and Christopher Myers, Arnold Adoff and Jaime Adoff.<br />
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Where else can we look for dangling roots?<br />
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One place is our own writing-- our own poetry.<br />
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This previous post, <a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2013/02/loveand-poetry-my-loveaffair-with.html">Love and Poetry</a> traces the roots of my love affair with poetry as a genre and some of the poets who have influenced my poetry. It all began with this pink book---the tip of my dangling poetry roots.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51OnjuffCiL._SL500_SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51OnjuffCiL._SL500_SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" height="320" width="242" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000N4XZRI/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000N4XZRI&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=PYUQHIUIQLATFLBA">The Golden Picture Book of Poems to Read and to Learn</a><br />
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Where are your dangling roots? </div>
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<h3 style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 36px;">
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
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Reflect on your own writing-- or art or music or other area of interest.</div>
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What is the context of your work? How does your work fit into the larger conversation and landscape?</div>
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Write a poem or essay about your dangling roots.</div>
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Trace your roots in a personal narrative. </div>
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Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-12468435444712532852015-04-07T14:30:00.001-07:002015-04-07T14:30:04.113-07:00POETRY: A SINGLE MOMENT<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, Andale, monospace; font-size: 12pt; padding: 10px;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This one moment.</span></div>
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This one <span style="font-size: 12pt;">crystallized </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">moment broken open --spilling</span></div>
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the essence of all contained and hidden</div>
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within its boundaries of time<br />
and space</div>
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and imagination.</div>
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<br /></div>
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This one moment</div>
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This one divine moment deconstructed --laying bare</div>
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all the shades and shadows, all the layers</div>
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all the phases and phrases <span style="font-size: 12pt;">leading </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">up</span></div>
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to this moment</div>
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and beyond.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
This one moment</div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
This one significant moment explored and exploded--opening</div>
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revelations and visions of all possible moments</div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
re-membering our own stories</div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
while reflecting forgotten truths</div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">This one moment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Poetry--</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> good poetry-- can make us look at a single moment, </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">revealing the prism of meanings---the rainbow </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">of interpretations missed</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">if we do not stop and capture them</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
if we do not pause and <span style="font-size: 12pt;">drink this moment</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
if we keep walking, talking, and sleeping past this moment</div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://tedkooser.net/">Ted Kooser</a> (U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006) made the following statement in his American Life in Poetry Column #269:</div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt; padding: 10px;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It is enough for me as a reader that a poem take from life a single moment and hold it up for me to look at. There need not be anything sensational or unusual or peculiar about that moment, but somehow, by directing my attention to it, our attention to it, the poet bathes it in the light of the remarkable.</span><span style="font-family: Monaco, Courier New, Courier, Andale, monospace;"> </span></blockquote>
In that particular column, he offers us a poem <a href="http://www.americanlifeinpoetry.org/columns/269.html">by Carolyn Miller, The World as It Is </a>as just such a poem. Here are the opening lines:</div>
<div style="background-color: white; padding: 10px;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-size: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">No ladders, no descending angels, no voice</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-size: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">out of the whirlwind, no rending</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-size: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">of the veil, or chariot in the sky—only</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-size: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">water rising and falling in breathing springs</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-size: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">and seeping up through limestone, aquifers filling</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-size: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">and flowing over, russet stands of prairie grass</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-size: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">and dark pupils of black-eyed Susans....</span></blockquote>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
Poetry calls us to memorialize moments--small and large. </div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
Poetry forces us to recall fragile feelings, rare relationships, and ordinary observations.</div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
As I drove early in the morning to a Diocesan Convention this past November, the sunset painted and prefaced the day with such beauty that as I continued to drive,I composed the following haiku:</div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sunrise - a new day<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">with shekinah potential<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">and orange possibilities</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
A moment savored. A moment saved.</div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
In <a href="http://www.williamstafford.org/spoems/pages/youreading.html">You Reading This, Be Ready</a>, <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/william-e-stafford">William Stafford</a> calls for us to be present in each moment. He reminds us to pay attention to our surroundings, our thinking and our feelings as we move through the world. </div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Starting here, what do you want to remember?</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">What scent of old wood hovers, what softened</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">sound from outside fills the air?</span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Will you ever bring a better gift for the world</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">than the breathing respect that you carry</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">wherever you go right now?...</span></blockquote>
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1118459431/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1118459431&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=GP3LSXEO2VFZZHHH" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1118459431&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1118459431" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> In the introduction to the <i>Teachable Moments</i> section of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1118459431/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1118459431&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=GP3LSXEO2VFZZHHH">Teaching with Heart: Poetry that Speaks to the Courage to Teach</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1118459431" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, we find these words that further remind us of the power of poetry to help us remember the moment:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The teachers describe how reading poetry provides a low-tech version of time-lapse photography. Poetry captures the single luminous moment. From this moment we can reflect, savor, and more deeply understand. </blockquote>
<br />
We find powerful moments on which to reflect daily if we pay attention.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/sharon-olds">Sharon Olds</a> has such a moment on the subway as she faces her whiteness and all that is signified by it, while sitting opposite a boy in the same car in all his blackness. She records her thoughts in a poem, <a href="http://www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record.asp?id=2161">On the Subway:</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">The boy and I face each other.</span><br style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;" /><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">His feet are huge, in black sneakers </span><br style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;" /><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">laced with white in a complex pattern like a</span><br style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;" /><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">set of intentional scars. We are stuck on</span><br style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;" /><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">opposite sides of the car, a couple of</span><br style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;" /><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">molecules stuck in a rod of light</span><br style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;" /><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">rapidly moving through darkness. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">He has the </span><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">casual cold look of a mugger,</span><br style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;" /><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">alert under hooded lids. ...</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">I am wearing dark fur, the</span><br style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;" /><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">whole skin of an animal taken and</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">used....</span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheQQcjmKh3BlQ2esF_v0dkYd1-HK1oH-f1kL9KCldRyQu-iU9siNdKZsA1zpGTBEbz8bNvLD4VbR_xzACysydW-O5V6f3wYW8GHuRSedIHF5em5zD08zcdrP_PYqBUvuZekzfPq90wm8aM/s1600/subway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheQQcjmKh3BlQ2esF_v0dkYd1-HK1oH-f1kL9KCldRyQu-iU9siNdKZsA1zpGTBEbz8bNvLD4VbR_xzACysydW-O5V6f3wYW8GHuRSedIHF5em5zD08zcdrP_PYqBUvuZekzfPq90wm8aM/s1600/subway.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AInterior_of_an_R32_by_David_Shankbone.JPG">By David Shankbone (David Shankbone (own work)) <br />[CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], <br />via Wikimedia Commons</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"></span></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">And finally I invite you to not only to remember and reflect on selected moments, but to explore and explode these moments-- seeking more details, more understanding. See my previous post, <a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2014/01/exploding-moment-exploring-with-writing.html">Exploding a Moment: Exploring with Writing,</a> for samples, suggestions, and related resources.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</span></span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">Consider the past day or two. Select a moment that stands out in your mind.</span></span></div>
<div>
List details-- metaphors, comparisons, sensory information, emotions--all that you remember about that moment.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Write a short poem capturing all that is essential.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Explore your moment.</div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">
What additional details do you now remember?<br />
What sensory details can be added? Where can further description be expanded?<br />
What comparisons occur to you?<br />
Can you add analogies? Are there appropriate metaphors that can be included?</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">
What did it mean? How did you feel? </blockquote>
Now write a second poem that explodes the moment.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">See my previous post, <a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2014/01/exploding-moment-exploring-with-writing.html">Exploding a Moment: Exploring with Writing,</a> for samples, suggestions, and related resources.</span></span></div>
</div>
Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-87834019149380311302015-03-30T10:18:00.001-07:002015-04-09T16:02:01.065-07:00THE UNIVERSE: WHAT IF IT'S ALL POETRY?<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9WR5guAYIEN-GuJS7wcfxPBXxmqZsRh-c9fxk3c8mYd78y3V-werlgjFhGLjSYKo_SBGa3uThExoZiNn6C0deM_cp5OGmUmdrZZ_Jaeq9a3Jm9e6S0yuA60si_UMEgtgWy_-yU1JXjwoH/s1600/_Hidden_Universe_showing_the_Carina_Nebula.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9WR5guAYIEN-GuJS7wcfxPBXxmqZsRh-c9fxk3c8mYd78y3V-werlgjFhGLjSYKo_SBGa3uThExoZiNn6C0deM_cp5OGmUmdrZZ_Jaeq9a3Jm9e6S0yuA60si_UMEgtgWy_-yU1JXjwoH/s1600/_Hidden_Universe_showing_the_Carina_Nebula.jpg" height="233" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.3000001907349px; line-height: 21.2800006866455px; text-align: start;"><a href="http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1329b/">ESO/T. Preibisch</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
We have been on earth for thousands of years.<br />
<br />
Wandering and wondering, roaming and researching, exploring and examining our world.<br />
Seeking to understand, to number, to order, to name-- all that is...<br />
<br />
Ever attempting to answer the perennial questions:<br />
What is real? What is true?<br />
How did it all begin and how does it all work?<br />
Who are we?<br />
And why are we here?<br />
<br />
What if the answers are more complex than we ever imagined, yet far simpler than we have guessed?<br />
<br />
What if it's all poetry?<br />
<br />
I recently discovered several amazing books that seem to suggest just such an answer.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/149047739X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=149047739X&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=MTRKGQX2XPLEOBW4" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=149047739X&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a>In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/149047739X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=149047739X&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=MTRKGQX2XPLEOBW4">CosmoLyrical: what if it's all poetry?</a>, <img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=149047739X" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><a href="http://phievalon.com/">Phievalon (stage name of spoken-word artist Phil Long)</a> offers answers from across the cosmos, pointing us to language and ideas and poetry as the question and the answer. And the source of it all-- A Poet!<br />
<br />
In an excerpt from<i> <a href="http://phievalon.com/">What if it's all poetry</a></i><a href="http://phievalon.com/">?</a> He offers the following:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
What if matter is actually made up of what really matters?..... what if atoms were iambs.... and rocks are merely metaphors?....</blockquote>
And in another excerpt he asserts:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
That we are absurd,<br />
we spoken words,<br />
language in dust,<br />
poetry in protein,<br />
amino acid adventures,<br />
prose, still waiting for answers.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This IS my reason to believe; a fairy-tale God-poet<br />
writing souls into eternity<br />
with dust...</blockquote>
<a href="http://phievalon.com/">Click to listen to <i>What if it's all poetry</i>?</a> or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am5l-T9V2Ek">watch a live performance</a> at the Java Monkey in Decatur, Georgia.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Likewise, we are invited to continue our ponderings and wonderings about the cosmos, our existence, and the whys of it all in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1888047259/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1888047259&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=XCCQ3225K6L2OQIK">The Universe Verse</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1888047259" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> by James Lu Dunbar.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1888047259/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1888047259&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=XCCQ3225K6L2OQIK" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1888047259&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1888047259" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />His book serves up a double dish of delight--- poetry <i>and </i>comics converge to explain the origins of the universe, our own earth, and life, including human beings He spans all time and theories, from the Big Bang to the invention and benefits of writing. In between he considers energy, space, time, matter, DNA, and much more.<br />
<br />
He ends with an invitation to continue to question what we know and what is known;<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
While science is new<br />
and still in it's youth,<br />
already it's shown us<br />
such beautiful truth,<br />
all it needs is a question<br />
and some willing sleuth.<br />
Do you like to wonder?<br />
Do you like to ask?<br />
You might be just who<br />
we need for this task....<br />
The universe is a chain<br />
and you're one lucky link,<br />
so be grateful and kind,<br />
and do try to think!</blockquote>
<br />
Science in rhymes and frames.<br />
Theories in verse and panels.<br />
<br />
In order to appreciate this book, you must see the text integrated with the images--- They cannot be separated. <a href="http://www.jldunbar.com/home/the-universe-verse">Click here to see images, as well as a brief video allowing you to peek inside the book.</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Poets have always contemplated, metaphorized, and versified the universe, their world, and their place in both. They have pondered in galactic generalities, as well as personalized specificities. We have volumes of poetry which support the notion that it's <i>all </i>poetry.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1571314075/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1571314075&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=VJVRGV67ILZ7LYKW" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1571314075&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a> In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1571314075/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1571314075&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=VJVRGV67ILZ7LYKW">Verse & Universe: Poems about Science and Mathematics</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1571314075" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, editor Kurt Brown has gathered quintessential representations of such poetry by poets we know and love, including Charles Simic, <img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1571314075" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> Howard Nemerov, Albert Goldbarth, Jorie Graham, John Updike, William Stafford, Rita Dove, Billy Collins, and more.<br />
<br />
This collection of verses tackles all that exists. The selections include topics such as the universe, space, time, matter, heavenly bodies, earth, animals, and humans, as well as theory and speculation, and numbers.<br />
<br />
Science and math translated into poetic wisdom, reflections, and questions.<br />
Theory and research in stanzas.<br />
<br />
One of the epigraphs chosen by Brown, a quote by Edward Abbey from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452265622/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0452265622&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=YPNU7C4AEQBL3TJH">The Journey Home, </a>says it all:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Any good poet, in our age at least, must begin with the scientific view of the world; and any scientist worth listening to must be something of a poet, must possess the ability to communicate to the rest of us his sense of love and wonder at what his work discovers.</blockquote>
<br />
Abbey seems to agree--- it's all poetry.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345539435/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0345539435&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=YFZKVEIYRUG2DHX4" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0345539435&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0345539435" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />I remember my amazement at Carl Sagan's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345539435/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0345539435&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=YFZKVEIYRUG2DHX4">Cosmo</a>s<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0345539435" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. These poetic texts on the same subjects make perfect companions to Sagan's now classic scientific work.<br />
<br />
And not only is it all poetry on the cosmic scale; it is all poetry in our personal lives, as we consider where we fit in the larger plan, place, and purpose.<br />
<br />
In the Bible, Ephesians 2:10 asserts that we are God's workmanship, his masterpiece, his opus, his handiwork------ the Greek word here is <i>poiema. </i><br />
Yes....we are God's poems.<br />
It is all poetry.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://books.google.com/books/content?id=xwd694d-z7IC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=5&edge=curl&imgtk=AFLRE71ZFc-IkZVV-IRu5L8dg-eSaAwlb6CGDcXcwYqdJwppr8o3eTeBXWoZVGek0rqJxwpqtetJCALKGDeMZJXocu63FfvCV3blGKX8fARxNOOXlCSN23X9wFCyBgavporhlJqZ3hVI" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://books.google.com/books/content?id=xwd694d-z7IC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=5&edge=curl&imgtk=AFLRE71ZFc-IkZVV-IRu5L8dg-eSaAwlb6CGDcXcwYqdJwppr8o3eTeBXWoZVGek0rqJxwpqtetJCALKGDeMZJXocu63FfvCV3blGKX8fARxNOOXlCSN23X9wFCyBgavporhlJqZ3hVI" /></a>In poetry, we can seek, name, number, and order our lives in the context of the cosmos. We can observe, reflect, and question who we are individually, as well as cosmically.<br />
<br />
<br />
In <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=xwd694d-z7IC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Secrets+to+the+Universe&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xmwZVfaYIoS4ggTa_oCQBg&ved=0CEMQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Secrets%20to%20the%20Universe&f=false">Secrets to the Universe</a>, Wit Woliczko has recorded, in haiku and senryu, personal observations and theories of his own life in the universe. Here are two samples:<br />
<br />
How does one slow time?<br />
Listen to every second....<br />
for Infinity.<br />
<br />
<br />
I anticipate<br />
to look at the world anew<br />
with every poem<br />
<br />
<br />
And young writer, eleven -year old Savion Harris writes poetry to explore his narrow, homeless universe. His poem <a href="http://www.rattle.com/poetry/questions-by-savion-harris/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rattle%2FCNOS+%28Rattle%3A+Poetry+for+the+21st+Century%29">Questions</a> is included in <a href="http://www.rattle.com/poetry/rypa2014/">2014 Rattle Young Poets Anthology</a>.<br />
<br />
Who am I?<br />
Where do I belong?<br />
Do I have a home?...<br />
I'm not even sure if<br />
I exist.<br />
<br />
And finally, as we consider our lives in our world, lived in relationship to all that exists, there is nothing that we think, feel, say, do or encounter, that is not poetry, that cannot become a poem.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568462409/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1568462409&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=5PKCJZVL3X4QO7DD" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1568462409&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1568462409" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />So in closing I offer <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568462409/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1568462409&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=5PKCJZVL3X4QO7DD">Everything is a Poem: The Best of J. Patrick Lewis</a>. In this collection,we find people, animals, places, riddles and reading, nature and nonsense---- all become poems.<br />
<br />
<br />
What if it's <i>all </i>poetry?<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
<div>
Consider those perennial questions:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What is real? What is true?<br />
How did it all begin and how does it all work?<br />
Who are we?<br />
And why are we here?<br />
<br />
Write a meditation exploring these questions.<br />
<br />
<br />
Consider the notion that it is all poetry. Write an essay, personal narrative, or poem entitled <b><i>What if it's all poetry?</i></b></div>
Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-65738138785849657352015-03-22T14:29:00.001-07:002015-04-08T05:04:39.314-07:00 SPRINGING INTO LIFE<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSLo4uX-v5hMaV-s1g1j17oqvmn8-gfO4Z2sKlMHQe9zOBAA2ADHw" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSLo4uX-v5hMaV-s1g1j17oqvmn8-gfO4Z2sKlMHQe9zOBAA2ADHw" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I saw my first robin of the season on the way to church last week.<br />
<br />
The sun was shining. It was warmer that day than it had been in a long time.<br />
<br />
I did not wear my puffy down coat.<br />
No hat.<br />
No gloves.<br />
No boots.<br />
<br />
Just a light shawl.<br />
<br />
I have been hearing birds singing ever since that day.<br />
<br />
Spring is here.<br />
<br />
And we welcome this season of new life.<br />
We welcome the shedding of heavy clothes--the stripping of winter skins<br />
We look with anticipation at bare limbs beginning to sprout buds-- the foretaste of green leaves and colorful blossoms.<br />
<br />
We even welcome the rain that will come in seasonal abundance, smelling of soil and growth and sunshine.<br />
<br />
Spring inspires poets.<br />
<br />
We can't look at all the changes and beauty of this time of year without painting images on paper, seeding our world with words of resurrected life, and welcoming the new lightness that we are beginning to feel.<br />
<br />
We can't help but stand at our windows with<a href="http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/billy-collins"> Billy Collins</a> in <a href="http://tylerpoems.blogspot.com/search/label/Billy%20Collin">his poem, Monday</a>, and watch the world gradually dress itself in lovely Easter finery.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14.3000001907349px; line-height: 22.8800010681152px;">The birds are in their trees,</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14.3000001907349px; line-height: 22.8800010681152px;">the toast is in the toaster,</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14.3000001907349px; line-height: 22.8800010681152px;">and the poets are at their windows.</span></blockquote>
<br />
We experience these changes with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsuo_Bash%C5%8D">Basho</a> in his <a href="http://poetry.about.com/od/poemsbytitles/l/blbashospring.htm">haiku</a>--- with our eyes <i>and</i> our noses.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Spring air —</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">woven moon</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">and plum scent.</span></blockquote>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> The rays shift and shade new angles--in <a href="http://poetry.about.com/library/weekly/bldickinsonspring.htm">812,</a> <a href="http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/emily-dickinson">Emily Dickinson </a>highlights that spring light</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19.5px;">A Light exists in Spring</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19.5px;">Not present on the Year</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19.5px;">At any other period —</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19.5px;">When March is scarcely here</span></span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19.5px;">A Color stands abroad</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19.5px;">On Solitary Fields</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19.5px;">That Science cannot overtake</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19.5px;">But Human Nature feels.</span></span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19.5px;">It waits upon the Lawn,</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19.5px;">It shows the furthest Tree</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19.5px;">Upon the furthest </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 19.5px;">Slope you know</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19.5px;">It almost speaks to you....</span></span></blockquote>
Several years ago, as my fifth graders and I were walking back in to our school from recess, we saw several crocuses just blooming. These were the first flowers we had seen that spring. At their insistence, I snapped a picture.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTm77mKUirkYJSTShp8R_7I1p4ODhqQg8cv2ePKGzsK-RrtrXM7HTBIGCSCePgvQpspJ0rR36O97mwQyVZSKmjdIZ0xLp0uz2Z1Q2kGM1Kw4HKBTTgv0FghO6shLZ2KeTHTSx43FUXSAPn/s1600/Crocuses-+Salem+ES.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTm77mKUirkYJSTShp8R_7I1p4ODhqQg8cv2ePKGzsK-RrtrXM7HTBIGCSCePgvQpspJ0rR36O97mwQyVZSKmjdIZ0xLp0uz2Z1Q2kGM1Kw4HKBTTgv0FghO6shLZ2KeTHTSx43FUXSAPn/s1600/Crocuses-+Salem+ES.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Once back in our room, we immediately engaged in a cumulative sentence process (<a href="http://www.corwin.com/books/Book237931">Holland 2012</a>, pp 171-175) to collaboratively produce the following<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=odGXQIHr9u8C&q=Cumulative+poems#v=snippet&q=Cumulative%20poems&f=false"> cumulative poem</a>:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Five purple crocuses<br />
pushed their heads up<br />
through the hard winter soil<br />
greeted the sun<br />
opened their silken petals<br />
drank the sweet spring rain<br />
and danced--<br />
just for us.</blockquote>
<br />
As you search for poems that reflect your spring spirit, there are many resources that offer what you seek.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.poets.org/text/poems-spring">The Academy of American Poets Website, Poets.Org,</a> offers a range of spring poems<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/article/241410">Poetry Foundation</a> also offers us a range of poems and articles about spring<br />
<br />
Another source for classic and contemporary spring poems is the <a href="http://poetry.about.com/od/ourpoemcollections/a/springpoems.htm">poetry section of About.com</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
Stand at your window and observe the seasonal signs and changes that indicate spring is here.<br />
<br />
Take a walk noting the evidences of new growth and life.<br />
<br />
Write the longest sentence you can, detailing your observations. Include many clauses, phrases actions, and descriptions.<br />
<br />
Then begin to choose several phrases from your sentence to create your own cumulative poem.<br />
<br />
<b>Here is my sentence and resulting cumulative poem:</b><br />
<br />
<i>New life hides beneath the surface waiting for one more drop of rain, reaching for one more ray of sunlight, hoping for a quiet breath of spring air, while judging just the right moment to poke through the hard dirt, to show one bare bud, to furl one green leaf, gasping at the struggle to defy winter death.</i><br />
<br />
<br />
New life hides<br />
beneath the surface<br />
waiting for one more drop of rain<br />
one more ray of sunlight<br />
and a quiet breath of spring air<br />
while judging the right moment<br />
to emerge<br />
poking through the hard dirt<br />
showing one bare bud<br />
unfurling one green leaf<br />
gasping---<br />
at the struggle<br />
to defy winter death.Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196132901464401556.post-76800167631882275652015-03-18T06:39:00.000-07:002015-03-18T06:39:06.608-07:00A WORD OR TWO OR NONE<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOax0My2-fCCSH4PIKCblsfy9FYvi6AwqJaSRHEyIy8xNB4BhK7Vrup_kaNOIMe7WyfGXbQI_xHjcZ6HLpR8YOijoXoPy21Jc8Dc1d6JyTnRVoMg1rqwObXOQirVFantxkigkuHX3zPY7i/s1600/wordle.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOax0My2-fCCSH4PIKCblsfy9FYvi6AwqJaSRHEyIy8xNB4BhK7Vrup_kaNOIMe7WyfGXbQI_xHjcZ6HLpR8YOijoXoPy21Jc8Dc1d6JyTnRVoMg1rqwObXOQirVFantxkigkuHX3zPY7i/s1600/wordle.png" height="207" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
I talk a lot.<br />
<br />
Sometimes it would be better if I didn't utter so many words. Or maybe no words.<br />
<br />
When I write, I also use many words. Writing group members and friends who edit my work are always suggesting that I not be so repetitive--- that I use fewer words.<br />
<br />
In order to control and combat that wordy urge in writing, I naturally gravitate toward short forms--- haiku, haibun, tanka and the like. (See my earlier posts related to short forms: <a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2014/04/haiku-meditations.html">Haiku Meditations</a> and<a href="http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.com/2014/04/conversations-in-poetry.html"> Conversations in Poetry.</a>)<br />
<br />
As an illustrator, I would probably be that artist with too many lines, too much color, and many unnecessary details.<br />
<br />
I recently discovered two delightful new books that have perfected the minimalist approach-- in both words and images.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1554984092/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1554984092&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=HOC6ZO5TVEBCKIBG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1554984092&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1554984092/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1554984092&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=HOC6ZO5TVEBCKIBG">Work: An Occupational ABC</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1554984092" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> by <a href="http://www.kellenhatanaka.com/work/">Kellen Hatanaka</a> challenges us to revisit our classic conceptions<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1554984092" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> and connotations of jobs, who can do them, and how they are to be done. Women are engaged in jobs we stereotypically portray as male-centered. Elderly folks are included, as well, as young folks. And the illustrations offer people of a variety of colors, and even include, on the <i>xenologist </i>pages, a four-legged person from another world.<br />
<br />
Each page (and some two-page spreads) include a large capital letter and one word identifying an occupation. Simple. Yet as we ponder the array of jobs-- some we have heard of and others that may be unfamiliar-- we begin to notice connections and embedded stories. We begin to see hidden visual jokes and surprises. Complexity.<br />
<br />
The cover shows the illustration from the <i>grocer </i>page, but to be fully enjoyed, this illustration cannot be separated from the <i>forest ranger</i> page preceding it, and the <i>horticulturist </i>page following it.<br />
<br />
I collect ABC books, and this is that, but so much more. Children and adults alike will delight each time they discover a new twist and turn in Hatanaka's creative offering.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/02/06/work-kellen-hatanaka/">To view images from this book and read Maria Popova's related article, Rethinking Our Atlas of Possibilities: An Alphabet Book of Imaginative, Uncommon, and Stereotype-Defying Occupations, click here.</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0763676217/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0763676217&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=KMB77KBQDZ4AJAZX" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0763676217&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0763676217/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0763676217&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=KMB77KBQDZ4AJAZX">Before After</a> by Anne-Margo Ramstein and Matthias Aregui enchants our eyes and our minds.This wordless book will provide hours of contemplation and fun for everyone who opens these pages.<br />
<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0763676217" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />What comes before? What comes after? We all know the koan about the chicken or the egg-- in this book the egg comes first...or does it?<br />
<br />
Again, children and adults will delight in discovering connections, humor, reappearance of previous items and ideas, literary allusions, political statements and more--- all with no words. Much discussion, laughter, and after-thinking will be generated around reasons an item is <i>before</i> or <i>after</i>.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=before+after+by+ramstein&es_sm=122&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=IJgIVZn6NcGHNu7VgJgH&ved=0CEEQ7Ak&biw=1366&bih=643">Click here to see sample images from Before After.</a><br />
<br />
Both of these books, discovered within days of each other, immediately reminded me of the artistic and intriguing visual conundrums offered by Blexbolex. With only one or two words to label each image, he also creates connections-- some obvious and some obscure. His books,<a href="https://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592701108/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1592701108&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=Y6F5XU7HGBXNRCFP%22%3EPeople%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1592701108%22%20width=%221%22%20height=%221%22%20border=%220%22%20alt=%22%22%20style=%22border:none%20!important;%20margin:0px%20!important;%22%20/%3E">People </a>and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592700950/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1592700950&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=YEYXWQBFUJS77WQH">Seasons</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1592700950" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, will make perfect companions for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1554984092/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1554984092&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=SARUMXLA2FGIR7QI">Work: An Occupational ABC</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1554984092" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> and <a href="https://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592700950/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1592700950&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=665AV74FYOK4V2ZQ%22%3ESeasons%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1592700950%22%20width=%221%22%20height=%221%22%20border=%220%22%20alt=%22%22%20style=%22border:none%20!important;%20margin:0px%20!important;%22%20/%3E"> </a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0763676217/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0763676217&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=VXSOPOQJFAGBPOLB">Before After</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0763676217" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592701108/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1592701108&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=5JHWM2HM3QHZHDM5" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1592701108&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/29156761">Click here to see images from People.</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592700950/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1592700950&linkCode=as2&tag=deewriandreao-20&linkId=EMI2V5IKF5F3ZGA6" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1592700950&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=deewriandreao-20" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-dzN2K0T68">Click here to see images from Seasons</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=deewriandreao-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1592701108" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <br />
When the words are few<br />
the images can grab you<br />
and say it all.<br />
<h3>
Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities</h3>
<div>
Examine the images in the above books. Note and write about some of the connections, patterns, humor, literary allusions, political or societal statements. </div>
<div>
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<div>
Reflect on times when images, rather than words, delivered strong messages for you.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Write an essay or poem about that event or situation or moment.</div>
<div>
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<br />Robin W. Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03979007713624018229noreply@blogger.com0