NOTE

Always check the calendar.

POV descriptive writing

POV writing assignment: This is the continuation of what you did in class on Thursday. There, I gave you fifteen minutes to describe a place familiar to you, something you could easily bring to mind and mentally inhabit. The second part of that assignment is to imagine someone you know very well, someone whose perceptions and reactions you think you can picture, and place that person into that space you described. What would that person experience and describe in that space?

In part, this is an exercise in calling on your abilities to both perceive an actual space and detail that space, but it's also an exercise (as I say above) in point of view, in seeing things through someone else's eyes.

You may type this or not; it's up to you. I do want to collect it (mostly to see, in general, how people approached the assignment).

Poetry & essays

Thursday will be the final day of poetry discussion. We'll also talk about those brief essays in the handout packet.

Poems due

Two poems of at least eight lines each are due on Monday. Let me know if you have any questions.

I recommend reading the section on the "eye/I" as well as simply browsing the book for poems you find interesting or would like to discuss.

Poems should be typed and printed out. We won't begin discussing the poems till the following class, but I'll need to make copies of the first batch of poems to read. I'll ask you to choose one poem for the group to "workshop."

More about poetry (reading and writing)

Thanks for a terrific discussion of "Those Winter Sundays." You'll notice that part of what made so much discussion possible was that the poem didn't provide every detail; the gaps--the unspoken words and elusive elements of the characters' lives--allow space for the reader to both assume and wonder.

For next class, read pp. 25-42. You might also dip into the poems we skipped over and the poems from later in the new chapter. Keep looking for what's interesting, puzzling, or useful to you.

I do want you working to produce two poems of at least 8 lines each. Ideally, you'd have those for me by Monday. Then we could start reading your poems, as a class, on Wednesday.

For next Tuesday: reading, other things

Read to p. 15 in your book; annotate, and prepare to discuss the poems in that section. (You might also browse the subsequent pages of sample poems; we'll pick a few to discuss later.) At some point, especially if you're having difficulty getting started on composing a poem, have a look at pp. 479-491, which contain suggestions for putting something down on paper. As I said, jotting down occasional thoughts, observations, and lines is a good habit.

Great job on the "found" poems. Those were enjoyable to hear, and I hope you enjoyed and appreciated the process.

Found poetry; reading

For next class, read from ix to xviii in the Mayes book on poetry. Be sure to annotate the book, noting things of interest or things you don't understand (either in the prose or the poetry).

Your "found poetry" assignment is also due next class, so I recommend that you start on it this evening, as you have to first find material before you decide how to re/arrange that material. In the link section at the right of the screen is a link to the Found Poetry Review. Though no longer publishing, the site gives you access to all ten volumes of the journal. (My daughter's poems were taken from Vol. 8.)