Sputnik and Seuss--I'm the Same Age as V_NN_, too

(the year you were born)

Dwight Eisenhower is president of the US First civil rights bill since Reconstruction to protect blacks' voting rights is approved by Congress Hurricane "Audrey" destroys Cameron, Louisiana killing 390 people National Guardsmen bar nine black students from entering previously all white Central High School in Little Rock Russians launch Sputnik I, first earth orbiting satellite The FBI arrests Jimmy Hoffa and charges him with bribery Vanna White, Osama bin Laden, Sid Vicious, and Melanie Griffith are born Milwaukee Brewers win World Series Detroit Lions win NFL championship Montreal Canadiens win Stanley Cup On the Road by Jack Kerouac is published The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss is published

What Happened the Year You Were Born?

From the Paris Review Archives: Dinesen on Rhyme--and a Lot of Blather from Moi

INTERVIEWER

I suppose that you began to write seriously there?

DINESEN

I did begin to write [in Africa] . . . But earlier, I learned how to tell tales. For, you see, I had the perfect audience. . .the natives have an ear still. I told stories constantly to them, all kinds. And all kinds of nonsense. I’d say, “Once there was a man who had an elephant with two heads” . . . and at once they were eager to hear more. “Oh? Yes, but Memsahib, how did he find it, and how did he manage to feed it?” or whatever. They loved such invention. I delighted my people there by speaking in rhyme for them; they have no rhyme, you know, had never discovered it. I’d say things like “Wakamba na kula mamba” (“The Wakamba tribe eats snakes”), which in prose would have infuriated them, but which amused them mightily in rhyme. Afterwards they’d say, “Please, Memsabib, talk like rain,” so then I knew they had liked it, for rain was very precious to us there.

________
I love that definition of rhyme: "talk like rain."

Dinesen is an important writer for me, one who always makes me think about sound, makes me want to write for the ear, for the listener.

________
Shakespeare's "Sonnet 73" and Millay's "What Lips..." were really effective in the call/response lesson plan. I'm looking forward to the poems the group will turn in. And I'm asking myself the same questions I asked them: What do you write toward? In response to? In argument/agreement with?

Hopefully, we'll head from writing as political argument, to the sonnet as argument, to sonnets that argue/discuss/amplify other poems, to poems that talk to each other, or talk to themselves (Sandra McPherson's "Collapsars" as an example the class loved, and they also loved the siren/mermaid lineage of Homer-Donne-Eliot), to the argument/agreement all art has with the world (How do you respond to, say, Rivers and Tides?" which we're viewing on Tuesday). I'm equally excited about Komunyakaa and "simile/metaphor," and then ekphrasis, which evolves (I hope) from "You and I Are Disappearing." Can you think of ekphratic poems suitable for a sophomore/junior class? I've thought of "Archaic Torso of Apollo," "Musee des Beaux Arts," and "Why I Am Not a Painter." All of these are in our anthologies.

I love the whole idea of an anthology on talking back--and Conversation Pieces: Poems That Talk to Other Poems is available for preorder. It features fine poet and blogger Suzanne Frischkorn talking back to Neruda (speaking of mermaids)...I've preordered my copy already.

Also, I'm reminded that one root for conversation is "lifestyle."

Also, I'm thinking what's happened to voice in between the Sirens and Ariel...how the fairy tale often won't let women speak directly--there are riddles and talking animals to consult and women who lose their voices as a result of enchantment or other powerlessness...And in their movie, what does Disney tell young girls about voice and individuality?

Better stop now while I still have some energy for the page...

Teaching Simile and Metaphor

The mission: Teach simile and metaphor through two poems by one poet.

The plan: "You and I Are Disappearing" (simile)
"Facing It" (metaphor)

These are by Yusef Komunyakaa, from Dien Cai Dau.

Do you think there is another pair of poems by an author that I could use for my second class to vary this assignment? I'd appreciate any suggestions. Plath has come to mind...

Thanks for your help!

Tagging Myself

Top Ten movies (no order, except the first one is the first one!)

The Bicycle Thief
The Wizard of Oz ("These things must be done delicately.")
Rashoman (ambiguity)
Brazil (Machine Age gone amok)
Dr. Zhivago (swoon)
Lawrence of Arabia (swoon again, the most gorgeous men to appear on screen)
The Remains of the Day (exquisite acting)
The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint's best movie in my humble opinion)
The Last Emperor (Scope)
Casablanca (Play it, Sam.)


Honorable Mention

Vertigo
Rear Window
Breaking Away (Ciao Papa! and corn on the cob scene)
On the Waterfront
All that Jazz
Gone with the Wind
Sounder
The Graduate
Star Wars/The Empire Strikes Back(in inverse proportion to how much I hate S.Wars)
Under the Tuscan Sun (in which I don't love the movie as much as I do Diane Lane and Bramasole--it's my longing to rehab a house/poetry/Italian beach fantasy all in one).



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What's in a Name?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 911 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

When I deploy my maiden name, the results plummet:

HowManyOfMe.com

There is: 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Articulation of Narrative Arch-Arc-and Flight

Because You Asked About the Line Between Poetry and Prose

Sparrows were feeding in a freezing drizzle
That while you watched turned into pieces of snow
Riding a gradient invisible
From silver aslant to random, white, and slow.

There came a moment that you couldn't tell.
And then they clearly flew instead of fell.

Howard Nemerov

______
This says it better than I did. There is an arch-a structural form; there is an arc, which arises out of organic form; and then there's flight.

News from the Bluegrass State

More of the fraudulent out of state ID cards seized in the United States resemble Kentucky identification than any other state.

Now we Kentuckians have no credibility.

P.S. Yes, I am a card-carrying Kentucky Colonel.

From the Smithsonian: Why Longfellow Wore a Beard

Charles Dickens, the most famous novelist on either side of the Atlantic, spent Thanksgiving Day with Longfellow, renewing a friendship they had established 25 years earlier, when Dickens first visited the United States.

Dickens wrote in a letter to his son that Longfellow "is now white-haired and white-bearded, but remarkably handsome. He still lives in his old house, where his beautiful wife was burnt to death. I dined with him the other day, and could not get the terrific scene out of my imagination."

Dickens was referring to Fanny Longfellow's shocking death six years earlier, apparently after her dress was ignited by candle wax as she was sealing an envelope containing a snippet of hair from one of her six children. Longfellow's white beard hid scars from wounds he suffered while trying to smother the flames.
________________________________________________________________________________

I cannot get that "terrific scene" out of my imagination, either.

________________________________________________________________________________

On a somewhat related note, my son is moving out today--starting his first full time job in Nashville. Daniel, I love you--remember to write, call, and e-mail. I feel so proud of him--and so bereft. Thankfully, Raleigh is here for at least the next decade and a half.