Dream of a Thing (Cora Brooks, The Sky Blew Blue)

Imagine an ordinary object, one that you could hold in your hands.  Imagine that you could take this object to a field where you put it down and leave it.

Imagine that someday you come back to the field and find the object that you placed there.

Know that the object has been sleeping.

You are magic.  You can tell what the object is dreaming.

In the same way you can dream impossible or strange things, so can the object.  

Write the dream of the object.

Dylan/Nobel Prize/Portfolios

Morning Reflection:
Do you think Bob Dylan deserves the Nobel Prize?  What does that say about the nature of literature and songwriting as a "fine art"?

Listen to Dylan music.  Read articles.  Look over lyrics:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/arts/music/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-literature.html?_r=0

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/14/world/bob-dylan-nobel-lyrics-quiz/index.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/bob-dylan-wins-2016-nobel-prize-literature-42772070

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/13/entertainment/dylan-songs-history-trnd/index.html

Post a comment as your response to your readings,


WRITING:  Work on portfolios.  You should have 8-10 poems in your folder at this time.  Type up 30/30 poems and label each assignment.  Use MLA heading.  don't forget titles for your poems.

Turn in grade sheets with additional poems you have added today at end of class.  Place a check mark by the additional assignments you have completed.

Response poems

Billy Collins

AGENDA:


Billy Collins website:

http://www.billy-collins.com/

TED talk:

http://blog.ted.com/2012/02/28/poems-in-motion-billy-collins-at-ted2012/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BXZjTETLQM  

Everyday Moments Caught in Time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddw1_3ZVjTE 

WRITING:
1. Select a poem by Billy Collins.  Write a poem modeled on and in response to Billy Collins.


Here's an example of mine in response to poet William Stafford:

Traveling Through The Dark

Traveling through the dark I found a deer
dead on the edge of the Wilson River road.
It is usually best to roll them into the canyon:
that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead.

By glow of the tail-light I stumbled back of the car
and stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing;
she had stiffened already, almost cold.
I dragged her off; she was large in the belly.

My fingers touching her side brought me the reason--
her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting,
alive, still, never to be born.
Beside that mountain road I hesitated.

The car aimed ahead its lowered parking lights;
under the hood purred the steady engine.
I stood in the glare of the warm exhaust turning red;
around our group I could hear the wilderness listen.

I thought hard for us all--my only swerving--,
then pushed her over the edge into the river. 

William Stafford



Intrusion
for William Stafford

Traveling through the dark along the Seaway Trail,
we sense a family of deer, frozen at the edge
of the highway, staring back
at the headlights of our jeep--
their eyes wakeful, wary.

And so I must think of your poem,
of how the road we travel narrows and ends,
and why I, too, must question my swerving.

Later that evening back at home,
phantom deer appear.  Dreamlike,
they lurk at the very edge of consciousness,
silently watching a procession of ghostly vehicles
hurtle through the wilderness.

They wait and watch, bewildered
by these hardened shells
encasing our fragile hearts.

Marcy Gamzon

or

2. Read "Shoveling Snow with Buddha"  pg. 103

Write a poem in which you perform an ordinary activity with a famous figure of history.
What would that be like?  What would you share, learn, begin to understand?

Billy Collins/Workshop

AGENDA:

Read aloud some Collins poems.

Break into workshop groups and workshop poems.

Scholastic Art and Writing

Link:

http://www.artandwriting.org/

Nancy Thorpe Poetry Contest/ Hollins University

10th and 11th grade women

LINK: www.hollins.edu/poetry-contest

Discussion of Billy Collins and Wallace Stevens

Period 8: WRITE 30/30 poems

HMWK:  Read to pg. 42 in Billy Collins

Arts and Lectures/ Encounters With Excellence

www.artsandlectures.org


Good Afternoon.

Rochester Arts & Lectures will once again host high school students at our Thursday night lectures. However, unlike past years and because we are expanding the program to bring speakers into the city schools, we will be offering three evening programs. We can accommodate 16 students plus their teachers. The programs are: 

October 13 Reimagining Home: Rochester. Three poets who grew up in Rochester discuss the influence or not of Rochester on their writings. Cornelius Eady, award winning poet, musician, composer. Marie Howe Poet Emerita of NYS, and Philip Schultz Pulitzer Prize winner. It will be moderated by our own Rochester poet Anthony Leuzi. 

March 23 Reimagining Home: Cuba. Richard Blanco, Inaugural Poet 2013 will discuss his memoir and growing up as a Cuban American.

April 20 Terry Tempest Williams is the author of Refuge, Finding Beauty in a broken world. She is both naturalist, ecofeminist, conservationist, whose writing is truly lyrical no matter the topic. I'm prejudiced, but I think her work is life changing.  

We will give you reserved seating, author background materials, and a copy of the author's book for each student and teacher that participates. 

I realize that transportation is an issue, and we can make volunteers available to assist. 

I will need firm reservations. Last year we were left with many books because of no-shows. Take pity on me.