The Spartan Press Prize

Congratulations to the following winners of this year's Spartan Press Prize. These winners' anthologies have been selected, on the strength of their writing, for addition to the Homestead IMC collection, where they will receive their own call number and can be seen, read, and checked out by future generations of students here at HHS. This year's winners, out of over 100 entries:

Jamie Baer, "Subject to Change: Poems about Coming of Age"

Laura Zeng, "The Coming and Going of Age: Poems about Growing Up"

Sarah Mattson, "Poetry is Music Without Melody: Lyrics of Poetry, an Anthology"

Haley Havert, "Love So Sudden and So Sweet: Poems of Summer Love"

Sirena Hudson, "I Have an Aversion to Peace, as Does the Rest of the World: Poems Concerning War"

Congratulations to our winners and thank you to all participants in this year's competition. It was an exceptional batch of entries.

Final poem of the day

Li Po, "Zazen on Ching-t’ing Mountain"

Today:

1. Sew your book!

2. Prepare your presentation! Memorize your poem! Make a video! Ask questions!

3. Fill your Moleskine!

4. Read your book!

Today, three poem videos. Here are two from the Poetry Foundation.

Robert Hayden, "Those Winter Sundays."

Maruice Guevara, "Dona Josefina Counsels Dona Concepcion Before Entering Sears."

Headquarters

Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Music, when soft voices die"

Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory,
Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.

Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heaped for the beloved's bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.


Hi everyone. Posting from my living room today. I love this point in the semester because by now you know all you need to know to finish this class, pretty much. So today, just spend your time doing what you know needs to be done.

You should continue the process of making your chapbook file. If you have questions, refer to the instructions on the notes page. Or ask around. My hope is that by Friday you can have your chapbooks printed and ready to sew with me. I will try to have paper you can buy from me on Thursday, though supplies may run low.

If you have not already, you should re-read the requirements for the anthology presentation, also found on the class notes page. Please understand that the poetry video assignment can be challenging. If you don't think you can record your own reading, you will have to find your poet's poem online, which is not a real likely proposition. The Foundation site has some audio, as does this one, where you can search by author.

You should also consider doing an exercise or two in our textbook to prepare yourself for the test tomorrow.

I can't believe how fast this semester is going.

See you tomorrow.

Po Chu-i (772-846), "Night Snow"

I wondered why the covers felt so cold,
and then I saw how bright my window was.
Night far gone, I know the snow must be deep --
from time to time I hear the bamboos cracking.

Sharon Olds, "First Thanksgiving"

This week is "Make Week"! You've done all of the intellectual work--now it's time for something more purely creative:

• Make the template that you will print to make your chapbook!
• Print and bind the chapbook itself!
• Prepare your semester presentation!
• Memorize a poem you want to feature in your presentation!
• Edit a poem video for your presentation!

This week is about giving you the time and support you need to create. Let me know when you need help, because presentations begin next Monday.

from Postsecret

Today: eBooks are due by 5:00. If you are having trouble pasting in your poems, you may paste in links instead, but please, only as a last resort.