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.

Today: our final work on our editor's notes! Have a conference with me, or get started on your eBook! See the Notes section for the directions.

Today's poem?

Today: Student's choice.

Remember: the Unit 10 Vocab test takes place on Friday.

And: the final draft of your editor's note is due next Tuesday. You will be submitting the editor's note electronically, with your poems, as an "eBook" to my Homework page by no later than 5:00 pm, that Tuesday.

Class time until then will be devoted to revision, the preparation of your presentation components, your Moleskine, and independent reading.

Today's poem: student's choice

Yusef Komunyakaa, "We Never Know"

So, today concludes the last week that you will be reading and writing about your reading for this class. For this last official post, call it "Finally," maybe, I would like you to compose a 250 word informal response to any of the following questions:

How would you characterize yourself as a reader when you started this class? How independent were you? What kinds of things would you read on your own? How often would you read on your own? Where or why would you read?

During the course of this semester, what kind of reading did you do? Was it easy to find things that interested you? Did you have trouble finding something you could stick with? How did you choose the things you read? Did you have trouble meeting the weekly page quota?

Where and when did you find yourself sitting down to read? Do you tend to read with music on, or in silence? By the computer? Did you find yourself checking your phone a lot, or do you ever lose yourself in the reading? Do you ever talk about the books you read with your family or friends or teachers?

Now, at the end of the semester, have you changed in any way as a reader? Do you read the same types of books you did at the beginning, or have you discovered any new types of writing that you like? Are you more or less likely, do you think, to read independently this summer? What do you think you might read next?

After considering these questions, consider reading, visiting and commenting on your friends' blogs, or continuing work on your anthology.

W.S. Merwin, "When the War is Over"

"Masks" by Shel Silverstein

She had blue skin,

And so did he.

He kept it hid

And so did she.

They searched for blue

Their whole life through,

Then passed right by--

And never knew.

Han Yu, "Losing My Teeth"

Last year a tooth dropped,
this year another one,
then six or seven went fast
and the falling is not going to stop.
All the rest are loose
and it will end when they are all gone.
I remember when I lost the first
I felt ashamed of the gap.
When two or three followed,
I worried about death.
When one is about to come loose,
I am anxious and fearful
since forked teeth are awkward with food,
and in dread I tilt my face to rinse my mouth.
Eventually it will abandon me and drop
just like a landslide.
By now the falling-out is old hat,
each tooth goes just like the others.
Fortunately I have about twenty left.
One by one they will go in order.
If one goes each year,
I have enough to last two dozen years.
Actually it does not make much difference
if they go together or separately.
People say when teeth fall out
your life is fading.
I say life has its own end;
long life, short life, we all die.
People speak of the gaps in my teeth,
and all gaze at me in shock.
I quote Zhuangzi's story –
a tree and a wild goose each has its advantages,
and though silence is better than slurring my words
and though I can't chew, at least soft food tastes great
and I can sing out this poem
to surprise my wife and kids.

Sharon Olds, "Topography"

Nick Flynn, "Cartoon Physics, part 1"

Today: a currently post, a response if you have anything to say about your reading recently, and
submit your week #3 goal to my class homework folder. Make sure your filename reads "lastnameLIST" and that the file includes just your theme, a list of five poems + authors, and claims for two of those poems.

After you complete those steps, begin work on the partial editor's note draft that is due next Wednesday. Look at the annotated sample editor's note on the class notes page for ideas and an explanation of the intro paragraph.

And think about showing me some of your work. Between now and Thanksgiving, I need you to bring me at least one paragraph of your draft editor's note during class so that we can discuss ways to make it stronger. These conferences are worth a grade, so you're basically getting points just for asking for help.

So, work well today, and have a nice weekend.

Linda Pastan, "To a Daughter Leaving Home"

Shinkichi Takahashi, "Burning Oneself to Death"

That was the best moment of the monk’s life.

Firm on a pile of firewood

With nothing more to say, hear, see,

Smoke wrapped him, his folded hands blazed.

There was nothing more to do, the end

Of everything. He remembered, as a cool breeze

Streamed through him, that one is always

In the same place, and that there is no time.

Suddenly, a whirling mushroom cloud rose

Before his singed eyes, and he was a mass

Of flame. Globes, one after another, rolled out,

The delighted sparrows flew round like fire balls.

For a sample response to this poem, see the file on our Notes page.

Brian Turner, "Here, Bullet"

Today, some class notes first:

1. From here on out, this class is self-directed. How you use your time is up to you so long as you are engaged in a some activity in pursuit of one of your class goals: The Anthology Project, your Moleskine collection, Independent Reading, Vocabulary.

2. For our week #3 goal, I would also like you to include working claims for two of those five poems. Please submit these to my homework folder "Week #3 goal--lists and claims" and use the filename "lastnameLIST."

3. Finish strong with your reading and blogging. We will conclude our blogging expectations at the end of next week, Friday 11/11.

Brian Turner, "Here, Bullet"

If a body is what you want,
then here is bone and gristle and flesh.
Here is the clavicle-snapped wish,
the aorta’s opened valves, the leap
thought makes at the synaptic gap.
Here is the adrenaline rush you crave,
that inexorable flight, that insane puncture
into heat and blood. And I dare you to finish
what you’ve started. Because here, Bullet,
here is where I complete the word you bring
hissing through the air, here is where I moan
the barrel’s cold esophagus, triggering
my tongue’s explosives for the rifling I have
inside of me, each twist of the round
spun deeper, because here, Bullet,
here is where the world ends, every time.

Robin Robertson, "Hide"

John Ashbery, "Late Echo"

Two 3rd period responses that were the most often-cited as "Best" by first period:

My Everyday Sticky Waffle

A Scrap of Parchment

Other blogs mentioned: The New Zealander; Hog Smog Blog

William Stafford, "At the Un-National Monument along the Canadian Border"

We won't be in class on Friday, so here is a blog assignment for today:

Today I'd like to play "Close-reading Bingo" with the class blogs on the blog-roll opposite from your own. Browse the responses written to yesterday's prompt and, using the "Common Weaknesses" handout, find, quote, and link to examples of at least four different common weaknesses that you find. They should be in four different samples, too.

To complete your bingo, also quote and link to the best overall response that you come across.

After that, feel free to fit in a reading response, to read, or study for tomorrow's test. Please don't make me ask you to stop doing homework for another class.

George Bilgere, "Bus Boy"

Today, a big leap forward to the practice of writing with authority about language. We have two exercises to complete today, and you have a choice: (a) read the explanations and follow the directions for both exercises on your own, or (b) doing exercise #1 with me and #2 on your own. I recommend option (b) if you think you work better with things explained out loud in a small group, or if you feel uncomfortable with the style of analysis we started with the "Art of" project. No more than eight people can sit in on this, though.

Here are the exercises. Both refer to documents that are saved on our class Notes page at the HHS site.

(1) EXERCISE #1: Read the document entitled "Observation Guide: Diction" and then complete simple exercise it describes on the document entitled "Sample analysis: Diction." Save your results to your network folder.

(2) EXERCISE #2: Select one of the two prose excerpts on the handout provided today and compose a complete, but brief, close-reading analysis of its diction, saving the paragraph as a word file and posting it to your blog as a post with the title "Practice Diction Analysis." (10 pts)

Kenneth Koch, "In Love with You"

Gary Snyder, "Piute Creek"

Photo of the Miners Ridge fire lookout in Glacier Peak Wilderness, Washington. Can you imagine?

Here is your action list for this period:

1. For today's "Currently" post, list your reading, but not your sentences of the week. Instead, visit the blogs of your peers to read their "Style Mapping" posts from Wednesday. Pick the five most original posts and paste their strongest sentence into your "Currently." Give them credit and/or link to their blog and write a few sentences that explain which are your favorites and why. Which classmates have come up with the most surprising adjectives to describe language?

2. Long poem day. Pick a poem longer than any you have in your moleskine so far, and collect it. It can be a poem we read in class, or another. No song lyrics today, though.

Bob Hikock, "Unmediated Experience"

She does this thing. Our seventeen-

year-old dog. Our mostly deaf dog.

Our mostly dead dog, statistically

speaking. When I crouch.

When I put my mouth to her ear

and shout her name. She walks away.

Walks toward the nothing of speech.

She even trots down the drive, ears up,

as if my voice is coming home.

It’s like watching a child

believe in Christmas, right

before you burn the tree down.

Every time I do it, I think, this time

she’ll turn to me. This time

she’ll put voice to face. This time,

I’ll be absolved of decay.

Which is like being a child

who believes in Christmas

as the tree burns, as the drapes catch,

as Santa lights a smoke

with his blowtorch and asks, want one?

David Hernandez, "Retirement Home Melee at the Salad Bar"

Today, some rainy-day practice in the art of observation. You will be placing the style of different authors on the "map" that we made yesterday. Your task: blog a single, informal, observational paragraph that compares the language of three different excerpts from novels of your choice. Title your post "Style Mapping."

Up to two of these excerpts can be from the group that we looked at yesterday (other than Cruddy). The third should be from a book you find in this room: one that you have in your backpack, in your neighbor's hand, on the shelves--it's up to you. Open the book to the first page and have a look. Put it back when you are done.

The three excerpts you choose should have styles of diction that fall in different areas or quadrants of the map you looked at yesterday. For example, one might be elevated and musical, another might be lower but more evocative and sensuous or figurative.

Remember that pop-fiction and some non-fiction is less useful for an exercise like this because it is often written in more of a "middle style" that tries to be "invisible," or style-less.

In your paragraph, describe and compare their language, using partial quotations and using adjectives that you collected yesterday. But you should also use some adjectives that you come up with on your own. Find them from our ol' pink handout of adjectives, find them using the synonyms function on Word or the internet, or come up with your own. Try to surprise yourself.

You can collaborate with a friend (or nemesis) but your paragraph should be your own.

When you have finished your work, read, blog, it's up to you. No homework for other classes, please.

Jim Harrison, "I Believe"

I believe in steep drop-offs, the thunderstorm across
the lake in 1949, cold winds, empty swimming pools,
the overgrown path to the creek, raw garlic,
used tires, taverns saloons, bars, gallons of red wine,
abandoned farmhouses, stunted lilac groves,
gravel roads that end, brush piles, thickets, girls
who haven’t quite gone totally wild, river eddies,
leaky wooden boats, the smell of used engine oil,
turbulent rivers, lakes without cottages in the woods,
the primrose growing out of a cow skull, the thousands
of birds I’ve talked to all of my life, the dogs
that talked back, the Chihuahuan ravens that follow
me on long walks. The rattler escaping the cold hose,
the fluttering unknown gods that I nearly see
from the left corner of my blind eye, struggling
to stay alive in a world that grinds them underfoot.

"Graves," Hayden Carruth

"Graves," Hayden Carruth

Both of us had been close

to Joel, and at Joel’s death

my friend had gone to the wake

and the memorial service

and more recently he had

visited Joel’s grave, there

at the back of the grassy

cemetery among the trees,

“a quiet, gentle place,” he said,

“befitting Joel.” And I said,

“What’s the point of going

to look at graves?” I went

into one of my celebrated

tirades. “People go to look

at the grave of Keats or Hart

Crane, they go traveling just to

do it, what a waste of time.

What do they find there? Hell,

I wouldn’t go look at the grave of

Shakespeare if it was just

down the street. I wouldn’t

look at—” And I stopped. I

was about to say the grave of God

until I realized I’m looking at it

all the time....

Linda Pastan, "Somewhere in the World"

Today:

1. Please total your bookmark, write "week 8" by the total, and hand it in.

2. Instead of a "Currently" post this week, title one "Quarterly." I would like to see a 100 word or so reflection on the independent reading you have done this semester so far.

You can take this any way you like--what have you noticed about your reading so far this year? Have you surprised yourself in any way with your reading habits? What type of reading has challenged you the most so far? What has been the most pleasurable reading? What time of day do you find yourself reading? Where? What else? What challenge or goal might you set yourself for the rest of the semester?

No sentences of the week necessary, unless you have some you want to share.

Wendell Berry, "How to be a Poet"

Today's assignment: catch up.

First, an fyi: your blogs have been graded for weeks 5-7, so this week, week 8 of our reading, begins a new cycle.

No extra assignments today--I'd just like everyone to catch me up on what they have read in the last week with (a) a response post and (b) a currently post that updates your pages last week and shares your three favorite sentences of the quarter.

Tell me what you like about these overall favorites--something unusual about the words that are chosen? The way they are put together? Something original about a picture the words make? Do they make you think of something in a new way?

After you have caught me up on your reading, feel free to read your books or challenge the class in multi-eight. As always, I only ask that you do not use our time to do homework for another class.

If you're up for it, here is another Billy Collins poem, "Aimless Love," that, like a lot of my favorites by him, expresses a simple but thoughtful and tender-hearted affection for the every-day objects that populate our lives, and suggests the extent to which these things can fill us up.

Billy Collins, "Litany"

You are the bread and the knife,
The crystal goblet and the wine...
-Jacques Crickillon

You are the bread and the knife,
the crystal goblet and the wine.
You are the dew on the morning grass
and the burning wheel of the sun.
You are the white apron of the baker,
and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.

However, you are not the wind in the orchard,
the plums on the counter,
or the house of cards.
And you are certainly not the pine-scented air.
There is just no way that you are the pine-scented air.

It is possible that you are the fish under the bridge,
maybe even the pigeon on the general's head,
but you are not even close
to being the field of cornflowers at dusk.

And a quick look in the mirror will show
that you are neither the boots in the corner
nor the boat asleep in its boathouse.

It might interest you to know,
speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world,
that I am the sound of rain on the roof.

I also happen to be the shooting star,
the evening paper blowing down an alley
and the basket of chestnuts on the kitchen table.

I am also the moon in the trees
and the blind woman's tea cup.
But don't worry, I'm not the bread and the knife.
You are still the bread and the knife.
You will always be the bread and the knife,
not to mention the crystal goblet and--somehow--the wine.

Robert Bly, "The Resemblance Between Your Life and a Dog"

I never intended to have this life, believe me -
It just happened. You know how dogs turn up
At a farm, and they wag but can't explain.

It's good if you can accept your life - you'll notice
Your face has become deranged trying to adjust
To it. Your face thought your life would look

Like your bedroom mirror when you were ten.
That was a clear river touched by mountain wind.

Even your parents can't believe how much you've changed.

Sparrows in winter, if you've ever held one, all feathers,
Burst out of your hand with a fiery glee.
You see them later in hedges. Teachers praise you,

But you can't quite get back to the winter sparrow.

Your life is a dog. He's been hungry for miles.
Doesn't particularly like you, but gives up, and comes in.


DON'T FORGET!! Final draft of your "Art of" project is due MONDAY. Typed, printed, with your real name on it.

John Ashbery, "At North Farm"

Somewhere someone is traveling furiously toward you,
At incredible speed, traveling day and night,
Through blizzards and desert heat, across torrents, through narrow passes.
But will he know where to find you,
Recognize you when he sees you,
Give you the thing he has for you?

Hardly anything grows here,
Yet the granaries are bursting with meal,
The sacks of meal piled to the rafters.
The streams run with sweetness, fattening fish;
Birds darken the sky. Is it enough
That the dish of milk is set out at night,
That we think of him sometimes,
Sometimes and always, with mixed feelings?

William Carlos Williams, "Danse Russe"

DUE DATE CHANGE

Hey . . if you read this tonight (Tuesday), you should know that I have decided to move the rough draft due date back by a day. Rough drafts for our genre, or "The Art of," projects is now Friday, and Wednesday will be another lab day. Pass it on.

Linda Pastan, "Unveiling"

Tomorrow's draft:

Typed, double-spaced alias draft, using the header you see on the "Full" sample on the class site.

This is a pass/fail assignment--either it is typed and printed at the beginning of class, or it isn't--be ready to go! Your draft will need an intro + three full analytical paragraphs.

"The Art of": Points of Emphasis

As you prepare your full drafts this week, try to remain conscious of these three points of emphasis:

(1) A strong claim should describe a general observation, a general inference, or both.

(2) Supporting evidence should take the form of specific observations. That is, describe specific elements in detail.

(3) The discussion section of these paragraphs should be more specific about the inferences (tone or ideas/themes) than they were in the claim. They should not evaluate the work (say whether it is well done or not).

Doug Morph, "The Forgotten Planet"

Naomi Shihab Nye, "Rain"

A teacher asked Paul
what he would remember
from third grade, and he sat
a long time before writing
"this year somebody tutched me
on the sholder"
and turned his paper in.
Later she showed it to me
as an example of her wasted life.
The words he wrote were large
as houses in a landscape.
He wanted to go inside them
and live, he could fill in
the windows of "o" and "d"
and be safe while outside
birds building nests in drainpipes
knew nothing of the coming rain.


Today!

1. Currently! Quotes of the week and page totals! Week 6 book mark!

2. Write a response post? Up to you!

3. Write (at least?) one paragraph for your "Art of" project. Just save it to your network folder; you don't need to post it to your blog.

4. Ask me for help!

Dawn Potter, "Astrolabe"

William Stafford, "On a Church Lawn"

Dandelion cavalry, light little saviors,
baffle the wind, they ride so light.
They surround a church and outside the window
utter their deaf little cry: "If you listen
well, music won't have to happen."

After service they depart singly
to mention in the world their dandelion faith:
"God is not big; He is right."

"What Lips My Lips Have Kissed and Why," Edna St. Vincent Millay

"What Lips My Lips Have Kissed and Why," Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950)

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply;
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in the winter stands a lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet know its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone;
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.

Dean Young, "Scarecrow on Fire."

Hill's Sentences of the Month

Anna Karina reading a Paul Eluard poem
in Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville

1. "Anyone with a house full of books has been asked the inevitable question: "Have you read all of these?" The real answer, of course, is no, because half the appeal of books is promise. But the question is annoying anyway."

This is my good and long time friend Mike Johnston on the blog that he makes his living from, The Online Photographer. He is one of the most curious people I know--about things, that is--I don't mean that he's strange. I love the truth he gets to in this sentence. I've read most of the books in my own library, but there are a lot that I haven't read, but that are still some of my favorites because of the "promise" they hold for when I finally do get around to them.

2. "Every generation gets the self-help guru it deserves." From Rebecca Mead's profile in The New Yorker on kind-of creepy "mind hack" guru Timothy Ferris.

This sentence is a version of another famous sentence that I can't remember, but it's a great twist on it. I love the way the word "deserves" suggests that all generations are at fault somehow, and part of their punishment is that they have to endure ego-maniacal self-promoters like Timothy Ferris. You can tell, just from this image below, what kind of person he must be. The generations sins he has been sent for must be very bad indeed.

Timothy Ferris

3. "These guys weren't sitting around bull-****ing. They were beating drums, tearing it up, hurling horses over cliffs." Bob Dylan in his autobiography Chronicles, describing his reaction to first hearing Public Enemy, N.W.A., and Ice-T.

Dylan's book is a real mess. If it were a final draft in my class, I would give it a C, but he comes up with lines like "throwing horses over cliffs" all the time and they knock me out. They sound like wise old sayings that have been around forever but that have never been said until Dylan uttered them.

BlogLab Friday: 9.23.11

1. Sentences of the Month. No new sentences this month; instead, let's simply choose our favorites of the first four weeks of the blog-year.

You should have four posts for sentences of the week now, from 8/26, 9/2, 9/9, and 9/16. Revisit them and pick the 3-5 that still stand out the most. Maybe they are especially original in the way they are put together, or maybe have a personal significance for you. Select them, copy them in, and write a sentence or two about why your winner is the best.

If you have not been keeping up with your "Sentences of the Week," you will have to visit your peers' blogs and select your best of the month from those.

Your "Sentences of the Month" post should also contain your "currently" information: books and pages read this week.

2. Total your bookmarks and hand them in. Be sure that you total them and write "Week 5" next to that total.

3. Overtime: read, or make a response post, or prepare "Close Reading #1," which is due Tuesday (typed, with an alias, remember), or play the class in Multi-Eight, room 1b.

James Wright, "A Blessing."