For the mother and father who read to me, for the library card I remember signing the very first time before I could even write my last name, for the people I’ve met who loved books as much I do, for the places I’ve been and continue to go in the pages of a book. [...]
Archive for the ‘Art’ Category
Sailing through: blessing the boats by Lucille Clifton
Posted in Absence, Anger, Art, Building, Community, Economic Crisis, Hard Times, Journey, Life, Loss, Poetry, Prayer, War, tagged Absence, Anger, Art, Building, Community, Drama, Economic Crisis, Faith, Fear, Fiction, Grief, Hard Times, Journey, Liam Rector, Life, Life and How to Live It, Loss, Nonfiction, Poetry, Politics, Prayer, Presidential Election, Students, Teachers, The Beautiful Work, War, Writers, Writing, Writing Community on October 14, 2008 | 1 Comment »
blessing the boats
by Lucille Clifton
(at St. Mary’s)
may the tide
that is entering even now
the lip of our understanding
carry you out
beyond the face of fear
may you kiss
the wind then turn from it
certain that it will
love your back may you
open your eyes to water
water waving forever
and may you in your innocence
sail through this to that
What Work Is by Phillip Levine
Posted in Anger, Art, Building, Community, Fear, Journey, Liam Rector, Loss, Poetry, Presidential Campaign, Truth, tagged A New Depression, Accountability, Anger, Art, Books, Building, Community, Drama, Economy, Family, Fear, Fiction, Journey, Liam Rector, Life, Life and How to Live It, Loss, Nonfiction, Phillip Levine, Poetry, Politics, Politics and Human Lives, Poverty, Presidential Campaign, Presidential Election, Surviving, Truth, Unemployment, Writers, Writing, Writing Community on October 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In times of crisis, we learn, and love wins.
What Work Is
by Phillip Levine
We stand in the rain in a long line
waiting at Ford Highland Park. For work.
You know what work is–if you’re
old enough to read this you know what
work is, although you may not do it.
Forget you. This is about waiting,
shifting from one foot [...]
When Brevity is Brilliance–Ezra Pound
Posted in Art, Community, Liam Rector, Poetry, tagged Art, Bennington, Books, Commonplace Books, Community, Drama, Ezra Pound, Ficiton, Journey, Liam Rector, Life, Life and How to Live It, Literature, Nonfiction, Poetry, Poets, Ritual, Students, Teachers, The Beautiful Work, Writers, Writing, Writing Community on September 22, 2008 | 3 Comments »
In a Station of the Metro
by Ezra Pound
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Peace on Earth by Williams Carlos Williams
Posted in Absence, Art, Faith, Liam Rector, Life, tagged Absence, Art, Bennington, Books, Drama, Faith, Fear, Fiction, Gratitude, Hobos, Hope, Journey, Language, Liam Rector, Life, Life and How to Live It, Nonfiction, Peace, Poetry, Poets, Politics, Presidential Election, William Carlos Williams, Writers, Writing, Writing Community on September 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I just can’t write, not now. Too much weight and worry, drifts of sadness. I’ll let others who do it so much better lead me now.
Williams has always brought me peace.
Peace on Earth
by William Carlos Williams
The Archer is wake!
The Swan is flying!
Gold against blue
An Arrow is lying.
There is hunting in heaven—
Sleep safe till [...]
Palin–Fear Grows
Posted in Anger, Art, Bennington, Community, Fear, Liam Rector, Loss, Presidential Campaign, Writing, tagged Anger, Art, Banned Books, Bennington, Books, Censorship, Commonplace Books, Community, Drama, Fear, Fiction, First Amendment, Liam Rector, Loss, Nonfiction, Poetry, Politics, Presidential Campaign, Sarah Palin, Writers, Writing, Writing Community on September 3, 2008 | 3 Comments »
IS SARAH PALIN A MAJOR CONCERN FOR ALL POETS AND WRITERS?
Before she was elected governor, she was mayor of a tiny Anchorage suburb, where her greatest accomplishment was raising the sales tax to build a hockey rink. According to Time magazine, she also sought to have books banned from the local library and threatened to [...]
Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100 By Martin Espada
Posted in Absence, Art, Bennington, Books, Building, Community, Gratitude, Grief, Memory, Remembrance, tagged Absence, Anger, Bennington, Books, Building, Community, Gratitude, Grief, How Poetry Heals, Liam Rector, Life, Life and How to Live It, Loss, Martin Espada, Memory, Poetry, Poets, Rebuilding, Remembrance, The Twin Towers, Writers, Writing, Writing Community on September 3, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100
by Martín Espada
for the 43 members of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 100, working at the Windows on the World restaurant, who lost their lives in the attack on the World Trade Center
Alabanza. Praise the cook with the shaven head
and a tattoo on his shoulder that said Oye,
a blue-eyed [...]
Concordance (Working Backward in Sleep) by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
Posted in Absence, Art, Bennington, Building, Community, Faith, Gratitude, Journey, Liam Rector, Life, Poetry, Writing, tagged Absence, Art, Bennington, Books, Building, Community, Faith, Gratitude, Hope, Journey, Language, Liam Rector, Life, Life and How to Live It, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Poetry, Poets, The Beautiful Work, Transitions, Truth, Writing, Writing Community on August 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Concordance (Working Backward in Sleep)
by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
Working backward in sleep, the
last thing you numbed to is what
wakes you.
What if that image were Eros as
words?
What would it be like if you
contemplated my words and I felt
you?
Animals, an owl, frog, open their
eyes, and a mirror forms on the
ground.
When insight comes in a dream,
and events the next day
illuminate [...]
Student Commonplace Site
Posted in Art, Building, Community, Hobos, Language, Life, Students, Teachers, The Beautiful Work, Truth, Twenty dollar bills, Writing, tagged Art, Books, Building, Commonplace Books, Community, Creative Writing at Longwood, Hobos, Language, Life, Life and How to Live It, Students, Teachers, The Beautiful Work, Truth, Twenty dollar bills, Writers, Writing, Writing Community on August 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
From my mother–again and again throughout my childhood
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
I’m still learning to maneuver my way around wordpress, and as classes near, I wanted to streamline the process of checking my students’ required commonplace books. So I created a site just for the students.
Visit Creative Writing [...]
For the Executive Director of the Fallen
Posted in Absence, Art, Bennington, Books, Community, Faith, Family, Friendship, Gratitude, Grief, Hope, Journey, Language, Liam Rector, Life, Loss, Poetry, Students, Teachers, The Beautiful Work, Writing, tagged Absence, Art, Bennington, Books, Community, Faith, Family, Friendship, Gratitude, Grief, Hope, Journey, Language, Liam Rector, Life, Life and How to Live It, Loss, Poetry, Poetry Magazine, Students, Teachers, The Beautiful Work, Tom Sleigh, Writers, Writing, Writing Community on August 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
For the Executive Director of the Fallen
by Tom Sleigh
In memoriam Liam Rector
The little boy crying out
Weenie Weenie
in self-panicking delight,
waving his little cock
under the banner
of the sun, seemed pure Blake,
all anarchy and energy,
an innocence unfrightened
of itself that shook the lake’s
waters and unsettled
the strained composures
and appointed certainties
of whatever Absolute Speaker
had been ranting in my brain:
Peace Through Strength
Justice [...]
