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 ‘Building’ 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 [...]
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 MartÃn 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 [...]
“Father of that silence”–Larry Levis
Posted in Absence, Art, Bennington, Books, Building, Community, Faith, Family, Friendship, Gratitude, Grief, Hope, Journey, Language, Liam Rector, Life, Loss, Poetry, Prayer, Students, Teachers, The Beautiful Work, Transitions, Truth, Writing, tagged Absence, Amy Tudor, Art, Bennington, Books, Building, Community, Faith, Family, Friendship, Gratitude, Grief, Hope, Journey, Language, Larry Levis, Liam Rector, Life, Loss, Poetry, Poets, Prayer, Students, Teachers, The Beautiful Work, Transitions, Truth, Writers, Writing, Writing Community on August 9, 2008 | 2 Comments »
From “Linnets” by Larry Levis
This is a good page.
It is blank,
and getting blanker.
My mother and father
are falling asleep over it.
My brother is finishing a cigarette;
he looks at the blank moon.
My sisters walk gravely in circles.
My wife sees through it, through blankness.
My friends stop laughing, they listen
to the wind in a room in Fresno, to the [...]
