On Beauty

I have decided to read On Beauty . I ordered it today, as a "you finished the marathon!" present to myself. Hopefully I'm correct in my prediction. I haven't read any Zadie Smith, but I listened to an excerpt of it online and it sounded good.

Class went better today - I'm integrating the writing handbook that I hadn't used much yet. We've been reading a lot of essays from the reader, but it helps to have some terms established for talking about things. Some of them came up with some great thesis statements for a close read of a text. Teaching a freshman level class is different than teaching an upper division - you feel much more like "teacher as entertainer". They can be rather passive. But then you have to give them the space to become active, and not feel like you have to rush to fill every yawning silence.

Talked to my friend Janine today, who is a busy MFA student. We talked about writing poems and making manuscripts. She told me about her former teacher, Laurie Lamon, who has a book out, The Fork Without Hunger. I realized after we ended our conversation that I have the book - the publisher sent it to me for Caffeine Destiny! I am thinking about contacting her for a profile. When the time allows.

I"m interested in the quotidian and how it ends up in poetry. This may seem like a simple concept, but I realized the other day it's actually very important to me. I want to explore this more... I don't mean this as just thinking poems about what you have for lunch are interesting. I mean, the way the every day gets approached and used and moved about in a poem. Maybe it's similar in some ways to what happens in a still life painting? Hmm...

My son told me last night he has to write a five paragraph essay about how he eats Oreos. He said it needs an introduction, body, and conclusion. The purpose is to explain how he eats Oreos. He said to me, "but what if I just shove it in my mouth?" I thought that was funny.

It's raining here but it's a nice rain.