Friday, September 07, 2007

First week of classes is over! I survived. My classes seem great this semester -- Dickinson and Whitman, Gay and Lesbian Lit, and an independent study of Bishop. I am most looking forward to Bishop; every week, I get to do a close reading of three poems and discuss them with a Bishop scholar. Whee!

Teaching is going to be interesting -- my class is very small -- about ten.

Here's a draft of a poem:

Away

the creek tastes
like
I thought it would
bitter,
wild

water quiet, barely
a sound
full of pebbles, mica flickers

flies gather in my shoes

mosquitoes enter
the crack of my armpit

my toes underwater
pale as soggy worms

a flutter
a thrush
disarranged
feathered musical
chatter

answering
chittering
whispering
a question over and over

I frighten
them all with my large yellow
teeth

the robin above
kicks and flicks further
away

light
creeps
soft as
honey soft as
sleeping bears

gather, gather
the sparrows call
to each other

like children
whispering about a dog
Is she friendly?

3 comments:

Talia Reed said...

My favorite part:

a flutter a thrushdisarranged feathered musicalchatteranswering chitteringwhispering a question over and over


I've never been able to get Bishop...the thought of such an class bores me. Such a class on Plath or Lowell or Millay sounds great, though. I've done 2 independent studies on poetry with David Dodd Lee and another was on Adolescent Literature. I loved both of them.

Christine E. Hamm, Poet Professor Painter said...

Thanks -- it actually looks very interesting the way the it's quoted -- maybe I'll change it.

Brooke said...

Glad to hear you're enjoying school this semester, or think you'll enjoy it. I'd love to hear about teaching.