Free May Events: “Make Your Own Story”

Tri-State Community School for the Arts

Looking for FREE activities for your children? This free drop-in workshop on Saturday, May 28, 2011 from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm focuses on storytelling for young students and includes opportunities for students to verbally tell stories or tell a story through pictures as well as write a story down. Held at the Tri-State Community School for the Arts, 115 Baltimore Street, Cumberland, MD, and geared toward elementary school children up to age 16, this workshop will also be relevant for Pre-K and pre-reading/writing students. Story prompts, pencils, crayons, collage materials, and other things to make a story will be on-hand for children to create their own story. No registration is necessary, simply drop-in and create!

Parental supervision is encouraged.

Parking and direct entrance available in the back on the alley (Dexter Place).

The workshop will be taught by our creative writing instructor, Tiffany A. Turbin Santos, who has years of experience in working with children of all ages in a variety of settings. Currently, she is studying poetry for an MFA degree at Carlow University in Pittsburgh and has had work published in several literary journals including the Backbone Mountain Review, a regional literary journal. She also teaches developmental writing at Potomac State College. For more information, visit her website: www.cranberryjade.com.

A variety of writing and art classes are offered at Tri-State Community School for the Arts. Registration for summer and fall classes is available on-line NOW at www.tristatearts.com or call (301) 876-1562 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            (301) 876-1562      end_of_the_skype_highlighting for more information.

This is the press release for the third of this year’s free children’s workshops I am teaching at Tri-State CSA. I will also be hosting a kids table June 4 for the Plein Air event Downtown as well as other dates TBA. Keep an eye out!

Upcoming Writing Weekend!

Next weekend I am guest teaching at a fabulous writing weekend. I have attend three of these events so far and have loved each and every one of them. This will be the first one open to the public:

DiCoplio Writers Weekend
Friday, April 29 at 6:00pm – May 1 at 1:00pm
Hagerstown, Maryland

Do you have stories to tell but don’t know where to start? Join other writers for an intensive weekend workshop that will help you unlock your unique voice in a supportive and peaceful environment. For 40 hours we will retreat from the world and work together to undertake the creative writing process. And we will each emerge with a completed, original short story. Cost for weekend accommodations, all meals, mini-seminars, and professional writing support is only $75 per person. Contact us today to confirm your spot!

E-mail: dicoplio@yahoo.com. Find us of Facebook, too: April Writers Weekend

FREE event for children in Cumberland: “Make Your Own Story”

Tri-State Community School for the Arts

Looking for FREE activities for your children? This free drop-in workshop on Saturday, March 26, 2011 from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm focuses on storytelling for young students and includes opportunities for students to verbally tell stories or tell a story through pictures as well as write a story down. Held at the Tri-State Community School for the Arts, 115 Baltimore Street, Cumberland, MD, and geared toward elementary school children up to age 16, this workshop will also be relevant for Pre-K and pre-reading/writing students. Story prompts, pencils, crayons, collage materials, and other things to make a story will be on-hand for children to create their own story. No registration is necessary, simply drop-in and create!

The workshop will be taught by our creative writing instructor, Tiffany A. Turbin Santos, who has years of experience in working with children of all ages in a variety of settings. Currently, she is studying poetry for an MFA degree at Carlow University in Pittsburgh and has had work published in several undergraduate literary journals and the Backbone Mountain Review, a regional literary journal. She also teaches developmental writing at Potomac State College. For more information, visit her website: www.cranberryjade.com.

A variety of writing and art classes are offered at Tri-State Community School for the Arts. Registration for summer and fall classes is available on-line NOW at www.tristatearts.com or call (301) 876-1562 for more information.

This is the press release for the first of this year’s free children’s workshops I am teaching at Tri-State CSA. Other dates are April 23 and May 28, both from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm.

Some good news for people seeking medical care

Feminist Daily News 2/22/2011: Obama Repeals Bush Conscience Rules.

So no more worries about walking into a pharmacy while on vacation and being denied the ability to purchase EC. This also applies to being denied medical care for a whole host of things that fell under Bush’s “conscious rules” like care of AIDs patients. The loop hole for denying medical care for abortion procedures is still in place, but the new rules go into effect in 30 days.

*Note: This post was made possible by the AddThis Chrome extension, a nifty way to share with people just how much time you spend reading things online and watching YouTube videos rather than doing homework or leading a more productive life!

BMR Release Reading This Saturday!

Come one, come all! The Backbone Mountain Review release reading is happening this Saturday, February 26 at 2:00 pm in the Allegany Arts Council Community Room.

[2011 Backbone Mountain Review cover and design layout by Dave Hammaker & Ann Townsell]

According to the event listing, “The reading and reception are free and open to the public, and complimentary copies of the 2011 Backbone Mountain Review will be available at no charge during the event. *Please note that some language in this year’s publication may not be appropriate for younger audiences.”

Yes, I admit it, that last part is my fault. I put adult language in my short story “Hibiscus.” If you want to read this 1,749 word story but can’t make it to the release reading, you can find copies at various locations around the area like Main Street Books in Frostburg, The Book Center in Cumberland, or the Frostburg Center for Creative Writing. Or if you are impatient, you can read it right now on my website, under publications.

Come support me!

*Note: This blog is meant for edutainment purposes only, and to that end, I may occasionally use some literary license. The author would like to apologize for the shameless self-promotion, but she is emotionally needy and would love to see you at the reading!

LEED-lite – How green is your apartment?

As my new found freelancing career keeps up a steady pace, I find myself becoming a mini-expert on a bizarre list of topics. From fleas to osteoporosis, I can whip up a pocketful of almost useful casual facts. Occasionally, I am able to research some topics that actually interest me. Recently, that was the area of green building design. Ever since St. Mary’s built a new Silver rated LEED building, I have been wondering what the heck LEED is and why does it come in colors?

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a set of suggested guidelines put together by the U.S. Green Building Council as a way of providing “third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.”

Put more simply, LEED is a points system that is a tangible way of proving to people that your building is totally rad…er, I mean, green and environmental friendly.

Interesting to know, but it doesn’t really apply to all of us apartment dwellers. We can’t really call up the landlord and tell him we have decided to knock off some of the siding to install some solar panels or that we hope you don’t mind, but half of the parking lot is now a rain collection and recycling facility. And I am pretty sure with my credit history and employment prospects, I will never be building an off-grid, self-sufficient Hexadome in the woods during this lifetime.

But that is when my post-Andes-mints-splurge inspiration hit: LEED-lite. The great taste, less filling way to track how green you are living. The full-calorie version of LEED draws from 9 separate areas of sustainability and uses a 100 point system with 10 bonus points possible. On the other hand, LEED-lite will look at 5 categories for a 50 point system with a few bonus possible as well.

Here is what I came up with:

Water Efficiency—this category is comprised of 5 sub-components (water reduction, faucet use, kitchen sink, dishes and laundry, and garden). Three bonus points possible.

Water reduction means installing and actually using a water saver shower head and having a water saving tank on your toilet. These are easy fixes for apartment dwellers, and oftentimes a landlord will gladly make the upgrades for you. Luckily, my apartment came with both of these items, so I can give myself a point here. I also practice fiscal flushing (the old if-it’s-yellow-let-it-mellow philosophy) so this earns me a bonus point. You can also give yourself a bonus point if you don’t shower at all. 2.0 points.

Faucet use is the standard advice of turning the water stream off when not in use like while you brush your teeth. This can be a real problem though if your water is slow to run hot. Unless you are catching that extra water in a bucket for flushing the toilet or something, this point is sneaky-hard to earn. In the summer, I get the point but lose it in the winter. So I am going to give myself 0.5 points.

Kitchen sink, similar to the faucet use, this also applies if you do a lot of cooking and washing of veggies. A cheap basin to catch the grey water (household waste water that can be reused for some purposes without purification) will earn you a point here. The best I do is to catch rinse water in dirty dishes to loosen food residue. So no points for me here.

Dishes & laundry account for another big source of water usage. I have a dishwasher and my own washer and dryer, so I am actually saving a lot of water (not to mention electric) by stacking dishes economically and only doing full loads in the washer. 1 point.

Finally, gardening. If you have a green thumb, using grey water exclusively in your garden will earn you the point here. I also pour the day-old cat’s water into my flower beds. Of course, setting up a container to catch rain water will earn you a bonus point here. I have not gotten around to that, but I want to. 1 point.

Energy and Atmosphere—this category also has 5 sub-components (laundry, lights, electronics, heating and cooling, and windows and doors). Think electric usage here. One bonus point possible.

Laundry also takes energy. By using cold water in my washer, I save the electric to heat all that water. I strung a retractable clothes line in my living room so I can avoid using the dryer in the summer (also saving me on air-conditioning usage). I do use my dryer in the winter, but this takes the place of my heat since the dryer is neat my bedroom. I get 2 points here.

Lights, of course, should be switched to the lower energy (and longer lasting) new generation fluorescent bulbs. If you move often, save the old bulbs to replace when you move and take the fluorescent bulbs with you! Also, if you are not in a room, the lights should be off. 1 point.

Electronics; to get this point unplug all vampiric energy users like chargers, TVs, anything with a stand-by light. Invest in power strips to make unplugging quicker. I am vigilant about this one, so I score 1 point.

Heating & cooling. This one gets harder and harder for me. This summer was brutal and my fibro makes cold unbearable. I have made some adjustments though. I hung curtains in the open doorways between rooms to keep down drafts, finally hung some curtains (well, at the insistence of the neighbors), and when I am working at home I move from room to room in relation to the sun. I also use fans when possible. But my cheap air-conditioner is not terribly efficient. I’ll be generous and give myself 0.5 points here.

Windows & doors; in a similar vein, hanging curtains and putting a towel at the bottom of a door does make a difference. Putting down storm windows in the winter, using sheer curtains in the summer to allow breezes through while blocking some heat, all kinds of tricks can be used. Again, I could be better, so 0.5 points here.

Materials and Resources—this category has 3 sub-components (groceries, appliances, and decorating) . These are things you bring in to your apartment from the outside.

Groceries, what does this have to do with LEED-lite? Well, are you shopping with reusable bags? If you do bring home plastic bags, what do you do with them? I use them to line the bathroom trash can and for when I clean Ashlie’s litter box. At this point though, I should be taking the reusable bags with me (since one cat does not need that many bags), but I am always forgetting.

Also, are you shopping locally and buying from farmer’s markets? This cuts down on all the carbon dioxide it takes to ship food from such far flung places. Here in Cumberland, I buy my veggies from Hilltop Market, a locally owned grocers that buys locally and has much fresher produce.

Additionally, when you are cooking, trying to conserve can also earn you a point. Some great tips for this can be found in M.F.K. Fisher’s How to Cook a Wolf. I now save the water I steam my veggies in to add to soups and stews. Out of three possible points, I get 2.5.

Appliances, things like air-conditioners and cookware, can all be purchased in greener models. I totally fail this category with my uber-cheap, very tiny, electric-hog of an air-conditioner. 0 points.

Decorating. This means all the crap we are told we must buy to be happy. For example, getting a used sofa from Freecycle saves the manufacture of a new one as well as landfill space for the old one. The only piece of furniture I own that is new is my file cabinet; everything else is nicely worn. 1 point.

Indoor Environmental Quality—this category has only 2 sub-components (plants and air quality), but it is an important part of green living.

Plants. This may seem silly to you, but even in an apartment, plants can make a big difference in green living. Growing your own basil or tomatoes saves on packaging from the grocery store. I have philodendron vines strung all over one window in my living room acting as a curtain; they filter the neighbors’ view for privacy but let in the light to conserve on electric. I don’t grow as many as I should or even want to, so I only get 0.5 points here.

Air quality; plants can help you get this point, of course, but also are you using lots of chemical air fresheners? Remember the plug in kind also use electric. My downstairs neighbors smoke like chimneys, so I had to buy an air purifier. So I am only going to give myself 0.5 point here.

Location and Linkages—this category sounds a little odd, but it still applies for an apartment. Only two sub-components here (walking and public transportation), so each is worth 2.5 points, with 0.5 bonus points available in each grouping.

Walking. Is your apartment within walking distance of places you frequent like the market or coffee shop? Do you walk? I am a 30 minute walk from downtown Cumberland and don’t walk nearly as often as I should. But I do always line up my errands geographically so I don’t back track, and I also only do errands on days when I already have to go out for work or to a doctor’s appointment. So for forethought, I will get the bonus half point, but less than half points in the grouping for 1.5 points.

Public transportation is not really an option in this neck of the woods, and now that I work out of the state, not a possibility. So zero points for me here. 0 points.

My score: 15.5

Using the ratios of the regular LEED, to be certified in LEED-lite, an apartment must have at least 20 points. Silver is awarded with 25+ points, Gold with 30+, and Platinum is only awarded for 40+ points.

Result: I suck at being green! But now I know where my weaknesses are, so I can resolve to do better in 2011.

Give yourself a rating and share it in the comments or poll below!

*Note: This blog is meant for edutainment purposes only, and to that end, I may occasionally use some literary license. Additionally, this blog took me about 8 months to write, so if you are going to steal this idea, at least mention my name!

How I became a baglady

I rarely remember to check the weather report. Instead, I rely on rumors. Of course, after all of the injuries I have sustained over the years, my bones are a pretty good indicator of impending damp.

The pain in my left shoulder that extends down to my waist can only be described as green: it is envious of my day-to-day plans, demanding all of my attention. Several hours ago, I wandered out into the kitchen to search for some pain killers, but I have a terrible tendency to become distracted. Instead I fixed a tuna fish sandwich, which I shared with Ashlie, and vacuumed my apartment.

Perhaps it is just because I am in full tilt aversion mode since tax season is upon us. Despite the extension until April 18th this year, I have a massive amount of receipts to sort and justify. With my memory issues, it’s a bit like going though someone else’s life.

For example, I was reminded exactly when it was that my shoulder was injured. February 23, 2010. Or at least that was when I bought the sling. A few days before, I had been told that an impending wintery mix, the bane of scooter travel, was due. I needed to meet a student at 8:00 am, and the quandary began: wake at the cold predawn hour of 6:00 am and walk, pester a friend for a ride, or chance the scooter.

The road was a little slick, but I decided that if I could make it two blocks from my house (convenient dragging distance), I would chance taking the scooter to work. The main road was not much better than the poorly maintained block I live on in North end, but the exhaust from other cars had melted two ice-free tracks I could drive the scooter on. No problem. Sorted.

Except that eventually, I had to make a turn and cross the slushy middle of the road. The scooter went one way and I bounced in the other direction into on-coming traffic. While I was not severely injured (my umpteen layers of clothing left me with mild road rash, lots of bruises, a twisted/bruised ankle, and a crumpled feeling in my left wrist and shoulder), I was disappointed that none of my fellow motorists stopped to see if I was ok as I dragged myself and the still idling scooter from the roadway.

If driving a scooter teaches you nothing else (besides how to inconspicuously run red lights and securely bungee strap groceries to your own leg), it will teach you to rely on yourself and be prepared. It was not my first wreck on the scooter, of course. Just my most painful. Except when storms are in the forecast, I can say it was worth it for the bragging rights that sling earned me.

So tonight, I am trying to rest my bones, thankful that my massage therapist has an opening tomorrow.

But what the heck does this have to do with plastic bags? Um, I’m getting to that.

[Image from www.bagladyproductions.org, the cool website of Shirley Lewis, the Irish baglady who is environmentally conscious]

Since my little sister gave me her old car, the scooter has been in storage. Driving a beat up Hyundai that smells like gasoline inside is surprisingly devoid of street cred or bragging rights. The best I can do is complain about the alignment, the broken radio, or the spots of old dog’s blood on the front passenger side seat (did I mention my sister works at a vet hospital?).

I find the lessons I learned from my scooter driving days are wearing off; I am losing my edge. Here is an example:

During the summer of 2009, I was caught in a torrential storm while driving the scooter to a class I was teaching. By the time I got to work, I had to pour water from my shoes, my backpack, and the pocket of my raincoat. I wrung out my socks and taught from soggy books for the rest of the day. After that I learned the invaluable-ness of plastic bags, like the kind you get from the market. I never left home without several after that day. I was always prepared and began compiling my list of 101 uses for plastic bags (apparently others share my love of the plastic bag).

Nevertheless, since getting the car in the spring of 2010, I have stalled the battery six times from leaving the headlights lights on. Am I prepared with jumper cables? No. The phone number of campus safety in my cell phone so they can come and give me a jump? Nope. Even a Post-It note on the dash reminding me to turn off the lights? Nuh-uh.

So, as I sit in pain that could have been alleviated hours ago, I realize I need to return to my baglady roots. Because you never know what might happen.

*Note: This blog is meant for edutainment purposes only, and to that end, I may occasionally use some literary license, which may also entail creative math when calculating deductions. I mean, after all, eloquent teaching and solid composition rely on clearheadedness, clearheadedness is derived from stress reduction, stress reduction is best achieved from a release of built up pressure, a proven way to release built up pressure is through play, and what better to play with than adult toys? Logically then, anything purchased from Babeland.com is a necessary work expense. Logically.

Are you listening? The Karen Human Rights Group

Many moons ago, during my second semester living in the international dormitory at Payap University in Thailand, I met a student named Ruthie. About a head shorter than me, quiet, somewhat shy, I remember how she would arrange her stuffed animals just so on her bed.

After some time, I found out that Ruthie is Karen, a group of ethnic peoples who span the border between Burma/Myanmar and Thailand. Ruthie is Thai Karen and a Thai citizen. Like most ethnic minorities, the Karen are violently oppressed by the ruling governments in both countries, but particularly in Burma. Like most of the Karen who I met at school, Ruthie’s English was very good. I asked her a few questions about Burma, but I really knew very little about Burma or the vicious attacks on the Karen people that have been carried out by the military government for over 60 years.

Perhaps it is a facet of human nature that when we are faced with something brutal and horrible that has happened to someone else, words die in our throat. I was embarrassed because I didn’t know what to say to Ruthie; I didn’t know what to ask. And what is there to say? Really, we can only listen.

Ruthie has since graduated from Payap University and is working with a nonprofit organization, Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG). This quiet student is now working in Mae Sot, Thailand near the Burmese/Thai border with refugees. According to KHRG’s Facebook page, “the small independent grassroots human rights organization…was established in Karen-held territory in Burma in 1992 and operates in rural Burma as well as within refugee camps in Thailand.”

They work directly with the Karen, “to help them overcome outside perceptions of them as ‘helpless victims’ by focusing on their strengths and the strategies they already use successfully to resist human rights abuses and retain control over their own lives, land and livelihoods.” KHRG is “committed to improving the human rights situation in Burma by projecting the voices of villagers and supporting their strategies to claim human rights.” Are we listening?

On the KHRG’s website, we are told that “US$15 buys a hammock with built-in mosquito net, backpack or cook-set for one of our researchers: essential equipment for traveling in the jungle.” Today, I spent at least that much on a Cobb salad that I didn’t even enjoy that much.

Even though Ruthie and I “talk” a lot more these days on Facebook, she is still a quiet-souled person. When I told her I was going to write this blog and think of ways to raise money for the organization, she said, “[p]lease make sure [y]our actions don’t force others. We should do this [in a] very…neutral way. We should be very nice in actions. Thanks for participation.”

On October 13, 2010, a 24-year-old woman was shot and killed less than 45 minutes after she had given birth when Tatmadaw troops opened fire on her house during an attack on her village in Dweh Loh Township. KHRG interviewed her husband in the refugee camp where he was staying with his infant son. Are you listening?

Sometimes when we are confronted with events of such overwhelmingly horrific proportions, we sink into paralysis, futility weighing us down. Vow to take one small action. Click “like” the KHRG’s Facebook page. Tell one friend. Read one report. Listen.

*Note: This blog is usually meant for edutainment purposes only, but this is something I think is important. The donation process for KHRG is very simple and managed through PayPal. You can also buy a T-shirt or a coffee table book. It took me less than 5 minutes to help buy “a sealable, fully waterproof dry-bag that one of our researchers can use to protect notes, cameras, recording equipment, and important personal items during eastern Burma’s long rainy season” for only US$30. You can select any sum to give, and you will be provided a receipt so you can write it off on next year’s taxes as a charitable donation. The KHRG is an internationally recognized nonprofit organization with 15 years of experience and has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize (in 2000 and 2001). Are you listening?

What Satan Says

Sharon Olds’s first book of poetry was published the year I was born. She writes of the “erotics of family love and pain,” as Alicia Ostriker puts it. Olds has had 11 collections of poetry published and has won prestigious prizes and awards for her work. And I knew nothing about her!

I can’t quite get past that fact.

I began this practicum by reading Olds’s first book Satan Says. Then I read it again. Personally, I found the book difficult to read, more than a little disturbing, but irresistible in its horrific beauty. The speaker’s (or perhaps speakers’) repeated references throughout the collection of loving the cock of the father before and above all others—for instance, lines eight and nine in the poem “Reading You” where the speaker says, “Man, male, his cock that I have loved / beyond the others, beyond goodness, so far beyond [.]”—struck me as incredibly risky and brave.

I found myself interacting with the physical object of the book as well, carrying it around the house as I was puzzling over a thesis for my first essay or staring at the cover thinking about the import of the words. This has happened to me before when I read Empire of the Senseless by Kathy Acker. Somehow, the book becomes more than a mere vehicle for the words.

I also found it incredibly difficult to write about Satan Says. I tried picking my favorite poems, the ones I was most drawn to, and then tried to figure out what elements of craft were pulling me to them. Nonetheless, I kept bumping up against content and personal resonance. It took me a good week before I caught my breath enough to really sit down and choose a poem as the first critical review is limited to only one poem from a collection.

Reading this book actually spawned a poem, which is currently in revision. I am definitely a fan after this book! Reading Olds has given me permission to write about topics I have been writing around for over a year.

Here is the poem I ultimately chose:

“Night Terrors”

She has so strongly this sense of someone coming after her,

someone so dark or dressed in dark clothes,

some man so angry, so clever, there is no

chance of survival.

.

Every night she tries to think of something that would

get him to spare the children.

.

Every night she feels him outside the house,

eyeing its surface milky as a body,

the strips of its roof like hair oiled and combed,

all the stiff apertures

Victorian, like a frightened woman

on her wedding night, like her own mother entered and

entered by that man she hated, his hair

black as the polished barrel of a gun.

Whew! Creepy much? My thesis was that Olds uses non-uniform or abrupt lines and complex figurative language to build a fragmented, composite imagery in her poetry that is both grounded in reality and disturbing.

So for this first packet to my mentor (did I mention my mentor is Jan Beatty!!!!!), I still have one more commentary, another short critical essay, and a formal letter to write, all due by February 11. Up next for my critical writing: The Essential Etheridge Knight by Etheridge Knight. But I am still a few days away from receiving my books, so I will be working on the only other book I have (borrowed from my mutual best friend Dorina Pena, fellow rockstar warrior poet and lover of Jan Beatty)–Loose Woman by Sandra Cisneros. I think it will be a refreshing change of pace and will ensure I don’t become too tempted to slit my wrists. Laughter is a good thing.

*Note: This blog is meant for edutainment purposes only, and to that end, I may occasionally use some literary license. The author would also like to point out that she has not yet been graded on the strength of her thesis, and if you plagiarize it and get a crappy grade, it is all your fault.

Read, Read, Read

January 04 – 14, 2011, marked the first of four residencies that are needed to complete my Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing/Poetry from Carlow University in Pittsburgh. Nothing, and I do mean nothing, in any of my previous bizarre assortment of experiences could have truly prepared me for the intensity of those two weeks. Lectures, readings, writing assignments, and a constant buzz and surge of inspiration: I am still processing. One thing I was prepared for, however, was having the nagging feeling that I don’t really know what the hell I am doing. I often have that feeling, so in some respects, I suppose, it is a comfort as the familiar usually is.

Most of my fellow MFA seekers fall into one of two rough and overly generalized categories: those who are “young” and have been studying writing for some time and those who are “older” and have come to the formal study of writing after having a professional life established.

At 30, I think I may fall somewhere in the middle of “young” and “older,” but a few things I know for sure. I didn’t study poetry in undergrad. In fact, I was often at turns resentful, bitter, indignant, and envious of the students who did study writing, were part of the Avatar journal crowd, and generally made me feel like a shmuck. My writing didn’t sound like theirs and that was not a good thing. I decided fairly early on that I needed to focus on something more concrete and gave up on most of my creative pursuits like singing and poetry.

Additionally, I never really read poetry since after a certain age the writings of old, dead white men meant little to me. Even during the time in my life when I was reading Austen and dressing in a large straw hat with gloves and a matching handbag, I didn’t gravitate to poetry. Sure, reading about Donne getting his sadomasochistic rocks off with God was fun but just not something I went back to after the first few raised eyebrows and gasps.

And of course third, I am continually reminded that adjunct instructors of developmental English are so far down the ladder as to be under it. So what is a youngish, under-read, beginning poet to do? To bastardize a quote from Hamlet: Read, Read, READ.

I have decided to start a list of the books of poetry I have read. In the coming semester, I will be reading something like 20 books of poetry, so I will also be writing short reviews of my favorite bits. Here is what I have so far:

Books I Have Read–

Anne Sexton’s To Bedlam and Part Way Back and Last Poems ~ While I had read poetry before reading Sexton, she was the first poet who would not leave me alone, by which I mean her words invaded my mind and buzzed around for days after my first reading. I read her over and over again. What amazes me is that I can take different things away from each reading. She continually surprises me.

Jan Beatty’s Red Sugar ~ Before this book, most of the poems I had been exposed to held a distinct distance from the body and sexuality (things that were, according to my conservative upbringing, taboo in everyday conversations). Reading this book was like having my world opened. Poems can be written about the dark, squelchy things, the raw, painful things in a plain, brutally honest way. It was like being given permission and an acknowledgment that the sorts of things I was drawn to write about where acceptable topics.

Patricia Smith’s Blood Dazzler ~ Every single poem in the entire book shows such a high level of craft, I find it breathtaking. I feel like I could study this book for a year and still not be done. I have re-read several of the poems multiple times, and my emotional reaction is still just as authentic and genuine as my first read. For my second packet this semester, I will be writing a critical essay on this book and am excited to live inside of it for a while.

Open Gate: An Anthology of Haitian Creole Poetry ~ I bought this book after the earthquake because I wanted to know more about the culture and what better way then through the voice of the people? The anthology spans multiple generations of Haitian poets with both the English translations and original Haitian Creole. Want to know how America has really “helped” Haiti over the years? Read this anthology. My favorite poem in the whole book is by Suze Baron, “Yo Di / They Say.”

Aaron Smith’s Blue on Blue Ground ~ Another example of being given permission to write about things that are considered taboo; his voice is fresh and sharp. Besides, he opens one section with a quote by Anne Sexton, what’s not to love?

Thomas Lux’s The Cradle Place ~ Just to prove to you I have read old white guys, I have included the next two entries. Lux is a great reader of his own work, adding a vitality that is not always on the page. Imagery is his strong point.

Stephen Dunn’s Local Visitations ~ I do like Dunn’s work and have heard him read. His humor and poignancy is slow and meandering but definitely on the page.

I told you it was a short list. I am now working on Sharon Olds’s first book, Satan Says. I have a short critical essay due by February 11, so I will be writing a review soon. After all, as Tyne Daly said to me when I met her, “Oh, I could just read poetry all day long.”

*Note: This blog is meant for edutainment purposes only, and to that end, I may occasionally use some literary license. If you happen to be a member of the Avatar journal crowd, you have not a single shred of an apology! My bitterness runs to the chocolaty center.