Today would have been my grandfather’s 94th birthday. He passed away November 2006, and it wasn’t until the funeral that I heard some of the stories of his time in the U.S. Navy during World War II. I knew that…
Category: Literature
Poem 5: “Locksley Hall”
Tennyson’s "Locksley Hall" isn’t the Victorian poem I like the most, but it is the one that gave me the publication bug. For a survey class, I was asked to write an analytical paper on something we’d read. I had…
Poem 4: “Those Winter Sundays”
Robert Hayden’s "Those Winter Sundays" is one of those poems that can be very easy to teach. It’s short. The diction is lovely. Its narrative is easy to understand, even for younger student. It’s an easy success in the classroom, but…
Poem 3: Green Eggs and Ham
Weren’t expecting this one next, were you? I confessed my love for Dr. Seuss a couple of years ago, so I may as well admit that Green Eggs and Ham is one of my favorite poems. How can you look at these…
Poem 2: The Waste Land
Because of the opening lines below, the other poem that everyone expects to hear at the beginning of April is T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land: APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory…
Poem 1: The Canterbury Tales
It’s terribly obvious to begin with Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, but it’s not here for the obvious reasons. This is the poem I think of every April. It doesn’t matter that I haven’t opened my Chaucer texts in years. These are…
Daily Poetry Musing
If you’re a teacher, you probably know that April is National Poetry Month. It’s that month when we pretend that we haven’t been reading poetry all year long and for some reason we need to champion rhythm and rhyme. Charles…
Using Wordle Images to Hear What’s Said
Elizabeth Alexander’s inaugural poem "Praise Song for the Day" didn’t really impress me. It was what it was: an occasional poem that tried very hard to sum up a moment of emotion and history. The poem was quite suitable, but…
11/23 Journal
Cleanapalooza is 90% over. The living room is inhabitable again, and there’s enough space in the kitchen to cook. Spent the afternoon in Salem, with my mom, sister, and niece. Mom had an eye doctor’s appointment, and we went along…
Musing on Martin’s Big Words
got loads of cleaning and organizing done, though no real writing. looking for some kind of small magnetic board for the office, but all i seem able to find are big magnetic white boards. not exactly the ideal solution have…