Thursday, October 12, 2006
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Monday, June 05, 2006
Dustin Becker Responds to Lynn Martin
The star’s collapse into a black hole
is a quiet apocalypse. The devastation
is infinite, invisible and inescapable.
But deep within the well, where reality breaks down
and all matter is pure energy, something survives,
and is exhaled into space in a plume light-years long.
Light orbits the event horizon, a crown encircling
the broken heart of space-time. Beyond this rim,
a little escapes. We have never witnessed this,
but imagine, among the stars, a luminous ring, a halo.
-Dustin J. Becker,
29May06
The poem first grew from ruminations on Ms. Martin’s “Tenth Elegy” and its opening four lines: “How heavy the star. How final its collapse./ The physicists have no answer. The star/ endlessly crushes itself into a tiny speck,/ that place where time and space disappear…” The black hole, of course, is a powerful metaphor for desolation and grief, but I wanted to bring more than just the ravages of cosmic destruction to my emulation. You mentioned last week that some of your favorite poems are the ones in which disaster seems all around, though suddenly there is a moment of calm, of hope. Travis said much the same thing while we were discussing Ms. Martin’s book. So, while the poem does not seem to be about any particular person or occasion, I’ve tried to create an elegiac mood here meant to capture that final moment of hope, mercy even. The image of mercy breaks through particularly in lines 7&8; the picture I had in my mind while writing was the image of the Sacred Heart from Catholic iconography: a heart aflame and radiant, surrounded and pierced by the crown of thorns, a reminder of the Passion and the redemptive work it accomplished. The poem, though, is not meant to be a literal description of the icon; rather, the icon is an unspoken and hidden idea lending support to the theme I had already established. The selection of the terminal word “halo” may, or may not be, in keeping with that theme. I can’t give away all my secrets. Let the reader make his own amen.
A final note: I’ve had some difficulty thinking of a decent title; the present one is only provisional. Suggestions are welcome.
Jennifer Hall's Elegy for her brother
Sunday, February thirteenth, two-thousand and five.
The phone rings.
Brother. Collapsed. Can’t breathe.
My heart stops.
My father rushes for the hospital three hours away.
I stay behind.
Can’t take this feeling, I know something is terribly wrong.
Why won’t anyone just tell me?
He’s gone already, I just know it.
I wish someone would just come out and say it.
The phone rings again.
The voice on the other line says “he didn’t make it”,
as if he didn’t reach his destination.
The words rip right through my flesh and stab at my heart.
Brother. Collapsed. Heart attack.
This is where bargaining with God comes in and I lose.
I want the funeral to get over with, before it’s even started.
Although I realize, once it’s over,
I must wake up and realize he’s really gone.
I see people there I haven’t seen in years, dressed in black and crying.
I am not crying. I do not know how to cry any more.
I get up to speak, to talk about how great my brother was.
Except, I hardly knew him at all.
All we had was hoop.
In the flower covered casket there has to be someone much older,
with gray hair whom died from old age.
Not a thirty five year old with two daughters whom suffered
a heart attack while playing basketball.
They said he was a walking time bomb.
The wind starts to blow as the Priest whispers a final prayer.
No one is crying now, except me.
They can’t be putting him in the ground, he has to much life to live.
God bless this man, for he was taken too soon.
Brother. Collapsed. Didn’t get to say goodbye.
I lay my rose down, and turn away.
I know my sixth man is finishing his game in heaven.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Friday, May 26, 2006
"The Humble Lecture" comes back
In the Age of the Overamplified, A Resurgence for the Humble Lecture
By DINITIA SMITH (NYT)
Published: March 17, 2006
PAUL HOLDENGRÄBER, director of public programs at the New York Public Library, is the kind of person who, when he gets excited, literally bounces in his chair.
''My purpose is not only to make the lions roar,'' he cries. Bounce. ''But to trigger people's imagination.'' Bounce. Bounce. ''It's not only sex that's exciting,'' Mr. Holdengräber says, ''but the life of the mind. When you come into contact with a great idea, it can change your life.''
Mr. Holdengräber is riding the crest of a renewed interest in spoken-word events, lectures, debates, readings and panel discussions, in many corners of the city, from university auditoriums to the 92nd Street Y and bookstores and bars.
A spokesman for the library said that attendance at public events had doubled since Mr. Holdengräber, the founder and former director of the Institute for Arts and Culture at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, arrived a year and a half ago. Dr. Paul LeClerc, the library's president, added that since Mr. Holdengräber, 45, began making his imprint on public programming, the audiences had ''a different energy.''
''They tend to be much younger,'' he noted.
In January, Mr. Holdengräber said, when the French writer and philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy was interviewed at the library by Tina Brown, ''900 people showed up.''
''Diane Von Furstenberg and Lauren Bacall were there,'' he continued.
To be sure, some of the increase in attendance can be attributed to Mr.
Holdengräber's efforts to liven up the programming. One of the first things he did when he arrived was to change the name from the Public Education Program to Live From the N.Y.P.L. It also helped that he changed the time most lectures began, to 7 p.m. or later, from 6 or 6:30, to make it easier for people with jobs to attend. And he increased the library's e-mail database of potential attendees to 7,000 from about 500. He says he relies on e-mail messages now to publicize events rather than brochures, a change that enables him to program more spontaneously.
In addition to the Y's usual literary fare and forums on politics, it presents interviews with actors and comedians -- Carl Reiner, Jay Leno, Ralph Fiennes and Philip Seymour Hoffman are among those who have appeared -- most of which are sold out far in advance.
Its musical performances are often accompanied by talks as well.
Smaller outlets have seen a steady increase in attendance. Denis Woychuk, the principal owner of KGB Bar at 85 East Fourth Street, which is a center for readings by authors, said: ''We set up our first in 1994 on Sundays because Sundays were slow. Things were dead. I said, 'Let's do something that's going to be fun.' The business was secondary, but there was certainly that.'' Every eager young writer attending a reading means, of course, that at least one drink is bought at the bar.
''Used to be that if you did a literary event on a weekend, nobody wanted to come. But now we're getting a very good early crowd on Saturdays.''
Scott, a historian at Queens College of the City University of New York. At the peak of the country's lecture craze in the 1850's, nearly 400,000 people a week attended lectures in the northern and western parts of the country, he once wrote in an essay on the topic. In 1856, when Beecher lectured in Springfield, Mass., the organizers had to provide a special train so people from the surrounding areas could attend.
Ms. Geismar Katz of the 92nd Street Y said that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have contributed to a renewed interest in public conversations. For years, the Y has had a lecture series with James F. Hoge Jr. of Foreign Affairs and Ralph Buultjens, a professor at New York University.
''It's not enough only to read -- our audiences are reading audiences,'' she added. ''But you always have that question you didn't get answered. Or at least, to hear it differently.''
But a spoken-word event is a two-way street, a symbiosis between performer and audience, with the performer nourished and encouraged by sometimes invisible cues of posture and attitude from those in crowd. Mr. Cunningham, whose novels include ''The Hours,'' has been reading at KGB for years, to standing-room-only crowds. ''It's very much about storytelling,'' he said.
''There's the sense of you're all gathered around the campfire -- 'I'm going to tell you about these people, and what happened then.' ''
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Two Short Elegies on Objects
Henry’s Hat Hangs
From a nail in my son’s room.
Next to it, my dad’s red baseball cap from Roosevelt.
Next to that, my blue T-ball cap, Sunny Senter’s written under the bill.
Next to that, Whit’s cap, yellow smiley-faced, bears his name.
Her Dresser, One Year Later
A flowered sheet winds
around the empty oak drawers
in a corner of my parents’ garage.
Things to Cover Tonight
- Weathered Pages Debrief
- Small Groups
- Responses to the book
- Reading itself
- Lynn Martin Preview
- We will need to be ready.
- What makes this special.
- What makes the book special.
- What do you think of the book?
- Pick a poem, now
- Loss/Grief in poetry
- From last week—Grimes, Howell, Me, Pier, Moore, A. Byerrum, T. Martin,
- Why so much?
- “Like all the best poets, Stroud makes the earth again consolable.”
- What do you reach for at 4 am?
- What did we reach for on 9/11?
what strikes me most in her work is how elegy turns from grief, to wonder, to praise. Theodore Roethke says, "In a dark time the eye begins to see."
In this book, Jenifer Browne Lawrence demonstrates how the creative act, the poem itself, not only helps us to see, but is a way of illuminating the world and transforming the self.
- “Lynn Martin brings the gifts of one who has lost so much.”
- “There, face to face with the most terrifying state of not knowing, they expand outward to the farthest rim of affirmation—where the blue bowl holds everything.”
Options for Elegy:
- First/Most recent experience with death.
- Object that used to belong to someone who is no longer alive.
- My examples
- Dresser
- Hats
- Keely Murphy
- Write a letter to someone who is dead. In it, make a confession.
- Who are your dead? Have them meet in a poem.
- Whenever I look at __________, I am reminded that I’ll be gone too, one of these days.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Blue Bowl Cliffnotes
Biography
Lynn Martin was born in Phoenix Arizona. Her parents both passed away in 1975 and was followed by the deaths of many people who were close to her, including a miscarriage and the most recent death of her husband. These personal blows are the influence and reason for her style of poetry.
She attended Arizona State University where she obtained her BA in English and MA in Humanities. She also attended the University of Washington where she got her MA in Advanced Writing.
She has two major influences that she draws from. One is Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) who was a German poet and writer. He wrote the Duino Elegies which have a lot in common with Lynn’s style of writing about death. The second influence is Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). He was an Italian poet and writer who’s most famous piece was titled “La Divina Commedia”, which was later translated to English and titled “The Inferno”. Lynn Martin traveled later in life to Italy to study Dante and in 1988 was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for her studies in Italy.
She has had two books published. The first was called “Where the Yellow Field Widened: Elegies for a Lost Child” in 1994 following her miscarriage, and “The Blue Bowl” in 2000.
Lynn Martin is now a retired teacher of Gig Harbor high school where she taught literature and writing.
In the words of Jim Bodeen: Lynn Martin is like the Blue Bowl because only a person who has lost so much can have such great compassion and understanding for others who are going through loss.
Analysis
Writing for the New Yorker magazine, Noelle Oxenhandler wrote, “Lynn Martin’s poems walk straight into the deepest sorrow. There, face to face with the most terrifying state of unknowing, they expand outward to the farthest rim of affirmation—where the blue bowl holds everything.” Between 1975 and 1990, Lynn Martin experienced a series of devastating personal losses, and her book, Blue Bowl, not only memorializes each of the persons vanished from her life, but it is also a testament to the human need to reach outward in times of grief and sorrow, and to resist the isolation which threatens to overcome us. In the book’s title poem, she imagines her “blue bowl” as the sky, the great vessel in which all of creation is held. “I love . . . things able to hold,” she writes, “[able to] be held by other things.” Lynn Martin’s blue bowl is nothing less than the bonds of blood and faith which urge, even compel, us to companionship. If human beings are social creatures, then the blue bowl is the place we congregate. And pain itself can bind. As tragedy comes, we are met with the compassion of others who have weathered the same, and this bond of mutual suffering becomes a deeper bond of mutual hope, as we lead each other outward from the darkness and uncertainty of tragedy. ”When the new pain comes,” she writes in her poem “Cosmos,” the old pains/ do not walk out the door, but stand along beside them.” The searing pain of loss works, in the forges of the heart, a miracle.
Motifs and Symbols
Some of the recurring elements in Blue Bowl include water (rivers, rain, ocean, swimming, fish, waves, boats, lakes), colors (many colors, but blue and white seemed the most significant), flowers and trees, especially in blossom stage, though also throughout the seasons, light and/or dark, and wings and winged creatures, like birds and butterflies. These elements occur in nearly every poem and often are combined (i.e. flowers, trees, birds, and light or water).
A few of the poems that reference water include the following: “The Talk of Dying” (p. 21),“A Guest of Fishes” (p. 22), “Elegy for Stephen Tudor” (p. 29), “Third Elegy” (p. 41), “Entering Rain” (p. 75), “Intimacy,” (p. 79), “Where Everything is Red” (p. 85). Water symbolizes a number of things in these poems. Rain is often equated with tears and mourning. Swimming can be a journey or struggle (like flight, but more difficult and dangerous because of the water’s resistance, unpredictability, and power). Rivers also seem to symbolize a journey, always running to the sea. The sea itself seems to be a sort of wholeness or completeness and an expanse, which touches everything but is much larger and older than humans and is out of the realm of human control, almost like afterlife, a physical representation of the infinite (like space).
Colors and light and/or dark can be seen in these poems, among others: “The Blue Bowl” (p. 20), “Four Snows” (p. 33 - 36), “The Blue Hyacinth” (p. 67), “A Guest of Fishes” (p. 22), “It is Sunny” (p. 26), “Elegy for Stephen Tudor” (p. 29), “Four Snows” (p. 33 - 36), “Ecstatic Elegy” (p. 86), “The Wisteria” (p. 103). Blue is the most commonly referenced color in this book of poetry, often in association with the sky or water, which is what blue often symbolizes. Blue is sometimes associated with sadness. Blue is often associated with faith (even heaven), healing, calmness/serenity, wisdom, and seriousness, all of which seem appropriate for one who is grappling with great loss and the meaning of life. White is another commonly referenced color, a color associated with innocence, purity, light, and goodness. In her grief, we see the author exploring both darkness and light—grief, loss, and lack of understanding and hope, faith, and enlightenment—often grappling with both at the same time.
Martin’s references to flowers and trees, often in blossom stage (but also throughout the seasons)—apple trees, particularly, but also cherry blossoms, magnolia, poppies, dogwood, etc.—seem to tie the losses she’s experiencing into the greater “cycle of life” that can be seen in nature. Her particular reliance on springtime images at times suggest a sense of hope and understanding, but also at times simply serve to magnify her loss by showing death in contrast to new life. Most poems include references to the natural world, but a few examples include the following: “It is Sunny” (p. 26), “Prayer” (p. 27), “Four Snows” (p. 33), “Third Elegy” (p. 41), “Eighth Elegy” (p. 46), “Ninth Elegy” (p. 47), “Fasting” (p. 61), “High Sierra Trail, July” (p. 94), “Lace Curtains” (p. 98), “The Apple Tree Opens Its Fists” (p. 100), “The Ancient Plum” (p. 101). Martin’s discussion of the trees and flowers around her also contrast the desert (Phoenix) from where she herself originated; she is a “transplant.” These references also compliment references to water and other natural life, such as birds.
Imagery of wings or winged creatures seems to at times also highlight her struggle to find enlightenment during a time when it feels like her wings (her freedom and hope and future) are being broken by the weight of loss. A few examples: “ . . . my weakness dragging along, like broken wings . . .” (“Elegy for My Parents,” p. 25); “Butterflies land on the scarlet poppies. /Will I even again—have wings? . . . Cover me with your huge wings, summer night” (“Seventh Elegy,” p. 45); “With the given wind, birds coast, wings open” (“Twelfth Elegy,” p. 50), “oh, let my wings lower me into a nest of light” (“That Other Life,” p. 102). A few other poems that reference wings or winged creatures include “Solitude” (p. 62), “Two Butterflies” (p. 63), and “Cosmos,” (p. 84)
Other motifs:
opening
“ . . . if we’d open our arms” (“Come June,” p. 24), “ . . . I feel the darkness/rush towards me, and I open my arms” (“Under the Walnut Tree,” p. 88)
holding/being held (find poems)
empty/full
Literary Devices
Lynn Martin makes use of literary devices, such as personification, imagery, allusion, and metaphor, throughout her poetry.
In her poems, Martin often gives human-like qualities to natural life; for example, “The air proclaimed/its own buoyancy . . .” (“A Guest of Fishes,” p. 22) and “The whiteness of the plum blossoms cracks a smile” (“Fasting,” p. 61) and “ . . . Rain invites you . . . Rain’s gesture is ample and/innocent. It sings for itself . . .” (“Entering Rain,” p. 75). Martin creates mental images using concrete sensory details in poems, like “Four Snows, I. December Elegy” (p. 33): “Birds assemble to ornament/the trees, replacing apples. And I suddenly realize/something—feminine—about the sweep of nut trees/over the crest of a hill, their arc of ecstacy. It’s/Christmas Eve. I learn again who I am, alter of heart/to be left empty, which simply is, the stubble-yellow,/then, hundreds of white geese illuminate a green field.” The poem, “The Blue Hyacinth” (pp. 67 – 71), particularly, makes use of allusions, including modern painter, Matisse (and his bold blues), Odysseus and Penelope (The Odyssey—the heroic journey), Amma Syncletica (a “desert mother” of the Eastern Orthadox Church), and Thoreau (and civil disobedience). Another examples of the use of allusion can be seen in the poem, “Tuscany” (p. 87) , which includes references to Dionysius (Neoplatonic Christian Philosopher) and Van Gogh’s sunflower and iris paintings.Much of Martin’s metaphor use actually comes in the form of similes; for example, “ . . . to leave everything grey—like flattened hubcabs . . .” (“Early Elegy,” p. 39) and “ . . . my weaknesses dragging along, like broken wings,/my future like a mouth, unable to speak to the dead . . .” (“Elegy for My Parents,” p. 25) and “Cold hangs like stars do . . .” (“I. December Elegy,” p. 33). However, she also makes use of metaphor; for example, the last stanza in the poem, “Intimacy” (p. 79): “I am the pitcher which pours you . . . I am the window . . . I am the branch . . . I am the wood . . .”
Study Questions
1. What role does color play in Martin's poetry?
2. Martin is known as the poet of the elegy. What do elegies have to teach us? Do they do more than express sorrow?
3. What's the significance of the title/title poem? How does that guide our understanding of the book as a whole?
4. How do (or do) the original elegies ("Where the Yellow Field Widened: Elegies for a Lost Child") fit with the book as a whole?
5. Consider the line in "Tenth Elegy": "I understand the crimson leaf and plum swing on the same tree." How does this reveal the poem's (and book's?) theme?
6. In the “Ash Wednesday” section of the poem “Lenten Sequence,” Martin uses the refrain, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return,” a line from Genesis 3:19. What other significance does this line have, within the poem and beyond it?
7. In “Prayer,” Martin writes, “I wish you doubt enough to keep you/ human, doubt enough to keep you clear.” How does she relate doubt and uncertainty to faith?
8. “Cosmos” compares the flight of a bird to the migration of souls. In describing life and death, how does the book’s use of natural images enhance our understanding?
9. “Lace Curtains,” like many of the book’s poems, uses some breathtaking metaphors. How is lace used in this particular poem?
10. The book’s last poem, “The Wisteria,” includes the poet’s wish for the style of her own death in its final stanza. What does this wish have to say about a collection of often dark poems?
11. “Eleventh Elegy” asks “Is it possible/ to love a love not from need?” In other words, can we do so both willingly and selflessly?
Weathered Pages Study Questions
1. What does Terry Martin see as the strength of the Poetry Pole?
2. What does Dan Peters mean by “The pole is the needle on the record”?
3. How does the Poetry Pole serve as an anecdote to the Poetry Business?
4. How do the images of the puzzle in “One Hundred Steps Form Shore” add to the poem?
5. In Jim Halen’s poems, what are the different possible meanings of the stones?
Weathered Pages, Part Two
Terry Martin says that “The Poetry Pole is a living reminder that I’m not alone”, this I think is one of the keys to the theme or big idea of Weathered Pages. This anthology shows connectivity between readers, and writers of poetry, that this pole has connected them all. You can see the underlying connection that this pole has brought lives together that may not have entwined without The Pole.
A photo essay created by Rob Prout shows a photo of the keeper of the pole intently looking at the creations that have been left on the pole. When you look at the picture in the bush behind Jim you can see words of a poem subtly in the background. Below you can see writing that was from The Pole, this shows the underlying connection that The Pole has brought all these people together sometimes more subtly than other times.
To put your finger on just one symbol in this anthology is quite hard to do. Many of these poems are written by a poet who has already experienced it, yet as readers we are looking for the same experience. These poems are a collection of what we want to find within ourselves. Many symbols spread throughout these poems represent the stages of life, how we grow as individuals and how our lives begin and end. These symbols can include nature, weather (storms, sunshine, cold/hot), animals, insects such as wasps or bees, plants, and material objects, such as clothing. Many of the ones mentioned above are used throughout this book, in different forms. In the poem, “The Next Story,” by L. Martin (pg. 200), the poet uses nature as a way change. In conclusion, these poets in this anthology use objects that symbolize their love for something, or something they love.
Biographies:
Jim Bodeen
Jim Bodeen is a literature and writing teacher of Latino students at Davis High School in Yakima, Washington, the publisher and editor of Blue Begonia Press, and the author of several books of poetry including Whole Houses Shaking, Impulses to Love (poems set in North Dakota, Chile and Vietnam), and most recently, This House: A Poem in Seven Books. His plan with This House was to write a single poem about a single morning spent in his garden, listening to "In This House, On This Morning" by the Wynton Marsalis Septet. The poem, an epic narrative, is based on dreams, interactions with his wife, his children, his students, his friends–- but it evolved into a book that took ten months to write.
Jim, who writes in both English and Spanish, edited the book, With My Hands Full, a bilingual anthology of transformational poems by thirty-five young Latino writers. These pieces are witness to loss, migration and arrival. They explore border crossings that are geographical, political and personal. Jim calls these writers abrecaminos–-those who make a way where there is no way.
Jim received a BA in Education and a BA in History, plus a Masters in English from Central Washington University and a Master of Religious Education from Seattle University. As part of the Lincoln County School District Goals 2000 grant, Jim taught a workshop yesterday at Waldport High School.
Bodeen says of his work, "Being called to poetry is being called to listen. It is listening to the deepest sounds. The principles are basic–-extreme sobriety, practicality and courage."
Jim Bodeen and his wife Karen, his book designer and typesetter, have devoted their lives to poetry and poets.
Terry Martin
ELLENSBURG, Wash.-- "Probably my greatest strengths as a teacher are my commitment to lifelong learning, my willingness to try new things and the spirit with which I approach the work." So says Dr. Terry Martin, Central Washington University English professor.
For those reasons along with her "extraordinary dedication to teaching, commitment to students and innovative teaching methods," Martin has been named the 2003 Washington state Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).
She was recognized today (Thursday, Nov. 13) during an awards luncheon at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and at a Congressional reception on Capitol Hill. With 25 years' teaching experience, Martin, 46, has been in education for more than half of her life. After graduating from Western Washington University in 1979, she taught in Bellevue and La Center schools. She joined the Central faculty in 1986, after earning her Ph.D. in English education from the University of Oregon. Martin was named the university's Distinguished Teaching Professor in 2000 and received the CWU Presidential Award for Leadership in 2002.
In nominating her for the Professor of the Year award, Central President Jerilyn S. McIntyre, who called Martin the "consummate teacher-scholar-mentor," noted, "She has been a leader in moving our institution from one in which lecture is the primary pedagogical technique to one in which students, working cooperatively and in authentic settings, discover their own knowledge and understanding of important topics."
CWU English faculty colleague Paulus Pimomo echoes those sentiments, labeling Martin, "the teacher's teacher."
"Like many of us in the profession, Dr. Martin is familiar with and works hard to meet the demands of the fast evolving curricula and student body," Pimomo pointed out. "But unlike most of us, she has gone on to become a leader in meeting those demands."
Current and former students also are quick to credit Martin as an exemplary teacher and mentor.
"Dr. Martin has an innate ability to motivate students," Jessica Carter, a 1995 CWU graduate, says. "She causes students to dig deeper, think at higher levels, reach into depths of creativity they didn't know existed, and produce work at a quality they didn't know they were capable of. I have heard students say more than once, 'I want to be Dr. Martin,' and there is no hint of jest in that statement."
Martin says she enjoys working at Central because "teaching is the very heart of its mission. CWU offers me the opportunity to teach an interesting mix of general education, major and graduate classes. I enjoy the challenges inherent in attempting to address the diverse interests, needs and abilities of a wide range of students."
Patsy Callaghan, CWU English department chair, says: "I am not aware of another professor whose student evaluation results can compare with Dr. Martin's, yet her standards and expectations are some of the most challenging in the department, contradicting a general assumption that asking students to work hard will often elicit critical comments and negative responses."
About eight years ago, Martin, a native of Spokane who now lives in Yakima, began branching out from publishing scholarly and academic articles to also writing personal essays and poems. During the past several years, her creative writing has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies. Blue Begonia Press, as part of its Working Signs Series, published her first book of poetry, "Wishboats," in 2000.
Now, she says her creative writing has become a vital part of her teaching.
"I'm a learner; I try things that scare me," Martin points out. "Taking these risks helps me remember there's dignity in being a beginner."
That risk-taking spirit has also helped make her the very best Washington state has to offer its students in the collegiate classroom.
Rob Prout
Rob Prout teaches high school photography courses at Davis High School in Yakima, Washington. His personal work concerns intimate details of the natural and man made environment. His work is represented in private and corporate collections. An award-winning photographer, his combined vision is helping to shape the press through book design, and digital imaging as well as photography. Prout is re-inventing the poetry broadside with photography in the way he combines image and text.
Prout loves the collaborative process and what it contributes to original work.
Friday, May 19, 2006
Lynn Martin May 30th
From Wauna--Lynn MartinParker Room, Higher Education Center, YVCC
Reading Begin at 730
“Arising from a sequence of great losses, Lynn
Martin’s poems walk straight into the deepest sorrow. There, face to face with the most terrifying state of not knowing, they expand outward to the farthest rim of
affirmation—where the blue bowl holds everything.”
—Noelle Oxenhandler, Essayist, The New Yorker
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Weathered Pages Reading
Parker Room, Higher Education Center,
Free and open to the public
Featuring YVCC Students and Staff
From Yakima—May 15th: Editors, Weathered Pages Anthology Jim Bodeen, Terry Martin, and Rob Prout.
A six-foot cedar post, the word POETRY carved on both the east and west sides, planted in a garden on a street corner in Yakima, pushpins stuck in the wood. For ten years, hundreds of people have pinned thousands of poems to the Poetry Pole at Blue Begonia Press. After time in the weather, the pages have been taken down and saved—until now. Poems collected here represent a decade of testimony pinned and flying from a cedar post planted in a garden. They may trigger what you're looking for in your own life.
There is room on the Poetry Pole for everybody
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Weathered Pages Cliffnotes
Weathered Pages is anthology of work that was brought to individuals through a truly unique and extraordinary means—the pole. “A six-foot cedar post, the word POETRY carved on both the east and west sides, planted in a garden on a street corner in
Weathered Pages has a wide variety of themes and big ideas. Many poems seem to show that love and friendship are an important part of life, for example "Agnes & Pat," "Merry Christmas," and "This Place." Other poems showed a sense of anger and betrayal, for example "The Democratic Way," "Chicken Fricassee," and "Please Post." The ideas these poets expressed came from a large variety like religion, death, expressing your self and feelings to the simple pleasures in life. Some examples would be "A Prayer for Your Cat Scan," "Brothers and Sisters," and "Night Shift." Some poems like "In the Third Drawer of My Dresser" or "Women Gather" aren't as deep into feelings like some of the others mentioned. This collection of poems from all sort of poets gives you a little taste of all types of writing to enjoy.
- Would you suggest a method to read all the poems of this book?
- Would you suggest reading the “Notes on contributors” prior to before reading their poetry?
- There seem to be several different ways these poems could have been categorized how did you decide to use this approach?
- How did poets who do not live in the Valley submit poems to the pole?
- Do you consider all of the pieces poetry and –there are no prose pieces?
- What made you decide to publish the poems from the poetry pole, was it part of a vision that started with the creation of the poetry pole or a different time?
- In choosing the poems there where originally over 3000 poems how were you able to limit yourself to choosing the few that you did?
- Where there any poems that looking back that you wish were included?
- With the pole being part of a vision or a calling to poetry, where do you see this leading you, is your vision complete with this anthology?
Biographies:
Jim Bodeen
Jim Bodeen is a literature and writing teacher of Latino students at Davis High School in Yakima, Washington, the publisher and editor of Blue Begonia Press, and the author of several books of poetry including Whole Houses Shaking, Impulses to Love (poems set in North Dakota, Chile and Vietnam), and most recently, This House: A Poem in Seven Books. His plan with This House was to write a single poem about a single morning spent in his garden, listening to "In This House, On This Morning" by the Wynton Marsalis Septet. The poem, an epic narrative, is based on dreams, interactions with his wife, his children, his students, his friends–- but it evolved into a book that took ten months to write.
Jim, who writes in both English and Spanish, edited the book, With My Hands Full, a bilingual anthology of transformational poems by thirty-five young Latino writers. These pieces are witness to loss, migration and arrival. They explore border crossings that are geographical, political and personal. Jim calls these writers abrecaminos–-those who make a way where there is no way.
Jim received a BA in Education and a BA in History, plus a Masters in English from
Bodeen says of his work, "Being called to poetry is being called to listen. It is listening to the deepest sounds. The principles are basic–-extreme sobriety, practicality and courage."
Jim Bodeen and his wife Karen, his book designer and typesetter, have devoted their lives to poetry and poets.
Terry Martin
ELLENSBURG,
For those reasons along with her "extraordinary dedication to teaching, commitment to students and innovative teaching methods," Martin has been named the 2003 Washington state Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).
She was recognized today (Thursday, Nov. 13) during an awards luncheon at the National Press Club in
In nominating her for the Professor of the Year award, Central President Jerilyn S. McIntyre, who called Martin the "consummate teacher-scholar-mentor," noted, "She has been a leader in moving our institution from one in which lecture is the primary pedagogical technique to one in which students, working cooperatively and in authentic settings, discover their own knowledge and understanding of important topics."
CWU English faculty colleague Paulus Pimomo echoes those sentiments, labeling Martin, "the teacher's teacher."
"Like many of us in the profession, Dr. Martin is familiar with and works hard to meet the demands of the fast evolving curricula and student body," Pimomo pointed out. "But unlike most of us, she has gone on to become a leader in meeting those demands."
Current and former students also are quick to credit Martin as an exemplary teacher and mentor.
"Dr. Martin has an innate ability to motivate students," Jessica Carter, a 1995 CWU graduate, says. "She causes students to dig deeper, think at higher levels, reach into depths of creativity they didn't know existed, and produce work at a quality they didn't know they were capable of. I have heard students say more than once, 'I want to be Dr. Martin,' and there is no hint of jest in that statement."
Martin says she enjoys working at Central because "teaching is the very heart of its mission. CWU offers me the opportunity to teach an interesting mix of general education, major and graduate classes. I enjoy the challenges inherent in attempting to address the diverse interests, needs and abilities of a wide range of students."
Patsy Callaghan, CWU English department chair, says: "I am not aware of another professor whose student evaluation results can compare with Dr. Martin's, yet her standards and expectations are some of the most challenging in the department, contradicting a general assumption that asking students to work hard will often elicit critical comments and negative responses."
About eight years ago, Martin, a native of
Now, she says her creative writing has become a vital part of her teaching.
"I'm a learner; I try things that scare me," Martin points out. "Taking these risks helps me remember there's dignity in being a beginner."
That risk-taking spirit has also helped make her the very best
Rob Prout
Rob Prout teaches high school photography courses at
Prout loves the collaborative process and what it contributes to original work.
Monday, May 08, 2006
Study Questions for Skillman
Study Questions
General
- Is Skillman’s poems entertaining, informative, didactic, philosophical, argumentative, or some combination of these?
- Do the titles enhance the poems? Are they symbolic or misleading impressions of the poem?
- Is her work difficult to read? Why?
- Did your first impression change as you read all the way through?
- What type of imagery does Skillman use? Figurative language?
Specific
- Skillman uses quite a few titles that incorporate music but the poems themselves do not talk about music. Why do you think she does this? Is it the music in the words of the poem?
- In most of Skillman’s poems she talks about birds. Do you think that in some way they influence her? Are they a symbol for something?
- Beethoven and the Birds was one of her first books and Storm, was right after that one. Do you notice a difference in her poems between the two books?
- Can poems be considered music? They can produce pitch and rhythm, but are they the same as say Beethoven’s music?
- Do you think that music can be as much of an influence as a person can be? In a way music is a person if you look at it like the composer as your influence not just the music.
Bodeen thoughts on revision
added notes on revision, after listening to Judith Skillman at Dan Peters’ class, and thinking and reading Lynn Martin with Rilke during her time of great loss— and finding this page from Jane Hirshfield in Nine Gates, a book suggested by Terry Martin
Lynn Martin, sHADOWmARK broadside
when ever I remake a song,
Should know what issue is at stake:
it is myself that I remake.
Monday, April 24, 2006
Skillman Cliffnotes
Judith Skillman is the author of eight books of poems. She is winner of many poetry awards, including the Eric Mathieu King Fund from the Academy of American Poets, and has received grants from the Centrum Foundation, King County Arts Commission, and the Washington State Arts Commission. Her poems have appeared in Field, The Iowa Review, Northwest Review, Poetry, Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, Malahat Review, JAMA, and many other journals.
Skillman holds a Masters in English Literature from the University of Maryland, and has done graduate work in Comparative Literature at the University of Washington. She has taught Humanities courses for fifteen years at City University in Bellevue, Washington.
Read Judith's Ars Poetica.
Bibliography
Opalescence
David Robert Books, 2005
LatticeworkDavid Robert Books, 2004
Circe's Island
Silverfish Review Press, 2003
Sweetbrier
Blue Begonia Working Signs Series, 2001
Red Town
Silverfish Review Press, 2001
Storm
Blue Begonia Press, 1998
Beethoven and the Birds
Blue Begonia Press, 1996
Worship of the Visible Spectrum
Breitenbush Books, 1986
(REVIEW ABOUT STORM)
Seattle Weekly, published January 28 - February 3, 1999Poetry explodes our old habits of experience to make the world (and thus ourselves) new again. Some poems take us apart while putting us back together, enfolding our perceptions in the act of smashing them, and this is one of literature's great mitigations--the work of art that can possess its own chaos tells us we, too, may be able to hold ourselves steady. Look for no such mitigations in Storm, Skillman's new collection of poems. Her work tugs us into the maelstrom of being alive and strands us there, dust devils and curses blowing by, the ground buckling under our feet. Attention twitches, like tic douloureux, from Styrofoam replicas of molecules to memories of palsied Uncle Jake in the kitchen where the dog humped your red-faced mother's shin. A schoolgirl's briefcase holds "the stink/of instruments and limbs"; vision darkens in the "sackcloth of winter"; somewhere "between sewer and hedge" a turtle stalls. The nervous system is a scraped and shaken web on which moments crazily stitch themselves while "the earth gallop[s] closer." If we opened up, we'd feel this storm under the skin of even the sunniest picnic afternoon, but survival seems to require closing off most of our perceptions. Shall we open Skillman's book, then? Pricked and prodded by her restless, strenuous interrogations of the world we thought we knew, we'll shift uncomfortably, failing to find a place where the heart can rest. That's the point. -- Judy Lightfoot
Analysis of “Storm” by Judith Skillman
Skillman is a seasoned poet whose connection with life brings depth and insight to her poetry. This is particularly exhibited in her book Storm. Published in 1998, Storm is a collection of poems that revolve around the storms of life that inevitably come our way. Skillman carefully weaves a journey throughout her poetry, one that does not downplay that difficult times happen in life. Just as we cannot control the storms of nature, so to can the individual not control the storms that come with daily life. While storms may try to beat us down, it is possible to stand firm and weather the storm, to not let the storm wear us down, but to come out of it with life still in tact.
Skillman’s poems are divided into four sections within her book. Section I is titled “The Thunderheads” and centers on the reality that storms happen in life. This is exemplified in Uncle Jack, the nuclear physicist whose hands have been removed (“Rookery”, pg. 13), in the death that separates lovers (“Madrona”, pg. 16), and in a complicated pregnancy that resonates black and deeply grained (“Complications”, pg. 17). Section II, titled “The Spoils”, begins to rake through what the storm has left behind. For example, the sea sweeps the beach clean and years pass since the forgotten diagnosis (“Red-Headed Woodpecker”, pg. 34). There is a sense in Skillman’s poems that even after the storm passes life still exists, however mangled and hurting it may be. In Section III, Skillman’s poems focus on a recognition and desire to work past the storms. In “Paperweight”, the voice in the poem declares “I thaw from the center, but the house is wood and stone” (pg. 52) and in “The Indoor Garden”, the plant that is potted and repotted eventually becomes a tree (pg. 53). The idea that it is never too late to push past the storm and the spoils it leaves behind leads the reader toward Section IV of the book titled “The Robin”. In this section, it is clear that the storm has been weathered. The poem titled “The Robin” states that “The robin’s orange breast is a sign . . . In the round chest I see a little heat left over from the beginning of the universe” (pg. 67). There is life after the storm.
The natural flow of Skillman’s poetry leads the reader through the journey of life, a journey of weathering the difficulties that life brings. Skillman’s poems accentuate those experiences in life that we may not plan but that we inevitably are forced to deal with. Through it all, life can and does endure through the storms of life.
Themes/Big Ideas/Symbols-
Throughout the book, Storm, some elements that repeat significantly throughout. The first of some of these motifs are of winter and snow, coldness and nighttime. These are all themes found in (“The Comet” p. 70) (“The Indoor Garden” p. 53) (“The Paperweight” p.52) (“Another Nutcracker” p. 51) (“Tic Douloureux” p. 44) (“Storm” p. 37) All of these among others show us darkness. We feel sensations and realize it’s the sting of death, of disappointment, of disaster; all things that aren’t necessarily what people want to talk about and feel and make reference to.
Other references that show up often in the book are animals, nature references like trees, and a holly bush. She talks about insects and bark. In all of the poems above and also in (“The Snags” p. 42) I think all of these are symbols of hope in something good, in resolution, and things that are hidden in our lives. The journey of life has all of these things literally speaking, but also figuratively speaking. From this book, nature and it’s inhabitants can show us the ups and downs and the way out. From a sunset to a sunrise, to potato bugs and centipedes, “even a centipede can feed the lost and hungry.” (“As Lot’s Wife” p.29)
I think the pivotal poem in this book and an obvious theme throughout, naturally, is “Storm”. This poem is a journey with nature as the guide to help us make sense of the importance of the struggles and getting out of the darkness. It speaks of “…lightening, storms, electricity, spiders, a fallen tree, wren, swift, and the barometer bird, grass, twilight, constellations, planets, stars, thunder, sun, moon, flower, lightening bugs…” All of these words are in the poem in this order, with much in between them, but even as you read them you can almost see the journey and feel the ups and downs that are conveyed so simply and clearly with these words as the structure and guide to the deep emotions and experiences that are hardly easy to find words to describe and to derive such a response from the reader as hers do.
Struggle; fighting with life and the world. The journey and the path that is taken. This is what she is showing and doing with so many images in nature. She ties them with experience just enough to not let a lot of information be straightforward, but rather more of digging through these images. It’s work, but it’s there in a big way.
Potts Cliff Notes
Cliff’s Notes for Lost River Mountain
By Charles Potts
Analysis
Charles Potts used these phrases in his lecture. “No person steps into the same river twice.” And “No person ever used the same word with the same connotation twice”. If you were to read Charles Potts’ books you would feel the same way. There is an underlying yet sometimes-blatant theme or motif of Idaho, and less obvious ones of his childhood and family. These things remain constant, yet the poems are never the same. Potts used the mountain that he grew up next to, Lost River Mountain, as the title of the book and as the subject in a few poems, yet they are so different. That mountain has so many different connotations according to Potts, that you could never even read the same poem and have it mean the same thing to you every time.
Potts uses some language tricks in his otherwise stripped-down poems. He uses alliteration a lot of times to make you feel like you can hear or see the object that he is talking about. For example: Bubbly bottom of Sapphire Spring, or Fearless Ferris, Ferris Frank, velveteen basalt. All of these things help to create a picture in the mind that is clearly visible. He also uses words that you would not normally connect with an object or place. For example: “Zigguratting the dammed, and Idaho is an intransigent verb, Idahoing”. These make his poems challenging and very interesting to read. They add a kind of icing onto the cake of what is Charles’s poetry. It is good without them, yet even better with these wonderful words added in.
Charles Potts has said this of his writing, “I write the poems that I need to read, they are somewhat entertaining, but they are not really written for entertainment.” He is writing what he needs to hear and for a lot of us it is what we need to hear also. Finally, and in closing he says this, “If you are fit for nothing, be a poet.” He started writing because of a strong combination of arrogance and humility. These qualities of his are shown strongly throughout both books.
THEMES/MOTIFS:
From the beginning all the way through the end of Lost River Mountain, Charles Potts has motifs that convey his main theme. A motif is a something that repeats throughout the book. The main motif is places in Idaho (including the state as a whole), with other less obvious ones such as his family and times when he was young.
No poem describes what it means to be from Idaho better than "To Idaho," on page 21. It reads "No one would have ever been Idahoing If they could have thought of anything better to do." That really sums Idaho up, kind of boring, but with a lifelong effect that only comes from growing up in a small city or state can have. But he uses particular places and images within Idaho a lot to convey Idaho’s affects. For example, "The Way Up to Invisible Mountain" talks about the mountain he grew up by. He then ties the mountain into his life now, and how metaphorically the invisible mountain is how life can be looked at. It seems that he is saying some things in life take some looking and investigating before you see what is really there and how big it is. Through poems like these, Potts shows what Idaho has done for him, and what effects its memories still have.
When Potts’ memories fail, he imagines the making of the physical landscape of Idaho, millions of years ago. He likes to compare it to his on experiences and the human experience itself to strip away the importance we attach to it. In "Born in Idaho Falls," he wrote,
The people problem,
When they raise and lower one another as they do
Every 10,000 years or so,
Is very small indeed.
As suggested by the last lines, he does not only imagine the making of the physical landscape in the best in his poetry, but he also imagines the changes that will happen in the future. Thus, another recurring theme of his is the end of civilization.
His family is also a motif that he uses. He talks of his parents often and of his feelings about his time with them before their deaths. In "My Mothers Depression," he says "How is your mother/ Since you kissed the classics goodbye/ Ever going to stop crying?" And then in "Mom and Dad," he writes about how the differences between his mother and fathers personality shaped him by saying "I am the predictable result of/ The underlying structure of my life." He must have been close to his parents, and it seems that their ways, ideals, and hardships are still affecting him to this day, possibly more so after their deaths.
He also uses his childhood quite often. But this motif is slightly hidden because it gets tied in with the larger motifs about places in Idaho and his family. In "The Kissing Tone," he shows how his childhood time affected him by saying "Learning who to trust/ And what not to/ Take for granted." This and other poems, such as "Bareback in the Gravel Pits" and "Back to Idaho" show these effects really well.
And when he is bored with his experiences of his immediate family and childhood, he talks about the family he as discovered through genealogy, or family history. There are several of these poems near the end of the book. He finds his well-documented family history fascinating as it connects him to a broader human history. For instance, in "The Gray Line Tour," he says, "My foremothers, less rude and less detailed,/ Are likewise carried forward/ With the inner glow of love they inspire/ Each ensuing breath."
BIG IDEA:
In this particular book, Potts’ focuses on Idaho and how it has affected him. He speaks of his home state, where he grew up, and where he loves. Every poem in the book is about Idaho, which is what I believe was the aim of the book. The poems showed all different ways one can be affected by the place they are from, though some were more subtle than others. And the ways that Idaho has affected him can be augmented into our lives; they seem to be universal lessons or bits of helpful information. It definitely seems though that his big idea was to take lots of different memories, situations, and places of Idaho and show how they as individual instances had their different lasting affects upon him.
Study Questions for Lost River Mountain
1 Charles Potts grew up in Idaho, but didn’t start writing about it until the 1990’s, despite being encouraged to write about it at Berkeley. Why do you think he waited so long? How do his Idaho poems reflect his experiences in other parts of the world?
2 In "Hide," how does the poem reflect two different meanings of the title?
3 Charles Potts’ interests in pre-history and geology show up in a lot of his poems like "Back to Idaho." How does he combine pre-history of Idaho, with his own history in Idaho? What effect does he create comparing the vast spans of geologic change, with his relatively short stay in Idaho?
4 In the Lecture, Potts said there is no way back to nature, but he certainly tries to get close. Throughout Lost River Mountain, how does Potts try re-connect with nature?
5 How does the poem "I Raced the Rain Over Doublespring Pass," suggest the same apocalyptic themes in a poem like, "A Walk at the End of the World," without being so explicit. Which do you think is more effective?
6 Potts said, "If you can find poetry in poetry you’re lucky." Can you find poetry within Potts’ poetry? Why is it so difficult?
7 In "Blue Jays in My Rearview Mirror," Potts gives the two plant parasites a personified trait of kissing. Why does he use this metaphor? Why does he connect it with the title?
8 In "50 Years Ago Today President Truman Dropped In," what is funny about the last stanza?
9 Potts paraphrased Spangler in the Lecture and said, "Nobody ever used the same word with exactly the same connotations twice." Can you find examples of Potts using words with very novel connotations?
10 How does Potts use an event like farm auctions in "The Auction Block," to express his anger against economic injustice? Does he avoid sounding like a cable news political pundit in this and other poems? If yes, How?
11 Potts admitted in the lecture that Groucho Marx influenced him just as much as Shakespeare and Dostoevsky. Do you see comical Marxist influences in any of the poems?
12 In "The Gray Line Tour" and others Potts uses genealogy in his poems. As he explores him, what do you think interests him about it? Do these poems reveal more about Charles Potts than those he writes about his own experiences?
13 In "Mom and Dad" what does Potts seem to think about individuality and character? In other poems, what kind of things are we products of?
14 How is "Raspberry Redux" an appropriate ending for Lost River Mountain? Does the tone of the poem fit the overall tone of the book, or does it create a new one?
Biography
Charles Potts, famous poet of books such as Lost River Mountain, The Portable Charles Potts, and Kiot was born in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Potts began publishing his poetry in 1963, and has continued through the present. Potts graduated from the college of Arts and Sciences at Idaho State University in 1965, where he later was given the Distinguished Professional Achievement Award in 1994. He is well known as being the driving force of the Temple Bookstore in Walla Walla, Washingtion, where has lived since 1978.
Potts is the founder of Litmus Incorporation located in Seattle and Berkeley. He also founded Tsunami Incorporation, which published many Northwest poets. Potts is also the president and founder of Palaise Management Incorporated. Potts is a retired real estate broker. He has traveled all over the world, and spent some time in Japan, studying the language and culture. He devotes most of his time now to writing and spends a lot of time at The Temple Bookstore.
Judith Skillman Background
Her website is good.
Information from another publisher with comments.
Another spot from same publisher.
Fine Madness, literary journal from Seattle that Skillman is connected to.