I remember getting perfectly ticked off and putting down his novel for three months the first time I read Salman Rushdie’s work. It wasn’t because something had offended my ideas or beliefs, but that I felt as though he had played a trick on me. Designed as it was to twist expectations, I felt made…
Tag: poetry reading
Inscrutable
Maybe everyone knows that the word “courage” came from the French word for “heart.” And it is the heart that leads into courageous action, more than any rational effort can do. Therefore, appeals to the heart should always make us more courageous, right? Maybe that’s true except in the cases of protective parents and similar…
Peace and poetry
It's a good day for a reblog of this list, in my slightly sardonic voice here, of reasons to give poetry books as holiday gifts. The shortest shortcut to peace is poetry. 'Tis the season... Top 20 reasons to give poetry books as gifts #20 - Won’t go out of fashion (because it isn’t fashionable…
Borrowing lines
Painting while listening to virtual programs on Zoom, Crowdcast, Vimeo, Coursera and other platforms has given me a new appreciation for those students who sketch and doodle in my classes. I’m not sure if my topics ever influence their artwork, but I know I find interweavings in my experiences of observing sound while engaged in…
With prompting
Hearing new writing, even before the ink has dried, before the coffee has turned cold, we imagine bright lights into a newly formed sky. In the free-write group that I host every Friday afternoon, I invite participants to engage with a simple writing prompt for a 15-minute composition (it usually goes a little longer). Then…