Beatman on Rattle

As most of you know, I am interested in working-class issues and literature, with a special interest in working-class poetry. I also teach developmental writing -- and in many ways those two worlds intersect (too many to really explain here). However, Lisa Beatman, in her book Manufacturing America: Poems from the Factory Floor explores some of these intersections while depicting the lives of some of her students. My review of this book is up on Rattle.

Oh, it's suddenly July. How did that happen? The summer can't be moving along that quickly.

Cannibalism, Scrap Heaps, Debris

Susan Grimm calls it cannibalism. Jan Beatty calls it keeping scrap heaps or scrap piles. I call it working with debris. What am I talking about? It's something that I am sure that most of us do -- and that is putting old drafts away that won't ever seem just right and then looking back at these drafts, and taking a line or an image or a phrase for a brand new poem. I'm mentioning this now because I have done this twice in the last few days, and I am much happier with the newer poems than I was with any of the old drafts. I have piles of folders with old poems plus lots of notebooks and journals with old work -- so it's never hard for me to find old work. I just often feel that I should houseclean and get rid of a lot of this, well, stuff. But I don't -- everything just sits in piles.

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So, since it's the start of a new week (with a new month right around the corner), here is a question to ponder: Does anyone have a more productive way of organizing their own "scrap piles"?

Revising on a Rainy Saturday

When I was a kid, I hated rainy Saturdays, where I would be stuck inside all day. Now, I don't quite mind them as much. Perhaps it's because I now have an excuse to sit inside and write, which is what I did this morning. I'm revising my chapbook manuscript and thinking about audience. I understand why I put the poems together, but I can't help but think that most audiences will think that the collection is uneven. But honestly, at this point, I don't think that I will do much more revising before I send it out.

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I ended another week at Chautauqua with five new poems to revise. Well, actually, four new poems to revise. I think one is actually ready to send out -- but it's a little bit different from what I usually write, so I think that I have to research a bit more to find a special market for its home.

Wednesday Evening Musings

Tonight, I am listening to the thunderstorms slowly moving in, and thinking that we've gotten an awful lot of rain in Western New York in the last few days. I'm also thinking about the poetry workshop I conducted today with a group of ninth graders -- I think everything went well -- although I'm not sure what I really hoped to accomplish in an hour long workshop. I did a small unit on first person point of view and the art of persona poetry. I'm thinking that I was very surprised that most of the students knew what first person point of view even was! I'm also thinking of the poem that one of my students wrote: she wrote a persona poem from the viewpoint of Luigi, the little brother in Super Mario Brothers. (I think that was the explanation she gave me) I'm thinking it was quite good considering she wrote it in less than a half an hour.

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But mostly what I'm thinking about is my co-worker who was involved in a serious automobile accident this morning and is now in the hospital. I'm saving all my really good thoughts for him and his recovery.

Tuesday with Susan

This week at Chautauqua I am working with Susan Grimm, author of Lake Erie Blue. The focus of Susan's workshop is how to write longer denser poems, or in other words, how not to stop too soon. Longer poems (and I do realize that what exactly defines a longer poem is up for grabs) have always fascinated me, especially when I really don't think I have ever written a poem longer than 30 lines (which is why, the sestina continues to allude me). I have already found some of the in-class exercises especially helpful, and strange enough, they echo some of the revision strategies I do in my developmental writing classes. One exercise, focusing on a freewrite brainstorm we did in class, asked us to find three areas that sounded especially interesting, to rewrite those three areas on a separate piece of paper, and then brainstorm about those three areas, trying to flush out more details and images. When I teach writing, I tell my students to look at paragraphs that are weak, and "layer" ideas in those paragraphs to help support their presented ideas. Yes, indeed, there are some similarities in there..

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On the agenda tonight: working on a new chapbook manuscript. On the agenda tomorrow: doing a brief poetry workshop with ninth grade students. We will see how that goes!

The New Classics?

And, how many have you read? Entertainment Weekly has released their top 100 best reads from 1983 to 2008. Take a look here. (I love lists -- mostly because I like to argue about what should be on or off the list!) I have read 58 of these books and a few more are sitting in piles around my apartment waiting to be read. Alas, no poetry books, but I did see three or four graphic novels and a young adult book here and there...

Friday With Looming Deadlines

Because of family issues (which are slowly ironing out), I have been away from home for a few days. Thus, I am returning to my computer with a lot of work ahead of me for the weekend. I have two projects due at the end of the month. I am returning to Chautauqua for a week-long (2 hours/five days) workshop under poet Susan Grimm. Plus, I am going to be conducting my own one-day poetry workshop for ninth graders from a few of the local high schools. Craziness.