Everyday Use--Respond Under This Post

Hank Lazer Poems -- Respond Under This Post

Selected Poems from Days (Blog Will Not Allow for Original Typography)

71
3/3/95

good god bob
you're the one
of course who
made loveable &
why the fuck
not in such
a tight span
these twists of
thinking specific
to an instant

commentary : creeley the bob, days in part a case study of thought's torsion, the short line, collisions & collusions possible, the shifts in direction, heavy staccato "good god bob" splat, to sweet assonance, one, loveable, fuck, such, the delight in the twists, a tight span, in instants, the lyric as collision chamber

74
3/11/95

i sing the body
eclectic uh defective
icing the bawdy
directive rodin to young
rilke "toujours travailler"
all words & no fray
makes yack a dull
"stable & precarious"
rose on licorice er
icarus' wings

commentary : talk in tongues, trane's sax honks, i sing as icing on the cake, a bellyfull, stammer, stutter, the play's the thing, of course work hard the too earnest though ugh, dad's leukemia woven in everywhere, my young son's mishearing heard it better as rose on licorice wings, and why not

77
4/1/95
her virtues i
know thus far
verbal which
what think you
when wind across
key principle
forms of distance
love the
reckless irritant settled
athwart the hips

commentary : days, in part, playing with an erotics of writer/reader relations; last line, the single word "athwart" definitely a whitman-clinker; loving throughout as irritant AND joy; the wind of saying, a poem being taken up and said


81
4/11/95

you put them
there & fix
their place in blocks
& in columns
as you will
& then they have
quite apart from
you relations
all their own
with which you are amused

commentary : a compositional practice, you do put them there by hand i know you do, the poem's existence in time, as it becomes necessarily strange to the writer too, possibly amusing, of necessity so as the poem disconnects from its immediacy of compositional inception, is initially placed & put, but then . . .

83
4/15/95

yes & then
a little less
two blue
& white striped
chairs & the means
of enumerating
sudden content
ment heart in
sists its history is now
& thus not history proper

commentary : rarely, but here, instance of actual immediate surroundings, two specific chairs, as the first line: often poems in the affirmative (though, "& then"), words broken being both: content, and content-ment; the heart moves in, thus insists, a different site of action than some will allow into "history proper"

84
4/15/95

slow to slogan
voracious to
veracity amen
to mendacity
flesh to pleasure
legs to legendary
costly to apostle
mesh to measure
& i wake up
next to you

commentary : by musical extension, made extant, a tent, rolls on & off the tongue, a fleshy pleasure, to be beside you, juxtaposition, awakening to & into that fact, flesh to pleasure, such words so

88
4/21/95

speaking the first
law of economy
you yawn song sweeps
upward & across water's
surface not contra which
would only be two dictions
but each point a hub
radiating infinite spokes
persons tense in shifting
pulse processional

commentary : redundant in e-space to point out, hell yes, more than two dictions, thematized older poetries fond of binary structurings, poems now portals multiply open, from any given point an infinity of directions, made so perhaps with some of the energy, energizing, galvanics of early Williams and later Olson's "projective verse" these too "in shifting/ pulse processional," parading by, the radiating, the pulsing, the transfer of energy, instant by instant, for you to say

126
6/22/95

monk's joy &
studied exuberant
wrong notes infinite
rhythmic insistence
exactly slapped silences
trane's quest question
chaotic divine emily's
compressed
from you (love)
crucially direct address

commentary : recaps sources & muses, quick riffs, monk the first, the joy of right-wrong, the infinite possibilities of rhythm attended to & heard precisely, not the yay-or-nay of binary dumb metrics stressed or un- (how damned inadequate!), to trane, to emily d, to "you" who must be there, otherwise how to address directly


Below is the link to Lazer's Website:
http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/authors/lazer/

Judy Grahn - Respond Under This Post

A Woman Is Talking to Death

One

Testimony in trials that never got heard

my lovers teeth are white geese flying above me

my lovers muscles are rope ladders under my hands

we were driving home slow

my love and I, across the long Bay Bridge,

one February midnight, when midway

over in the far left lane, I saw a strange scene:

one small young man standing by the rail,

and in the lane itself, parked straight across

as if it could stop anything, a large young

man upon a stalled motorcycle, perfectly

relaxed as if he’d stopped at a hamburger stand;

he was wearing a peacoat and levis, and

he had his head back, roaring, you

could almost hear the laugh, it

was so real.

“Look at that fool,” I said, “in the

middle of the bridge like that,” a very

womanly remark.

Then we heard the meaning of the noise

of metal on a concrete bridge at 50

miles an hour, and the far left lane

filled up with a big car that had a

motorcycle jammed on its front bumper, like

the whole thing would explode, the friction

sparks shot up bright orange for many feet

into the air, and the racket still sets

my teeth on edge.

When the car stopped we stopped parallel

and Wendy headed for the callbox while I

ducked across those 6 lanes like a mouse

in the bowling alley. “Are you hurt?” I said,

the middle-aged driver had the greyest black face,

“I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t stop, what happened?”

Then I remembered. “Somebody,” I said, “was on

the motorcycle.” I ran back,

one block? two blocks? the space for walking

on the bridge is maybe 18 inches, whoever

engineered this arrogance, in the dark

stiff wind it seemed I would

be pushed over the rail, would fall down

screaming onto the hard surface of

the bay, but I did not, I found the tall young man

who thought he owned the bridge, now lying on

his stomach, head cradled in his broken arm.

He had glasses on, but somewhere he had lost

most of his levis, where were they?

and his shoes. Two short cuts on his buttocks,

that was the only mark except his thin white

seminal tubes were all strung out behind; no

child left in him; and he looked asleep.

I plucked wildly at his wrist, then put it

down; there were two long haired women

holding back the traffic just behind me

with their bare hands, the machines came

down like mad bulls, I was scared, much

more than usual, I felt easily squished

like the earthworms crawling on a busy

sidewalk after the rain; I wanted to

leave. And met the driver, walking back.

“The guy is dead.” I gripped his hand,

the wind was going to blow us off the bridge.

“Oh my God,” he said, “haven’t I had enough

trouble in my life?” He raised his head,

and for a second was enraged and yelling,

at the top of the bridge—”I was just driving

home!” His head fell down. “My God, and

now I’ve killed somebody.”

I looked down at my own peacoat and levis,

then over at the dead man’s friend, who

was howling and blubbering, what they would

call hysteria in a woman. “It isn’t possible”

he wailed, but it was possible, it was

indeed, accomplished and unfeeling, snoring

in its peacoat, and without its levis on.

He died laughing:........that’s a fact.

I had a woman waiting for me,

in her car and in the middle of the bridge,

I’m frightened, I said.I’m afraid, he said,

stay with me, be

my witness—”No,” I said, “I’ll be your

witness—later,” and I took his name

and number, “but I can’t stay with you,

I’m too frightened of the bridge, besides

I have a woman waiting

and no license—

and no tail lights—”

So I left—

as I have left so many of my lovers.

we drove home

shaking. Wendy’s face greyer

than any white person’s I have ever seen.

maybe he beat his wife, maybe he once

drove taxi, and raped a lover

of mine—how to know these things?

we do each other in, that’s a fact.

who will be my witness?

death wastes our time with drunkenness

and depression

death, who keeps us from our

lovers.

he had a woman waiting for him,

I found out when I called the number,

days later

“Where is he,” she said, “he’s disappeared.”

“He’ll be all right,” I said, “we could

have hit the guy as easy as anybody, it

wasn’t anybody’s fault, they’ll know that,”

women so often say dumb things like that,

they teach us to be sweet and reassuring,

and say ignorant things, because we don’t invent

the crime, the punishment, the bridges

that same week I looked into the mirror

and nobody was there to testify;

how clear, an unemployed queer woman

makes no witness at all,

nobody at all was there for

those two questions:......what does

she do, and who is she married to?

I am the woman who stopped on the bridge

and this is the man who was there

our lovers teeth are white geese flying

above us, but we ourselves are

easily squished.

keep the woman small and weak

and off the street, and off the

bridges, that’s the way, brother

one day I will leave you there,

as I have left you there before,

working for death.

we found out later

what we left him to.

Six big policemen answered the call,

all white, and no child in them.

they put the driver up against his car

and beat the hell out of him.

What did you kill that poor kid for?

you mutherfucking nigger.

that’s a fact.

Death only uses violence

when there is any kind of resistance,

the rest of the time a slow

weardown will do.

They took him to 4 different hospitals

til they got a drunk test report to fit their

case, and held him five days in jail

without a phone call.

how many lovers have we left.

there are as many contradictions to the game,

as there are players.

a woman is talking to death,

though talk is cheap, and life takes a long time

to make

right. He got a cheesy lawyer

who had him cop a plea, 15 to 20

instead of life.Did I say life?

the arrogant young man who thought he

owned the bridge, and fell asleep on it

he died laughing: that’s a fact.

the driver sits out his time

off the street somewhere,

does he have the most vacant of

eyes, will he die laughing?

Two

They don’t have to lynch the women anymore

death sits on my doorstep

cleaning his revolver

death cripples my feet and sends me out

to wait for the bus alone,

then comes by driving a taxi.

the woman on our block with 6 young children

has the most vacant of eyes

death sits in her bedroom, loading

his revolver

they don’t have to lynch the women

very often anymore, although

they used to—the lord and his men

went through the villages at night, beating &

killing every woman caught

outdoors.

the European witch trials took away

the independent people; two different villages—

after the trials were through that year—

had left in them, each—

one living woman:

one

What were those other women up to? had they

run over someone? stopped on the wrong bridge?

did they have teeth like

any kind of geese, or children

in them?

Three

This woman is a lesbian be careful

In the military hospital where I worked

as a nurse’s aide, the walls of the halls

were lined with howling women

waiting to deliver

or to have some parts removed.

One of the big private rooms contained

the general’s wife, who needed

a wart taken off her nose.

we were instructed to give her special attention

not because of her wart or her nose

but because of her husband, the general.

As many women as men die, and that’s a fact.

At work there was one friendly patient, already

claimed, a young woman burnt apart with X-ray,

she had long white tubes instead of openings;

rectum, bladder, vagina—I combed her hair, it

was my job, but she took care of me as if

nobody’s touch could spoil her.

ho ho death, ho death

have you seen the twinkle in the dead woman’s eye?

When you are a nurse’s aide

someone suddenly notices you

and yells about the patient’s bed,

and tears the sheets apart so you

can do it over, and over

while the patient waits

doubled over in her pain

for you to make the bed again

and no one ever looks at you,

only at what you do not do

Here, general, hold this soldier’s bed pan

for a moment, hold it for a year—

then we’ll promote you to making his bed.

we believe you wouldn’t make such messes

if you had to clean up after them.

that’s a fantasy.this woman is a lesbian, be careful.

When I was arrested and being thrown out

of the military, the order went out: dont anybody

speak to this woman, and for those three

long months, almost nobody did; the dayroom, when

I entered it, fell silent til I had gone; they

were afraid, they knew the wind would blow

them over the rail, the cops would come,

the water would run into their lungs.

Everything I touched

was spoiled. They were my lovers, those

women, but nobody had taught us how to swim.

I drowned, I took 3 or 4 others down

when I signed the confession of what we

had done together.

No one will ever speak to me again.

I read this somewhere; I wasn’t there:

in WW II the US army had invented some floating

amphibian tanks, and took them over to

the coast of Europe to unload them,

the landing ships all drawn up in a fleet,

and everybody watching. Each tank had a

crew of 6 and there were 25 tanks.

The first went down the landing planks

and sank, the second, the third, the

fourth, the fifth, the sixth went down

and sank. They weren’t supposed

to sink, the engineers had

made a mistake. The crews looked around

wildly for the order to quit,

but none came, and in the sight of

thousands of men, each 6 crewmen

saluted his officers, battened down

his hatch in turn, and drove into the

sea, and drowned, until all 25 tanks

were gone. did they have vacant

eyes, die laughing, or what? what

did they talk about, those men,

as the water came in?

was the general their lover?

Four

A Mock Interrogation

Have you ever held hands with a woman?

Yes, many times—women about to deliver, women about to

have breasts removed, wombs removed, miscarriages, women

having epileptic fits, having asthma, cancer, women having

breast bone marrow sucked out of them by nervous or in-

different interns, women with heart condition, who were

vomiting, overdosed, depressed, drunk, lonely to the point

of extinction: women who had been run over, beaten up.

deserted, starved. women who had been bitten by rats; and

women who were happy, who were celebrating, who were

dancing with me in large circles or alone, women who were

climbing mountains or up and down walls, or trucks or roofs

and needed a boost up, or I did; women who simply wanted

to hold my hand because they liked me, some women who

wanted to hold my hand because they liked me better than

anyone.

These were many women?

Yes. many.

What about kissing? Have you kissed any women?

I have kissed many women.

When was the first woman you kissed with serious feeling?

The first woman ever I kissed was Josie, who I had loved at

such a distance for months. Josie was not only beautiful,

she was tough and handsome too. Josie had black hair and

white teeth and strong brown muscles. Then she dropped

out of school unexplained. When she came she came

back for one day only, to finish the term, and there was a

child in her. She was all shame, pain, and defiance. Her eyes

were dark as the water under a bridge and no one would

talk to her, they laughed and threw things at her. In the

afternoon I walked across the front of the class and looked

deep into Josie’s eyes and I picked up her chin with my

hand, because I loved her, because nothing like her trouble

would ever happen to me, because I hated it that she was

pregnant and unhappy, and an outcast. We were thirteen.

You didn’t kiss her?

How does it feel to be thirteen and having a baby?

You didn’t actually kiss her?

Not in fact.

You have kissed other women?

Yes, many, some of the finest women I know, I have kissed.

women who were lonely, women I didn’t know and didn’t

want to, but kissed because that was a way to say yes we are

still alive and loveable, though separate, women who recog-

nized a loneliness in me, women who were hurt, I confess to

kissing the top a 55 year old woman’s head in the snow in

Boston, who was hurt more deeply that I have ever been

hurt, and I wanted her as a very few people have wanted

me—I wanted her and me to own and control and run the

city we lived in, to staff the hospital I know would mistreat

her, to drive the transportation system that had betrayed

her, to patrol the streets controlling the men who would

murder or disfigure or disrupt us, not accidentally with

machines, but on purpose, because we are not allowed out

on the street alone—

Have you ever committed any indecent acts with women?

Yes, many. I am guilty of allowing suicidal women to die

before my eyes or in my ears or under my hands because I

thought I could do nothing, I am guilty of leaving a prosti-

tute who held a knife to my friend’s throat to keep us from

leaving, because we would not sleep with her, we thought

she was old and fat and ugly; I am guilty of not loving her

who needed me; I regret all the women I have not slept with

or comforted, who pulled themselves away from me for lack

of something I had not the courage to fight for, for us, our

life, our planet, our city, our meat and potatoes, our love.

These are indecent acts, lacking courage, lacking a certain

fire behind the eyes, which is the symbol, the raised fist, the

sharing of resources, the resistance that tells death he will

starve for lack of the fat of us, our extra. Yes I have com-

mitted acts of indecency with women and most of them were

acts of omission. I regret them bitterly.

Five

Bless this day oh cat our house

“I was allowed to go

3 places growing up,” she said—

“3 places, no more.

there was a straight line from my house

to school, a straight line from my house

to church, a straight line from my house

to the corner store.”

her parents thought something might happen to her.

but nothing ever did.

my lovers teeth are white geese flying above me

my lovers muscles are rope ladders under my hands

we are the river of life and the fat of the land

death, do you tell me I cannot touch this woman?

if we use each other up

on each other

that’s a little bit less for you

a little bit less for you, ho

death, ho ho death.

Bless this day oh cat our house

help me be not such a mouse

death tells the woman to stay home

and then breaks in the window.

I read this somewhere, I wasn’t there:

In feudal Europe, if a woman committed adultery

her husband would sometimes tie her

down, catch a mouse and trap it

under a cup on her bare belly, until

it gnawed itself out, now are you

afraid of mice?

Six

Dressed as I am, a young man once called

me names in Spanish

a woman who talks to death

is a dirty traitor

inside a hamburger joint and

dressed as I am, a young man once called me

names in Spanish

then he called me queer and slugged me.

first I thought the ceiling had fallen down

but there was the counterman making a ham

sandwich, and there was I spread out on his

counter.

For God’s sake, I said when

I could talk, this guy is beating me up

can’t you call the police or something,

can’t you stop him? he looked up from

working on his sandwich, which was my

sandwich, I had ordered it. He liked

the way I looked. “There’s a pay phone

right across the street” he said.

I couldn’t listen to the Spanish language

for weeks afterward, without feeling the

most murderous of rages, the simple

association of one thing to another,

so damned simple.

The next day I went to the police station

to become an outraged citizen

Six big policemen stood in the hall,

all white and dressed as they do

they were well pleased with my story, pleased

at what had gotten beat out of me, so

I left them laughing, went home fast

and locked my door.

For several nights I fantasized the scene

again, this time grabbing a chair

and smashing it over the bastard’s head,

killing him. I called him a spic, and

killed him. My face healed, his didn’t

no child in me.

now when I remember I think:

maybe he was Josie’s baby.

all the chickens come home to roost.

all of them.

Seven

Death and disfiguration

One Christmas eve my lovers and I

we left the bar, driving home slow

there was a woman lying in the snow

by the side of the road. She was wearing

a bathrobe and no shoes, where were

her shoes? she had turned the snow

pink, under her feet, she was an Asian

woman, didn’t speak much English, but

she said a taxi driver beat her up

and raped her, throwing her out of his

care.

what on earth was she doing there

on a street she helped to pay for

but doesn’t own?

doesn’t she know to stay home?

I am a pervert, therefore I’ve learned

to keep my hands to myself in public

but I was so drunk that night,

I actually did something loving

I took her in my arms, this woman,

Until she could breathe right, and

my friends who are perverts too

they touched her toowe all touched her.

“You’re going to be all right”

we lied. She started to cry

“I’m 55 years old” she said

and that said everything.

Six big policemen answered the call

no child in them.

they seemed afraid to touch her,

then grabbed her like a corpse and heaved her

on their metal stretcher into the van,

crashing and clumsy.

She was more frightened than before.

they were cold and bored.

‘don’t leave me’ she said.

‘she’ll be all right’ they said.

we left, as we have left all of our lovers

as all lovers leave all lovers

much too soon to get the real loving done.

Eight

a mock interrogation

Why did you get in the cab with him, dressed as you are?

I wanted to go somewhere.

Did you know what the cab driver might do

if you got into the cab with him?

I just wanted to go somewhere.

How many times did you

get into the cab with him?

I dont remember.

If you dont remember, how do you know it happened to you?

Nine

Hey you death

ho and ho poor death

our lovers teeth are white geese flying above us

our lovers muscles are rope ladders under our hands

even though no women yet go down to the sea in ships

except in their dreams.

only the arrogant invent a quick and meaningful end

for themselves, of their own choosing.

everyone else knows how very slow it happens

how the woman’s existence bleeds out her years,

how the child shoots up at ten and is arrested and old

how the man carries a murderous shell within him

and passes it on.

we are the fat of the land, and

we all have our list of casualties

to my lovers I bequeath

the rest of my life

I want nothing left of me for you, ho death

except some fertilizer

for the next batch of us

who do not hold hands with you

who do not embrace you

who try not to work for you

or sacrifice themselves or trust

or believe you, ho ignorant

death, how do you know

we happened to you?

wherever our meat hangs on our own bones

for our own use

your pot is so empty

death, ho death

you shall be poor

Respond as usual then answer the questions.

Discussion Questions
“When I was praised for my conduct I felt guilt that in some way I was doing something that was really against the wishes of the white folks, that if they had understood they would have desired me to act just the opposite, that I should have been sulky and mean, and that that really would have been what they wanted, even though they were fooled and thought they wanted me to act as I did.”
From Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man

1. In the quote above, the narrator alludes to the concept that when one in power denigrates another, that person also denigrates his or her own humanity. Do you see such a concept in “A Woman is Talking to Death” or do you see what feminist critic Christina Hoff Sommers calls the ‘corrosive paradox’ of feminism: waging war on men while at the same time denigrating the women who respect those men? Another way to put this question is thus: do you identify with the speaker or not? Explain your answer and include references to the Invisible Man and/or Fences.


2. What is the relationship between gender, race and class in this poem? In order to answer this question you will need to know the definition of gender.


3. The poem was published in 1974. What makes it important for its time, in the way Invisible Man was important for its time?


4. How does Grahn reverse and “disempower” conventional expectations in the segment A Mock Interrogation?


5. Which might be considered worse in terms of the “American Dream”: being limited by class, by race or by gender? In order to answer this question, you’ll need to define the “American dream.”

6. Does it matter that Grahn is Lesbian? Should it matter? If it does, then why?

August Wilson -- Fences -- Comment Here

Answer the following questions then respond as usual.

1. Cite a place in place where you see the notion of the cyclical pattern of family, that is, the idea that the sins and virtues of one generation are played out again in the next. How powerful is this pattern, and is there any real hope to break free of it?


2. What is significant about the occupations or situations of the members of Troy's family in the final scene of the play?


3. To what extent is Troy wrong about how American society has changed during his lifetime? To what extent is he right?


4. Troy talks a great deal about the important of independence and self-reliance, but he is also a user and manipulator of others. Does this make him a liar? self-deceptive? something else?


5. Towards the end of the play, what is the significance of Cory singing the song “Old Blue” that Troy sang earlier in the play?- What happens to Gabe at the end of the play?

The Glass Menagerie -- Post Review Here

Here are some sites to help you get started.


How to Write a Movie Review
http://www.spiritofbaraka.com/how-to-write-a-movie-review.aspx


Lab Movie Review Site
http://www.ucls.uchicago.edu/students/projects/1996-97/MovieMetropolis/howto.html


How to Write a Movie Review
http://www.ehow.com/how_2002071_write-movie-review.html


Another suggestion: pick up a few popular magazines and read some reviews or look through library journals. The review should be no more than 700 words and should contain no mechanical or grammatical errors.

Ralph Ellison-Comment Under This Post

This richly symbolic, ironic, and often surreal novel describes a quest much like Ellison’s own to invent an identity independent of that imposed by society. Winner of the 1953 National Book Award, Invisible Man thrust Ellison not only into prominence but also into the vortex of the battles raging over the role of literature and art in politics, and specifically over Ellison's rejection of the "protest novel."

Symbols Exercise - Responses

• The Ten Commandments is a dominant culture because they are the universal laws for morality around the world--Mangum.
  
• The Bible is a gift given to us from God. I definitely don't think it should be changed. I can understand some people not agreeing with exat words of the Bible but just let the Bible be! People still will have something bad to say about the Bible rather it stays the same or changes!--Jag2419
  
• The Conflicting Cross
  I can identify with the cross because I consider myself a christian. It is very important to be the believer itself. With that said, I see a conflict going on with some religious groups. Even though they are considered to be the dominant culture. They refer to themselves as the emergent culture since they claim the dominant culture disagrees with their belief system. Looking for an example turn on TBN on any good day. Also in some references they ight make an argument thatrefers to a reactionary culture (i.e 50's lifestyle, pryaer in public schols) which I find kind of weird considering myself being African-American. If I were a Christian living during that time period, I mostly like would not have the same opportunties as those that are Christian but of a different skin tone.--Angela Langster
  
• The cross and the bible are very important parts of this world, but they should not be publicly displayed in places like courthouses, public schools etc. People have the right not to have to see it. Why aren't other religious symbols publicly displayed?--Alexander White
  
• The bible is very important to this society because our country was based on God and his rule. The bible represents us as a country. Just like other countries they are based on their preferred religion, so are we. That's why I believe our country is so successful and wealthy because anything that starts with God always ends in VICTORY!--Jeanell Calhoun
  
• I don't think that the Ten Commandments should change b/c it provides structure...without some kind of structure comes chaos. People are naturally destructive and extremely violent and the Ten Commandments gives us a criteria to follow--Joseph Hainsworth
  
• I wouldn't change any of the symbols. The cross, Bible, and the Ten Commandments represent the belief in God, who created the Earth which we live in and us...the U.S. Flag and Pledge represent our unwavering pride in our country--which is part of the world God created.--Alice Taylor.
  
• I grew up believing and saying everthing like the pledge. People have a choice to choose whether or not they want to say or believe things...symbols were created for a reason, so we should leave it alone, but if they changed the symbols, I wouldn't lose sleep.--Soupbone4
  
• The bible could be changed a bit so that the baptist don't take everything so extreme--the commandments say thou shall ot kill! Yet if you are being attacked is it O.K to fight back?--Deleisha Jensen
  
• I don't think any of them need to be changed, so long as none of them are forced on anyone...One nation under God" may need to be changed since students are forced to recite it. I am unlike most conservatives because I am open to emergent, but not emergent myself. What culture would an open-minded person fit?--Brian Jones
  
• Cross & Bible: This symbol should not be changed because Jesus died so that we could have life..Our country was founded on the symbols of Christianity.
  U.S. Flag & Pledge: This symbol brings two reactions out of me. This first is that of freedom, liberty, and justice. My second reaction sees this symbol as restrictive symbol. People say that we are free, but are we really free. A young poet once quoted, "America is a rich man's vision, but a poor man's prison."--Edward Robinson
  
• It's good if people have only one religion so that people can share the same values and thoughts. More than one religion would make misunderstanding between people--Stephanie Sam Say Mei
  
• Growing up around the Keesler AF Base, I had many friends whose parents were in the military. When I was younger, I really did not have more respect for military personel then anyone else. After a while of growing up around all these military people, my respect for them grew...I now realize the importance of the flag and the pledge, esp., to people who are patriotic.--Jason Erbe
  
• I believe in the United States of America and wht the flag stands for: Justice, God, and the people that stand together. Because together we stand, divided we fall, no matter what ethnic background. Even though I am speaking from a dominant stand point, we must look at the emergent culture. We are a melting pot.--Kendra McDuffie
  
• Minority (Name of Song)
  I pledge allegiance to the under world, one nation under Dog, of which I stand alone...
  
  Chorus
  I want to be the minority
  I don't want need your authority
  Down with the moral majority
  I want to be the minority
  - Greenday
  
  I belong to an emergent culture, a culture of personal responsiblity. I question authority and the information an authority gives. I don't always show disrespect to authority, but I choose what information I find credible. I think for myself.
  
  (Symbols) are just things. They are not people. Symbols are opinions. I enjoy my right to find a symbold sacred, and suppor the right to deface it.--Radar
  
• Cross & Bible
  These should not be changed b/c it gives me hope and life and it is truth and God-breathed--Jillian Odgers
  
• I don't think these things should be changed, but where they're put shoud be rethought. Like the Bible, having liars swear on it in court seems stupid because they may not believe in God and don't care about his commandments...Randy

• "You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your god am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me..."

What, so if my mother worshipped a different but I only worshipped (the true god) i will still be punshed & so would my children, their children and so on? This makes no sense in tht case, there would be no reason for me to lead a christian life, what happened to forgiveness.

The bible is a man written text. I'm sure a lot is lost in translation. On D day no one religion is going to be completely right. Each scripture can be taken out of context---Moonlight.

Powerhouse -- Respond Under This Post

Eudora Welty Plays Jazz with Words


Powerhouse is a riff on racism, power and signifyin(g).
This shortstory told by an unreliable/white narrator delineates cultral strata:

• Reactionary Culture
• Conservative Culture
• Emergent Culture

Billy Collins - Respond Under This Post

Another Reason Why I Don't Keep a Gun in the House

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark
that he barks every time they leave the house.
They must switch him on their way out.

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
I close all the windows in the house
and put on a Beethoven symphony full blast
but I can still hear him muffled under the music,
barking, barking, barking,

and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra,
his head raised confidently as if Beethoven
had included a part for barking dog.

When the record finally ends he is still barking,
sitting there in the oboe section barking,
his eyes fixed on the conductor who is
entreating him with his baton

while the other musicians listen in respectful
silence to the famous barking dog solo,
that endless coda that first established
Beethoven as an innovative genius.

Cathedral - Respond Under This Post

In addition to your regular response, answer the following question regarding Raymond Carver's short story Cathedral.

The term "epiphany," coined by James Joyce, has been used frequently in 20th century fiction to describe moments of "revelation" in a story where "everything becomes clear" to a character. The critic Malcolm Cowley defines epiphany as "that sudden reaching out of two characters through walls of inarticulateness and misunderstanding."To what extent does "Cathedral" end in an epiphany? How do you know?

Please, do not forget to use headings:

• A Title for your response "Be Creative"
• Basic Passage
• Correlation
• Difficulties

Note: I am looking for complexity in the correlation--a surprising or new angle.

Below is a sample response with headings and separate sections--your response should look like this example:

Title: Diet Coke Is The Reason

Intro to author: We, as readers, know very little about Billy Collins from the small amount of information the book entails. Billy Collins was born in 1941 in a New York City hospital he claims William Carlos Williams worked as a pediatric resident. He earned a Ph.D. at the University of California at Riverside in which he specialized in the Romantic Period. Now, he teaches at Lehman College of the City University.

Basic Passage: “and even now as you memorize the order of the planets, something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps, the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.”

Correlation: I can definitely relate to this! I believe I am the one person out of all my friends around me who has the shortest memory. I feel like I am on the same level as my grandmother who is in the later stages of Alzheimer’s disease. No, I don’t forget my name or the names of my family and friends I see often. But as it says in the passage, I believe I forget a piece of information or a memory every time I study, learn something new, or create a new memory. I believe this “forgetfulness” of mine is related to my obsessed addiction to Diet Coke. Maybe if I start taking Gingko Biloba, it’ll counteract the Nutrasweet that leads to memory loss. But all joking aside, this poem demonstrates how valuable the present moment is. The knowledge that we will forget make "now" all that more important. We must surrender to this knowledge, this loss. This poem is bittersweet. It is about bothloss and life in the guise of forgetfulness.

Difficulties: I had no problem reading or understanding this poem.

Required questions:

Identify the cause of human suffering—Tragedy

How can the tragedy be turned into a comedy?

Identify the cause of joy or happiness—comedy

Baraka - Post One-Comment under this post

A photograph of Amiri Baraka, activist, poet, (Racist?)
and the photograph that spurred Abel Meeropol to write the poem "Strange Fruit" which was later song by Billie Holiday.



Notes on "Biography"


Another look at "Strange Fruit"
Below are the lyrics to Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit, 1939, written by Abel Meeropol, New Yorker, Jewish schoolteacher, American Communist:


Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
for the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
for the sun to rot, for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop




In Walked Bud
(Listened to CD in-Class)

Audio File of "In Walked Bud"
When you go to Salon type the title of the poem in the search window.

http://www.salon.com/ent/audiofile/index.html?item=/ent/audiofile/2005/10/31/listens/index.html

Backstory on the Theolonius Monk Piece "In walked Bud " "As the musicians were packing up their instruments after the show, the police stormed the club and went after Monk. He refused to show his identification, and was forcibly arrested. A fan barred the door and challenged the officers. They tried to push him aside, but he wouldn't budge. 'Stop,' he yelled. 'You don't know what you're doing. You're mistreating the greatest pianist in the world!' At this point a nightstick came down on his head like a lightening bolt. The young fan was Monk's best friend, Bud Powell. He was dragged along with Monk, and thrown into jail after his injury was superficially treated at the hospital. After his release Powell complained of alarming headaches. He eventually checked into Bellevue Hospital, then spent three months in Creedmore Hospital. There he was treated with various psychoactive drugs and shock therapy. His artistic career had barely started, but henceforth he would be bedeviled by psychological problems. Monk was aware that Powell's intervention had saved him from a similar fate. For his ill-starred protege, he wrote 'In Walked Bud', '52nd Street Theme', and 'Broadway Theme', otherwise simply known as 'The Theme.' The numbers were intended to be Bud's property alone, and Monk never recorded them."

KINCAID "Post One" Respond under this post.

Key Points:

• Jamaica Kincaid often writes about the longing for maternal love and a childish bewilderment with the adult world.

• She seems to hold resentment toward her mother and her homeland.

• Kincaid is outspoken.

• Girl's voice only appears twice within an enormous list of "how-to's"

What is the effect of the list?

• Some of the instructions involve social mores. One big question you might tackle is whether or not you think these mores are essential.

In addition to your own correlation, please relate/synthesize the following into a paragraph of at least 50 words:

1) Kincaid's unforgiving rage at both her mother and homeland
and
2) "Everything passes through the self"

"big two-hearted river"

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway was born in a small suburb of chicago in 1899. he was born to a controlling mother that he sometimes reffered to as the "bitch". he started of working as a repoter, and later on ended up working as a medic in world war 1. As an author his writing style was sharp, to the point, and deceptively simple, which can be attributed to his time as a reporter. He is most known for his novel "old man and the sea". Late in his life he became depressed, and eventually commited suicide in 1961.

passage.
"Nick's heart tightened as the trout moved. He felt all the old feeling. He turned and looked down the stream. It stretched away,pebbly-bottomed with shallows and big boulders and a deep pool as it curvedaway around the foot of a bluff."

Correlation
this passage is descibing a trout as it fled from a king-fisher. up to this point nick had being watching the trout as it resited the fast flow of the current. resistance being an important theme in the story, had been abandoned by the trout at the sight of the bird. this coincides with a bad feeling arising in the narrator as it brings back "all the old feeling". I can relate to this passage and the narrator. In my own desire to keep faults in the back of my mind to avoid any feelings of sadness or frustration, I attempt to stay busy to remain preoccupied. the things i do to remain busy symbolize my resistance. offcourse the slightest reminder of my faults and short-comings represent the king-fisher, and the abandonment of my resistance, which leads to the feeling of sadness and frustration.

tragedy: the past.

comedy: the river, and the way it offers an escape.

how can the tragedy be turned into a comedy? by dealing with the past if possible, and getting rid of the need to escape.

A Good Nites Sleep.

Ernest Himmingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois. He was raised in the suburbs of Chicago. Himmingway had poor vision so they would not let him join the army. He took a job working as an ambulance driver on the Italian front. He was wounded in the war and became a correspondent for the Toronto Star and covered the Greco-Turkish War. Then after that he went to Paris and along with some others helped to create a revolutionary literary style and language.

The train disappeared into the distance, through the burnt woods. Nick sat. The town of Seney was gone, burned down. He looked into the river. The trout were still there. He watched them. They still gave him the old feeling. Nick picked up his pack and started walking through the country. He was sore and hot, but happy. He felt he had left the need for everything, including writing and thinking, behind him. He came up to the pine tree plain. Far away, he could see the blue hills next to Lake Superior. He stopped for a moment to sit and smoke with his legs stretched in front of him. A black grasshopper attached to his sock. He realized that the grasshoppers had not always been black but had changed because the forest was all burnt out. Nick guided himself by the sun. He could have turned toward the river, but decided to keep going as far as possible that day. There was no underbrush near the pine trees. Under the shade of those trees, he took off his pack and went to sleep.

This passage is about how you can leave something behind that is painful and you don’t want to think about. There are points in a person’s life where you must leave the painful memories behind in order to survive. I think this passage is telling the reader that Nick is running away from all the pain and frustration. I feel that in order to take his mind off of the pain Nick walks without thinking of anything else. He just preoccupies himself with his journey and long travel ahead of him.

Correlate:
This passage reminds me off myself when things go wrong in my life that I don’t want to deal with. I just keep myself busy in order not to think about them. When my ex-girlfriend and I broke up I was heartbroken and couldn’t eat or sleep so I just kept myself busy. I got into a lot of extra curricular activities to try and numb the pain of loneliness and despair. It worked as long as I kept myself busy I didn’t have time to be sad.

Identify the cause of suffering:
Ones self is the cause of suffering. He alone can stop the pain but instead he chooses not to deal with it and run away. The inability to face what is bothering you causes you to suffer more than to recognize the problem and solve it further more he inflicts pain upon himself. He needs to heal in order to stop the pain but he is running away therefore the pain will succeed and overcome him unless he stops it.

How could this become a comedy?
In order for this story to become a comedy Nick would have to face his fears and what is bothering he and stop running away. He would have to recognize what is wrong and get a solution.

Identify the cause of happiness:

He made coffee like Hopkins made it. He ate a can of apricots. He began to think about Hopkins, a serious man who was wealthy. Hopkins "went away when the telegram came." He gave Nick his gun and Bill his camera. They were all supposed to go fishing again the next summer. They never saw him again. Nick returned to the present. The coffee was bitter. He got into bed. He was comfortable, except for a mosquito buzzing in his ear. He killed the mosquito and went to sleep.

Big Two-Hearted River "Post One"

Comment under this post for Hemingway's story "Big Two-Hearted River"


Don't forget to use headings in your response: Title, Basic Passage; Correlation; Difficulties.

When correlating, be sure to relate the story to yourself--your response should not sound like something from the internet.


Themes we discussed in class include: Resistence, Stoicism, The paradox of strength coming from destruction and sterility, Movement = Happiness; non-movement = Sadness.

That Evening Sun "Post One"

Here is the Professor's post for this week's story. Simply comment on this post for this first trial run in blogging. Don't forget to follow the format as shown in this blog.

The key points we went over Monday:

• The title "That Evening Sun" is from a blues-gospel song.

• Gospel incorporates call and response.

• Jesus is the "Trickster" or outsider.

• Ritual/common acts are passed through culture: the type of work you do, clothes you wear, whether or not you brush your teeth.

The following are the Lyrics from Van Morrison's Version of "When That Evening Sun Go Down"

I want you, be around
When that evening sun goes down
I want you, be around
Keep my both feet on the ground
When that evening sun goes down
I want you, understand
Little girl, take me by my hand
I want you, understand
I wanna be your loving man
When that evening sun goes down
If it's nice, we'll go for a walk, a stroll in the clear moonlight
Singing a song, won't take long
Everything gonna be alright
And I wanna hold you oh so near
Keep you, darling from all fear
I wanna hold you oh so near
Nibble on your little ear
When that evening sun goes down
If it's nice, go for a walk, stroll in the clear moonlight
Sing you a song, won't take long
Everything gonna be alright
And I wanna hold you oh so near
Keep you, darling from all fear
I wanna hold you oh so near
Nibble on your little ear
When that evening sun goes down
When that evening sun goes down
When that evening sun goes down..

Welcome

Welcome to the Reading Response Forum.

You will read a story, poem or play in class every Monday.
After class, you will come to this site and will post a response to that reading.

On Wednesday, in class, you share your response. Go back online before midnight that day and write a reaction to someone's reading response.

On Friday,
One person brings a response for everyone to read in class. Everyone else, writes an on-line reaction to a peer's post.



Use the Following Structure for Responses:
The ABC Reading Structure

A Title – Fill in the title field.

• State the author’s Name

• Summarize the author’s life/work in at least three to four sentences.

Basic Passage - Choose a passage: sentence or lines (no more than three) which include a

central meaning. This passage should connect with the title.

Correlate – Write about how the passage applies to you, to someone you know, to a group or to society. Here are some questions that might help you. See what connections you can make and explore:

• Are there any passages in the reading that you, because of your life experience, are especially able to understand and appreciate? Write about one of those passages and show how it relates to your experience.

• Choose a passage from the reading, and tell what it helps explain about an experience you have known. After you have said as much as you can, consider this: does the passage exhaust the meaning of the experience, account for the experience you have in mind?

• Would a person who accepted this character’s ideas choose the same paths in life that you have chosen or that you have seen others choose? How would the ideas for this reading alter your life or the life of someone you know well?

• Are the writer’s or character’s ideas useful to a person in a certain lifestyle or profession? What difference would these ideas make for someone living that lifestyle or practicing that profession?

Required questions and goals for Reading Responses and In-Class Discussion

1. Identify the cause of human suffering—Tragedy
2. How can the tragedy be turned into a comedy?
3. Identify the cause of joy or happiness—Comedy

Difficulties - Write down passages, sentences or lines that raise any questions in your
mind as you read the passage or answer the questions.