A discovery from down under

While surfing and reading poetry I found this treasure. I don't have time to be a true poetry fanatic, but I'll be spending some time there next week, as spring break gives me what feels now like a mountain of time.

I arrived at Jacket by way of Jack Spicer, a poet whose work I had not encountered before. So many poems, so little time. Here's the Jack Spicer poem I shared today:


This ocean, humiliating in its disguises
Tougher than anything.
No one listens to poetry. The ocean
Does not mean to be listened to. A drop
Or crash of water. It means
Nothing.
It
Is bread and butter
Pepper and salt. The death
That young men hope for. Aimlessly
It pounds the shore. White and aimless signals. No
One listens to poetry.
--------------------------

Poetry still does it for me. I'm in love again.

Do I dare to eat a peach?

April is poetry month as many of you are surely aware. This year I decided to do what I've only considered doing in years gone by. I'll begin each class in April with a poem. There isn't room in my curriculum for all the poetry I'd like to teach, but this should be enough to satisfy my own need and give me a way to keep myself fully engaged. Today was day one--I know I'm a slacker and missed the first real day--and we read "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot. I chose it because English Journal sent me a poster in the latest edition with the phrase "Do I dare disturb the universe?" This provided a nice beginning to the month--even better is that T.S. Eliot's ruminations on life and impeding death match up with some of the circumstances in our text The Grapes of Wrath. With the challenge of teaching teenagers about the vicissitudes of birth and death, Steinbeck's tendency to allusion is catching. I feel as though I am casting pearls before swine, but maybe a few of them see the value.