 Friday, October 06, 2006
Time flies! Tomorrow will already be one week since I heard Donald Hall--the 14th poet laureate of the United States--read and discuss his work at the National Book Festival in Washington DC.
At age 78, Hall is a prolific and brilliant poet whose writings have been profoundly inspired by place. He spent his summers as a child at his grandparents' farm in New Hampshire. "I've always loved New Hampshire so much that I remembered it all the time when I wasn't living there. I wrote out of memory," he remembered. When he was in his 50s, Hall moved back there to dedicate his life to writing poetry.
Hall lives a life close to nature. Of his work, the former poet laureate Billy Collins has said:
"Hall has long been placed in the Frostian tradition of the plainspoken rural poet. His reliance on simple, concrete diction and the no-nonsense sequence of the declarative sentence gives his poems steadiness and imbues them with a tone of sincere authority. It is a kind of simplicity that succeeds in engaging the reader in the first few lines."
At the National Book Festival, Hall read several poems from his new book White Apples and the Taste of Stone, and talked about his life-long relationship with words. He started writing poetry at age 12 and his first poem was published when he was 16. "The first poet I loved when I was 12 was Edgar Allen Poe." Hall told us. "Then, at age 14, I discovered the modern poets--Hilda Doolittle, Ezra Pound, and Wallace Stevens."
As a young poet, Hall said that he wrote a lot of "very decorative verses" but didn't focus on "personal expression." Over time, he feels he has undergone a process of "gradual nakedness" on the page. He has poured more and more of himself into his work.
What is it about poetry that has made him keep writing all these years? "Poetry expresses a great multiplicity of feelings--it fills the human mind."
I had not read too many of Hall's poems before this event and was intrigued by his comment that when it comes to poetry, "first the sounds, then the meaning" are important. What did he mean by that? I've been pondering that question and it strikes me that the simplest way to explain this is to give you this example:
What is the difference between these two sentences:
The year endured without punctuation. - from Donald Hall's poem "Without"
The 365 days passed without any periods, commas, or exclamation marks.
Same meaning - different sound. The first one, however, evokes a strong feeling of the passage of time ... and the word endured stretches, just like time stretches when it passes slowly.
EXTRA:
* Listen to a podcast of Donald Hall talking about poetry at the National Book Festival. Download.
* Listen to Donald Hall read three of his poems out loud: National Public Radio
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Essay by Jared Mollenbeck, Grade 12
All I wanted to do was rest after a long day of school and football practice. However, I had a big AP American Government test the next day and I didn't know anything about Federalists, Anti-Federalists, and Shay's Rebellion. I knew something had to be done, so I whipped out my notebook and dug into the evening's assignments. After plugging through a tedious worksheet and reading through the textbook, I finally felt I grasped the topic. The next day I aced the test and learned a very important lesson.
Although homework may be frustrating, it cannot be eliminated because it teaches discipline and instills learning.
When appropriate homework is assigned, it is very beneficial, not harmful. In Claudia Wallis' article, "The Myth About Homework", Wallis said, "A rising tide of dull, useless assignments is oppressing families and making kids hate learning." This statement may be true to a small extent, but not all homework is dull and useless. Every assignment I have completed in high school has benefited me in one way or another. Perhaps at times homework can be boring, but I would argue that it is never completely useless. Although there may be a few assignments every school year that seem to lack value, there are not nearly enough to "oppress families and make kids hate learning" as Wallis said. Consequently, I believe that homework does much more to help students learn than to hinder their desire to learn.
 Another way to understand the importance of homework is by comparing it to practice. Throughout my lifetime I have practiced for sports, music, drama, and numerous other things. During these practices I have received individual instruction in order to improve. My coaches and instructors have not merely told me what to do, but they have made me practice in order to improve. By the time the performance comes around I am prepared to do my best. The same can be said regarding homework. Teachers can lecture, discuss, or use any other methods of education, but students will learn very little without homework. In addition, students can listen to teachers all day, but nothing will be retained in the long run without completing assignments. Worksheets, essays, and projects are often disliked, but they play a valuable roll in education. By completing assignments, students will retain information and learn more. Consequently, homework and practice are very similar because both prepare students for the final performance by increasing preparation and understanding.
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Tuesday, October 03, 2006
The following story is an interpretation of the 1,000 Words image in the September, 2006 issue of Writing Magazine.
Pete Saves The Day
- Story by Elle MacGillis, Grade 7
Once upon a time at a grand hotel in Florida, called "Shades of Green," there lived a tree frog named Pete. Pete lived on the golf course near the edge of the hotel's property (hole number eight to be exact). Pete was a pretty normal tree frog; he had plenty of polliwog friends, a nice warm tree for a home, and many insects to eat. But there was one thing that made him different from other tree frogs. Pete loved to hang-glide. It wasn't just his hobby. It was his LIFE. Day and night he would hang-glide, hang-glide, and hang-glide.
 One rainy afternoon, Pete was hang-gliding over the hotel swimming pool. He was looking for an unlucky bug that had fallen into the pool, when he heard someone cry. He looked over his right shoulder to see Macie, the monarch butterfly, who lived in the marsh next to the golf course Pete lived on. Her wing was caught on a thorn bush that stood right outside the front entrance of the hotel! Unfortunately, the thorn made a hole all the way through her wing! Pete swooped down and started circling Macie. He did not get off his hang-glider though, for fear that he would get caught on the bush too.
"Please, Pete, help me!" Macie cried.
"Just stay still and I'll swoop down and grab you!"
Pete started circling lower and lower. When he was right above Macie he stuck out his tongue and slurrrrrped it right onto her head. With a short pull to the left and a jerk upward he pulled her off the rose's thorn and up to his hang-glider.
"Gotcha!" Pete smiled at Macie. She smiled back. She wrapped her legs around Pete as she closed her eyes, ready to hang on for her life. Within a minute, the wind was at their backs as they took off toward the "Critters in Need" hospital.
That night Macie underwent reconstructive wing surgery. The surgery, with physical therapy, would enable her to fly again!
The next day she awoke to Pete at her side.
"Pete, you have no idea how much that meant to me yesterday! Without you I don't think I would have survived." Macie whispered.
Pete tried to talk but found he could not speak. Instead he just smiled and nodded his head as tears rolled down his cheeks.
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That's one small step for man, one giant leap for Britney Spears. ... Oops. I did it again.
What? OK, so it wasn't that garbled.
When Neil Armstrong first stepped foot on the moon back on July 20, 1969, he spoke the words that would forever remain in our memories: That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. However, that phrase didn't always ring true with word enthusiasts and geeks everywhere (present company included). The problem with the grammar is that man and mankind are basically the same thing. When using them both together like this, it is repetitive.
Armstrong has always insisted that he said:That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. Do you see the difference? This way, the correct way, means that the step he is taking is a small one for him but a great big one for everyone. Oy.
At any rate, new technology out of Australia has actually found the missing "a" in Armstrong's words. It was hidden by inflection, a slur, and about 8 bizillion miles of interference. So we can all sleep a little easier now. The boys at NASA have their A.
Oh, and the new Australian technology also deciphered what Armstrong said immediately after those famous words. He said, "I'm guessing there's not going to be a burrito stand up here. Man, do I love burritos." 
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