Yesterday afternoon, Americans took a moment before diving into a turkey feast to give thanks for the their blessings. Whether it was a thank you for being healthy or an A on a math test, yesterday was the day to say thank you. Well, today is the day to commit your gratitude to paper through the melodious meanderings of the Ode. An ode is typically a short poem that expresses your personal feelings about a person, an event or an object in nature. If you're the formal type, you might consider the classical ode but if you're like me, and Pablo Neruda, you may just want to rock it freestyle!  Seeing as how Thanksgiving marks the official holiday season and unofficial season of celebrating food, I humbly submit to you my:

Ode to Thanksgiving Sandwich
by Jennifer Hickey

Upon black Friday's wakening
In the bowels of Frigidaire
In Tupperware
In tinfoil
sleeps your delicious savory parts
secret is your potential to those
sans vision.
Oh the mighty Thanksgiving Sandwich
Leaning tower of turkey showered in juicy gravy bits atop a sesame roll.
Last night's dinner cannot hold a flame to your beauty.
Do we dare to rest your tender meat atop mayonaise?
Oh HECK yeah! 

Ahh ... the possibilities of stuffing and mashed potato;
both or just one?
And tarty colorful cranberry to tease and tickle tastebuds.
You are clearly an integral piece.
More gravy
More gravy
and cover with the top! 

A mess
A mess
beautiful sloppy mess
seeping out of the bread back
and plopping in my very loose and forgiving pajamas
dribbling from my chin and neck
staining my Pink Floyd tee shirt circa 1992
and I am oblivious!

I am devoured as I devour you my savory sweet dinner between bread
as I sit Indian style upon my couch
I am one
I am eternally thankful for this shameful face stuffing.
 

Thank you very much! Now it is your turn! Turn your blessings or favorite foods into an Ode and send them to us!

Most people agree that the best stories are those where the hero gets the girl and saves the day. This is probably because as we read, the obstacles the hero overcomes transfer to us and we get to be the hero! So if this is true, why would anyone want to write a story where the hero fails? Why write a tragedy?

Let's consider Shakespeare's Othello. This hero is an incredible man of great status; a general of a foreign army! Othello is respected by rich Venetian politicians, obeyed by his soldiers and loved by the most beautiful maiden in all of Venice. After capturing the fair Desdemona's heart and marrying her, he is sent back to war to defeat the Turks, which he does! But like all tragic heroes, Othello has an Achilles’ heel. Through Iago's evil cunning, Othello allows jealousy to cloud his reason. His jealousy causes him to lose a job, respect, his sanity, his love and finally, his life. So, other than imparting a valuable lesson, what exactly did Shakespeare gain from laboring over a five-act play that sees his hero fall from grace?

Perhaps we can assume that Shakespeare has lost a love or two to the green-eyed monster, just like Othello did? We can imagine that Shakespeare wrote Othello's tragic ending to feel better about his own hardships. And maybe he felt more of a sense of control after writing this play.

And maybe, Shakespeare got to experience Catharsis. This very awkward Greek word means to purge or get rid of pity or fear. Catharsis happens to everyone. Even little kids can read a bedtime story and experience catharsis.

Sometimes an author might write a tragedy so the reader can experience catharsis. Catharsis allows the reader to work through irrational fears. Sounds very psychological doesn't it? Well, there's a great amount of truth to the process. When was the last time you sat in traffic for hours only to discover an accident was the cause and you didn't look to see how bad it was? That's what I thought! You looked because you wanted to experience it from a safe distance.

Maybe the answer is simply because life is not always a romantic comedy and though we don't always kill our wives and commit suicide ... we do lose from time to time. It feels good to know that in losing, we can gain the lesson. Reading and writing tragedies allows us to cheat death and fight fears--that's something a romantic comedy can't hold a candle to!

In Connecticut, where I live, I awoke this morning to see ice on the pond and snow flurries dancing in the air. I love flurries, and I also love the word flurries. It is one of those magical words that perfectly fits the thing it names.

All words have sounds--or are sounds--whether we speak them aloud or hear them silently in our head. Onomatopoeia (on-uh-mat-uh-PEE-ya) words are those that imitate the sounds they describe, such as buzz, pop, meow, and hiccup. But I'm not talking about those kinds of words. Flurries, after all, don't make any sound at all.

How can a sound describe something soundless? There is another category of words that fit their subject in a more subtle way. Non-auditory onomatopoeia, you could call it. (However, even those kinds of words mimic an imaginary sound, rather than reflect an ineffable quality).

Flurries--say it--is soft and light. The singular, flurry, doesn't have a harsh or heavy consonant in it. No Js or Zs or Ks. Even its vowel sound, short U, is quiet. It doesn't howl, whine, or whoop. The Y sound at the end, the long E sound, is playful.

Flurries. Flying, floating, fluttering flurries. Winter's coming on.

What other words can you think of that fit their subject perfectly? Send us your examples with a brief explanation of why you think the word fits its subject.

In the Playwriting issue of READ, we excerpted our interview with Jonathan Dorf, author of Young Playwrights 101. Here is that interview in its entirety.

READ: When you start writing a play, do you have the whole story already figured out in your head? Or do you write and see what happens?
Dorf: I'm somewhere in between. I tend to work from a "concept," which in my case means that I have a sense of the characters, what they want and the conflict or "problem" of the play. Often, I'll have images for moments in the play, and a sense of how--or with what picture or "note" (I find it's helpful to think of plays as pieces of music)--I want the play to end. It's then a question of figuring out how we get there, which still leaves plenty of room for creativity and spontaneity, and it's possible that the play will change based on discoveries I make about the characters and their world as I write.

READ: Do you find that most of your characters are modeled after you and your own experiences?
Dorf: No. While some playwrights tend to put themselves in their plays--for example, Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill is autobiographical--I am definitely not one of them. To me, it's much more fun to invent a character than it is to recycle my own life and put it on stage. This isn't to say that I don't take moments, images or characters that I've witnessed and put them in my work. For example, there was an older, mentally disturbed man who used to rant what I always imagined was Shakespearean language outside Harvard Yard. He found his way into my play Ben as a woman named Lady Shakespeare. Of course, aside from his ravings, I didn't know the real person at all, so I created an entire life for the character that worked in the context of the play.
     Some people will tell you to "write what you know." But there are so many fascinating and wonderful things out there, and if we all could only write about what we have personally experienced, we'd be limited indeed. So I believe in writing what I can learn about. For that same play, Ben, having never been a homeless teenager like the play's main character, I observed life among the street kids in Harvard Square, read books about the subject and even spent a semester volunteering at a youth shelter. No, there's no sign of me in the play, but there is a playwright who did his homework before he started writing.

READ: What do you think is the main purpose of a play?
Dorf: Aristotle talked about the purpose of plays being to teach and, in doing so, to please. More than two thousand years later, I'd say he's still got the right idea. Good plays tell stories that ask questions that make us think about our own lives. Good plays don't give us the answers. I always cringe when I hear people talking about the "moral" or the "lesson" of the play, particularly when talking about plays for youth. To me, those aren't plays--they're lectures--and they don't sufficiently respect the intelligence of young people. For example, my play After Math, which is performed widely at schools, examines the disappearance of a boy from math class and the gradual discovery by those left behind that they had never really noticed him until he was gone. There's no stern lecture or a teacher who walks in and scolds everyone for not paying better attention, no prescription for how to treat your classmates or the other people in your world, just a whisper on the wind at the end of the play that perhaps we could have done better, "And if it's too late to be undone, what can we do for the next one?" It's much easier to start a discussion with a question than it is with an answer.

READ: How much do you leave to the audience's imagination and how much do you explicitly provide?
Dorf: I believe in giving an audience most of the sentence, figuratively speaking, and letting them finish it. If the playwright provides too much information--a big problem for beginning writers--particularly by having characters tell us everything that they're thinking and feeling, the play tends to feel too much like a therapy session, and the audience becomes passive; everything is laid out for you, and the play no longer demands your attention. We don't need to know everything that happened to the characters to get them to this moment, and keeping some secrets and mysteries in a play is a good way to make sure the audience stays engaged and wants to find out the answers. Also, since most theatres don't have enormous budgets, I try to write plays that can be staged minimally, without expensive sets. Whereas film usually tries to make the action seem as if it's really happening, the fact that plays take place on a stage means that audiences are already accepting the convention that things won't be exactly like real life. So why not let their imaginations do some work?

READ: What's your favorite play that you wrote and why? What's your favorite play by another playwright and why?
Dorf: I don't really have one favorite play of my own, as I have many that I enjoy for different reasons. For example, my play about bullying, Thank You for Flushing My Head in the Toilet and other rarely used expressions, has a seemingly frenetic pace and harnesses comedy to approach a serious issue, and yet suddenly the "Bluebird" monologue sneaks in and catches the audience off-guard--and then their experience becomes very different. War of the Buttons, inspired by the novel by Louis Pergaud, is set in a working-class American town where the main industry, an ice cream factory, has failed, and the town is plunged into ruin. But in the struggle of the town kids to fight off the incursion by a nearby prep school, there's a little magic amidst the ruin. My frustration with War of the Buttons is that the cast is mostly male--as was the novel--and so it doesn't get produced as much as it should. Plays like Shining Sea I love for the iconic images--for example, a Winnebago--it creates, whereas Yard Wars I love just because a one-man show about backyard wrestling is an awful lot of fun. Yes, the actor really does wrestle himself.
     It's just as hard to settle on only one play I love by another writer, when there are so many. Angels in America is amazing for its fearless imagination and vastness of scope, and I love how Kushner takes his fictional characters and then crashes them into a world littered with real historical characters and supernatural ones. I love Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee for its musicality, even in the twisted, vicious relationships that Albee creates. A play like Mother Hicks by Susan Zeder creates such a vivid picture of its Depression-era world, but in a way that is magical, with a compelling young protagonist and the equally compelling and mysterious Mother Hicks. I love Zeder's use of the chorus to give us a sense of the social milieu, with the ensemble adding to the already beautiful "music" of the play. And, of course, there are many plays by Shakespeare that I love, but more about that later.

READ: Why is conflict so important in plays?
Dorf: We watch plays to see characters struggle, to have some obstacle they must overcome. If there were no obstacle, there'd be no reason for the play to continue or even to exist in the first place. For example, if I need that bag of money sitting on the table to pay my rent and nobody's going to stop me from getting it, I can simply grab the bag and go pay my rent. But if another man needs that bag just as badly as I do, now we have a play.

READ: How much or how little has Shakespeare influenced you?
Dorf: Shakespeare has probably influenced most writers in one way or another. It may be the tight plotting of his comedies, or the unforgettable characters from his tragedies. References to his plays abound in literature and popular culture. What I appreciate most about the Bard is his amazing use of language, and interestingly enough, among my favorite plays are the histories. For example, Richard II, not nearly as famous as the Richard that came after him, has some of the most dazzling language. Among my favorite moments are Richard's lines when he learns that Henry Bolingbroke has taken up arms against him:

For every man that Bolingbroke hath press'd
To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown,
God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay
A glorious angel: then, if angels fight,
Weak men must fall, for heaven still guards the right.

Another favorite is when Bolingbroke, now Henry IV and speaking to the murderer Sir Pierce of Exton, after the murder of Richard at his bidding:

They love not poison that do poison need,
Nor do I thee: though I did wish him dead,
I hate the murderer, love him murdered.

That's powerful stuff, and it's no surprise that it endures to this day.

READ: What is your favorite thing about playwriting?
Dorf: For me, there's no better feeling than sitting in the back of a darkened theater and watching an audience watch one of my plays. Whether they laugh, cry or simply sit and take it in, that's why I write.

It's a ton of fun to create your own myth if you use the great legends that have come before as a guide and source of inspiration. But where to start…

The most important element of a myth to consider is which kind you want to write. Do you want to write a creation myth that describes how the Earth came to be like The Legend of Turtle Island, or do you want to explain why we need to honor a value or belief? We saw an example of why the Tewa tribe believes it is important to uphold their spiritual way of life in Deer Hunter and White Corn Maiden.

Next, and probably the most exciting part is picking your supernatural characters! Myths are packed with gods and goddesses that interfere with the fate of the living like the buckskin-robed spirit in Deer Hunter and White Corn Maiden. They even have animals that talk like the loon in Sedna, and elements such as the wind or water personified. Your choices are limitless. Take a look around your home or go outside and just sit quietly to observe your surroundings. Maybe the pigeons have a message for human beings about being wasteful? Maybe the gods turned a tribe of humans into pigeons because they wasted the food they hunted, so now they must forever scavenge the cities for the castoffs of others? See how fun this can be?

Heroes, Helpers, and Villains
The supernatural characters you create are only the tip of the iceberg. Just think of all the other important characters needed to tell a story of mythical proportion. Sometimes myths have heroes or heroines that must overcome a difficult challenge. Whether they fail or succeed is up to you. It's also up to you who they are. American Indian heroines were often humans like Sedna, but they don't always have to be. Maybe your heroine is your dog? Or the rabbit in your backyard that always outsmarts your dog? Maybe your hero is you?

Similar to other stories, characters in myths have sidekicks or helpers that enable them to succeed, and evil characters that contribute to their downfall. Sedna's legion of sea creatures certainly help condemn her father to the depths of the sea!

Finally, what ever gods, animals or force of nature you choose as your characters, keep in mind that their actions must be symbolic. They must represent more than the ordinary. Ideally, your character's actions will allow your readers to understand the lesson or moral you or trying to impart. Or, if you are writing a creation myth, your characters will shed light on how something came to be. So dig deep into that creative mind of yours and think about what's important to you. Then, unleash your inner mythmaker and send your myth to us to share!

Many of us think of the American Indians in November as we celebrate Thanksgiving. And during that time, we are reminded of the great contributions they have provided our country.

Did you know that Iroquois chiefs were invited to speak at the constitutional convention? They shared the Iroquois model of government with Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and George Washington which our founding fathers incorporated into our own system.

American Indians were also the first to discover popcorn. It's true! After building piping hot fire on the beach, they would move the wood and embers away and place the corn kernels on the hot sand until it popped! Bet you never heard that in Social Studies class.

One of the most important contributions that American Indians continue to provide to the entire world is their stories. If you've haven't had the chance to read any Native American literature yet check out The Shadow Brothers by A.E. Cannon or The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich. Native American literature is rich with culture and traditions of people who perfected living off the land by communing with nature. Almost all of their stories stem from the ancient myths that have been passed down through generations.

What is a myth?

A myth is story that attempts to explain something about the world and that expresses an important belief or value of a culture. Some myths reveal how the universe was created while others explain things like why it is important to value your family. Myths can be very interesting because they often include supernatural beings like gods, goddesses, or trees and animals that can talk. Myths aren't about history or facts... they express inner truths—what we feel inside our hearts.

Deer Hunter and White Corn Maiden is a Tewa myth about the most beautiful and talented youths in the village who fell so deeply in love with each other that they refused do anything but be together. Deer Hunter no longer hunted even though the tribe needed food and White Corn Maiden no longer worked her pottery. On top of that, they ignored the tribe's traditions and avoided special ceremonies to protect the tribe from angry gods. Because they wouldn't listen, the gods turned them into stars in the night sky; one chasing the other, forever together and forever apart.

My favorite part of the Deer Hunter myth is the image of the dead White Corn Maiden chasing her husband around the village because he didn't want to be near her smelly, decaying body anymore! I also like how the spirits have such an interest in the tribe's everyday life; so much so that they come down and talk to them.

The very best thing about Native American myths is that they are a great source of inspiration. Writing your own myth can be a lot of fun because you can be as creative as you want to.

Check back in a few days to learn how to write your own modern myth!

Last year, the literary world lost a great and profound writer. When Kurt Vonnegut passed away in April of 2007, my first thought was that we would never again be let into his weirdly beautiful disjointed worlds that mirror ours with broken images. But then, after some silent mourning, I began to realize... if any writer still exists post-mortem, it is Kurt Vonnegut. He is, in his own words, "unstuck in time".

READ magazine published a time travelling issue last year in which we adapted Vonnegut's classic novel, Slaughterhouse Five, into a Readers' Theater play. That was one of my favorite READ plays to work on. Besides that, I've read a lot of Vonnegut's novels but still have at least half of his library to enjoy. I'm very glad for that.

Happy Birthday to you, Kurt. I miss you now. But I will read you soon.

You are not a bug stuck in amber. :)

Editor's note: WORD is thrilled to welcome our new blogger, Jennifer Hickey! Jenn is an adjunct professor at Mercy College in New York City. Although Jenn teaches writing and literature to college students, she is very excited to be speaking to readers of READ! Click on Jenn's image to read her profile.

Have you ever been somewhere like a train or the dentist's office ... or maybe at your very old, very eccentric Great Aunt Tilda's musty house ... and then suddenly became inspired to write about something unusual or ironic? But all you had to write with was a napkin or a field trip permission slip and not much time? Well, I have the perfect poetry form for you!

Back in the day, poets created gnomic verses or small poems that had some sort of riddle or proverb within the lines. These ancient Greek poets referred to these poems as simply, gnomes, meaning "an opinion". Gnomic poetry was also popular in Medieval times. Medieval poets considered gnomic poetry to be an excellent tool for commenting on the world and expressing truths. Sound difficult? It's easier than you think. Check this out:

Great Aunt Tilda's

So many things
that were once new now
permeated by moth balls and
her age old recipe for matzo ball soup.

Tada!

Here's how I did it... I'm at Great Aunt Tilda's apartment and the whole place just reeks of moth balls because for some reason she thinks it's much better to have a smelly apartment than the possibility of a few holes in her sweaters. As for the soup, well, she loves it and I always think of her when I see matzo ball soup, so, I added that into the poem. The word permeated is both literal and figurative because it refers to the smelly moth balls and the idea of Aunt Tilda's soup.

What does my gnomic verse say about Aunt Tilda's? I believe it's a commentary about who she is! A matzo loving lady who fears moths enough to endure stink! And that's quirky and funny, which is a huge part of being old.

Here's a few gnomic verses by the poet Robert Creeley:

Toffee
Little bit patted pulled
Stretched set let cool.

Here
You have to reach
Out more it's
Farther away from
You it's here

Winter
Season's upon us
Weather alarms us
Snow riot peace
Leaves struck fist.

Poetic inspiration is everywhere and autumn is filled with stimulating events for you to create some gnomic witty banter. You too can follow Robert Creeley's example.  Write a verse or two about your favorite presidential candidate. Oh wait... the election is over. Well then write a gnome to President Elect Obama! Possibilities are endless!

Editor's Postnote: Have a question for Jenn or want to leave a comment... or a gnome? Feel free to do so in the comments section below.

Today, we received the unexpected news that author Michael Crichton has died of cancer. In his 66 years, Crichton was a best-selling author, a filmmaker, and the creator of the TV show "ER."

Most of us best know him for the book Jurassic Park and its subsequent movies based on the novel. It is a sad day to get such news. And all we can do here at READ, is to thank Crichton for his fertile mind and wicked imagination that kept so many of us riveted to the page and screen. You did what authors should do--you brought great stories to life. We'll miss you.

Here ye, hear ye! (...not sure if it's "Hear" or "Here" so I'm using both. 99% sure it's "Hear" now that I think about it. Oh well, too late to change it.)

Today is election day. Some guy named McCain and some other guy named Obama both want to be president. Everyone likes one or the other, but here at READ, we like Poe.

WE LIKE POE! WE LIKE POE!

That's right, we like Poe. And in honor of Poe, we are celebrating his 200th birthday on January 19, 2009 with a brand new Weekly Reader web site. Have ya heard that you can be a part of it?

Get your video camera and film a special birthday tribute to the man who wrote such classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Rambo, the entire last season of LOST, and much much more...

Wait... what?

Don't worry about it. All will be explained on January 19th. In the meantime, click here to visit our TeacherTube page where you can upload your video birthday wishes.

The winners will get their videos published on READ's Poe website as well as winning $100 million!

OK, well we'll give you $100 anyway.

HURRY! DEADLINE IS NOVEMBER 21!

Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe!

P.S. The video lies. It says "Upload your videos here", but really it means

UPLOAD YOUR VIDEOS HERE.

This just in...

There's a fairly new website that is dedicated to rapping the news. It's called The Week In Rap and is conveniently located at www.theweekinrap.com. The site is put out by the guys at Flocabulary, who have rapped on Shakespeare for READ in the past, and, coming soon, will be rapping for us on Poe as well.

If you want to get your news in a fun, enlightening way, check out The Week In Rap.

Here is a taste. Word.

The Week in Rap 10-31-08 from Week in Rap on Vimeo.