Why I should (but inevitably won’t) teach the poetry of the sieve and the sand
by Julio Chapluzki
Beginning tomorrow,
for a limited time only
I will for the first time ever
teach two groups of students about
poetry.
And while I write a poem
nearly every day I do not feel
that i know the first thing about
poetry.
Except that it sounds good
when rc creates beautiful phrasing
when roger plays with words’ meanings
when ned tells poetic stories
when freaky challenges expectations
when tucker speaks from his heart
when josh creates vivid images
when tim stops slacking.
Thus I look to the sand and the sieve
for most of what I know and like about
poetry.
when Julio corrects common misconceptions and romanticizes poo (it’s just the ordure of the day).
I do like to romanticize poo. and lets face it, who doesn’t?
i like this one
you told the truth about me
That’s me, truth and poo
You’re a hell of a pooet.
I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t like to romanticize poo. In fact, I read this today in a review of a Henry James biography in Harper’s: “our bowels do more to make us equal than the revolver.” The author of the essay was William H. Gass, no less.
ned – well said
julio – you are a hell of a pooet…
and dont fear that when teaching the sieve
to not teach the sieve would only be your student’s loss
I can see it now…
“Now turn your books to page 14, and lets anal-ize this poem. What does the poet mean when he says he’s contracted an STD at a hotel? What is the poet on the following page trying to say about his bowel movements?
pick your favorite poem and explain why it is worthless in its context and why they are all still better poets than any of you hopeless morons will ever dream of being.
Roger you are so correct in the way you imagine the lessons
I always loved it when professors taught from their own books, especially novels. It was so uncomfortable for everyone.
I think, Julio, it would be a thing of sublime subversiveness (my favorite type, though I like all types, of subversiveness) if you taught from “peeing our name in the sand.”
You all have some very good educational philosophies. Perhaps, in addition to our poetry forum, we should open up an online course in pedagogy. It would not only be lucrative but would also give us lots of laughs when we hear our students’ stories about how our ideas did not work in their classes. Of course we would say that the theories are sound but their practice was flawed, thus all blame would lie on our students and not on us.
and they said there was no such thing as a flawless plan….
now to bring to this scheme into action…