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TITLE Poetry Heaven: Teacher's Guide. The 1996 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. INSTITUTION Thirteen WNET, , NY. SPONS AGENCY Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Morristown, NJ. PUB DATE 1998-00-00 NOTE 48p.; Photographs may not reproduce clearly. AVAILABLE FROM Poetry Heaven Teacher's Guide, P.O. Box 245, Little Falls, NJ 07424-0245. Accompanying VHS videotape recordings available from Films for the Humanities and Sciences; Tel: 800-257-5126 (Toll Free); Web site: http://www.films.com PUB TYPE Guides Classroom Teacher (052) EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Class Activities; *Creative Writing; Cultural Enrichment; High Schools; *Oral Interpretation; *Poetry; *Poets IDENTIFIERS *Contemporary Literature; *Geraldine R Dodge Foundation; Oral Presentations

ABSTRACT This teaching guide packet is designed to accompany a 3-part television series, "Poetry Heaven," which captures many of the brightest and most memorable moments of the 1996 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. The series presented in the packet features 18 poets whose personalities, voices, and points of view reflect the power and diversity of contemporary poetry. While the guide in the packet is intended to be used with the series, it can also serve teachers as a free-standing resource for the study of contemporary poetry. Included are: classroom cards, including 13 poet cards and 1 panel/conversation card (featuring poems, poet's statements, biographical notes, photographs, discussion questions, and suggested activities); an outline of each program which identifies featured poets and events; a time grid which provides timed locations for poems and panel/conversations in the TV series; advice to young poets; a selected bibliography; and suggestions for building a core high school poetry collection. Each program in the series is 60 minutes long and readings of individual poems are continuous. Recommendations for the teacher are: preview the program selected for discussion; have students watch the whole program on air or show segments in class; hand out photocopies of the classroom cards; discuss what has been watched; and have students do the activities. (NKA)

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;1 POETRY HEAVEN offers an unusual y clear and generous window into the 1996 (seventh biennial) Geraldine RI Dodge Poetry Festival. In three hour-long programs, we visit the largest poetry event in North America. This festival, held every other year, provides a space in which poetry can assume its rightful place at the center of our imaginative and emotional lives. Festival audiences visit dozens of poetry-centered events readings, discussions, conversations, workshopsat site throughout historic Waterloo Village in northern New Jersey. ;For more information visit the Festiyarwebsite at www.grdodge.org/poetry or write to lioetry!Festival, Geraldine R. ,dge Foundation, 163 Madison Avente, P.O.B. 1239, Morristrn, NJ 07962-1239. 1998 Festival September 24, 226 & 27 "4 A tv . ,0011 It T J/j I

ilk POETRY HEAVEN Part 1 POETRY REAON Part4l- POETRY HEAVEN Part 3 Robert Hass: "Forty Something" : excerpts from: Louis Jenkins: "Appointed Rounds" and translations of haiku by William Blake's 'The Tiger," "Do the and 'Too Much Snow" Kobayashi Issa Meditation Rock," and "Ballad of the Hal Sirowitz: "Chopped-Off Arm" Skeletons" Mark Doty: "Golden Retrievals" : "Monsieur Degas Thyllas Moss: from "Poem for my Le Thl Diem Thuy: "Big girl, Little Teaches Art and Science at Durfee Mothers and Other Makers of girl" Intermediate School, Detroit, 1942," Asafetida" and "A Nagging Poetry an4History: Robert Hass, "You Can Have It," and "Coming Close" Misunderstanding" Louis Jenkins, Yusef Komunyakaa, Poetry and Work: Louis Jenkins, Pattiann Rogers: "The Greatest and Li-Young Lee Philip Levine, and Yusef Grandeur" and "The Hummingbird: Yusef Komunyakaa: from "History Komunyakaa A Seduction" Lesson"; Li-Young Lee: Yusef Komunyakaa: "Believing in Iron" "The Interrogation" Carol Muske: "Talk Show" and an : "For Anna Mae Pictou excerpt from "An Octave Above Robert Hass: from "Regalia for a Aquash ..." Black Hat Dancer" Thunder" ("The Dakota in her Robert Creeley: "I Know a Man" Speech") Mark Doty: "Michael's Dream" and "So There" and "Charlie Howard's Descent" Women and Poetry: Brenda A Shared Life of Poetry: Robert Hillman, Thyllas Moss, Carol Marie Howe: "Sixth Grade" and Hass and Brenda Hillman Muske, and Pattlann Rogers "What the Living Do" Brenda Hillman: "Black Series" : from Section VIII of Yusef Komunyakaa: "You and I Brenda Hillman: "Time Problem" "Hot Dog" Are Disappearing," "Thanks" and : 'To a Young Poet" Yehuda Amichal: "God Takes Pity "Facing It" on Kindergarten Children," "1924," Advice to Young Poets/New Jersey and "Little Ruth" High School Poetry Winners: Philip Levine, (advice), Helen Yuton Lee, Allen Ginsberg (advice), Regina Laba, Louis Jenkins (advice), Eireann Corrigan, Benjamin Paloff, Tammara Lindsay

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MARK DOTY. `-, t... 2,4,4 t si k H. I L L 84 A N -, .-.:) .rpon't quit too soon '",44, -- _ "Look:closely. 1 .,When yot are ini st,-:;;;P., .1,Thiiiikon all levels. -.- v ,.. .41- . 4.4', ".4 " ---On a piece ofiwn , ; ,- , ., Revise toward strangeness. ...-. .-114...irk-,.. rt V . ,---7, '': ,Dtiiklie." i -.. .. ' . r .- , EA N; VA L EN T 1 NE: ..-.- ,... -1-...., Poetry Heaven Part . . --tr_VP, i f yi. Borri in Chicago in 1934, lean Valentine has taught at ; vs, ,major colleges and universities throughan the North'easi, - ."- ,117:*.( including , , -., ..--Swarthmore College, and Yale University She now lives 1-14.0. a Ireland - r r.

E?(IKI NS To a Young Poet. k twice: Read for Michael Klein everything you can . - get-your hands on." Thisicinuary night at ten below I wish you ALLEN CTINSBERCT true desire, like a rose to stand ,-"Learn some foim in your chest Veined Bloom of non-theistic meditation practice... ,,,' J Let you be. Reflected in the train window, Learn music." li' i inside a thousand circles of public darkness, gir--,-k4. desire, a round red star

And desire again, a foliating wand, and you the Jack of Wands.

t The round red rose of sleep in bloom. This ri.:: .51j6 "What you need to true desire, it lets you be'. aa learn is patience." -ir§ays, "Ng money here." 441444. ; AM.,- . ."11E, ' ev. Stddeos.ettEtaestet 'r". shadow, cinnamon.

'To a Young Poet" by Iran Valentine From THE RIVER AT WOE( .. Copybyht 0 1992 1711 Mon Vohniine RcprInted by perrMfon of Alice fames gosh i'EFLUDAAMICHAI . * "Write only as long as - you want to write and ROBERT HASS need to write." "If yOu fall in love with poetry, read a lot and write a lot." aiso

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The words that appear on the cover mean "poetry."

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Amichai,Yehuda. The Selected Poetry . The Good Thief. New Total approximate cost $600 of Yehuda Amichai. Ed. and York: Persea Books, 1988. trans. from the Hebrew by Jenkins, Louis. lust Above Water: BASIC Chana Bloch and Stephen Prose Poems. Duluth, Minn.: cost approximately $250 Mitchell. Berkeley: University of Holy Cow!Press, 1997. California Press, 1996. . Nice Fish: New and GOOD BROWSING . Yehuda Amichai, A Life of Selected Prose Poems. Duluth, Naked Poetry: Recent American Poetry in Open Forms. Berg, Stephen Poetry, 1948-1994. Selected and Minn.: Holy Cow!Press, 1995. and Robert Mezey, eds. New York: Macmillan, 1969. ($30.60) trans. from the Hebrew by Komunyakaa, Yusef. Thieves of The Rattle Bag. Heaney, Seamus, and , eds. London: Faber Benjamin and Barbara Harshay. Paradise. Hanover, N.H.: and Faber, 1985. ($15.95) New York: Harper Collins, 1994. Wesleyan University Vital Signs. Wallace, Ronald, ed. Madison: University of Wisconsin .Travels. Trans. from the Press/University Press of New Press, 1989. ($17.95) Hebrew by Ruth Nevo. New England, 1998. York: Sheep Meadow Press, The Top 500 Poems. Harmon, William, ed. New York: Columbia 1986. co-editor. The Second University Press, 1992. (hc.S29.95) Set: The Jazz Poetry Anthology, The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry. McClatchy, J.D., Creeley, Robert. Selected Poems. Volume 2. Bloomington: Indiana ed. New York: Random House, 1993. ($16.00) Berkeley: University of California University Press, 1996. Press, 1996. No More Masks! An Anthology of Twentieth Century American Women's . Neon Vernacular: New Poetry. Howe, Florence, ed. New York: Harper Collins, 1993. . Echoes. New York: New and Selected Poems. Hanover, (S16.00) Directions, 1994. N.H.: University Press of New . Tales Out of School: England, 1993. The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart: A Poetry Anthology. Bly, Robert, James Hillman and Michael Meade, eds. New York: Harper Collins, Selected Interviews. Ann Arbor: . Magic City. Hanover, 1993. ($16.00) University of Michigan Press, N.H.: Wesleyan University Press/ 1993. University Press of New England, POETRY OF DIVERSE CULTURES . The Collected Poems of 1992. Another Republic: 17 European and South American Writers. Simic, Robert Creeley, 1945-1975. Le Thi Diem Thuy, contributor. Charles and , eds. New York: Ecco Press, 1976. Berkeley: University of California The Arc of Love: An Anthology of ($12.95) Press, 1982. Lesbian Love Poems. Edited by Songs from This Earth on Turtle's Back: American Indian Writing. Doty, Mark. Sweet Machine: Poems. Clare Coss. New York: Scribner, Bruchac, Joseph, ed. Greenfield Center, N.Y.: Greenfield Review New York: Harper Flamingo, 1996. Press, 1983. ($10.95) 1998. contributor. The Very The Black Poets. Randall, Dudley, ed. New York: Bantam Books, 1985. . Heaven's Coast: A Inside: An Anthology of Writing by ($6.99) Memoir. New York: Asian and Pacific Islander Lesbian Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry. Harper Collins, 1996. and Bisexual Women. Edited by Gillan, Jennifer and Maria Mazziotti Gillan, eds. New York: . Atlantis: Poems. New Sharon Lim-Hing. Toronto, Ont.: Penguin Books, 1994. ($14.95) Sister Vision Press, 1994. York: Harper Perennial, 1995. ABOUT POETRY Lee, Li-Young. The City in Which I . My Alexandria: Poems. Poetry in the Making. Hughes, Ted. London: Faber and Faber, 1967. Love You. Brockport, N.Y.: BOA Urbana: University of ($10.95) Press, 1993. Editions, 1990. How Does a Poem Mean. Ciardi, John. 2nd ed. expanded by Miller Ginsberg, Allen. Selected Poems: . Rose: Poems. Brockport, Williams. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1975. ($19.95) 1947-1995. New York: N.Y.: BOA Editions, 1986. The Language of Life: A Festival of Poets. Moyers, Bill. (Haba, James, Harper Collins, 1996. Levine, Phil. Unselected Poems. Santa ed.) New York: Doubleday, 1995. (hc.$29.95) . Howl, and Other Poems, Cruz, Calif.: Greenhouse Review 40th Anniversary Edition. San Press, 1997. Francisco: City Lights Books, . The Bread of Time: EXPANDED 1996. Toward an Autobiography. New cost approximately $225 York: A.A. Knopf, 1994. . Collected Poems, 1947- MORE GOOD BROWSING 1980. New York: Harper Collins, . The Simple Truth. New Poets of English Language. Vol. 4. Romantic Poets. Auden, W.H. and 1988. York: A.A. Knopf, 1994. Norman Holmes Pearson, eds. New York: Viking Penguin, 1977. . Composed on the Tongue. . New Selected Poems. New ($14.95) Edited by Donald Allen. Bolinas, York: A.A. Knopf, 1991. The Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics. Palgrave, Francis T., Calif.: Grey Fox Press, 1980. . What Work Is. New York: ed. Rutland, Vt.: Everyman's Classics, 1991. ($9.95) Harjo, Joy. She Had Some Horses. A.A. Knopf, 1991. Into the Garden: A Wedding Anthology: Poetry and Prose on Love and Second Edition. New York: . Don't Ask. Ann Arbor: Marriage. Hass, Robert and Stephen Mitchell, eds. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1997. University of Michigan Press, HarperCollins, 1994. ($12.50) co-editor. Reinventing the 1981. Modern American Poets: Their Voices and Visions. DiYanni, Robert, ed. Enemy's Language: Contemporary Moss, Thylias. Last Chance for the 2nd ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 1994. ($34.38) Native Women's Writing of North Tarzan Holler: Poems. New York: Contemporary American Poetry. Poulin, Al, Jr., ed. 5th ed. Boston: America. New York: W.W. Persea Books, 1998. Norton, 1997. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1996. ($38.76) . Small Congregations: New . The Spiral Of Memory: 1997. Tate, lames, ed. New York: Scribner, and Selected Poems. Hopewell, 1997. ($13.00) Interviews. Edited by Laura N.J.: Ecco Press, 1993. Coltelli. Ann Arbor: University of MORE POETRY OF DIVERSE CULTURES Muske, Carol. Women & Poetry: Michigan Press, 1996. Truth, Autobiography, and the 100 Poems From the Chinese. Rexroth, Kenneth, trans. New York: New Directions, 1971. ($7.95) . The Woman Who Fell Shape of the Self. Ann Arbor: From The Sky Poems. New York: University of Michigan Press, Women Poets of China. Ling, Chung and Kenneth Rexroth, trans. New W.W. Norton, 1996. 1997. York: New Directions, 1982. ($8.95) . In Mad Love and War. . An Octave Above Woman Who Has Sprouted Wings: Poems by Contemporary Latin Hanover, N.H.: Wesleyan Thunder: New and Selected American Women. Crow, Mary, ed. 2nd ed. : Latin University Press/University Press Poems. New York: Penguin America Literary Review Press, 1987. ($13.95) of New England, 1990. Books, 1997. Contemporary East European Poetry: An Anthology. George,Emery, ed.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE Deliseley: ui The Arc or Love: An Anthology of Press, 1982. Lesbian Love Poems. Edited by Songs from This Earth on Turtle's Back: American Indian Writing. oty, Mark. Sweet Machine: Poems. Clare Coss. New York: Scribner, Bruchac, Joseph, ed. Greenfield Center, N.Y.: Greenfield Review New York: Harper Flamingo, 1996. Press, 1983. ($10.95) 1998. contributor. The Very The Black Poets. Randall, Dudley, ed. New York: Bantam Books, 1985. . Heaven's Coast: A Inside: An Anthology of Writing by ($6.99) Memoir. New York: Asian and Pacific Islander Lesbian Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry. Harper Collins, 1996. and Bisexual Women. Edited by Gillan, Jennifer and Maria Mazziotti Gillan, eds. New York: . Atlantis: Poems. New Sharon Lim-Hing. Toronto, Ont.: Penguin Books, 1994. ($14.95) Sister Vision Press, 1994. York: Harper Perennial, 1995: ABOUT POETRY . My Alexandria: Poems. Lee, Li-Young. The City in Which I Poetry in the Making. Hughes, Ted. London: Faber and Faber, 1967. Urbana: University of Illinois Love You. Brockport, N.Y.: BOA ($10.95) Editions, 1990. Press, 1993. How Does a Poem Mean. Ciardi, John. 2nd ed. expanded by Miller -,insberg, Allen. Selected Poems: . Rose: Poems. Brockport, Williams. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1975. ($19.95) N.Y.: BOA Editions, 1986. 1947-1995. New York: The Language of Life: A Festival of Poets. Moyers, Bill. (Haba, James, Harper Collins, 1996. Levine, Phil. Unselected Poems. Santa ed.) New York: Doubleday, 1995. (hc.$29.95) . Howl, and Other Poems, Cruz, Calif.: Greenhouse Review Press, 1997. 40th Anniversary Edition. San EXPANDED Francisco: City Lights Books, . The Bread of Time: cost approximately $225 1996. Toward on Autobiography. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1994. . Collected Poems, 1947- MORE GOOD BROWSING 1980. New York: Harper Collins, . The Simple Truth. New Poets of English Language. Vol. 4. Romantic Poets. Auden, W.H. and 1988. York: A.A. Knopf, 1994. Norman Holmes Pearson, eds. New York: Viking Penguin, 1977. . Composed on the Tongue. . New Selected Poems. New ($14.95) Edited by Donald Allen. Bolinas, York: A.A. Knopf, 1991. The Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics. Palgrave, Francis T., Calif.: Grey Fox Press, 1980. . What Work Is. New York: ed. Rutland, Vt.: Everyman's Classics, 1991. ($9.95) -halo, Joy. She Had Some Horses. A.A. Knopf, 1991. Into the Garden: A Wedding Anthology: Poetry and Prose on Love and Second Edition. New York: . Don't Ask. Ann Arbor: Marriage. Hass, Robert and Stephen Mitchell, eds. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1997. University of Michigan Press, Harper Collins, 1994. (512.50) co-editor. Reinventing the 1981. Modern American Poets: Their Voices and Visions. DiYanni, Robert, ed. Enemy's Language: Contemporary Moss, Thylias. Last Chance for the 2nd ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 1994. ($34.38) Native Women's Writing of North Tarzan Holler: Poems. New York: Contemporary American Poetry. Poulin, AI, Jr., ed. 5th ed. Boston: America. New York: W.W. Persea Books, 1998. Norton, 1997. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1996. ($38.76) . Small Congregations: New . The Spiral Of Memory: The Best American Poetry 1997. Tate, James, ed. New York: Scribner, and Selected Poems. Hopewell, 1997. ($13.00) Interviews. Edited by Laura N.J.: Ecco Press, 1993. Coltelli. Ann Arbor: University of MORE POETRY OF DIVERSE CULTURES Muske, Carol. Women & Poetry: Michigan Press, 1996. 100 Poems From the Chinese. Rexroth, Kenneth, trans. New York: New Truth, Autobiography, and the Directions, 1971. ($7.95) . The Woman Who Fell Shape of the Self. Ann Arbor: From The Sky: Poems. New York: University of Michigan Press, Women Poets of China. Ling, Chung and Kenneth Rexroth, trans. New W.W. Norton, 1996. 1997. York: New Directions, 1982. ($8.95) . In Mad Love and War. An Octave Above Woman Who Has Sprouted Wings: Poems by Contemporary Latin Hanover, N.H.: Wesleyan Thunder: New and Selected American Women. Crow, Mary, ed. 2nd ed. Pittsburgh: Latin University Press/University Press Poems. New York: Penguin America Literary Review Press, 1987. ($13.95) of New England, 1990. Books, 1997. Contemporary East European Poetry: An Anthology. George,Emery, ed. Hass, Robert, ed. Poet's Choice: . Red Trousseau. New York: New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. ($35.00) Poems for Everyday Life. Viking, 1993. Every Shut Eye Ain't Asleep: An Anthology of Poetry by African Americans Hopewell, N.J.: Ecco Press, 1998. Rogers, Pattiann. Eating Bread and since 1945. Harper, Michael S., and Anthony Walton, eds. Boston: . Field Guide. New Haven, Honey. Minneapolis, Minn.: Little Brown, 1994. ($12.95) Conn.: Yale University Press, Milkweed Editions, 1997. Paper Dance: 55 Latino Poets. Cruz, Victor Hernandez, Leroy Quintana, 1998. . Firekeeper: New and and Virgil Suarez, eds. New York: Persea Books, 1995. ($14.00) Sun Under Wood: New Selected Poems. Minneapolis, Poems. Hopewell, N.J.: Ecco Minn.: Milkweed Editions, 1994. SUPPLEMENTARY Press, 1996. Sirowitz, Hal. My Therapist Said. cost approximately $125 Human Wishes. New York: Crown Publishers, Hopewell, N.J.: Ecco Press, 1989. 1998. GOING DEEPER . Praise. Hopewell, N.J.: . Mother Said: Poems. New The Forgotten Language: Contemporary Poets and Nature. Merrill, Ecco Press, 1979. York: Crown Publishers, 1996. Christopher, ed. Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith Books, 1991. Hillman, Brenda. Loose Sugar. Stern, Gerald. This Time: New and ($15.95) Hanover, N.H.: University Press Selected Poems. New York: W.W. The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry. of New England, 1997. Norton, 1998. Mitchell, Stephen, ed. New York: Harper Collins, 1993. ($10.00) Bright Existence. Hanover, . Odd Mercy: Poems. New Against Forgetting: Twentieth Century Poetry of Witness. Forche, N.H.: University Press of New York: W.W. Norton, 1995. Carolyn, ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1993. ($19.95) England, 1993. . Bread Without Sugar: The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson and Issa. Hass, Robert, Death Tractates. Hanover, Poems. New York: W.W. Norton, trans. Hopewell, N.J.: Ecco Press, 1994. ($15.00) N.H.: University Press of New 1992. News of the Universe: Poems of Twofold Consciousness. Bly, Robert, ed. England, 1992. Valentine, Jean. Growing Darkness, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1995. ($12.00) .Fortress. Hanover, N.H.: Growing Light. Pittsburgh, Pa.: Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women. Wesleyan University Carnegie Mellon University Hirshfield, Jane, ed. New York: Harper Perennial, 1995. ($13.00) Press/University Press of New Press, 1997. England, 1989. The Essential Rumi. Barks, Coleman, trans. New York: Book Sales, The River at Wolf. 1997. ($7.98) Howe, Marie. What the Living Do. Cambridge, Mass.: Alice James MORE ABOUT POETRY New York: W.W. Norton, .1997. Books, 1992. The New Book of Forms. Turco, Lewis. Hanover, NH. and New London, co-editor. In The Company Home, Deep, Blue: New Conn.: The University Press of New England, 1986. ($17.95) of My Solitude: American Writing and Selected Poems. Cambridge, The Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Share, and Teach Haiku. Higginson, from the AIDS Pandemic. New Mass.: Alice James Books, 1988. York: Persea Books, 1995. William S. New York: Kodansha America, 1992. ($12.00)

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Please note: Most VCRs do not offer the Robert Hass 29:12-35:45 This guide was produced by real-time information contained in the grid. from "Regalia for a Black Hat Dancer" 36:55-39:46 POETRY HEAVEN Part 1 liiitin net Mark Doty 36:03-44:32 "Michael's Dream" -36:55-39:46 Educational Resources Center Robert Hass 01:22-04:24 "Charlie Howard's Descent" Ruth Ann Burns, Director "Forty Something" 02:32-03:09 40:09-42:56 Haiku translations 03:10-04:06 PUBLISHER: Robert A. Miller Mark Doty 04:24-10:59 Marie Howe 44:32-50:46 "Sixth Grade" SUPERVISING EDITOR: David Reisman, Ed.D. "Golden Retrievals" 06:35-09:07 45:47-48:02 "What the Living Do" 48:35-50:40 DESIGN: Lou Lomurno Thylias Moss 11:15-16:28 WRITERS: lames Haba from "Poem for my Mothers and Yusef Komunyakaa 50:58-56:03 Richard Kelso Other Makers of Asafetida" "You and I Are Disappearing" 51:59-52:50 COVER PHOTOGRAPHY: Lynn Saville 12:14-14:58 "A Nagging Misunderstanding" "Thanks" 53:13-54:38 PERMISSIONS EDITOR: Christina L. Draper 15:00-15:52 "Facing It" 54:41-55:56 ADVISERS: Pattiann Rogers 16:29-23:14 James Haba, Poetry Coordinator, POETRY HEAVEN Part 3 Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation "The Greatest Grandeur" 16:54-19:14 Lois Harrod, Voorhees High School, Louis Jenkins 01:30-06:06 Glen Gardner, New Jersey "The Hummingbird: A Seduction" 19:53-22:53 "Appointed Rounds" 02:23-04:30 Scott McVay, Executive Director, "Too Much Snow" 04:34-06:04 Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Carol Muske 23:55-29:58 Peter E. Murphy, Atlantic City High School, "Talk Show" 27:26-28:51 Hal Sirowitz 06:09-08:11 Atlantic City, New jersey from "An Octave Above Thunder" "Chopped-Off Arm" 07:00-08:11 ("The Dakota in her Speech") Bettye T. Spinner, Moorestown High Philip Levine 08:25-19:20 School, Moorestown, New Jersey 28:53-29:56 "Monsieur Degas Teaches Art And Women and Poetry 30:00-39:10 Science at Durfee Intermediate School, Special thanks to the following teachers: Brenda Hillman, Thylias Moss, Carol Detroit, 1942" 09:42-12:22 Diane Lockward, David Murphy, Jim Muske & Pattiann Rogers "You Can Have It" 13:20-16:17 O'Rourke, Woody Rudin, Ellen j. Wright 30:04-39:09 "Coming Close" 16:49-19:18 Poetry and Work 19:23-25:45 Special thanks to the Geraldine R. Dodge Gerald Stern 39:11-44:07 Louis Jenkins, Philip Levine and Yusef Poetry Program: Renee Ashley, Wendy from Section VIII of "Hot Dog" Baron, Robert Carnavale (Assistant Poetry 40:54-44:04 Komunyakaa Coordinators); Natalie Gerber, Erica Yusef Komunyakaa, "Believing in Iron" Yehuda Amichai Mosner (Assistant Festival Coordinators); 44:43-56:46 24:22-25:40 Thersya Lukito, Jamie Schissler, Kull Ann "God Takes Pity on Kindergarten Joy Harjo Small (Program Interns) Children" 45:47-46:40 (English) 25:46-31:25 46:40-47:20 (Hebrew) "For Anna Mae Pictou Aquash..." "1924" 49:34-52:01 27:16-31:00 POETRY HEAVEN is produced by "Little Ruth"52:59-56:32 Robert Creeley 31:26-36:22 Geovision, Inc. "I Know a Man" 32:03-32:26 Producer and Director: Juan Mandelbaum "So There" Editor/Co-Producer: Bernice Schneider POETRY HEAVEN Part 2 32:32-36:19 Co-Director: Barry Bransfield A Shared Life of Poetry 36:23-43:22 Poet Introductions and Series Poetry Allen Ginsberg 01:28-12:46 Robert Hass and Brenda Hillman Consultant: James Haba from William Blake's "The Tiger" Brenda Hillman: "Black Series" Original Music: Gustavo Moretto 03:53-05:11 41:48-42:43 Office Manager/Production Assistant: from "Do The Meditation Rock" Maria-Elena Biskinis 08:33-11:25 Brenda Hillman 43:23-48:05 from "Ballad of the Skeletons" "Time Problem" 44:00-48:01 11:33-12:35 Funding for this Guide is provided by the Jean Valentine 48:06-49:44 Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. Le Thi Diem Thuy 12:47-18:38 "To A Young Poet" 48:26-49:37 "Big girl, Little girl" 15:40-16:59 Major funding for POETRY HEAVEN was Advice to Young Poets/New Jersey High provided by the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry and History 18:54-28:35 School Poetry Winners 49:46-55:43 Foundation. Additional support was Robert Hass, Louis Jenkins, Yusef Philip Levine (advice) 50:10-50:43 provided by the Rhode Island Foundation Komunyakaa and Li-Young Lee Helen Yuton Lee 50:43-51:30 and The Philanthropic Initiative. Yusef Komunyakaa: from "History Allen Ginsberg (advice) 51:35-52:16 Lessons" 20:21-21:25 Regina Laba 52:16-53:41 Li-Young Lee: "The Interrogation" Louis Jenkins (advice) 53:47-54:02 21:45-23:58 Eireann Corrigan Copyright 0 1998 Thirteen/WNET 54:02-54:39 Benjamin Paloff 54:39-55:01 Tammara Lindsay 55:01-55:38

9 BEST COPY AVAILABLE INTRODUCTION USING THE GUIDE POETRY HEAVEN is a three-part television series Each program in POETRY HEAVEN is sixty which captures many of the brightest and most minutes. Readings of individual poems are memorable moments of the 1996 Geraldine R. continuous (even when edited for length) and Dodge Poetry Festival. Produced and directed by may be preceded or followed by commentary Juan Mandelbaum, POETRY HEAVEN features and conversation. Check both the Outline and eighteen poets whose personalities, voices, and the Time Grid for each program to find the points of view reflect the power and diversity of segments you would like to focus on in class. contemporary poetry. In readings and in conver- Because some of the poets deal with what may sations, these poets welcome us both into their be considered sensitive or disturbing subjects, poems and into their lives. Their vivid language we recommend previewing the programs and helps us to see more clearly the mystery, the reading the cards carefully before assigning contradictions, the pain, and the simple joy in any of these materials to your class. our own lives. While this guide is designed to be The following steps will help optimize your use used with the series, it can also serve teachers of both the programs and the guide: as a free-standing resource for the study of contemporary poetry. Preview the program you would like to dis- cuss, and choose the segments you would like to show in class. Remember: you can tape pro- CONTENTS grams from POETRY HEAVEN and keep them This guide includes: for one year after the broadcast. Classroom Cards which may be photocopied Have students watch the whole program on and handed out to your students. Among air, or show segments in class. them, you will find Hand out photocopies of the Classroom Cards. Thirteen Poet Cards. These include: a Discuss what you have seen. You may use the brief biography of each poet, selected questions that appear on the cards. poems that appear in the series, discus- sion questions, and classroom activities; Have students do the activities. and Frequently, questions and activities that appear One Panel/Conversation Card offering on the Poet Cards may be adapted for discussing highlights of and questions about the the work of other poets. series' four panel/conversations;

an Outline of each program which identifies A NOTE ON INTERDISCIPLINARY USE featured poets and events; This POETRY HEAVEN Teacher's Guide can be a Time Grid which provides timed locations used in classes in the arts and social studies as for poems and panel/conversations in well as in English classes. The poets in this POETRY HEAVEN; series represent different cultures and different points of view. We encourage you to share these Advice to Young Poets which includes "To a materials with your colleagues who are teaching Young Poet" by Jean Valentine and counsel by other subjects. other poets in the series; a Selected Bibliography which includes rep- resentative works by series poets; and PROGRAM SCHEDULING Building a Core High School Poetry POETRY HEAVEN will be offered by satellite to Collection. PBS stations nationwide. Please contact your local public television station for scheduling information. POETRY HEAVEN was first broad- cast by NJN in April, 1998. Thirteen/WNET in New York will broadcast it on May 10, 1998. Educators have the right to tape the.programs and play them for instructional purposes for BEST COPY AVAILABLE one year after broadcast. ROBERT KASS 14EAVENPartsPOETRY 1, 2, 3 haiku Infrom the morning, after running Regalia for a Black Hat Dancer along the river: everything is in blossom! INew feel aboutYear's average. Day whichI'ItBy'Creekstones wrote, is afternoon good seemed and sometimes something practiceI wascontemptible. thinking: thethat about mild poetry once 'theyogaAfter should heart'syou're of dinnersudden becoming disenchanthugesmooth, vacancy,' smooth.' you're cooling us,' dead. I keep house casually.Don't worry, spiders, ofWalking the summeryear down my to airImarriage Heart's sat down Desire ended to beach it. Where. in the summer evenings likedreaminggetting"Almost I'm thetelling so allrelationship that of the my it somehowtruth." revising between has feels beingto to do me withand comes back theGoes loves out, of a cat. thelikehoneycombedthough saltthe Ibirdof was the bones hollowed withbay onwaterthe the emptinessout hadbeach by workedpain, of it, on for a season areaaboutStatesThe where the (1995-1997),first landscapes Poet he was Laureate born Robert of the in from 1940SanHass the Francisco andoften western where writes Bay United he Mosquito at my ear fromIsuch don't surprisingthe think pain I ofcould lightnesspossibility, have intold the the hand pain of loss Astill distinguishedUniversity lives with of his Californiatranslator, wife, the at poethe Berkeley. teaches Brenda at Hillman. the does it think I'm deaf? theaWhenthough startled cry I moreIthink knewyelp, aof colorthey that weren't time,than a I sound,thinkthe same mainly and thing. as ofif the osprey's cry, asit ripped if it were the scarsky, wastissue white, and fresh hurt at once. (continued) mashafiri is Swahili for poetry 11 Have you ever "eaten the bones"? 12 ROB ERT HASS Forty Something from Regalia for a Black Hat Dancer (continued) soI'llandShe sheput marrysays climbs to a him, younger onto musing, his woman chest, "If youand and ever lookshave leave directlyanother me, baby, a knife in your heart." They are in bed, WalkbutPrivate you up can apain mountain teach is easy, yourself in in the a way. to afternoon, see It itsdoesn't size. gather goInvent away, up apine ritual. twigs. down into his eyes. "You understand? Your heart." ThenIfandLight you're you thesit a beforefire,getlast lucky, up, gleamthin it brushyou're andsmoke, is watch goneyourself hungry. not from it an till off, ambitiousit, it and burns walkdark to fire, falls.ashback to the world. y Someof Kwangju, guy was there barbecuing was a late halfscontraption October of baby market chicks fair. on a long, sooty In the town center the2.1.Questions WhatIn man "Forty statewere Something" ofto mindspeak, do what whythese woulddoes haiku only he share? say? the woman speak? If andviolent,BoothsCornof computer a grill, pancakessweet hawking slathering games.Korean stuffed calculators, Everywhere, barleythem with with wine leeks sox, soy orof dollsand beer.course,sauce. garlic. to Families wardBaby it Somewas off chicks. Korea,strolling. evil,milky, Whyfeel3. What about does does eatinghe theeat speakerthem?baby chicks of "Regalia at the conclusion for a Black of Hat the Dancer" poem? TwoorofIpeople thought thewriting pancakes. Buddha arguing in through this in Apolitics, flesh-and-charcoal-scented hisclay the cave. mugnight. red-faced, Tired of Wasthe as beer. I womenif going from Sat todownmakingserving heavy eat a babyairlovemen. chick? ActivitiesDancer"2.music,1. CompareCreate dance, with a portrait this orthe printedvisual slightly of one images. excerpt longeror more from version of "Regaliathese on haikuthe for videotape usinga Black Hat iffeasting,under you anwere quarrelingumbrella supposed and about to looked eat their the tobones.riven see, country, amongYou were. the Idiners did. ofyour 3.Dodgeandcompleteness. Researchexperience then Web compare thesite of culture www.the that poem versionandgrdodge.org/poetry). changed recent with history with the complete each of Korea, Describe added text then level onhow the "Forty Something" and "Regalia for a Black Hat Dancer" from SUN UNDER WOOD by Robert Hass. Copyright andwrite"Regalia history a brief formight explanation a Black contribute Hat of Dancer." how to the the overall qualities effectiveness of its culture of byAND"Goes0 1996 permission ISSA, out...," by Robert edited and of the "MosquitoHass.and Ecco verse Reprinted Press. at translated my ear..." by permission by by Robert Issa from Hass.of the THE TranslationEcco ESSENTIAL Press. copyright "New HAIKU: Year's VERSIONS Day...," "Don't OF BASHO, worry spiders...," BUSON, 13 1994 by Robert Hass. Reprinted BEST COPY AVAILABLE poesie is French for poetry 4 MARK DOTY POETRY REAVEN Parts 1, 2 "The point is not to believe or to express one belief but to live in the contradictions, to live in the questions. Poetry can help us stay awake to the possibilities."

Mark Doty's poems explore the human experience of memory and anticipationour preoccupation with the past and the future and encourage us to live more in the present. Aspects of nature especially animals are central to his work, as is a concern for our ability to cope nobly and gracefully with what is beyond our control. Mark Doty was born in 1953 in Memphis, Tennessee.

What haveyoudone with the hurtfulnamespeople have given to you? Charlie Howard's Descent Between the bridge and the river he falls through but finally useful, a tool, a huge portion of night; all the jokes a chair, it is not as if falling stiff-backed to keep the spine straight, a table, a lamp. And because is something new. Over and over he slipped into the gulf he's fallen for twenty-three years, between what he knew and how despite whatever awkwardness he was known. What others wanted his flailing arms and legs assume he is beautiful opened like an abyss: the laughing stock-clerks at the grocery, women and like any good diver at the luncheonette amused by his gestures. has only an edge of fear What could he do, live he transforms into grace. Or else he is not afraid, with one hand tied behind his back? So he began to fall and in this way climbs back into the star-faced section up the ladder of his fall, of night between the trestle out of the river into the arms of the three teenage boys and the water because he could not meet a little town's demands, who hurled him from the edge and his earrings shone and his wrists really boys now, afraid, were as limp as they were. their fathers' cars shivering behind"them, headlights onand tells them I imagine he took the insults in and made of them a place to live; it's all right, that he knows we learn to use the names they didn't believe him because they are there, when he said he couldn't swim, and blesses his killers familiar furniture: faggot was the bed he slept in, hard in the way that only the dead and white, but simple somehow, can afford to forgive. queer something sharp

is Japanese for poetry MARK 'DOTY

Beau: Golden Retrievals Fetch? Balls and sticks engage my attention seconds at a time. Catch? I don't think so. Bunny, tumbling leaf, a squirrel who's oh joyactually scared. Sniff the wind, then

I'm off again: muck, pond, ditch, residue Questions of any thrillingly dead thing. And you? 1. In "Beau: Golden Retrievals," how is the dog's Either you're sunk in the past, half our walk, point of view different from that of its owner? thinking of what you can never bring back, 2. Mark Doty says that "poetry can make a or else you're off in some fog concerning shape, make a kind of vessel that contains tomorrow, is that what it's called? My work: feeling...." What kind of feelings does "Beau: to unsnare time's warp (and woof!), retrieving, Golden Retrievals" contain? my haze-headed friend, you. This shining bark, 3. Compare "Charlie Howard's Descent" with a Zen master's bronzy gong, calls you here, Joy Harjo's "For Anna Mae Pictou Aquash." entirely now: bow-wow, bow-wow, bow-wow. What are the similarities in subject matter and in tone? How are Charlie Howard and Anna Beau Mae Aquash alike? What do the poems imply about being a member of a minority group?

Activities 1. Mark Doty says that his writing "always begins out of something that I need to make for me, something that I need to understand or to try to place into an order." Use the process of writing to create something you want to make for yourself or to understand something impor- tant. Begin by writing whatever comes into your head. Later, work with the words to try to create a meaningful "shape" that helps you express yourself and reach an understanding. 2. Write a poem, monologue, or song in which an ani- mal speaks to you the way Beau speaks to Mark Doty. "Beau: Golden Retrievals" by Mark Doty. From UNLEASHED: Describe what the animal says and what you learn from POEMS BY WRITER'S DOGS by Jim Shepard and Amy Hempel. Copyright 0 1995 by Amy Hempel and Jim the animal. Shepard. Reprinted by permission of Crown Publishers, Inc. "Charlie Howard's Descent" from TURTLE, SWAN by Mark Doty. Reprinted by permission of David R. Godine, Publisher, 3. Mark Doty says he uses writing as a way of rising Inc. Copyright 0 1987 by Mark Doty. above prejudice toward him and as a way of taking pride in his life. Create your own badge of honorsomething that gives you pride in who you are. It could be a poem, a group of poems, or anything you choose to make. Isiralmalllois Zulu for poetry 16 HEAVENPOETRY TIFEMASsome"Everything sort of living that 1that write occurred." acknowledges MOSS OTHERPOEM FOR MAKERS MY MOTHERS OF ASAFETIDA AND Part 1 nationality,exploresIn tough, issuesno-nonsense family of relationships,identity, poems, including Thylias and race, occupation. Moss gender, onewhichhoneyedBrown of I herin drench memory the tight bottle, myself,hugs, of my homemade pour grandmother over gravymyself in on thingsinBorn using"no in aslimitation" Cleveland, words they should "to in cure,Ohio her be." abilityinto She 1954,remake, feelsto shedo there toso. finds place is power I getgospelandlips home? andfeast like ribs, Lookingon Sis. myeventually Posey church over sings Dixie, hips,in it,a bottle, ohtasteover when, her, the whentaste herwill Row well have made Jordan,themyothera cross), choir,arms rivershore, needing movinggiving of listen: life, instructions,to meneeding the swim through brown to to Jordan's crossMama choir'sit, swimming (already alwaysbrownstormy liquidtoldgotis just me voice, directing to be still you your bed? curingmedicineathroat,sometimes fountain; meurine it as andnastyis theonly feel restasafetida, generationsthe of power; the tastesmiracle wait can, like while asafetidathat the makesthe bootleg, river is aof quiltmoves mejackleg down my whatAndhavepig'sfor my everywhere,accidents.feet,memory innards, her handsdoes she everywhere said,to good Grandma. up as to eggsdull her Even kniveslikeneck teeththe in that gizzards,heart big can't asof gold. hocks, pickled comingshottheFinally asafetida for andcoming going, toast uninvited, just out afterof control, ahead gunfire, ofTrojan schedule,the new years year years bringing whointonooflots stoneeyes of Mama'scame what exceptpotatoes before wepupils, thedon't sohaving ones thehardhearted, want pastI to look set fit dark loose into withhardheaded theand in denseforeclosedavailable fall in ancestry, therelove, space fields areright allof is Chinese for poetry 17 (continued)18 TFIEVL1AS MOSS LetA NAGGING me clear MISUNDERSTANDING up a nagging misunderstanding: This thehistoryOTHERPOEM overcrowding FORwhich MAKERS MY is existence'sMOTHERSworsens, OF ASAFETIDA remember; memory AND remember:and year after darkest year before (continued) way,toIis make theget no wayher it skills, because money,to make no intelligence, shethat the is Iwhite can'trich, woman's she getno contributionthinksmoney bed; I anymake she otherto itthinks especiallyrecall;ofthe our day evolutionnothing every not dog thatreally giving will sickening goes have, us awaydreams, we paradox, are dogs instincts, falling sometimes, secrets to reach vestiges for dark sheinbecausesociety the didn't bed but on makeyou for judgment hermade any. four and day, poster, I youmake butwill damn Ihave make good to her sleep onesbed but withelevatorthe sublime lust, ride man emotion; to making the penthouse, want it with to rise ansilk asafetida in jacket love, smoking wantbottle, a boost,a glass 1 thatintothemama,mama Thunderbird, takesfish withthat while you wallan backexcuseferrying holding the to Boone's forold you back breaking;Virginny, across Farm;wind, the whatevereverythejazz water oar on visit smackingthe sustains is airwaves return disciplineyou and is your in disillusionmentorlikethere;to thespill pompous riversscene to really areof blue crimes, sadtogo cap (if anywhereaffairs sunny) anyso much flowinggrowth, ribbonsand happened still betweenlive that there to must thethere, arepast fullest limits,deepen, andso much futureand widen just history theory?Questions2.1. delivery HowThyliasWhat is specific from"PoemMoss the says wordsfor preacher." my that and Mothers in images going She and continues, todoes churchOther the Makerspoet as"This a usechild, man of to Asafetida" conveyshe could was cause this "taken a impression?poem great more ofcom- mem-with j bottomstilldeathIhave say: ghetto more maybecan't ghetto totakestained possible lose sky it all;to likeglass, todeath asafetida havea promise still but so rainbow muchGrandma still of onno remnantsthemore said, shelf, tears, Mama inoil asafetidarock in says, the puddlenow Activities3.hoodmotion How experience? withdoes justThylias his voice."Moss's readingHow does of theher poem reading differ of thefrom poem the poemreflect on her the child- page? bottlebutwithAwayof deliverer, inspirationfloating sound means ofthere'sthere, not a in stuck here. the somealways air, dollPlace kind andacalling way. where ofthe Moses, prophetMama, bagpipes some Mama,Jolson echo kind nothing impresses2.ingyour 1.Identify memory Researchown lifeyou someone for oraboutinformation users. in someone whosethe person's aboutmanner else's. wayasafetida. Explainof of speaking speaking. Describewhy you such In admire.athe asmall product use group,Describeof a often similar read haswhat somethingproduct a last- in somethingwashproclaiming his face; to Mammy, love. she's the asking one who for her can who turn can it into make him Useyou3.the "A personway make."irony Nagging that and might Choose person humor Misunderstanding" use. mightanother the Describe way read aphorism Thylias theit. Use experiencedraws Moss orfacial, proverb, on did. anhand, of aphorism impersonatingand and create other "sleeping a bodily poem someone. gesturesaroundin the bed it. that MOteszet is HuTatyn for poetry ThyliasRhumba")"Poem Moss. for ReprintedfromMy Mothers RAINBOW by permissionand REMNANTS Other Makersof Persea IN ROCKof Books,Asafetida" BOTTOM Inc. and GHETTO "A Nagging SKY Misunderstanding" by Thylias Moss. Copyright (from "The C) 1991Linoleum by 20 PATT1ANN ROQ-ERS POETRY 1-LEAVEN Part 1 "The naming of the natural world is, to me, an act of praise and honoring and gratitude." The Hummingbird: A Seduction Pattiann Rogers has written six books of poetry in which she celebrates the grandeur of "all nature, If I were a female hummingbird perched still even our own." She was born in 1940 in Joplin, And quiet on an upper myrtle branch Missouri, and spent the first twenty years of her life In the spring afternoon and if you were a male there. Since leaving Missouri, she has lived in Texas Alone in the whole heavens before me, having parted and now lives in Colorado. Yourself, for me, from cedar top and honeysuckle stem And earth down, your body hovering in midair Far away from the jewelweed, thistle and bee balm;

And if I watched how you fell, plummeting before me, And how you rose again and fell, with such mastery That I believed for a moment you were the sky And the red-marked bird diving inside your circumference Was just the physical revelation of the light's Most perfect desire;

And if I saw your sweeping and sucking Performance of swirling egg and semen in the air, The weaving, twisting vision of red petal And nectar and soaring rump, the rush of your wing In its grand confusion of arcing and splitting Created completely out of nothing just for me,

Then when you came down to me, I would call you My own spinning bloom of ruby sage, my funnelling Storm of sunlit sperm and pollen, my only breathless Piece of scarlet sky, and I would bless the base Question Of each of your feathers and touch the tine Of string muscles binding your wings and taste Pattiann Rogers uses the mating behavior of a hummingbird as a metaphor for her fantasy of The odor of your glistening oils and hunt romantic courtship. How does her development The honey in your crimson flare of that metaphor illuminate human capacity for And I would take you and take you and take you language and love? Deep into any kind of nest you ever wanted.

Activities

1. What is your fantasy of the stages of ,-- courtship between two people? Use metaphor to express your ideas in writing. 2. Choose some non-human object from nature and personify it the way Pattiann Rogers did with the hummingbirds. Choose more than one object, if you like. Describe an event using aspects of both the non-human object (or objects) and humans, including physical descrip- tions and behavior. Your description may be in What kind of bird would the form of a poem, play, essay, or painting. youlike to be? "The Hummingbird: A Seduction" is by Pattiann Rogers from FIREKEEPER (Milkweed Editions, 0 1994). Reprinted with permission from Milkweed Editions. Previously published in The Tattooed Lady in the Garden. What kind of birdare you? pjesnigtvois Croatian for poetry CAROL MUSKE POETRY 1- lEAVEN "Poems find a way to hold time for us so that we lose Part 1 track of the temporal structure of our lives, and mem- orizing a poem does the same thing."

Carol Muske (born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1945) has pub- lished six volumes of poetry and two novels. She teachers English and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California and writes regularly for and The Nation. She is married to the actor David Dukes and lives in Los Angeles.

Talk Show Our host was a diamond stickpin, a star, and I sat on his couch all night recalling my childhood. The kliegs leaned for me, as I sunned under the illusion of height. What isone way youlearned to Our host bowed his head admitting that there was an Asia, that death was a fact for us. love, and how didyouLearn it? I forgave Hollywood its wars, the perpetual monsoon. I forgave our coronor for the cockfights, the miles of dead cypress, fromAN OCTAVE ABOVE THUNDER and courted fame, my face smiling away from my face. 2 The Dakota in her speechwindy, Who said the host oddly shepherded, always bending areyou? lilts of Czech and Norwegian, dumb cousin Swede. And I smiled my smile as the band played half time How had my task become shaking free those words and the word APPLAUSE rose from the rhythms of her voice into the imperatives like a shrewd moon of the poets who wrote them over Mother Pacific. When everything whirling otherwise in my head re-settled syntax? From her I learned a further thing. I heard it in her riptide parataxis:

compassion. Her wrong emphasis on the right words shunted a way to love, the only kind I knew.

Words: off-kilter, oddly phrased and therefore inevitable. Stumbling orphaned heart, awake at Questions Activities that first funeralwho was she? Sixteen, 1. How would you describe the 1. With another person, silently standing at her mother's grave. Iris, iris arc of feeling in the excerpt from enact the scene presented in salutatorian and the smell of lilac, "An Octave Above Thunder"? "Talk Show" Let your gestures What is the effect of ending the and facial expressions alone tell sabotaged. poem with the word "sabotaged" the story in the poem. as its final line? 2. Consider the speech patterns "Talk Show" from CAMOUFLAGE, by Carol Muske, (?) 1975. Reprinted by permis- 2. How does the speaker in "Talk of someone close to you. Try to sion of the Press. "An Octave Above Thunder" from AN identify and describe those OCTAVE ABOVE THUNDER by Carol Muske. Copyright 1997 by Carol Muske. Show" feel about the event in Used by permission of Penguin, a division of Penguin Putnam, Inc. which she/he is participating? speech patterns and then list the human qualities they reveal. 1103311ff is Russian for poetry 22 POETRY GERALD STERN HEAVEN

"By and large there is a lovely sense of kinship Part 1 among poets, as if we all share some secret that from Hot Dog, Section VIII we can't quite namewhat it is to be a poet." I followed Whitman through half of Camden, across on the ferry and back Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1925, Gerald Stern to Water Street; I lay down on his bed often lays claim to places and things other people have and pushed my hand against the wall to bring abandoned. His poems explore past time and heritage, the forces back into my arms; I sang seeking to relocate them in an ecstatic present. Having something from Carmen, something from La Boheme, taught at dozens of colleges and universities, he now and held my right hand up in the old salute lives in Lambertville, New Jersey and in . as music from my favorite regiment came through the window glass as if to translate not only the dust of those marching feet but the pails of lopped-off arms and legs. I lay there thinking, when I was deadwhen he was deadthere would be ten or more diseases, God knows what they'd find if they cut him open, consumption, pneumonia, fatty liver, gallstones, spongy abscesses, collapsed lungs, tuberculosis of the stomach, swollen brains. I lay there thinking his death was lovely, just what he wanted. Mick le Street was filled with people, for half a day, they stood in front of the house and walked inside to stare at the corpse. Thousands followed him to the grave and filled up the giant tent or crowded the grass around the tent, the grass he loved, the handkerchief, the uncut powdered hair. How cunning it was Z for them to walk on his head, he with that haircut, he with that lotion, he whose grass kept growing through all the speeches...... His last good thought was how he scattered blossoms, I called them, he said, 0 blossoms of my blood! 0 slender leaves, you burn and sting me, it is your roots I love, it is this death I love,I called it exhilarating, twice now, out of my breast Who wouldyoulike to the dark grass grew, I will never utter a call only their call, put your hand in mine, follow? And how far? incline your face. Do you remember the body? Do you remember lawlessness? I turned around to face the window, ... Questions ... the church is gone, there is a huge county jail 1. What forces does the speaker in this poem want to across the way, ... bring back into his arms? ... the soot 2. Based on this brief sample, what qualities do the poems and smoke are gone, the ferry goes back and forth of Whitman and Stern actually have in common? How do their poems differ? only to the new blue-and-white aquarium, and there is a thing called "Mick le Towers" two blocks down, and acres of grass now and empty bottles Activities that at least hasn't changed; I hiss one word 1. Compare the printed excerpt above with the full text of from my Phoenician, the bed is too narrow, a bird section VIII of "Hot Dog" on the Dodge website (www. is actually singing out there. grdodge.org/ poetry) and describe the effect of this editing on your experience of the poem. 2. Research the life and poetry of Walt Whitman and com- pare what you find with the picture provided here by Stern. O "Hot Dog" from ODD MERCY: POEMS by Gerald Stern. Copyright C1995 by Gerald Stern. Used by arrangement with W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. poeziis Albanian for poetry LE TI-E1 DIEM TI-ECIN POETRY I-IEAVEN "A lot of what I want to capture with words is the Part 2 slipperiness of language and the slipperiness of experience."

In her poems, Le Thi Diem Thi. ly explores issues of memory, personal and political violence, and dislocation. Born in in 1972, she was raised in California. In 1995, she created a one-woman show with music, drama, and poetry that explored the same themes as her poetry.

Big girl, Little girl wearing her dress like i wear her name

don't you know sweat makes it mine it means i'm here and living when it was yours you drenched it in ocean water What makes something soaked it wet with your death ma had to keep it in the silky compartment of her suitcase folded small and tight like a secret truly yours? and like a secret, it never dried

if i hadn't dragged this dress out of the attic Questions it would have spilled out and me, 1. What conclusions can you draw about how the girl died, the poet's relationship to the girl, the poet's the biggest girl now that you're gone attitudes toward the girl, and why the poet avoided i would have had to swish you round the floor saying exactly how the girl died? until everything you spilled was soaked dry by this dress 2. What does the poet fantasize that wearing the dress will do for her? How do her memories ... contribute to that fantasy? isn't it better i dry it on my body each drop of sweat Activities pushing back the waves so that 1. Create a real or fantasy memorial to someone who when i'm the age you left is no longer alive. Identify and describe objects that dying you would include in the memorial and explain i will have pushed the entire ocean out their meaning to you and what they might have and gone leaping across it meant to the person who died. both legs kicking in the air 2. Think about some things that seem to you slippery the way we used to leap over jump ropes in language and in your experience. Write a poem, running to meet on the other side essay, or story that captures some of that slipperiness. it didn't even touch me, we'd say j "Big girl, Little girl" by Le Thi Diem They. Reprinted by permission of the author.

alliggigingis Danish for poetry POETRY YEI-ELWAand"We that's all writewhere for eternity this moment, is." AMICI-EA1 1-tEAVEN Part 1 Yehuda Amichai was born in 1924 in I1924 was born in 1924. If I were a violin my age helivesparentsGermany fought in Jerusalem. to and inPalestine WWII, emigrated A the veteranin Israeli1935. with soldier, HehisWar now of OnLessGod grownups, takesonTakes schoolchildren. pity Pity Heon onwon'tkindergarten Kindergarten take pity children, anymore. Children AsIOr wouldwouldn't altogethera forest begin be I would verysour.to be good. be Asexpensive young,a dogAs a Ias would wineor a thrownmachine I bewould dead. out ridiculous,be by As splendid now. a book translatedWarCampaignIndependence (1973). into(1956), His thirty-three(1948), work and has the the beenlanguages.Sinai Yom Kippur InSometimeHe the leaves blazing themthey sand, havealone. to crawl on all fours IAnd thinkwas as born just a human aboutin 1924. thosebeing When bornI'm Ivery thinkin my tired. about year. humanity OnMaybeDrippingTo getthose toHe blood.thewho will first truly take aid lovepity station and cast His shadow OnWhereverTheir this mothers day, they my gavewere, birthday, birth in hospitals withI would my or likemother, in dark flats. MaybeOnAs a treeboulevard. we on too someone will spend sleeping on them on the bench WhoseToPulls say adeedsloadyour great oflife diminish prayerhopes downward, forand you, disappointments NowSoMotherThe their last and bequeathedblisscoins will of favor protect us, us in other days. TheYouAndMay whoselivingare you all in brothersgodsfind their the increase, life, rightof themy rest, deadhope inand their companions death. of my despair. \\\ ThanIfHe there otherswho are remembers is any the winnerswinner, his atchildhood all. better 1:We % is Hindi for poetry Who or that returnswhat is and disappears again? your one suitcase 26 YEHUDA 4M1CI-E41 Little Ruth IfWeSometimes you were were separated Ialive remember now, incamps. ouryou you, distantwould little bechildhoodRuth, a woman and of sixty-five,they burned you in the ForYouWho me, gave soberremains drunk your in death,sober onlife life, to himself.lucid me, wallowing likein the a winedark in my dealer forgetfulness. BraveDidSinceAndA woman they I wesoul,don't putseparated. on whatknow onthe your vergeshining what What shoulders, of happened stars olddid age.you your achieve,Atto youtwentysleeves, in what your you your insigniawereshort burnedlife StandAsButUnbelievable.Now in for and antired the airport, then, attransient, theAnd I whenremember revolving in theplaces the passing arriving youconveyor not inmade that timestravelers belt doesfor memory not remain. AreAndWhatMedalsDid they what peace for stillpin happened loveupon onpacked you,hung you, toawaywhat aroundpeace the decorationsinunused unto prettyyour you. neck,years bundles, for of valor, your life?what AndAsThat at returnstheretheybrings a resurrection identify is their again,one suitcasessuitcase theirs ever and sogowith that andslowly, out cries returnspackages, into inof their theandjoy emptylives; disappears hall, again WhomWillWhereIntoWere yourI theyleave assetsyou bank added never all are ofthis preserved tosaw?love tomy mylike life? children theeven Did banks after you intheirturn Switzerland meowners are dead? TheThisAgain conveyor is and how again yourI rememberbelt itquiet stands passes. figure youstill. untilpassesAnd they by stoodme, still. Amen. particularly1.Questions Why does remember the speaker Little in Ruth "Little "in Ruth" haveActivities1. Makeif you a were list of not the yourself, qualities but you something would now Amichai."God Takes From Pity YEHUDA on Kindergarten AMICHAI, Children,"A LIFE OF "1924"POETRY, and 1948-1994. "Little Ruth" Selected by Yehuda and 2.thisplaces The poem notmost endmade recent with for English "Amen"?memory"? translation Why does of giveyearelse whichofit maximum your also birth. came meaning Organize into beingand this surprise. duringlist so as the to 2 7 Publishers,translated by Inc. Benjamin Hebrew-language and Barbara version Harshay. copyright Copyright 0 1994 by HarperCollins 1994 by Yehuda Amichai. thisfirstinstead"Kindergarten oneline. of word? What "Takes" is Children" the in effectthe title uses of andchanging "Has" in the Writefate"Little2. Reflect of an JewishRuth" explanation upon on children Amichai's the videotape of during how introduction poetry the and Holocaust. research can to help the IIDGMEDIel is Spanish for poetry us to approach such extreme experiences. 28 ALLEN GINS13ERO POETRY 1-LEAVEN

"Take a friendly attitude toward your Parts 2, 3 thoughts, no matter how outrageous, how zany, how disgusting, or how great." Allegro A D Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1926, Allen Ginsberg was the central figure among Beat If you want to learn how to me - di - tate Poets. Travel, study, and spiritual explorations 3 E A led to his "improvised poetry": spontaneous r Lr r J utterance linked to music and the communal tell you how 'cause its no - ver too late role of the poet in the ancient bardic tradition. 5 A He lived on Manhattan's Lower East Side until his death in April, 1997. r r I tell you how 'cause can't wait it's

7 E r r r

just that groat that its ne - ver too late

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Do the Meditation Rock Tune: I fought the Dharma,and the Dharma won If you want to learn how to meditate I'll tell you now 'cause it's never too late How does it feel to do I'll tell you how 'cause I can't wait it's just that great that it's never too late nothing at all? If you are an old fraud like me or a lama who lives in Eternity The first thing you do when you meditate is keep your spine your backbone straight Sit yourself down on a pillow on the ground or sit in a chair if the ground isn't there Do the meditation Do the meditation Learn a little Patience and Generosity

/ 7 (continued) /° (sj ,S

dichtkunst is Dutch for poetry 2 9 BEST COPY AVAILABLE ALLEN 01NSBERO

Do the Meditation Rock (continued) 3 Follow your breath out open your eyes and sit there steady & sit there wise Follow your breath right outta your nose follow it out as far as it goes --1 Follow your breath but don't hang on to the thought of yr death in old Saigon Follow your breath when thought forms rise whatever you think it's a big surprise Do the meditation Do the meditation Questions Learn a little Patience and Generosity 1. What does this poem suggest GenerosityGenerosityGenerosity & Generosity are the benefits of meditation? 2. How does the music scored for All you got to do is to imitate this poem contribute to our you're sitting meditating and you're never too late experience of it? when thoughts catch up but your breath goes on forget what you thought about Uncle Don Laurel Hardy Uncle Don Charlie Chaplin Uncle Don Activities you don't have to drop your nuclear bomb 1. Assemble a group that includes If you see a vision come say Hello Goodbye at least one musician with an play it dumb with an empty eye instrument and take turns singing or chanting alternate sections of if you want a holocaust you can recall your mind the poemwhole stanzas or only it just went past with the Western wind the refrain lines. Do the meditation Do the meditation Learn a little Patience & Generosity 2. Research Buddhist Samatha- Vipassana sitting practice of meditation and describe the If you see Apocalypse in a long red car relationship between what this or a flying saucer sit where you are poem prescribes and traditional If you feel a little bliss don't worry about that practice. give your wife a kiss when your tire goes flat 3. Follow the directions offered If you can't think straight & you don't know who to call by this poem and describe your it's never too late to do nothing at all experience. Do the meditation follow your breath so your body & mind get together for a rest Do the meditation Do the meditation Learn a little Patience and Generosity

"Do the Meditation Rock" by Allen Ginsberg. From If you sit for an hour or a minute every day SELECTED POEMS 1947-1995. Copyright 0 1996 by Allen Ginsberg. Reprinted by permission of you can tell the Superpower to sit the same way HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. you can tell the Superpower to watch and wait & to stop & meditate 'cause it's never too late. Do the meditation Do the meditation Get yourself together lots of Energy & GenerosityGenerosityGenerosity & Generosity!

St. Mark's Place, Xmas 1981

puisiis Indonesian for poetry POETRY MARIE 140WE HEAVEN Part 2 "A lot of my writing has been trying to move into those silent places to what I can't remem- ber, to what I am told I shouldn't remember." Sixth Grade

Marie Howe has written two books of poetry The afternoon the neighborhood boys tied me and Mary Lou Mahar and edited a book of writings which address the AIDS to Donny Ralph's father's garage doors, spread-eagled, pandemic. Her poems explore the spiritual aspects it was the summer they chased us almost every day. of daily life, including awareness of living and of dying. She also emphasizes recovering lost or Careening across the lawns they'd mowed for money, repressed memoriesreclaiming experiences that on bikes they threw down, they'd catch us, lie on top of us, may have been too frightening to remember. then get up and walk away.

That afternoon Donny's mother wasn't home. His nine sisters and brothers goneeven Gramps, who lived with them, gone somewherethe backyard empty, the big house quiet.

A gang of boys. They pulled the heavy garage doors down, rl and tied us to them with clothesline, and Donny got the deer's leg severed from the buck his dad had killed

the year before, dried up and still fur-covered, and sort of poked it at us, dancing around the blacktop in his sneakers, laughing. Then somebody took it from Donny and did it.

And then somebody else, and somebody after him. Then Donny pulled up Mary Lou's dress and held it up, and she began to cry, and I became a boy again, and shouted Stop,

and they wouldn't. Then a girl-boy, calling out to Charlie, my best friend's brother, who wouldn't look

Charlie! To my brother's friend who knew me Stop them. And he wouldn't. And then more softly, and looking directly at him, I said, Charlie.

And he said Stop. And they said What? And he said Stop it. And they did, quickly untying the ropes, weirdly quiet, Mary Lou still weeping. And Charlie? Already gone.

1--Eow does it feel to say, "Stop it," to one groupof friendsonbehalf of another friend?

31 athapt, is Greek for poetry MARIE 1-EOWE

Questions 1. In"Sixth Grade" Marie Howe looks What the Living Do back on a painful childhood experi- Johnny, the kitchen sink has been clogged for days, some utensil probably ence. What value do you think this fell down there. reflection and retelling have for her? And the Drano won't work but smells dangerous, and the crusty dishes 2. How does the poet's choice of have piled up specific words and phrases in "Sixth Grade" reflect the fact that the chil- waiting for the plumber Istill haven't called. This is the everyday we dren were young? spoke of. 3. What does the poem "What the It's winter again: the sky's a deep headstrong blue, and the sunlight Living Do" tell you about the way in pours through which the poet is mourning someone who has died? What emotions does the open living room windows because the heat's on too high in here, and the poem convey? I can't turn it off. 4. What do you think "What the For weeks now, driving, or dropping a bag of groceries in the street, Living Do" conveys to "the living"? the bag breaking,

I've been thinking: This is what the living do. And yesterday, hurrying Activities along those wobbly bricks in the Cambridge sidewalk, spilling my coffee down my 1. Think about a time when you or someone else had the power to stop wrist and sleeve, something that could have hurt another person. Describe how you or I thought it again, and again later, when buying a hairbrush: This is it. the other person used the power Parking. Slamming the car door shut in the cold. What you called or didn't use it and what the out- that yearning. come was.

What you finally gave up. We want the spring to come and the winter to 2. How might one of the other pass. We want children in "Sixth Grade" tell the story? Write a poem or scene from whoever to call or not call, a letter, a kisswe want more and more and the point of view of one of the other then more of it. kids.

But there are moments, walking, when I catch a glimpse of myself in the 3. Make a list of everyday things that window glass, remind you of someone who say, the window of the corner video store, and I'm gripped by a cherishing is no longer in your daily life. so deep Describe how those things help you to remember that person. for my own blowing hair, chapped face, and unbuttoned coat that I'm speechless: I am living, I remember you.

)

"Sixth Grade" and "What the Living Do" by Marie Howe, from WHAT THE LIVING DO. Copyright A 1997 by Marie Howe. Used by arrangement with W.W. Norton & Company. 32 Rbppr1 u.v6is Armenian for poetry YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA POETRY HEAVEN Parts 2, 3 "I am interested In how beauty and terror are in the same framethat you can place them side by History Lessons side and that they create a certain kind of tension."

Born in Bogalusa, in 1947, Yusef Komunyakaa Squinting up at leafy sunlight, I stepped back was the first black man to win a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1994). A Vietnam veteran, he did not write about the & shaded my eyes, but couldn't see what she pointed to. war until more than a decade after returning to the The courthouse lawn where the lone poplar stood . He has published nine books of poetry Was almost flat as a pool table. Twenty-five and teaches at . Years earlier it had been a stage for half the town: Cain & poor white trash. A picnic on saint augustine Grass. No, I couldn't see the piece of blonde rope. I stepped closer to her, to where we were almost In each other's arms, & then spotted the flayed Tassel of wind-whipped hemp knotted around a limb Like a hank of hair, a weather-whitened bloom In hungry light. That was where they prodded him Up into the flatbed of a pickup.

2 We had coffee & chicory with lots of milk, Hoecakes, bacon, & gooseberry jam. She told me How a white woman in The Terrace Said that she shot a man who tried to rape her, How their car lights crawled sage fields Midnight to daybreak, how a young black boxer Was running & punching the air at sunrise, How they tarred & feathered him & dragged the corpse Behind a Model T through the Mill Quarters, How they dumped the prizefighter on his mother's doorstep, How two days later three boys Found a white man dead under the trestle In blackface, the woman's bullet In his chest, his head on a clump of sedge.

3 When I stepped out on the back porch Whenwasthe last tirne The pick-up man from Bogalusa Dry Cleaners Leaned against his van, with an armload you were awindow, Of her Sunday dresses, telling her Emmett Till had begged for it With his damn wolf whistle. and how did it feel? She was looking at the lye-scoured floor, White as his face. The hot words Swarmed out of my mouth like African bees & my fists were cocked, Hammers in the air. He popped The clutch when he turned the corner, As she pulled me into her arms & whispered, Son, you ain't gonna live long.

j vialis Bengali for poetry 33 YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA

Facing It Thanks My black face fades, Thanks for the tree hiding inside the black granite. between me & a sniper's bullet. I said I wouldn't, I don't know what made the grass dammit: No tears. sway seconds before the Viet Cong I'm stone. I'm flesh. raised his soundless rifle. My clouded reflection eyes me Some voice always followed, like a bird of prey, the profile of night telling me which foot slanted against morning. I turn to put down first. this waythe stone lets me go. Thanks for deflecting the ricochet I turn that wayI'm inside against that anarchy of dusk. the Vietnam Veterans Memorial I was back in San Francisco again, depending on the light wrapped up in a woman's wild colors, to make a difference. causing some dark bird's love call I go down the 58,022 names, to be shattered by daylight half-expecting to find when my hands reached up my own in letters like smoke. & pulled a branch away I touch the name Andrew Johnson; from my face. Thanks I see the booby trap's white flash. for the vague white flower Names shimmer on a woman's blouse that pointed to the gleaming metal but when she walks away reflecting how it is to be broken the names stay on the wall. like mist over the grass, Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's as we played some deadly wings cutting across my stare. game for blind gods. The sky. A plane in the sky. What made me spot the monarch A white vet's image floats writhing on a single thread closer to me, then his pale eyes tied to a farmer's gate, look through mine. I'm a window. holding the day together He's lost his right arm like an unfingered guitar string, inside the stone. In the black mirror is beyond me. Maybe the hills a woman's trying to erase names: grew weary & leaned a little in the heat. No, she's brushing a boy's hair. Again, thanks for the dud hand grenade tossed at my feet outside Chu Lai. I'm still falling through its silence. I don't know why the intrepid sun touched the bayonet, but I know that something stood among those lost trees & moved only when I moved. Questions 1. Why give thanks for a "monarch/ writhing on a single thread/ tied to a farmer's gate"? 2. How could a white vet lose his right arm inside the stone? 3. What are the history lessons in "History Lessons"?

Yusef Komunyakaa, "Thanks" and "Facing It" from NEON Activities VERNACULAR 1993 by Yusef Komunyakaa, Wesleyan University Press, by permission of University Press of New 1. Make a list of moments when you had the feeling of being eerily England. "History Lessons" from MAGIC CITY © 1992 by Yusef Komunyakaa, Wesleyan University Press, by permission protected. Describe what these moments have in common. of University Press of New England. 2. With music, dance, or visual images create an experience which illustrates "Facing It." 3. Describe how your experience of "History Lessons" changes when CMS tidalis Phi lipino for poetry you have access to sections 2 and 3, which were not on the videotape. 1-tEAVENPOETRY LOUIShumor"1 think in poetry it Is important because JENKINS toit is have Appointed Rounds Parts 2, 3 driver,Louisso much Jenkins farm a hand, part has workedoil-fieldof life." asworker, a truck weUnlikeToo have Much the a lotEskimos Snow of modifiers we only for havethat word. one wordThere for is snowtoo much but ofandAt stupid,thefirst contests. other he all refused mailthose Then he todeodorant he delivercarried. began junk toads,He doubt began mailmoney-making thebecause to importance randomly it was ideas bornincommercial various1942, in Oklahoma and parts fisherman, the of settings theCity, country. andOklahoma of librarianhis He prose was in Someonefallssnow, and which, stays got aunlike for deal, months. rain,five cents does Someone on not the immediately wisheddollar, andfor this spentrun snow. off. the It finishedattic.homeselect Hewithfirst his didn't mailclasshis handful open routemail themfor eachof non-delivery. letters and day never andhe would puteven After them lookedreturn he in had the at wherecountrypoems he sometimesof grew Oklahoma up. reflect and theKansas farming toplaceofeverything.entire thefamily tosnowfamily another. and Weso fortune.friends. we are Too spend never much hours satisfied snow. moving Iwith box the theit upsnow arrangement and from send one it I sendIt's the a bigsimple box solution,to my cousin in it covers wasthemmorenesscapricious caught, again. deals and friends moreItfelland was through.blind. bold, vanished,as if In deletinghe Towardthe were marriages several houses,an the agent yearsend failed, then heof before became Fate,busi- whole he What doand how wouldful,toCalifornia. "Don'tuse complex so sendmuch." and so To delicate;much. you II'm send different all aalone single from now. snowflake, all I'll the never others. beauti- be able I send a small boxyou to my mother. She writes have too rnuch of you distribute it? withbornblockslapsingPony anin fromemptytheExpress in wrong the his bag, streets riderroute. era. or gallopingthe of He Athens,runner began into from gasping, to some feel Marathon he'dprairie"No beennews." col- town If only he could have been a ActivityFromsomeoneLanguage what who and culture speaksculture does aare language the closely language besidesrelated. come? English.Interview What homeaLouisQuestion kind fromJenkins of box, work haslike at described the night." "lunch The the box prosecontents Dad poem brought of theas guagethaninformationseemsis onein make English-speaking ideato have that or as phenomenon differencemorea report, importance culture? play, apparent? in or that How poem.in thatculturePresent does culture lan- thatyour "Appointedsomemysteriousbox are of "magic,"the journeyRounds"images he of andsays, reflect "Too returned." "for Muchhis having description? Snow"How made do and a raftnoves is Finnish for poetry 5 Rounds""Too Much by Snow"Louis Jenkins.by Louis From Jenkins. NICE From FISH: JUST NEW ABOVE AND SELECTED WATER (Holy PROSE Cow! POEMS Press, 1997).(Holy Cow!Reprinted Press, by 1995). permission Reprinted of the by publisher."Appointed permissiopiofithe publisher. 0 0 1-tEAVENPOETRY 1-1ALtheI"My like same poetry to make time is both people1 like seriousS1ROW1TZ to laugh make and and them funny. at CHOPPED-OFF ARM TheHORNS further ON you YOUR venture HEAD from the house, Part 3 think about what they're laughing at." MotherDon't stick said. your Another arm outcar ofcan the sneak window, up EveryoneMother said, on thethis fewer block people has either you'll heard know. poetryA regularandlive scene,wason in MN's featured New Hal York Sirowitz on City'sthe hasPBS downtown performed series Spoken Word Unplugged inwill It'sbehindthe have nottrunk, to likeus, stop, & the& drive chop stickparts you it the ofoff. to yoursevered Thenthe telescope hospital. your piece father ofwillon blocksyouthe recognize nextor wherehas block seen you. no maybe youoneThen atknows thereoneonly time. youoneare hundredsexist. personBut ThetheQueensManhattan United New andYork States in teaches City1949, of publicPoetry. hespecial now schools. educationlives in in Born in Youthat snapwon't backbewant able on.anyone to A wear doctor to shortsee will the sleeves.have stitches. to sew it. toTheyThere,And Nebraska,look it think goesthe for peoplethem.you on where thathave That'snever itway horns,gets met whyuntil even Sra you you Jewwill worse. should get before.want never move MotherDon'tDEFORMED said.stick It your FINGERmight finger get stuck,in the &ketchup bottle, strangerstoo far away to always from me. be Youtouching don't your want head. onwon'tthensquirmingto his getyou'll behamburger. homehappy have in to the toto pull findHe'll waitketchup it a foryankout. dirty yourthat He it fingernail out he'sfather so going hard to use y2. How would youfeelingsQuestions1. describe How for would her this son? youson's describe this mother's Andbethat able forif you tothe wear everrest getaof ring your a girlfriend, on life that you finger. & won't feelings for, his mother? 7 insistedyou&why you'll holddidn'tone onbe ofhands, listen playingyourobligated she'sfingersto yourwith tobound tellisamother, ketchupdeformed, her to askhow & bottle,you ortoActivities 1.youthree Make by that a a parent listmost of interestornegative guardian. you instructions and, Choose thegiven two listen& she'll to getme either,to thinking, & she'll he pushprobably your won'thand away. "Chopped-Offing2.tofollowing Assemblewrite these your poems, Sirowitz's aown groupArm" first "Mother general and onexactly the experiment Said" videotape,form, as Sirowitz poems. use with them and reads read- What did your Mother (or Mother-like person) say to you? thenSirowitz.from "Chopped-Offdifferently, MOTHER Used bySAID arrangementArm," by in Hal "Deformed your Sirowitz. with own Crown Finger,"Copyright rhythms.Publishers. and OD "Horns 1996 by on Hal Your Head" thi-ca 37 is Vietnamese for poetry 131-EIL1P LEVINE POETRY 14EAVEN Part 3 "For me, writing is a spiritual need. I love doing it well, and I'm willing to do it badly often enough so that I can do it well." COMING CLOSE Take this quiet woman, she has been Philip Levine was born in 1928 in Detroit, Michigan. He grew up there, and worked in many local industries standing before a polishing wheel before leaving for California. He says that he writes for over three hours, and she lacks poetry "for people for whom there is no poetry twenty minutes before she can take those were the people of Detroit." Many of his poems a lunch break. Is she a woman? reflect on the nature of life in urban areas. He has Consider the arms as they press written seventeen books of poetry, one of which won the long brass tube against the buffer, the Pulitzer Prize. they are striated along the triceps, the three heads of which clearly show. Consider the fine dusting of dark down above the upper lip, and the beads of sweat that run from under the red kerchief across the brow and are wiped away with a blackening wrist band in one odd motion a child might make to say No! No! You must come closer to find out, you must hang your tie and jacket in one of the lockers in favor of a black smock, you must be prepared to spend shift after shift hauling off the metal trays of stock, bowing first, knees bent for a purchase, then lifting with a gasp, the first word of tenderness between the two of you, then you must bring new trays of dull, unpolished tubes. You must feed her, as they say in the language of the place. Make no mistake, the place has a language, and if by some luck the power were cut, the wheel slowed to a stop so that you suddenly saw it was not a solid object but so many separate bristles forming in motion a perfect circle, she would turn to you and say, "Why?" Not the old why of why must I spend five nights a week? Just, "Why?" Even if by some magic Howclose willyou come you knew, you wouldn't dare speak for fear of her laughter, which now to the woman working you have anyway as she places the five tapering fingers of her filthy hand at the polishing wheel? on the arm of your white shirt to mark you for your own, now and forever. r filidheachd is Gaelic for poetry 39 131-11L1P LEVINE

M. DEGAS TEACHES ART fiT SCIENCE AT DURFEE INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL Detroit, 1942 He made a line on the blackboard, one bold stroke from right to left diagonally downward and stood back to ask, looking as always at no one in particular, "What have I done?" From the back of the room Freddie shouted, "You've broken a piece Questions of chalk." M. Degas did not smile. 1. How might"Coming Close" be "What have I done?" he repeated. different if it were told from the woman's The most intellectual students point of view? looked down to study their desks 2. Edgar Degas was a famous French except for Gertrude Bimmler, who raised painter who lived from 1834 to 1917. her hand before she spoke. "M. Degas, How did Philip Levine get Edgar Degas to you have created the hypotenuse teach at Durfee Intermediate School in of an isosceles triangle." Degas mused. Detroit in 1942? Everyone knew that Gertrude could not be incorrect. "It is possible," Louis Warshowsky added precisely, Activities "that you have begun to represent 1. Like the woman in the factory, many the roof of a barn." I remember people are employed in jobs that are that it was exactly twenty minutes difficult, perhaps dirty, and unglamorous, past eleven, and I thought at worst yet their work is important. Identify an this would go on another forty unsung worker in your community. If minutes. It was early April, possible, interview the person and the snow had all but melted on describe his or her job and its impor- the playgrounds, the elms and maples tance. Describe the language of the place bordering the cracked walks shivered where the person works. in the new winds, and I believed 2. Philip Levine says "M.Degas" is a poem that before I knew it I'd be of "immense affection" for his teacher. swaggering to the candy store Create something that shows immense for a Milky Way. M. Degas affection for someone in your life pursed his lips, and the room someone you know personally or some- stilled until the long hand one you admire from a distance. Your of the clock moved to twenty one creation could take any formwriting, as though in complicity with Gertrude, music, painting, drawing, collage, or who added confidently, "You've begun sculpture. to separate the dark from the dark." I looked back for help, but now 3. "M. Degas" is clearly based on Philip the trees bucked and quaked, and I Levine's memories of his school experi- knew this could go on forever. ences. Using your memories, describe an event that occurred earlier in your life, including descriptions of personality traits of the people involved and some of the actual words spoken. 4. Write a poem in which you imagine "Coming Close" and "M. Degas Teaches Art & Science at Durfee Intermediate School" by a famous person teaching at your school. Philip Levine. From WHAT WORK IS by Philip Levine. Copyright © 1991 by Philip Levine. Used by arrangement with Alfred A. Knopf, New York Exaggerate the possible outcome.

[200E00 is Polish for poetry 40 JOY I-tAR)0 POETRY 1-tEAVEN Part 3 For Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, Whose Spirit Is Present Here and in the Dappled Stars (for we remember the story and must tell it again so we may all live)

Beneath a sky blurred with mist and wind, I am amazed as I watch the violet heads of crocuses erupt from the stiff earth after dying for a season, as I have watched my own dark head appear each morning after entering the next world to come back to this one, amazed. z Z It is the way in the natural world to understand the place the ghost dancers named after the heart/breaking destruction. Anna Mae, everything and nothing changes. "1 like blurring so many lines, doing the You are the shimmering young woman poetry and the music, because I think I'm who found her voice, here to help create or find a new place when you were warned to be silent, or have your body cut away in the borders which always eventually from you like an elegant weed. become the center." You are the one whose spirit is present in the dappled stars. In her performances, joy Harjo often recites (They prance and lope like colored horses who stay with us poems and plays the saxophone. The music through the streets of these steely cities. And I have see them nuzzling the frozen bodies of tattered drunks may be another expression of the inner old on the corner.) Creek Indian who she says often guides her This morning when the last star is dimming when she writes. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in and the buses grind toward 1951, joy Harjo is the daughter of a Creek the middle of the city,I know it is ten years since they buried you father and French-Cherokee mother. the second time in Lakota, a language that could free you. I heard about it in Oklahoma, or New Mexico, how the wind howled and pulled everything down in a righteous anger. (It was the women who told me) and we understood wordlessly the ripe meaning of your murder. As I understand ten years later after the slow changing of the seasons that we have just begun to touch the dazzling whirlwind of our anger, we have just begun to perceive the amazed world of the ghost dancers entered crazily, beautifully.

Question In February 1976, an unidentified body of a young woman was found on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. What are some of the contrasting The official autopsy attributed her death to exposure. The FBI agent present at the autopsy ordered her hands severed images of the poem? How do they and sent to Washington for fingerprinting. John Trudell rightly called this mutilation on act of war. Her unnamed body was buried. When Anna Mae Aquash, a young Micmac woman who was an active American Indian Movement mem- add to its tone and overall impact? ber, was discovered missing by her friends and relatives, a second autopsy was demanded. It was then discovered she had been killed by a bullet fired at close range to the back of her head. Her killer or killers have yet to be identified. Activity Compare this poem with "Big girl, Little girl" by Le Thi Diem Thay. How do you suppose each poet might have written about the other's experience? What haveyouunderstood Joy Harjo, "For Anna Mae Pictou Aquash ..." from IN MAD LOVE AND WAR 1990 by Joy Harjo, Wesleyan University Press, by permission of University Press of New England. wordlessly, and with whom? pliris Turkish for poetry 41 ROBERT CREELEY POETRY ftEAVEN

"Every time you write a poem you can think, 'is Part 3 that a real poem or is it just something I made up myself?' If what you have written is not a from So There real poem, then what is a real poem?" for Penelope

Born in Arlington, Massachusetts in 1926, Robert Da. Da. Da da. Creeley pioneered a spontaneous poetry crafted from I Know a Man Where is the song. natural rhythms based in the breath. He has taught As I sd to my What's wrong at universities since 1962 and for thirty years at the friend, because I am with life State University of New York at Buffalo. He was always talking,John, I appointed New York State Poet from 1989 to 1991. ever. More? Or less sd, which was not his days, nights, name, the darkness sur- these rounds us, what days.What's gone can we do against is gone forever it, or else, shall we & every time,old friend's why not, buy a goddamn big car, voice here. I want

drive, he sd, for to stay, somehow, christ's sake, look if I could out where yr going. ifI would? Where else to go. The sea here's out the window, old switcher's house, vertical, railroad blues,lonesome

whistle,etc. Can you think of Yee's Café in Needles, California opposite the train stationcan you keep it ever together, old buddy, talking to yourself again? What would: you do against the darkness

which surroundsus, orelse, & why not. ?

Questions Activities 1. What would your English teacher red-pencil 1. Assemble a group and take turns reading in "I Know a Man"? What does Creely gain by "I Know a Man," experimenting with writing the poem according to his speakers' speed, emphasis, and tone of voice. own spelling and punctuation habits? 2. From images cut out of magazines and 2. Why does "I Know a Man" contain no quo- newspapers, create a collage that illustrates tation marks? "I Know a Man." 3. Who is the speaker of the first three stanzas of "I Know a Man" and what do you know about him? Do you identify more with him or "1 Know a Man" and "So There" by Robert Creeley. From SELECTED with the speaker of the last stanza? POEMS by Robert Creeley, University of California Press. Copyright \ 1991 by The Regents of the University of California. is Arabic for poetry 42 I-tEAVENPOETRY BRENDAtoward"The makinginteresting any way piece to ofgo f-t1LLMANwork is not ofTheTime time. problem Problem Of there not being Part 3 morebetter itself. but toward Try letting making go ofit weirder,the Black Series enough of it. Brendamayideal lieof Hillman's thein falling perfect demanding apart." poem. Perfectionpoetry often Thena serieslittle in theowl of scallopedshort, had learned sharp leaves who's: to count. of the plane tree IandMy told girlsaid her came Help I had tome; a the time study problem andticism,citesTucson, "science-for-normal-people." divergent alchemy, Arizona influences feminist in 1951, literaryincluding she theory,has Born gnos- pub- in AllbecauseYou at lay once ofin yourthe brightblack bed as thickedges usual o's pressing not of theexisting owlin. likeNumbersIwhich would motel meant: die coathangers.hung for you in the but math I don't book have ten minutes. The Lean herCaliforniaatlished St. husband, Mary'ssix volumesand Collegethe lives poet of in poetry. in Robertthe Morgana, Bay She Hass. Area teaches with ThekindsWheremade smudged ofthe there infinity, very circle had diagram nowbeen around theretwo you the wasneeded. soul one! ThebubblylikeCuisine anlatest ancientearth was thing burningtones city: they're inblack the saying atcenter. the is edges, lack toythewas mathematicaltrain, the one the the snake gnostics eating saw its aroundtail. the cosmos, (turnedwithaof "woman's time her mightout math toproblem." be book prime sobbing She factoring: sat there whole numbers youcouldhadRelieved askedchanged change by the the butandvoice thought not not for you, be more that lost that the in something you,owl's o's anit'sdangleHawking issue,not evenin timelittle says fallsnooses) if youaway back into up far enough butIyesexistence loved butbecause you and notmust of the despiteyour voiceunderstand great yoursaid emptiness great emptiness mptiness (beepsopranoboundaryless.'the curve' End telephone whichbeep Appointment went is finite, the microwave) book, theywhoIThe spoke handstookinvented. to them,the fell spirit Hadoff told my wakened her: watch Time in from isthe the anight. big funniest thing A livedNodream time for of monthsto loveget the inin amywatch boat dresser, fixed so the blank face (continued) ;a3111r is Kurdish for poetry 43 What have you asked "the yoke" for? 44 BRENDA FULLMAN (continued) Pulled the travel alarm forTimenoseno hands, arrows Problem just quartz intentions, just the pinocchio (before the lie) thefrombehindto art mybeing book face: the ruined. phosphorousthe black Opened argument kept the dark didn'tleftMy in thehavegirl center;was twenty doing minutes; neither did I. the watch (red leaked (justgently.sawin Tissot'stheslightlybut The languorous glove "Summer still:) wrists Evening." of the Relaxed. lady Turning heardinsignia)towardMama?her gymher black, call clothes thenfrom by intothe herself; laundrythe white room: I was grading papers, butintoopened"aghast"; I asay fourth Hawking, dimension he says, time gets smoothed likerealtypesHawking decaf),and of it,imaginary sayssays it's there meaningless are two (imaginary time must be thedidn'titaspace missed.baby tree things thoughtspace, became Were unhappen andit seconds up, Daphne then as also,in: born Let's... such early, make as and why 2.speakerQuestions 1.What What isof thekind"Time effect of Problem" time of problemsthe punctua- is the having? there'swhenand-a-halfbutto decide I say: I lessstarted therewhich than thinking was isa day.which tomorrow- More about it; now At Timethethe sevenbeginning did not directions. visit of harvest,us. We slept we felt in3.ningtion What"Time inand "Black is concludingProblem," Stephen Series" Hawking and dashes? only why begin-doingdoes thedone. thing That's that keeps being said. I thought WithItill onenoon. voicelet I called him sleep, him, withremembering one voice poem?he disappear toward the end of the fishLegs,thearchon,I couldstew tired-tired remember fromget then more a push-push-push book.around him?done As the asin: in:trackVersateller like a planet. aboveandIsummer had thewhen come gardenyears he to returned ago,visit of pears, him in he the said house of last straws reportActivities1. on his ideas aboutResearch time. Stephen Hawking and (actuallythereHawkingOur are lovewhen he little says calls folds them we in staggerliestimewormholes) down inside us youandourI haveweepingwereI say borrowedhappyto him caused there;Come the the littleinto dew theboat ... little boat, why2. theyResearch appear the in gnostics "Black Series."and explain wherethere'sbut I they'reasay: universe hammering beyond the brass cut-outs ontothe evening the pond, reverses itself, we'll push out 0Brenda 1993 byHillman, Brenda "Black Hillman, Series" Wesleyan from BRIGHT University EXISTENCE Press, by You'll(because:Push be ustoo where out busy in in tothe the close boat plan parentheses, and was leave it written, time here ... whicheveror onto the onereflection is eternal of the pond, PressWesleyanProblem"permission of New fromUniversity of England. University LOOSE Press, SUGAR Press by permission of0 1997New England.by of Brenda University 'Time Hillman, eventhe snapdragon's the caterpillar 4bbunchy will hurry mouth past needs you? water, nee is Hawaiian for poetry 46 POETRY WOMEN AND POETRY ftEAVEN Part 1 BRENDA I-EILLMAN, TI-tYLIAS MOSS, CAROL MUSKE,ANDPATTIANN ROOERS

Pattiann Rogers says that because "the mother's voice is essentially absent" from the Western canon, women need to work to get that voice represented. Thylias Moss says that it is essential for her to be a writer first and a wife and mother only in relation to that identity. What is the disagreement between these two women? With whom are you more in agreement? Why?

While Carol Muske says about the label "woman poet," "it's irrelevant," Brenda Hillman says, "I love my camp." What are they disagreeing about? With which point of view do you have more sympathy? Why? Assemble a group and let each person How do the poems of these four assume the position taken by one of the women support or contradict their poets in this conversation. Continue statements? the conversation on your own.

POETRY POETRY AND WORK 1-tEAVEN Part 3 LOUIS JENKINS, YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA, ANDPI -tILIP LEVINE

Philip Levine says, "Poetry is work." He Yusef Komunyakaa says that his father, a even says that "it's the hardest work I've carpenter, thought that "if you didn't ever done." Why might poetry be the work with your hands, then you weren't a hardest work one could do? complete person." How is poetry in fact like carpentry? Louis Jenkins has felt that he was slum- ming when he was doing other work, for How do the poems of these three men money, and that he was really a poet. support or contradict their statements? How far should we go in defining our- selves by the work we do for money? What is the difference between writing as these poets describe it and a hobby? banfidomgmeqhis Welsh for poetry 47 POETRY POETRY AND 141STORY HEAVEN Part 2 The poets who discuss this topic have different opin- ions about history and its relationship to poetry. For example, Li-Young Lee wants to forget history, but Yusef Komunyakaa says it's important to remember forgotten voices. Louis Jenkins finds that there's not much history to write about; whereas Robert Hass says that "poetry ... has been a much more power- ful creator of 'history' than anything else." Questions 1. Li-Young Lee is Chinese but was born in Indonesia. 2. Yusef Komunyakaa's "History Lesson" His family was persecuted in Indonesia and fled that describes a memory of a horrendous acta country, moving to several other countries before lynching. Why do you think the poet chose to arriving in the United States. Li-Young Lee says he has record this painful event in a poem? How can a a sense of "homelessness" even though he has lived in poem serve as a lesson about history? the United States for some time. These are a few lines from his poem, "The Interrogation," from The City in Which I Love You [the complete text can be found on the Dodge Web site (www. grdodge.org/poetry)]: Activities 1. Ina small group, discuss your view of how ... poetry relates to history and how history relates I'm through to poetry. With which of the poets discussing with memory, "Poetry and History" do you agree? Why?

Which house did we flee by night? Which house did we flee by day? 2. Many poets have written about events in history. Choose a poem about a historical Don't ask me. event. You might choose from poets such as Homer, Frances Watkins Harper, Walt Whitman, We stood and watched one burn; from one we ran away. John Greenleaf Whittier, , I'm neatly folding , Edna St. Vincent Millay, or W.H. the nights and days, notes Auden. Then read an account of the same event to be forgotten as written in a history book. How do the two compare? What are the values of each? 3. What is the history you need to write about? How do you think Li-Young Lee's experiences shaped his thoughts and feelings about history and memory? What do you need to say? Write your response in the form of a poem or essay.

POETRY A SI-EARED LIFE OF POETRY ffEAVEN Part 3 Robert Hass and Brenda Hillman are both poets, and they are married to each other. They describe some of the difficulties and joys of sharing the same occupation. Questions Activities 1. Of her marriage to Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman says, 1. Look into the lives of other modern poet cou- !I. .. we keep it a secret as much as possible." Why do you ples, such as and Ted Hughes, or think she might be kidding when she says this? Could she and Jane Kenyon. How does Robert also be serious about it? Why? Hass's and Brenda Hillman's conversation relate to the lives and careers of another poet couple? 2. In your opinion what might be some of the difficulties and joys that might occur between two married people who 2. Look into the lives of other couples who are have the same occupation? Do you think the difficulties and not poets but who share the same occupation. joys would be any different than between two married peo- You might investigate two actors, two singers, ple who have different occupations? Why? two postal workers, two teachers, or two doc- tors. Describe how their experiences compare to 3. Why must a poet "go away" in order to "get the treasure"? those of Robert Hass and Brenda Hillman. Where do you think the poet goes? What is the treasure?

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