All The Time In The World

is a kind of silly thing
when the world is not of time
and time is not of the world
so does the line between the grass and woods feel as if time is slipping away
when there lies the infinite

Samuel Gardner

A snippet from a poem from Spoon River Anthology, "Samuel Gardner" ...

Now I, an under-tenant of the earth, can see
That the branches of a tree
Spread no wider than its roots.
And how shall the soul of a man
Be larger than the life he has lived?

Davis Matlock

A poem from Spoon River Anthology, "Davis Matlock" ...

Suppose it is nothing but the hive:
That there are drones and workers
And queens, and nothing but storing honey--
(Material things as well as culture and wisdom)--
For the next generation, this generation never living,
Except as it swarms in the sun-light of youth,
Strengthening its wings on what has been gathered,
And tasting, on the way to the hive
From the clover field, the delicate spoil.
Suppose all this, and suppose the truth:
That the nature of man is greater
Than nature's need in the hive;
And you must bear the burden of life,
As well as the urge from your spirit's excess--
Well, I say to live it out like a god
Sure of immortal life, though you are in doubt,
Is the way to live it.
If that doesn't make God proud of you,
Then God is nothing but gravitation,
Or sleep is the golden goal.

Lucinda Matlock

A snippet from a poem from Spoon River Anthology, "Lucinda Matlock" ...

What is this I hear of sorrow and weariness,
Anger, discontent and drooping hopes?
Degenerate sons and daughters,
Life is too strong for you--
It takes life to love Life.

I Like That The Birds

I like that the birds have so much to say before the sun comes up
to meet the day in that sort of way
like fissures in time that sometimes present themselves
between the trees and memories
like separations of parts of things and non-things
where we stretch out to dwell for awhile, sometimes
I like not to be able to put my finger on something.



A poetry prompt from:

Wordle 100

It’s just like that sometimes
the way places stretch
and streets march on
and words die...
and we train ourselves
to master things that should not be mastered
and we learn to be still, and listen
for the calls are faint...
...create, change, share...

A poetry prompt from The Sunday Whirl.

Happy birthday, Julie.

March 21, 2013

Today you would be
thirty-six, and I search my memories
of us two decades ago, did you think
and plan and dream this far
ahead through the years we fly
and stroll and crawl and sometimes sleep
until the world around us changed, in a way
too big to be tamed.

Is this what life is, a series of sparks
that sometimes ignite and sometimes die
up into the night between fire and light
and I know when I look in your daughter's eyes
that laugh and dance and sing your name, it's hard
to become slow and quiet, like the owl
who stands watch over the flames.

Wordle 99

it’s like that one time when

you fell asleep

on the train, in the seat, next to me, you leaned

away is a window, overlooking the Spree’s course winding

where I was sure you dreamed, the trees made whooshing silhouettes

and what that must have done to your sleeping mind, like paint

drips and runs and forms a body of soft shapes

it’s pretty intimate, less fearsome

is the part that is written in the reserves

any use for the outsider

A poetry prompt from The Sunday Whirl.

Learning About Chinese Students

I visited my nephew's first grade class a few weeks ago to share with the kids my experiences living and teaching in China, and look!... it made the weekly classroom newsletter :)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Fssshhh

A friend sent me this and I think I fell in love with it, right after I died laughing.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Crazy Crazy Crayons

My 11-year-old niece and I made this stop-motion video on her iPod this weekend using an app called...wait for it..."Stop Motion" and we had a blast. We need to add some background music. This version doesn't have sound.



She has made several other videos, both stop-motion and fan music videos, that are just mind-blowingly creative. And here's something pretty cool she showed me...a stop-motion video of some students re-creating a human Pac-Man game :)