Generosity: My friend Sarah made a quilt for Eleanor and sent it via U.S. postal service. It's a work of art. It's a real beaut.
U.S. Postal Service: Yesterday I started reading Bukowski's Post Office, his first novel. I'm glad I waited 'til after my career on the psychiatric unit came to an end to read this book.
Psychiatric unit: On Tuesday, after workshop (my latest story was 'shopped and batted around), over beer, another writer asked me to describe what it's like "doing psychotherapy." I tried.
Hawaii: The writer that asked me that was/is from Oahu. I told her, "I've always wanted to visit Hawaii."
Oahu: The opposite of Iowa, probably, in most every way. Iowa's all right. It's Iowa. It's what it is. I'm what I am. I'm not Walt Whitman.
Walt Whitman: This week, I covered "Song of Myself" and Ginsberg's "Howl" in my creative writing class. It was mania in action. I think it went pretty well. I have no way of knowing. (How do you know if you've moved someone's soul?)
Soul-moving: Yes. There it is - my goal as a creative writing teacher: To move souls, primarily, then to teach a few basic skills & give encouragement.
Generosity, Pt. II: It's not me that's moving souls, it's the poems we're reading. Somethin' to give 'em hope in this here Kali Yuga wrapped in a Kali Yuga.
Kali Yuga: I read this on a t-shirt last weekend and laughed: "Sometimes life hands you a Hell sandwich."
Generosity, Pt. III: Then again, sometimes life hands you a person who hands your kid a work of art, poetry in thread.
2 comments:
At least one soul was moved by this post. Thank you.
yeah, soul-moving. that's a noble task. they'll forget about the mixed metaphors and Ginsburg's awful poetry, but they'll remember the time you moved their souls.
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