notes 01.23.2009

TESTS: February 20 and April 8

Ivan Illych & Barry Sanders: The Alphabetization of the Popular Mind
James J O’Donnell: Avatars of the Word: From Papyrus to Cyberspace

Group 5: Traditions
Ben, Joan, Nick, Lynn, Zach
Dashboard > Layout>Add a gadget> Blog List
more at Chris's How to Create a Blog!

1. earliest memory
2. blog on passage in Ong
3. the mansion, palace, theatre of your mind
4. the 2 or 3 most memorable parts of Ong, Kane, & Yates
   

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A W A R E N E S S
the ability to pay close attention
defamiliarise the "ordinary"
poetry prose
every day is 9/11
what is memorable? what is sacred?
giving voice, flesh
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ...And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth." John 1

Ong p.79 Plato's Phaedrus

1. writing is inhuman
2. writing destroys memory
3. a written text is unresponsive
4. a wrtten text cannot defend itself
   

Chris's blog
Ben's cabin simulacrum
John's birthday
Kevin's Muses
Shannon's earliest memory
Sutter's renegade Scheherazade


She sang beyond the genius of the sea.

01.21.2009
Brandon
Chris
Erin
Helena
Jana
John
Rich
Sutter

Inaugural poet

Elizabeth Alexander the inaugural poet -- the fourth in history

UK Independent: Obama's Inauguration Day poem

"It must rank as the grandest poetry gig on earth, with a potential audience of billions. It may also terrify the lucky – or unlucky – author into terminal blandness or toe-curling bombast. In spite of her window of worldwide exposure, few fellow-poets will envy the task that faces Elizabeth Alexander ... after musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma and singers such as Aretha Franklin have done their turns.

... Among the poets she's been reading for guidance are Auden, Hughes, Heaney – and Virgil.

... What kind of poem might best fill that vast inaugural stage? ... Ian McMillan, perhaps the best-loved of British public bards today, says: 'An inauguration poem can't be small in any way. It can incorporate intimate moments, domestic images, fleeting memories, but it has to be like a political speech in that it must be based on rhythm, on repetition, on phrases that can be manipulated and spoken again and again. It has to be a poem from an oral tradition and not from a written one.'

... Picked to speak the words that will lead America from one age to another, Elizabeth Alexander, wisely gave little away beforehand. She dutifully noted that her 'joy' at landing this job from the president-elect stems from 'my deep respect for him as a man of meaningful, powerful words that move us forward' ... 'poetry is not meant to cheer; rather, poetry challenges, and moves us towards transformation' ... and 'I won't carry on at length.' "

a sense of humor! :)




Praise Song for the Day

Each day we go about our business,
walking past each other, catching each other’s
eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.

All about us is noise. All about us is
noise and bramble, thorn and din, each
one of our ancestors on our tongues.

Someone is stitching up a hem, darning
a hole in a uniform, patching a tire,
repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere,
with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum,
with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky.
A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin.

We encounter each other in words, words
spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,
words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark
the will of some one and then others, who said
I need to see what’s on the other side.

I know there’s something better down the road.
We need to find a place where we are safe.
We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain: that many have died for this day.
Sing the names of the dead who brought us here,
who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,

picked the cotton and the lettuce, built
brick by brick the glittering edifices
they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.
Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,
the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.

Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

praise song for walking forward in that light.


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