Jeff: I wish that half of the courses students took involved ethics. We don't need any more Republicans or Democrats or Independents. We need Humanists.
Thanks for the discussion of Captain Kirk, as well. A classic episode. And true, this idea of good and evil in each of us plays in so many stories. In my current one, the good must eat the heart of the evil one in order to use her power.
Preachy poets? I'm trying not to be a preachy professor, but I'm teaching ethics, so... Of course, some of the kids didn't like that and made it known on my evaluations. What can one do?
Jeff: I wish that half of the courses students took involved ethics. We don't need any more Republicans or Democrats or Independents. We need Humanists.
"I didn’t want to be one of those preachy poets who think they can change the world with mediocre poems they rush off in a vain attempt to be “relevant”... Well, Peter, thank God you are emphatically NOT one of them!
Poetic posturing of all kinds drives me up the wall, especially the bit about poets' being distinctively "sensitive." Maybe to language (and maybe not even that), but otherwise? No more so than a dentist, an ironworker, an accountant, a school teacher, a farmer. In fact, I have seen some of the most arrogant, thcik-skinned, boorish behavior on earth displayed by those oh-so-sensitive types. They're also likely to be among those who claim to "take risks" in their poems. Risks? In POEMS? Maybe they ought to try being firefighters, soldiers, mothers bearinfg children, etc. Yours are always heady refutations of all that bullshit.
Great note! A nonfiction writer at UNH, one of my professors, once told me, "At the end, it's all about the work." I'm not so sure anymore. I guess I've always believed that poetry should be subversive in the sense that something must rub against something else in the poem. Even a poem about a rose can do that. But then, after I say that, I come across a poem that proves to be the exception. As Russell Edson used to say to me, "Aw, shucks!"
My wife and I are up in NH. We're both sick but, by God, we're going cross country skiing tomorrow anyway.
Jeff: I wish that half of the courses students took involved ethics. We don't need any more Republicans or Democrats or Independents. We need Humanists.
Hope all is well, especially with the writing.
Loved the Eduardo prose-poem.
Thanks for the discussion of Captain Kirk, as well. A classic episode. And true, this idea of good and evil in each of us plays in so many stories. In my current one, the good must eat the heart of the evil one in order to use her power.
Preachy poets? I'm trying not to be a preachy professor, but I'm teaching ethics, so... Of course, some of the kids didn't like that and made it known on my evaluations. What can one do?
Jeff: I wish that half of the courses students took involved ethics. We don't need any more Republicans or Democrats or Independents. We need Humanists.
Hope all is well, especially with the writing.
"I didn’t want to be one of those preachy poets who think they can change the world with mediocre poems they rush off in a vain attempt to be “relevant”... Well, Peter, thank God you are emphatically NOT one of them!
Poetic posturing of all kinds drives me up the wall, especially the bit about poets' being distinctively "sensitive." Maybe to language (and maybe not even that), but otherwise? No more so than a dentist, an ironworker, an accountant, a school teacher, a farmer. In fact, I have seen some of the most arrogant, thcik-skinned, boorish behavior on earth displayed by those oh-so-sensitive types. They're also likely to be among those who claim to "take risks" in their poems. Risks? In POEMS? Maybe they ought to try being firefighters, soldiers, mothers bearinfg children, etc. Yours are always heady refutations of all that bullshit.
Syd:
Great note! A nonfiction writer at UNH, one of my professors, once told me, "At the end, it's all about the work." I'm not so sure anymore. I guess I've always believed that poetry should be subversive in the sense that something must rub against something else in the poem. Even a poem about a rose can do that. But then, after I say that, I come across a poem that proves to be the exception. As Russell Edson used to say to me, "Aw, shucks!"
My wife and I are up in NH. We're both sick but, by God, we're going cross country skiing tomorrow anyway.
Loved your last piece.