Monday, November 17, 2008

You see, I have no photos for you!

I'm editing the draft of some interview questions my favorite student is going to ask Wangari Mathaai, oh wow.

I taught her and my other favorite two these two poems in conjunction, because they are conjoined:

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When You are Old, by W.B. Yeats

When you are old and gray and full of sleep
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true;
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead,
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
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and

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Breast Cancer, by Frederick Seidel


The intubated shall be extubated and it rains green
Into the uptown air because it is almost raining.
You can smell the sidewalks straining.
The sidestreets are contagious but serene.
The disease is nutritious.
The bitter medicine delicious.
The beautiful breasts are repetitious.
The much older man you love is vicious.

The man will be even older by the time
She takes down the book to read the poem.

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dearest, dearest, dearest,

I'm taking dictation from your mamacita: It's better than taking guff, right, honey?

The classes we taught went pretty well today; Grandpa Walt is coming Thursday night for a really quick visit; Granddad Don is going in for back surgery on Thursday morning--kind of a big deal, as he'll be in the hospital through Sunday at least.

Your mother has just informed me that the blog is not e-mail; I have violated genre boundaries and have been put under arrested prose development.

Love,

Papa

Anonymous said...

glubglubsnorfle! I like those two conjunctionedjoined poems. The stretching of the arm for the book makes my sinews sympathetically sore. or else i just AM sore.
I think i am sore.
In taiko drumming the drummers shout, "SO-RE!" (soar-ray) which probably means Let's Go or Hoopededoo! but not to me, not to my ears. I know they are tired. dumdittydumdumBUMBUM
from yr mum

Anonymous said...

what if your second favorite student reads your blog and knows that s/he is not him/her mentioned in your first line?
slash and burn, slash and spurn

ordago13 said...

lovely¡¡¡
shall i wrote to you in english or spanish both will do i guess

jajaja hola precioso blog

check out mine
republica libertaria de las tortugas

Sophie or a said...

Second favorite studentsssss. "favorite two," clearly she wrote.

i'll just have to make sure they don't learn enough english to identify themselves, i guess.

Anonymous said...

Mas, por favor.

Your third favorite parent,

P.

basha said...

wangari mathaai! oh wow.