Process Poems & European Heritage Assembly

Two recent blog posts from my Hands on Stanzas schools reflect work done in my final classes at Shields, where students created group process poems; and Solomon's annual European Heritage Assembly, for which I research work by contemporary and well-established poets to be recited by students. Please have a look at each blog.

Erasures & Elegies

After a month off from one of my Hands on Stanzas schools, I returned to Solomon last week. Our prior class dealt with erasures, so this time we worked on elegies. Student work, as per usual, was quite stunning. Please check it out. Tomorrow will be the annual European-American assembly at Solomon, for which I traditionally compile selected work by European poets the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade teachers choose from for their students to recite. I pick new (and mostly little-known) poems every year for this event, and never know which will make the cut, so I'll post the featured poems after tomorrow's reading.

Robert Desnos, "Identity of Images"

One of my residencies, at Shields Elementary is winding down, with the other school's last classes spread out over the next few weeks. As usual, it is with sadness but also a sense of accomplishment that I contemplate another twenty weeks (almost) done. We still have this week to go, as well as reports yet to come from Solomon, so I'm not recapping the year just yet. Instead, have a look at these poems by Shields 5th graders inspired by Robert Desnos' poem, "Identity of Images."

Tony Hoagland, Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty

My review of Tony Hoagland's new book, Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty, is up at New Pages. Check it out!

Mary Ruefle, "From A Little White Shadow" and Cesar Vallejo, "To My Brother Miguel in memoriam"

I'm a little behind in my Hands on Stanzas posts. Here's the two most recent from Shields: on Mary Ruefle and erasure, and César Vallejo and elegy. Enjoy!

Upcoming and Recent Readings

I'd like to thank my colleague at McHenry County College, Laura Power, for asking me to give a reading with Q&A on February 24th to students at that venerable institution. Preparing for the occasion gave me an opportunity to pour over some older work that I had not performed in a while, which I read along with recent material culled from my Brief Nudity manuscript, as well as a few new poems. The students were unerringly polite and unsurprisingly bright -- if only they could say the same about me!

During National Poetry Month, I have three readings scheduled: on April 15th, I'll be visiting Adam Heidenreich's creative writing class at Joliet Junior College for another reading with Q&A; on April 22nd, I'll be back at JJC for a featured reading that evening, at 7 PM; and on April 24th, I'll once again be participating at the "poetry cram" at Harold Washington Library Center, during the annual Chicago Poetry Fest. The fest starts at 10 AM; cramming begins at 2 PM.

Hope to see you at one (or more) of these events!