What to do for next Wednesday, January 19, 2005 (Note: no class on Monday):

1. Now is a good time to just read a lot of poems. When you read poetry, I suggest that you do a few things:
   1. Read it out loud;
   2. Move to it (or if that’s too uncomfortable for you, then have your right hand represent your whole body and let it sway as you read);
   3. Read it more than once. Three times is often the magic number;
   4. Read with your hips and bones, memory and fantasy, brain and heart;
   5. A poem, like any work of art, is reaching out to your life so that you can meet somewhere in the middle. Be open to that. Be open to the intermingling of your life with the life of the poem.

Okay, so read the 50 poems that are listed on the back of this page. In reading them, I want you to do these things:

1)      Read them all. This comes out to about 7 poems/day, so teeka-teeka with them. Mark in your book some of the lines or words or phrases that you especially like. You also might want to jot in the margins some quick reactions to the poems. 

2)      Is there one poem that is especially powerful to you? Free-write (or free-draw) for 15-20 minutes on your response to it.

3)      Take five other poems that move you, and free-write (or free-draw) some kind of response for about 10 minutes to each of them.

4)      When finished with all the reading and writing, free-write for another 10 minutes or so on the overall effect on you of this whole homeplay.

(Note: While reading, keep your eyes out for any poems—or part of a poem--that you might want to memorize.)

2. Also, I want each of us to take a stab at writing an original poem. It can be about anything; it can rhyme or not rhyme; it can be serious or silly. Write it (or type it) in a nice and pretty and legible way, and put alongside it some kind of visual image. Put your name on back.

1.       Western Wind, 57

2.       Sonnet 130, 69

3.       The Flea, 74

4.       To his Coy Mistress, 89

5.       A Poison Tree, 107

6.       I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, 111

7.       Ode to a Nightingale, 134

8.       The Raven, 144

9.       The Eagle, 149

10.   Wild Nights, 184

11.   The Lake Isle of Innisfree, 198

12.   Richard Cory, 205

13.   The Road not Taken, 215

14.   This is Just to Say, 227

15.   The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter, 229

16.   Preludes, 243

17.   What Lips my Lips have Kissed, 249

18.   in just, 251

19.   Dream Boogie, 258

20.   My Papa’s Waltz, 268

21.   The Fish, 270

22.   Those Winter Sundays, 274

23.   Ballad of Birmingham, 275

24.   For my Daughter, 280

25.   We Real Cool, 286

26.   Love Song: I and Thou, 302

27.   A Blessing, 328

28.   Cinderella, 332

29.   Rape, 343

30.   Daddy, 350

31.   wishes for my sons, 360

32.   First Practice, 363

33.   Siren Song, 368

34.   Digging, 370

35.   Foreplay, 377

36.   Schoolsville, 380

37.   The Visitor, 384

38.   My Husband Discovers Poetry, 394

39.   Mountain Bride, 396

40.   A Monorhyme for the Shower, 401

41.   Maybe Dats Your Pwoblem Too, 410

42.   Facing It, 411

43.   The Colonel, 418

44.   Winter Retreat, 420

45.   The Traveling Onion, 429

46.   Dim Lady, 433 (Note: Compare this with Shakespeare’s #130, p. 69)

47.   Primping in the Rearview Mirror, 440

48.   Coy Mistress, 441

49.   First Kiss, 442

50.   Asked for a Happy Memory, 448