Body of Art

A favorite cousin of mine had this snippet of an e.e. cummings poem tattooed on her backside. It says:

bird by snow and stir by still
anyone's any was all to her

(Read the entire poem here.)

This cousin happens to be funny, sweet and smart as heck. (And cool, too.) She teaches at an alternative high school in Colorado with kids who haven't always been valued by society, and she works passionately to instill the love of words in her students. I'm not sure if she encourages them to tattoo literature on their bodies, but hey, here's to creative teaching methods. (What's next, sweetie? War and Peace??)

So here's a big shout-out to you, K!

Friday Fun: Cookies!!! (And Poetry)

When my son was very young, nothing could make him come running faster than the cry of-- "COOKIES!!!" We still laugh about that. And not surprisingly, he loves to bake. (Which is wonderful, except for when he goes off to school and I'm here at home with the... cookies...)

Friday Fun: Or Should I Say, Friday Fright?

I'm on a roll here with Christopher Walken. Talk about the perfect voice to read The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe. So... turn off all the lights... close your eyes... and listen....

Or maybe you want to keep the lights on. I wouldn't want anyone getting frightened now...

The Poet Laureate Says...

As the poet laureate of the United States, what are you doing to increase the public’s interest in poetry at a time when cultural alarmists insist that reading is on its way out? Poetry doesn’t need much promotion. It is doing quite well in this country. I gave a reading the other night in Concord, N.H., with two former poet laureates — Donald Hall and Maxine Kumin —and 740 people came. That’s a lot of people!
(read more here...)