50 Books in a Year Book #7: Come Be With Me

My friends and I used to while away our time in the Walden books on the Mall by reading Nimoy poetry aloud to each other in our most dramatic of poetic voices. It was really fun as I'm a firm believer that something can be so bad that it's good, and these poems are so deliciously awful I want to read them out loud to everyone. So, I joined a poetry challenge for 2014 just so I could read as much Nimoy as I could!

Thank-you Open Library for having this book to loan.

And, instead of a careful review, I thought I'd let the book speak for itself.

 Look at these delicious poem titles. "Rocket Ships" is by far my favorite, but the poem that follows comes in at a close second.

I also enjoy this one. What I love, love, love about Nimoy poetry is that there are gems lines in every one. In "I Love You" that line comes at the end, "I miss what I am/When you are here...". True right!?

And, here it is MY favorite. This one also seems to be all the rage on the interwebs. Read it and you can see why, the whole thing is so darned fun and I absolutely adore the last stanza, "I guess I'm just/An old-fashioned/Space-man". I can imagine Nimoy reading this whole poem book out loud. 

I think it would be great if Zach Quinto also read Nimoy poetry out loud, maybe they can work that into the next Star Trek movie.

My 3 -Day Weekend in Haiku

Game Night

It's a successful

night if, by the end, one game

comes to fruition.

A Trip to the Aquatic Center
Friendly diversion
in Winter; steamy chlorine,
little girl laughing.

The Best Thing On Earth
Nothing beats a nap;
dazed head on pillow dreaming
of a gorgeous sleep.

What I Hate About Laundry
Not the washing, nor
the drying, but the endless
folding afterwards.

30 Day Book Challenge: Day 16

Last year I found this book challenge (since then I have seen many variations of it, but I like this one best!), and have been intrigued about how I would answer the questions posed. Obviously, I started this challenge over 30 days ago...I just wasn't inspired. It isn't as easy to write about books as I thought.


Feel free to comment with your own answer or post the challenge to your own blog.


Favorite Poem or Collection of Poetry


Favorite Poem


Song by Adrienne Rich

You're wondering if I'm lonely:
OK then, yes, I'm lonely
as a plane rides lonely and level
on its radio beam, aiming
across the Rockies
for the blue-strung aisles
of an airfield on the ocean.


You want to ask, am I lonely?
Well, of course, lonely
as a woman driving across country
day after day, leaving behind
mile after mile
little towns she might have stopped
and lived and died in, lonely.


If I'm lonely
it must be the loneliness
of waking first, of breathing
dawns' first cold breath on the city
of being the one awake
in a house wrapped in sleep.

If I'm lonely
it's with the rowboat ice-fast on the shore
in the last red light of the year
that knows what it is, that knows it's neither
ice nor mud nor winter light
but wood, with a gift for burning

Favorite Collection of Poetry


This book contains one of the most entertaining poem ever: Rat Jelly.

Day 01 – A book series you wish had gone on longer OR a book series you wish would just freaking end already (or both!)

Day 02 – A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about
Day 03 – The best book you've read in the last 12 months
Day 04 – Your favorite book or series ever
Day 05 – A book or series you hate
Day 06 – Favorite book of your favorite series
Day 07 – Least favorite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise
Day 08 – A book everyone should read at least once
Day 09 – Best scene ever
Day 10 – A book you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
Day 11– A book that disappointed you
Day 12 – A book or series of books you've read more than five times
Day 13 – Favorite childhood book OR current favorite YA book (or both!)
Day 14 – Favorite character in a book
Day 15 – Your "comfort" book
Day 16 – Favorite poem or collection of poetry
Day 17 – Favorite story or collection of stories (short stories, novellas, novelettes, etc.)
Day 18 – Favorite beginning scene in a book
Day 19 – Favorite book cover (bonus points for posting an image!)
Day 20 – Favorite kiss
Day 21 – Favorite romantic/sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 22 – Favorite non-sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 23 – Most annoying character ever
Day 24 – Best quote from a novel
Day 25 – Any five books from your “to be read” stack
Day 26 – OMG WTF? OR most irritating/awful/annoying book ending
Day 27 – If a book contains ______, you will always read it (and a book or books that contain it)!
Day 28 – First favorite book or series obsession
Day 29 – Saddest character death OR best/most satisfying character death (or both!)
Day 30 – What book are you reading right now?

Booking Through Thursday (Loud)

         From Booking Through Thursday:

1. What do you think of reading aloud/being read to? Does it bring back memories of your childhood? Your children’s childhood?
2. Does this affect the way you feel about audio books?
3. Do you now have times when you read aloud or are read to?

             As a teachers of high school students I think it's for the birds. My students are so used to being read to that at times they don't have the proper skills to read and comprehend quietly to themselves. However, in the classroom reading aloud does have its time and place...when we read "The Death of the Hired Man", we listen to it as it has dialogue that is hard to follow if you don't hear it first. As a parent of an almost two year old I wouldn't have it any other way and love reading aloud to her...even if it's One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (which is pretty long for a toddler to sit and listen to) and enjoy when she parrots some of the words or reads certain pages to her baby doll. She wouldn't be able to do this if I didn't read aloud to her.

          Reading aloud does bring back memories of my childhood...of my mother standing in the hall, so we could hear her as she read aloud to us from The Bible or some book meant to teach kids about morals or Laura Ingalls Wilder.

          I dislike audio books, I'm not really an auditory learner and one sure way to make sure I run off the road or fall asleep is to start an audio. If I have to listen to something I'm usually taking notes or asking questions if I know I have to understand it, that takes all the fun out of pleasure reading...although if David Duchovny wanted to read me something I'm sure I'd be OK with that as his voice is just dreamy.



What's your learning style? Find out here.

Here are 3 learning styles.

Feel free to share your answers below, on the original post (above), on FB or on your own blog!

Six Word Saturday #16

My life in six words
"I cannot go to school today..."

Sick by Shel Silverstein

"I cannot go to school today"
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
"I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry.
I'm going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've counted sixteen chicken pox.
And there's one more - that's seventeen,
And don't you think my face looks green?
My leg is cut, my eyes are blue,
It might be the instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I'm sure that my left leg is broke.
My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button's caving in.
My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,
My 'pendix pains each time it rains.
My toes are cold, my toes are numb,
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I hardly whisper when I speak.
My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,
My temperature is one-o-eight.
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There's a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is ...
What? What's that? What's that you say?
You say today is .............. Saturday?
G'bye, I'm going out to play!"


How many days until Christmas Break???

Want to play along? All that's necessary to participate is to describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words. For more information, try clicking here. Feel free to explain or not explain. Add an image, a video, a song, nothing. The full list and linky can be found here. And, here's where I found it.

I Hear America Singing!

I friggin' love the United States of America!

I made this cake from scratch, myself, several years ago.
I love the United States so much I want to bake about it!

I Hear America Singing
by Walt Whitman

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand
singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
The wood-cutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or
at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of
the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows,
robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

I love this country so much that this Toby Keith song just makes me feel all patriotic!

Made in America

AZsongs

Made In America Lyrics

My old man said oh man Spent his life livin' off the land Dirty hands and a clean soul Breaks his heart seein' foreign cars Using fuel that isn't ours and Wearing cotton he didn't grow He's got the red, white, blue flyin' high on the farm "Semper fi" tattoo on his left arm Spend a little more at the store for a tag

full lyrics

more Toby Keith lyrics

Have a great 4th of July Weekend everyone (yes, those of you who are not from the USA, as well!)

Poem in my Pocket: "Making a Fist"

More about this lovely poet
and other poem here

*Contrite expression*

          Yesterday was Poem in my Pocket Day and I was so excited about book drops and bookshelves that I forgot to carry around and give my poem away.

          So, I'm doing it today (for those of you who also forgot...wanna do it with me?).

          Here's my poem:

Making A Fist

Naomi Shihab Nye

For the first time, on the road north of Tampico,

I felt the life sliding out of me,

a drum in the desert, harder and harder to hear.

I was seven, I lay in the car

watching palm trees swirl a sickening pattern past the glass.

My stomach was a melon split wide inside my skin.

"How do you know if you are going to die?"

I begged my mother.

We had been traveling for days.

With strange confidence she answered,

"When you can no longer make a fist."

Years later I smile to think of that journey,

the borders we must cross separately,

stamped with our unanswerable woes.

I who did not die, who am still living,

still lying in the backseat behind all my questions,

clenching and opening one small hand.

Two Poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins

From Poets.org about Hopkins style In addition to developing new rhythmic effects, Hopkins was also very interested in ways of rejuvenating poetic language. He regularly placed familiar words into new and surprising contexts. He also often employed compound and unusual word combinations. As he wrote to in a letter to Burns, "No doubt, my poetry errs on the side of oddness…" Twentieth century poets such as W.H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, and Charles Wright have enthusiastically turned to his work for its inventiveness and rich aural patterning.

God’s Grandeur

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.   It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;   It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod? Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;         5   And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;   And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod. And for all this, nature is never spent;   There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;         10 And though the last lights off the black West went   Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs— Because the Holy Ghost over the bent   World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Pied Beauty

GLORY be to God for dappled things—   For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;     For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;   Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;         5     And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim. All things counter, original, spare, strange;   Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)     With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:         10                   Praise him.

Poems for Spring

Nothing says Spring like tulips and poetry.

Poetry definition:
the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts

dictionary.com

Doesn't that just scream Spring? What a perfect time for beautiful, imaginative and elevated thoughts?

Here's a list of Springalicious Poetry (all at poets.org):

Ode to Spring by Frederick Seidel I can only find words for...

Spring by Gerard Manley Hopkins Nothing is so beautiful as spring...

[O were my love yon Lilac fair] by Robert Burns O were my love yon Lilac fair...

The Enkindled Spring by D. H. Lawrence This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green...

Spring in New Hampshire by Claude McKay Too green the springing April grass...

A Blessing by James Wright Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota...

In the Memphis Airport by Timothy Steele Above the concourse, from a beam...

City That Does Not Sleep by Federico García Lorca In the sky there is nobody asleep. Nobody, nobody....

From you have I been absent in the spring... (Sonnet 98) by William Shakespeare From you have I been absent in the spring,...

Spring and All by William Carlos Williams By the road to the contagious hospital...

Spring is like a perhaps hand by E. E. Cummings Spring is like a perhaps hand...

Spring Snow by Arthur Sze A spring snow coincides with plum blossoms....

Springing by Marie Ponsot In a skiff on a sunrisen lake we are watchers....

Equinox by Joy Harjo I must keep from breaking into the story by force...

Butterfly Catcher by Tina Cane In the Sixties...

Morning News by Marilyn Hacker Spring wafts up the smell of bus exhaust, of bread...

National Poetry Month by Elaine Equi When a poem / speaks by itself,...

Diary [Surface] by Rachel Zucker Spring is not so very promising as it is the thing...

Another Attempt at Rescue by M. L. Smoker And to think I had just paid a cousin twenty dollars to shovel the walk...

A Blessing by James Wright Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota...

Birds Again by Jim Harrison A secret came a week ago though I already...

Prologue of the Earthly Paradise by William Morris Of Heaven or Hell I have no power to sing...

If a Wilderness by Carl Phillips Then spring came...

Black Petal by Li-Young Lee I never claimed night fathered me...

10 Ways to Celebrate Women...during Women's History Month and Beyond

1. Read books, stories, poems and essays about, by and for women

Here are lovely posts I wrote listing several juicy female reads (one is a total female read, one you'll have to dig through and another of Irish short stories that you'll have to dig through). I'd also like to add a great list that somebody [I can't remember--sorry whoever you are!] else posted of 100 YA fiction books for the feminist reader...I've passed this list on to several of my avid reader students.

2. Have girls who are friends
And, I don't mean friends you date, dating isn't the same as having girl friends. Something can be said for the Sex in the City female relationship. Think about what you can learn from women, how to live, laugh and love. We women could really learn to lean on one another more and cat-fight with one another a little less. Having strong female friendships can help keep you sane in a world that demands your role in society be defined by what you do (SAHM, professional et cetera), not by who you are. Through these relationships we can also learn that being a woman comes in many different shapes and sizes. We can learn to respect those differences in ourselves. I know my gal pals understand that I want to be the best mother, sister, daughter, friend and wife I can be while still be myself (see Point 5).

3. Educate others (in my case, my students)
Over the years I have taught what it means to be a strong female to students by doing a whole unit on women writers and characters...here's a sample calendar. It is really easy to bash men in trying to identify the powerful woman you are, part of being a strong female is understanding gender roles and our roles in portraying or disproving them. Men are part of this as well.

4. Connect with other women (make new friends, enjoy functions)
Operation Beautiful
The Lady Blogger Society
Campaign for Real Beauty
CafeMom

What can you do in your community to show that you are a positive role model?

5. Mirror, Mirror on the wall (be true to who you are)
I spent a great deal of my life not being happy in my own skin. While I may not have all the answers now...I definitely know I don't have to, either! Read books that promote independent thought, watch movies that inspire, listen to music that educates as well as entertains. How did I learn to be true to myself? I began by listening to that inner voice that told me that the me I am is the me that I am OK to be...even if others don't like my hair or think I dress a little funky. I love me!

Figure out:

1. How you define yourself?
2. How you stay true to this 'self'?
3. What are your likes, your dislikes, your passions?
4. Those who promote this person in you and emulate their positive traits.

6. Don't let others around you get away with sexist remarks, even if they are spoken unintentionally
So, yesterday in our faculty meeting our principal made a faux pas. One of our counselors got hired at a different school and in the meeting our principal ribbed him calling him a 'tiger-ette'--referring to the fact that he would be a 'Lady' Tiger at his new school. I didn't really think anything of it, until one of my friends asked him if he meant that being a female tiger was, in fact, inferior or derogatory. Another female co-worker told him that a female tiger was actually a tigeress. After the meeting, a new teacher told my friend that she was proud of what my friend said because our principal makes a lot of comments like that and she didn't feel she could do anything as a new teacher.

7. Know your Women's History
My example: I knew about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, but I didn't know that these women had already endured hardships by being some of the first women to protest working conditions and wages for women. I didn't know that these women were subjected to horrible searches at the end of every shift because the factory owners didn't want the women stealing ,of all things, thread and material. And, I didn't know that the reason why the doors were locked was not because of safety, but because of selfishness and greed from the owners. I learned all this by watching a documentary on PBS.

8. Laugh

Lisel Mueller (b. 1924) is a German-born American poet, who won the Pulitzer in 1997.
                                                      

The Laughter of Women

The laughter of women sets fire
to the Halls of Injustice
and the false evidence burns
to a beautiful white lightness

It rattles the Chambers of Congress
and forces the windows wide open
so the fatuous speeches can fly out

The laughter of women wipes the mist
from the spectacles of the old;
it infects them with a happy flu
and they laugh as if they were young again

Prisoners held in underground cells
imagine that they see daylight
when they remember the laughter of women

It runs across water that divides,
and reconciles two unfriendly shores
like flares that signal the news to each other

What a language it is, the laughter of women,
high-flying and subversive.
Long before law and scripture
we heard the laughter, we understood freedom.

Lisel Mueller

9. Donate your time, talents and money
I'm pretty excited about donating my time and talents this summer when I help with Vacation Bible School at the church we've been attending. However, I always try to find ways to give back to those who have given to me. Sometimes it can't be money, but it can always be a portion of the best part of me.

Denim Day
The Purple Dress Project

10. Be a true woman of the Lord
Here are my three favorite Biblical Female Role Models
Ruth She is a strong, independent woman who follows a God she doesn't know and loves a man who is different than her. Ruth also has a lovely best friend Naomi, they stick by one another no matter what.
Esther Courage in the face of many trials, Esther does not deny her heritage and faith, but finds a way to use them to educate and inform others.
Sara The mother of all nations. Left a life of affluence and wealth to live in the desert with her husband following what the Lord asked her to do being a good wife and mother.

Source