Why I Teach, or Why I am a Writer, final draft

WHY I TEACH, OR WHY I AM A WRITER   MANIFESTO   —Maureen Hurley

due 12/13 SAT  5 min presentation/performance.

It's hard to choose between teaching and writing

each process informs the other.

See, I was an artist before I became a poet.

I was a poet before I started teaching kids art,

but I was also literary jailbait. It was a bootstrap affair.

 I arrived late to poetry all out of breath,

with things to say and nowhere to channel them.

I was a bad student in high school and college.

Least likely to succeed. I couldn't keep what I learned.

It was like a hive of bees swarming inside my head.

Stinging my tongue so I couldn't speak.

Why I Teach, or Why I am a Writer. 1st draft

WHY I TEACH, OR WHY I AM A WRITER

It's hard for me to choose or to make a distinction between teaching and writing as each process informs the other.

I was a poet before I became interested in teaching for California Poets in the schools, but just barely. The two events were nearly twinned. I arrived to poetry all out of breath, with things to say and nowhere to channel them. I wasn't a writer and I was a below average student in high school and college. I couldn't retain or access the information I learned in school. It was like a hive of bees swarming inside my head.

California Poets in the Schools 47th Symposium in Santa Barbara 9/9-11, 2011

BREAKING NEWS: We have several "commuter" spaces available—attend the entire conference for only $200/150 for Sat only) and sleep off campus. All the single rooms are gone—but there's usually two beds per room. You could also risk it and show up—there will probably be space available somewhere. If not, then Motel 6 is your BFF. We are also negotiating for more rooms at Casa de Maria. Meanwhile, if you know a poet who is attending, you can always ask if you can share a room.

There are a few slots open for Steve Kowit's fabulous writing workshop on Friday afternoon as well. Call or email Tina ASAP to reserve a slot. info@cpits.org or 415-221-4201.
BREAKING:

Are you going to The Ballgame? Giants vs. Phillies? It's a very SPECIAL event for CPITS. The SF Giants will hand SF CPITS Area Coordinator Susie Terence and 12 Jr. Giants a big check for $10,000 to bring poetry workshops into the classrooms. Be there. Take pix, and post them on Facebook. Go Giants! Go Susie! Take me out to the ballgame...

DEADLINE TO REGISTER IS AUGUST 12. CONTACT CPITS ASAP IF YOU'D LIKE TO ATTEND

CPITS' 47th annual poetry workshop & symposium, "Writing Ourselves True," 9/9-11, 2011 @ Santa Barbara's La Casa de Maria retreat and conference center.

CPITS' annual poetry workshop & symposium is one of the most sublime and inexpensive writers' conferences in the nation. Poets, artists and teachers are welcome. Sign up for our action-packed weekend, "Writing Ourselves True," on 9/9-11, 2001 at the idyllic La Casa de Maria retreat, a former convent in Santa Barbara. Oh, and the food's divine too. 

Double click to enlarge

Visit http://www.cpits.org/events/ev​ents.htm or email Tina@CPITS.org to sign up.

Napa Poetry Conference: Steve Kowit workshops

Assignment for Thursday.

Write a short poems under 12 lines. Think of four or five lines mostly built with images. Think of a title, and then think of another title to transform or change it. Change the first and the last line also to transform it. (not sure whose workshop this was).

Other ideas:

Write a poem about the death of an animal.
1. use one long sentence, graceful clear and muscles with thirst.
2. Put your name in the poem.
3. Make one line where the poem seems to shift into another direction.
4. In a matter-of-fact tone, write a shocking fact.
5. Use at least one other technique you learned this week.

LAX to SFO

Last to board the plane
my crutches caught on the steep ramp.
No use at this speed.
You say about yourself
that any woman with any sense at all
could see that you're a walking disaster area
when it comes to love.
Your daughter just turned 18
and the gaps are too big for us to bridge.

MH

Steve Kowit workshops

1. Write a short poem of personal crisis, with another person
2. an active incident that occurred and exemplified the crisis. Use three lines out of the incident and move into the natural world. Think of it as a correlative think of it as symbolic of this experience. Use only 4 to 6 lines.

3Think of one person, think of another person, think of another person
4. add a place, a memory where you are alone.
5. Add a loss.
6.something you cherish
7. a person you've not written about.

Some other ideas:

Write a dark short political palm about breasts

Write a long sentence problem

Write an image and an abstraction in every other line

Write a sentence fragment without a verb, now throw out all the ifs, ands and buts— all the connections.

Write a parody of your own work

Write a non-positive portrait

Write about a person in relation to an object.
Write a poem directly addressing a person that use no descriptive language

Write a narrative around a single incident using the self is as a detached observer and use a very very long lines.

Do a surreal dream image

Use five unrelated objects with emotional meaning and interest. Think of it as an exercise in nimbleness and synthesis.

Make up five titles for poems

Make up five opening sentences for poems

Write about music, person, landscape, building, weather, time of year, a book, someone you love, a card game, a prize.

Write a poem or a page of prose that connects, or brings out the underlying unities, use three elements. The links might be through lines, ideas, or images. 

Write a poem: how I knew Harold.

Who was Harold?