either the guy on the mower yesterday had a soft spot for these fungi … i think not … or they popped up quickly … one might even say “mushroomed” … overnight …

meet moby …

& tweedle-dum & tweedle-dee …

just now i see that over at p l a i n e r i’ve got a link to “all of my books” … and some innocent visitor might click it expecting to find a catalogue of books i’ve written, books in which my poems exist on actual pages between covers, books of my dreams, books of incisive literary & cultural analysis … but no … they are just my books … books that i have bought & can claim as “mine” because i have plopped down money for them … other people’s books … only mine in this limited sense of possession … not production

sometimes when i see the beautiful book-objects that are made by/for poets i wish i could see my pomes on that certain paper sewn just so with the inked shapes of letters of words leaning into that certain surface … something actual … not just electrical

joseph duemer on the tough work of the first week of school …

The difficulty is not, obviously, physical work, nor even just being particularly busy. The hard work of teaching is paying a certain kind of focused attention to at least two things at once: the text under discussion & the ever-changing dynamic of student responses happening in real time before your eyes & ears. The closest analogy I can think of is conducting a symphony orchestra.

(read the whole piece) … he’s got it … having good students, as I obviously do this term, tires you out like going to the gym …

on my own first week(s) … i’m very pleased with the … uh … developments … class discussion has been mostly good when it has been actual discussion and not just me spouting off … students (both seniors and sophs) are trying to listen & stay on topic & say articulately … i’ve got the usual scattering of silent customers & i aim to help them fix that … class size, though, doesn’t help much … duemer notes the benefit of moving from 25 to 20 … mine are all over 20 & it does make a difference … (i feel like a creep for saying that, knowing that many many teachers everywhere are dealing with cripplingly (?) monstrous class sizes … i’m not complaining … just wishing for the optimum) …

the class discussion boards are going very well … spent time this morning reading & counting the senior board … a pretty high level of discourse in most threads … i’ll hit the sophs soon … & i know there will be a few more trouble spots there … always are first quarter with the younguns …

getting some writing done & paying close attention to the issues therein are yet to come … that means “grammar” and vocab … and the more-than-occasional in-class essay for both groups