How does weather affect place?

Lightning by Mary Oliver

The oaks shone
gaunt gold
on the lip
of the storm before
the wind rose,
the shapeless mouth
opened and began
its five-hour howl;
the lights
went out fast, branches
sidled over
the pitch of the roof, bounced
into the year
that grew black
within minutes, except
for the lightening - the landscape
bulging forth like a quick
lesson in creating, then
thudding away. Inside,
as always,
it was hard to tell
fear from excitement:
how sensual
the lightning’s
poured stroke! and still,
what a fire and a risk!
As always the body
wants to hide,
wants to flow toward it - strives
to balance while
fear shouts,
excitement shouts, back
and forth - each
bolt a burning river
tearing like escape through the dark
field of the other.

The Weather Shifts by Arthur Sze

Unemployed, I recollect setting a plumb
line for the doorjambs to a house,
recollect nailing a rebar through two corbels
locked in a 60˚ angle into a post; and
smell unpicked cherries, fragrant,
in the dark rich earth. It is a pellucid
night in January: and the mind has its
own shifts in weather: a feel for light
from a star, or for a woman’s voice,
a recognition of the world’s greed,
of a death march on the Philippines, or
of being shot by an arrow dipped in curare.
Drinking tequila, I watch the moon
rise slowly over the black hills; a bird
sings, somewhere, out in the junipers.


Assignment:
1) Read a chapter in Leaning into the Wind: A Memoir of Midwest Weather by Susan Allen Toth. Choose whichever chapter seems interesting to you.

2) Write a reflection/connection response to all three pieces—free write, Leaning into the Wind chapter, and poem of choice—from today looking at what you observe, what you question, and what you interpret about place. How do these help shape your concept of place? Post to blog.

Energy of Place

James Engelhardt: “I've been thinking a lot about what sustains creativity. The bedrock answer is, as it is for all sustainability projects, energy. Energy, for my writing, comes from the land I'm in, the animals and other life I share the land with, and culture. All of these things add language, the material I work with, they direct my attention beyond the bony shell of my own, limited skull, and they excite the chemical-electrical wilderness of my brain. Plus, a bit of focus.”
Retreived from http://riverofplay.typepad.com/river_of_play/ecopoetic_theory/


Discussion: What do you think Englehardt means by energy?

Read: "Stewards of Memory"by Martha Bergland. Highlight important passages. Create 5 questions for discussion: in the text, around the text, beyond the text.

Discussion: How does she describe a romantic place? What would she attribute as the energy of place?

Read: “Homing In” chapter by Jack Driscoll in Imaging Home: go to books.google.com and search for it; read pages 51-60

Assignment: As you are reading, post 7-10 “major” passages concerning the overall ideas of place. These passages should “point” out the themes. Write down each passage, incorporate page number, and post on your blog. THEN, choose one passage to respond to. Comment on how this helps you define your place, forms your opinions, or whatever you find pertinent when exploring “place.”

Final Project--What is place?

* Explore the different elements of place.
* Read a variety of texts to gain insights on your place.
* Answer the question "What is Place?" through four separate writings.
* Three of your choice; at least two genres
* One reflection, synthesis identifying what place means to you.
* Week One and Two: exploration
* Week Two and Three: drafting and revising

Editing Guidelines

1) Proper Heading: Your Name, My Name, Class, Date
2) Times New Roman, 12 pt font
3) Creative Title
4) Tools: Spelling and Grammar

HOW to edit:
1) Read through the essay for each type of common error
2) Read essay aloud
3) Read the essay in chunks—edit a paragraph and take a break, repeat
4) Read essay backwards
5) Have a partner read essay

WHAT to edit:
1) Capitalize first word of every sentence and proper nouns AND use a punctuation mark at the end of every sentence
2) Variety of sentence structure and word use
3) Look for fragments and run-ons
4) Watch for subject/verb agreement
5) Watch for pronoun agreement
6) Commas where necessary (compound, some complex, and compound-complex, introductory clauses
7) Eliminate 2nd person (you, we, us)
8) Eliminate contractions (can’t = cannot)
9) Eliminate vague words (things, stuff, ideas…specifics)
10) Eliminate unnecessary words or wordiness

Week 7 Reflection

Write at least one paragraph reflecting on what you have accomplished as a writer this trimester. Think about where you started and where you are at today. How have you improved? What has helped you? What do you still want to learn? Where do you want to go from here? What processes have you enjoyed? What processes have you disliked? Some or all of these questions can be addressed in a paragraph or two. DO NOT WRITE IN QUESTION-RESPONSE FORM. The writing needs to address what is pertinent to you. This will not only help you realize what you've accomplished, but will also help mold the rest of the trimester.

Crucial Moment

How to find it...
• Who is the most important character?
• When is the biggest moment?
• Where would you make a slow-motion movie scene?
• What is the most vital word, phrase, or sentence?
• When does the most exciting scene, character unveiling, etc. happen?
• Where does the piece take a turn?

THESE are your crucial moments…so, what should you do with them?

Make the reader feel, see, understand every aspect of that moment:

1) Slow Motion: make a second last a paragraph, a moment a page…
2) Tint a Moment: focus only on thoughts, dialogue, setting, or feeling
3) Suspense: purposefully describe everything but one aspect, then unveil
4) Full-blown Moment: snapshot + thoughtshot + dialogue
5) Mix EVERYTHING together!

EXAMPLE:

Fig Pudding by Ralph Fletcher

But as the plates were cleared away, and everyone started eyeing the sweet table, I started getting this funny feeling in the pit of my belly. Nate sneaked a smile at me. Cyn looked down at her fingernails. Teddy caught my eye; his face looked serious, almost too serious. Mom and Dad were sitting directly across from each other but they avoided eye contact when Aunt Pat put the bowl of fig pudding onto the table.
“Ah!” Uncle Billy said. He smacked his lips.
“My favorite!” Aunt Marilyn said.
“There are so many other great desserts,” Dad was saying. “I think I’m going for Grandma’s blueberry pie.”
“Pass down that fig pudding!” Uncle Eddie cried. “I’ve been dying for that pudding all week!”
The bowl got passed down. Uncle Richie passed it to Nate who passed it to Aunt Marilyn who passed it to me who passed it to Mom who passed it to Uncle Eddie. Uncle Eddie weighed two hundred sixty if he weighed a pound, and he had a tremendous appetite. Out of the corner of my eye I watched him put two large dollops of pudding into his bowl. He took a bite. I tried not to look, but I couldn’t help it. Suddenly, he sat up. Looked at Dad. Took another bite.
“Say!” Uncle Eddie said to my father. “This is dee-li-cious! I mean it! The best fig pudding you ever made. Did you add some new ingredient this year?”
“Not really—“ Dad began, but he stopped as mom made a funny sound, half gulp and half choke. She put her napkin to her mouth, got up, and quickly rushed into the kitchen.
“Excuse me,” Dad said, getting up to follow her.
“You really ought to try this fig pudding,” Uncle Eddie was saying, digging in again. “Terrific stuff!”
“Scuse me,” I mumbled, rising and pushing back my chair.
I found Mom and Dad at the small kitchen table, leaning against each other, eyes closed, tears running down their faces. Dad’s shoulders were shaking. He grabbed his gut, as if in pain. Mom was red-faced, gasping for breath.
“Some new ingredient!” Mom choked, and they both let out a howl of laughter, almost a scream, a wild animal sound that startled me as it rang out and bounced off the walls and brought the other kids in our family running into the kitchen.
“Good job, Dad!” Cyn said with a huge grin.
“Couldn’t have made it without Josh,” Dad said, cracking up again, falling against Mom. And suddenly I was laughing, too. We all were, laughing hard, mouths open, roaring, barely able to stand.
“Hey, what’s going on here?” a voice boomed. Uncle Eddie’s big face looked down sternly at us. The very sight of him made everyone laugh even harder.
“Some new ingredient!” Dad said, still red-faced and squeezing his belly. “I can’t stand it!”
Uncle Eddie had a confused look on his face.
“Everything all right?” he asked. Behind him, Grandma Annie’s face appeared.
“What on earth are you all laughing at?” she demanded.
“It’s just…so…funny!” Dad said, shrugging and laughing some more. Uncle Eddie walked over and punched Dad lightly on the shoulder.
“Hey, nice pudding, Clifford,” he said with a big smile. That cracked up everybody again. He shrugged and left. Grandma Annie stayed behind, a bemused look on her face, watching us gasp and belly laugh, with the tears running down our faces.

Revising Ideas

1. Making a Scene: highlight places of action, dialogue, snapshots, thoughtshots in different colors to see where and often you use each element…more, less?
2. Questions: share with a partner and ask them to write down ANY question that comes to mind as long as it is not a yes/no question; fill in those gaps
3. Highlight the center of gravity in each paragraph—the sentence that sticks out; that is core, crucial, provocative. Rewrite a few paragraphs focusing just on that sentence.
4. Journal what you would do if you had one more hour with this draft.
5. Choose a moment rather than span. Rewrite that.
6. Writing an opposing paragraph to your claims.
7. Play transition cop; highlight your transitions and explain how each functions
8. Play devil’s advocate; insert comments: counterargument or what you think an editor might say.
9. Enjoy the company of others; add another character throughout your story
10. Create a list of questions and answer them within your text.
11. Write a prescription for your draft. What diseases does it have? How would you fix this?
12. Take your draft and write a letter to yourself or a character to help analyze the meanings, details, etc.
13. Rewrite a narrative into a fact-based and vice versa such a narrative into an essay or an essay into a narrative
14. Change the point of view: first, second or third person
15. Find the past in the present and relate those in your writing such as your grandfather has passed away but your mom has the same nose as him
16. Find a powerful word, sentence, metaphor, image, etc. and find a way to pattern this throughout your piece
17. Find words, sentences, images, structures from a model text and imitate that somewhere within your piece
18. Explore points that are almost but not quite said and write more deeply or when purposeful, overemphasize these
19. Play with time: straight time, modified time, cinematic time, photographic time, collage time
20. Take one or two key words from a piece already written and start anew

Peer Response Prompts

Peer response is to encourage and motivate students to revise:

1) add
2) delete
3) rephrase, reword
4) rearrange

PRAISE—WHY???

• I like…
• I enjoyed…
• I connected with…
• You did a good job of…
• I remember when…
• Nice use of…

QUESTION

• Can you tell me more about…?
• What was happening when…?
• Can you describe this so that…?
• What thoughts were…?
• How did this happen?
• What was said?
• What does this look like?
• What senses were evoked here?
• What was going through “your” mind when…?

ADVICE

• Could you use a different word here?
• What do you think about…?
• I wonder if…
• Would you consider…?
• What would happen if you stopped, started…here?
• Could this be two separate pieces?
• What if you rearranged…?
• Could this…
• What if…
• Is it possible…

Types of Endings

THE LOOP ENDING Ends at the same place it begins. Works well with a flashback writing. LORD OF THE RINGS, SAW

THE SURPRISE ENDING Usually has a twist to it that takes the reader by surprise. Works well with a mystery. THE WIZARD OF OZ

THE SUMMARY Repeats the main points of a story, trying to tie together any loose ends. Works well with message heavy writing. NEWSCAST

THE HAPPY ENDING Leaves the reader with no feeling of sadness. Works well with fairy tales. CINDERELLA

THE SAD BUT TRUE ENDING Ends the way reader doesn't want it to know but knows it has to. Works well when happiness would be a lie. CHARLOTTE'S WEB

Poetry Element Examples

Can you pick out the poetry elements that are used in the following poems?

"Did You Never Know?" Sarah Teasdale

Did you never know, long ago, how much you loved me --
That your love would never lessen and never go?
You were young then, proud and fresh-hearted,
You were too young to know.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock T. S. Eliot

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells

Badlands Mary O. Fumento

Chasm and canyon
Carved into the land
Epic face of time
A space of creation
And slow change
Formation of rock
Rivers cutting through
Indentations
Swelling of earth
Gentle, rolling slopes
Gaping, edged depression
Opening new worlds

Fate is a wind, and red leaves fly before it
Far apart, far away in the gusty time of year --
Seldom we meet now, but when I hear you speaking,
I know your secret, my dear, my dear.


Breakthrough Mona Hodgson

God breaks through
chaos,
cries,
chatter
not with fiery
condemnation or
condescending concern
but with a whisper –
“I care.
I love you!
Come away,
spend time with me.”

Replacing
chaos with gentleness,
cries with comfort,
chatter with communion
He speaks peace.

London, 1802 William Wordsworth

Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour;
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room. William Blake

"Ah, William, we're weary of weather,"
said the sunflowers, shining with dew.
"Our traveling habits have tired us.
Can you give us a room with a view?"

They arranged themselves at the window
and counted the steps of the sun,
and they both took root in the carpet
where the topaz tortoises run.

from The Raven Edgar Allen Poe

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; — vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow – sorrow for the lost Lenore—
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Nameless here for evermore.

The Lead Board

SNAPSHOT LEADS: Create a picture in the reader's mind.

Abraham Lincoln wasn't the sort of man who could lose himself in a crowd. After all, he stood 6 foot 4 inches tall, and to top it off he wore a high silk hat. His height was mostly his long bony legs, and when he sat in a chair, he seemed no taller than anyone else. Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman

TALKING LEADS: Maybe you want to start with a line or two of dialogue.

"Where is Papa going with that ax?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

THINKING LEADS: Start with a thought inside a character or you.

Mother taught me to be polite to dragons. Particularly polite, I mean; she taught me to be ordinarily polite to everyone. Well, it makes sense. With all the enchanted princess and disguised wizards and transformed kings and so on wandering around, you never know whom you might be talking to. But dragons are a special case. Talking to Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

MISLEADING LEADS: Set up expectations, then surprise the reader.

I would like to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather, not terrified and screaming like the other people in the car. Prairie Home Companion by Garrison Keillor

SET-UP LEADS: Set-up the action for the whole story in a few sentences.

This is not a book about my life or yours. It does not hold the secret to success or salvation. It won't strengthen your self-esteem. I don't think it will get me on Oprah. I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional by Wendy Kaminer

THINK ABOUT HOW YOU MIGHT ADAPT THESE TO ANY FORM, GENRE OF WRITING...

What do you want to learn?

Is there an aspect of your writing you want to improve on? Is there a strategy, genre, writing aspect you want to more about? POST IT HERE! This will help me guide the mini-lessons for the next two weeks.

Choice Responsibilities

For the next two weeks, you are to:

1)Write, write, write.

2)Revise, revise, revise.

3)Make three posts of choice each week. Post 5-6 responses each week.

4)Submission #1 due Thursday, April 14 at 11:59 p.m.

5)Submission #2 due Thursday, April 21 at 11:59 p.m.

6)Continue revising personal essay and vignettes

7)Work on group short story

USE YOUR TIME WISELY BECAUSE AFTER THIS WEEK, WRITING FREE TIME WILL BECOME MINIMAL.

BASIC INTERVIEW OUTLINE:

The point of an interview is to find out what is interesting about the other person.

ASSIGNMENT: Interview a classmate as a possible (character, conflict, etc.) for a piece

Beginning Questions: simple question easing into the interview

What’s your name?
Where do you live?
Who are your parents?
Other family members?
What are your hobbies?

Starter Questions: deeper questions getting a feel for the person

Do you get along well with…?

Who do you admire the most?

Who is your best friend?


Follow-up Questions: probing questions stemming from starter questions

Tell me about your relationship with…?

What do you think about…?


Kicker Question: detail questions prodding to the heart of the matter

HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL?

Event Poetry

A Birthday Poem

Ted Kooser

Just past dawn, the sun stands
with its heavy red head
in a black stanchion of trees,
waiting for someone to come
with his bucket
for the foamy white light,
and then a long day in the pasture.
I too spend my days grazing,
feasting on every green moment
till darkness calls,
and with the others
I walk away into the night,
swinging the little tin bell
of my name.

Character Poetry

A Blind Woman

BY TED KOOSER

She had turned her face up into
a rain of light, and came on smiling.

The light trickled down her forehead
and into her eyes. It ran down

into the neck of her sweatshirt
and wet the white tops of her breasts.

Her brown shoes splashed on
into the light. The moment was like

a circus wagon rolling before her
through puddles of light, a cage on wheels,

and she walked fast behind it,
exuberant, curious, pushing her cane

through the bars, poking and prodding,
while the world cowered back in a corner.

Time Poetry

Late February

BY TED KOOSER

The first warm day,
and by mid-afternoon
the snow is no more
than a washing
strewn over the yards,
the bedding rolled in knots
and leaking water,
the white shirts lying
under the evergreens.
Through the heaviest drifts
rise autumn’s fallen
bicycles, small carnivals
of paint and chrome,
the Octopus
and Tilt-A-Whirl
beginning to turn
in the sun. Now children,
stiffened by winter
and dressed, somehow,
like old men, mutter
and bend to the work
of building dams.
But such a spring is brief;
by five o’clock
the chill of sundown,
darkness, the blue TVs
flashing like storms
in the picture windows,
the yards gone gray,
the wet dogs barking
at nothing. Far off
across the cornfields
staked for streets and sewers,
the body of a farmer
missing since fall
will show up
in his garden tomorrow,
as unexpected
as a tulip.

Place Poetry

Abandoned Farmhouse

BY TED KOOSER

He was a big man, says the size of his shoes
on a pile of broken dishes by the house;
a tall man too, says the length of the bed
in an upstairs room; and a good, God-fearing man,
says the Bible with a broken back
on the floor below the window, dusty with sun;
but not a man for farming, say the fields
cluttered with boulders and the leaky barn.

A woman lived with him, says the bedroom wall
papered with lilacs and the kitchen shelves
covered with oilcloth, and they had a child,
says the sandbox made from a tractor tire.
Money was scarce, say the jars of plum preserves
and canned tomatoes sealed in the cellar hole.
And the winters cold, say the rags in the window frames.
It was lonely here, says the narrow country road.

Something went wrong, says the empty house
in the weed-choked yard. Stones in the fields
say he was not a farmer; the still-sealed jars
in the cellar say she left in a nervous haste.
And the child? Its toys are strewn in the yard
like branches after a storm--a rubber cow,
a rusty tractor with a broken plow,
a doll in overalls. Something went wrong, they say.

Object Poetry

The Giant Slide

BY TED KOOSER

Beside the highway, the Giant Slide
with its rusty undulations lifts
out of the weeds. It hasn’t been used
for a generation. The ticket booth
tilts to that side where the nickels shifted
over the years. A chain link fence keeps out
the children and drunks. Blue morning glories
climb halfway up the stairs, bright clusters
of laughter. Call it a passing fancy,
this slide that nobody slides down now.
Those screams have all gone east
on a wind that will never stop blowing
down from the Rockies and over the plains,
where things catch on for a little while,
bright leaves in a fence, and then are gone.

Writing Prompts

Think of a flaw that has gotten you in trouble, such as laziness, procrastination, spending too much money, losing your temper, cheating, being a slob, being a perfectionist… Give this flaw to a character, about your age, and place him/her in a specific setting (school, work, home, etc.). Describe this character’s looks, personality, behaviors. Know what music s/he likes, what’s on his/her walls, favorite movies, etc. Then place the character in a specific conflict based on the state flaw.