Lighting Shadows

1 month ago

1 year ago

Flow.

Some say it’s been way too long

And others, not long enough

When I get to feeling that I can’t say strong

I remind myself that strong ain’t tough

So much always depends on

So much more than a single red cart

But everyone awakens at the red dawn

Or no one awakens at the heart.

Let the wind

Fill my cup

Pour it in

Fill it up

Drink it down

Air by choice

Let it out

Breathe my voice

This time, it’s sliding off my shoulders

Down my arms and onto the floor

Let it rest there like big file folders

A cabinet kept in safe store

So much always depends on

Everything or nothing at start

But everyone lets in a deep yawn

Or no one can rest at the heart

Let your voice

Fill my ears

Air by choice

Make me hear

Clean me out

Thought may flow

Let me think

Let us go

Some say it’s been way too long

And others, not long enough

When I get to feeling I can’t go on

I remind myself that time won’t bluff

This time it’s sliding off my shoulders

Down my arms and onto the floor

When I pick up that big file folder

It’ll become clear what’s been in store

-Garrett Cooperman, 3/21/2011

Notes: 72 / 1 year ago from childrenofthefence

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

<3 KDC

childrenofthefence:

Claudio - Wakeup - Live - Nashville - TN

Notes: 2 / 1 year ago

Your Mom’s Poetry

I’ve heard a complaint of late among students in classic poetry discussions. The stuff’s too old for them. It’s no good. This poetry’s washed up, they say. It’s got no beat, no street. What can we possibly do with a sonnet? they want to know.

I’ve heard the same disturbing complaint about one of the most classic insult techniques: the “your mom” joke. “Dude, your mom jokes are so, like, ten years ago.” Some would go so far as to place them on the same shelf as 17th century Shakespearean poetry.

When the classics lose their luster, what is done to maintain the art form? It is updated, of course. That’s where we find contemporary poets inserting their discontented fingers into the styles they disdain and making them their own. In today’s quick-fix bigger-better-faster vernacular: they mod it.

And so even though the classics are a vault filled with all the best Vs, (like vagueness, vileness, and vulgarity,) the younger generations refuse to read them and therefore ignorantly neglect a potential treasure trove of tactlessness - the very stuff they crave.

My solution: “your mom” jokes made of popular twentieth century poetry. They will draw two important conclusions from this. One: “your mom” jokes can still be cool if we modify them with updated contextualization. Two: modern poetry is improved by the addition of the humor of its ancestors. Therefore, classic poetry must still be cool, too.

We’ll start small - with Ezra Ounce. I mean Pound.

IN A STATION OF THE METRO

The apparition of these faces in the crowd ;

Petals on your mom’s soggy face.

———————————————————————————

William Carlos Williams, gettin’ his game on.

so much depends
upon

your mom

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

———————————————————————————

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took your mom under that sky,

And that wood made all the difference.

Hey, Robert Frost? That’s what she said.

———————————————————————————

Walt Whitman loves the human form. (In bed.)

I sing your mom’s body electric;

The intensity of our banging engirths me, and I engirth her.

———————————————————————————

The guy’s name is e.e. cummings; could he make this easier? I think not.

anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating went your mom down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn’t your mom he did

1 year ago

Blog of Win

Notes: 2 / 1 year ago

More literary character tweets…

See if you can guess the titles these came from…

RoManNotWoManJC So who dares say that Caesar shan’t go forth? Not e’en the stars could keep me back today. For, as always, I am Caesar. Ha. #manlymen #effurportents

CalpurniaXoXo @RoManNotWoManJC U shall nt go 4th; I had a dream. Sum crazy $hit went dwn. Ur blood was everywhere & it wuz gross. Stay home 2day n we cn.. well, u kno.

RoManNotWoManJC @CalpurniaXoXo Yes, ma’am.

——————————————

PartOfUrWrldPlz I found another awesome human thing! It’s long, and it’s kinda hard, but a lil flexible. Scuttle called it a screwdoh. OH! It vibrates! I wonder how it works.

ImAGullSoWhat @PartOfUrWrldPlz Yeah, uh… I’m not sure you can use that, Ariel. It’s made for humans… and you have fins. Plus… I hear they’re explosive. Guh-ross.

PartOfUrWrldPlz Oh, it IS explosive! @ImAGullSoWhat Hey, Scuttle… have you seen Eric lately…?

CrabWitUlcers @PartOfUrWrldPlz Ariel!! If your faddah hears about dis… Oy, vey. #FML #TeenageHeadache

ImAGullSoWhat @PartOfUrWrldPlz Nope! But boy, you are SO lucky Triton’s too much of an old fogy to appreciate twitter.

——————————————

RogerT3H_Ripper Cut open a lizrd w/a rock &a stick n put its guts in Piggy’s undrwr! XD lmao @NoImTheLeader dude Jack check this out ull die laughin! #dissection #violenceishot

RogerT3H_Ripper Jack started our own group 2day. Piggys fat cheeks got smudged w/ tears cuz hes a wussy &Ralph jus bitchd alot. i tuned him out. time 2 kill sumthin. #huntrzYAY

RogerT3H_Ripper For sum reason, evry time i look @ that losr Piggy i hear these whispers sayin nonsense lyk ‘REDRUM’ or watevr. And then i crave bacon. weird.

Notes: 1 / 1 year ago from displaceddixie

We're not done yet: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern continue "Questions" on Twitter...

If you don’t know what’s going on, watch or read Tom Stoppard’s play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead”. Now.

Also, try to guess which one of us (Garrett or Kate) played which character. It should be relatively easy.

@Questioncrantz @Guildyascharged Why did the chicken cross the road? via…

Notes: 1 / 1 year ago from displaceddixie

More fictional character tweets (I started helping)

Kate’s:

Gregor Samsa:
@Bugaboo As long as I’m stuck here on my bed, I might as well introduce myself to the internet. Hello, internet. I am getting good at typing with my antennae. #madskillz

Dorian Grey:
@BeautyEterne Got me a pretty picture. Of me. It’s so pretty. I’m so pretty. I’m really…

Notes: 2 / 1 year ago from displaceddixie

A Displaced Dixie: 15 Famous Literary Characters and their Tweets

Hamlet:
@2BRN2B Denmark is rotten. Gonna go to England w/ Ros and Guil. Maybe sum1 will off me on the way. #FML #lifeispain

Frankenstein’s monster:
@Frankieboy God rest my poor father’s soul. On the bright side, now I can invite that skunk-haired hottie over whenever I want. …

Notes: 3 / 2 years ago

What do you get when you cross Maleficent with a chalkboard?

When a student whom I do not teach daily comes up behind me in the hallway in June and asks, “Can I ask you a question, Mr. Cooperman?” like most teachers, I usually expect it to be about exam week, or whether I’ll be using my classroom after school, or if I’d like to support the latest fund raising effort by (insert class or organization title here) to (insert somewhat-educational activity here).

So, naturally, when I heard, “Can I ask you a question, Mr. Cooperman?” behind me on the staircase today, I replied, “Sure! What’s up?” preparing to respond with either, “a week from Monday,” “only if students need extra help,” or, “we’ll see if I have any cash or change left in my Just in Case Students Come Asking for Money for Something Worthwhile jar.”

“Why do you think we learn so much from villains in literature?”

I paused in the middle of the staircase, stopping up the queue of students trying to trudge up the steps to class, and turned to face her. “Hunh?”

She repeated herself. “Why do you think we learn so much from villains?”

I fumbled for an answer, trying to mentally shove through the fog of excitement, alarm, and pleasant surprise at a random but genuinely intellectual inquiry from a student I don’t see every day in the hallway between classes… and almost fell up the stairs.

I was wholly appreciative for this reprieve from the norm, because in the world of most high school students, random inquiries about real scholarly pursuits are as rare as random acts of kindness.

Anyway, once we crested the next floor, we paused at the edge of the hall and I answered in my teacherly way, but I thought I’d leave the question here for you all to answer with your own profundity.

Flow.

Your Mom’s Poetry

More literary character tweets…

What do you get when you cross Maleficent with a chalkboard?

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