January 20

If you missed today's class you need to get the Chapter 2 Power Notes from one of your classmates. We also did a little poetry today as well. I read to the class an excerpt from Octavio Paz's poem "Blanco". Here is the excerpt that I read to the class:



Desert burning from yellow to flesh color:
the land is a charred language.
There are invisible spines, there are thorns in the eyes.
Three satiated vultures on a pink wall.
It has no body no face no soul,
it is everywhere,
crushing all of us: this sun is unjust.
Rage is mineral.
Colors are relentless.
Unrelenting horizon.
Drumbeats drumbeats drumbeats.
The sky blackens like this page.
Scattering of crows.
Impending violet violences.
The sand whirls up,
thunderheads, herds of ash.
The chained trees howl.
Drumbeats drumbeats drumbeats.
I pound you sky, land I pound you.
Open sky, closed land,
flute and drum, lightning and thunder,
I open you, I pound you.
You open, land,
your mouth filled with water, your body gushes sky,
you crack, land, and burst, your seeds explode,
the word grows green.


I then asked students to write a poem using one of the following titles as inspiration:

• Slashed Skies
• Red Screams
• Violent Music
• A Nightmare's ___________
• Liquid Lies
• Plastic Words
• Hushed Wisdom
• Silent ___________
• Purple Pain
• Secret ___________
• Broken __________
• _______ Dreams
• _______ Whispers
• Charred _______

Students then did a rough draft of a poem using one of the above titles. (If you see a blank in the titles above, then you can fill it in with a word of your choice). I did not set a due date for the good copy of this "Crazy Title" poem.