Little writing exercise from the last session of the WR 222 class.
Tag: WR222
Random Encounters
Not often that I have a meaningful conversation while waiting for the bus. Usually I am approached by people who want a cigarette (I don’t smoke), to know how long until the next bus (because I am either psychic or they are too lazy to stop texting and check on their own smart phone), or if I have found Jesus (pretty sure he is dead, not a missing person, but then again it’s been a while since I’ve seen a milk carton with missing person ads printed on the side). So I wasn’t expecting the talk I had Saturday night.
The Prose of Erpenbeck
Reading The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck has been pretty impressive. She writes with an eye that both includes the grimier details of life (keeping the story grounded) but also with an almost dreamlike style of narration (that leaves you adrift in the story). It is an impressive combination of the two that has me trying to dissect how exactly she makes it work so I can try to use it in my writing.
Musings on Death
Thinking about death, about how people write about and view death, for my long essay for class. Reading some poems by Jack Gilbert, thinking about my own encounters with death, and trying to put this all together.
I Miss Literary Theory
Looking over my prospectus, my thesis, and the list of responses I have written so far this term fills me with an odd mix of shame and dread. I hate most everything I have written for the class, they feel like a mix of random bits of nonsense I threw together to complete an assignment or glimpses of the inside of my head that I’d rather not have shared.
Listening to Carl & Emily on Writing
Listening to Carl Adamshick and Emily Kendal Frey speak in the WR 222 class last week, and talk about their poetry and processess, had me thinking about my writing and my own processes.
What I’ve Read Lately
While we are reading a lot of poetry in WR 222, which is not usually on my reading list, it had me thinking about what I do normally read, what is typically my reading tastes, and what I’ve read over the last few months. Here then, as best I can remember, is what I’ve read in the last three months:
The Four Temperaments
Among the things we’ve read so far for my WR 222 : Intro to Literature and Writing class was an essay by Gregory Orr called “Four Temperaments and the Forms of Poetry” (can be found online here). Since reading that I’ve been thinking about my writing, and his proposition in general.