Due Monday, March 9th - Your Original Poem & Class Poetry Slam (Extra Credit)

Overview and Directions:  I would you to compose your own poem.  Please explore different poetic forms, rhyme schemes, use of alliteration, assonance, consonance, and think about scansion and diction.  NOTE:  I want to see your writing process, so drafts are a must.  If you compose your work electronically, please save multiple drafts.  These will count as journal entries, too.  Use that space to explore.  Think about themes or poetic situations.  I will include some writing prompts and a list of forms to help you begin.

Please post your completed poem to Turnitin.com AND on this blog space (you can share a stanza, if you like) by Monday, March 9th, so we can rehearse in small groups. Final performances will NOT be mandatory. Extra credit only.

If you are pleased with your work, please consider the three poetry reading experiences I shared in the previous blog post. I would love to read with you.

Poetry Writing & Performance Rubric 

• Multiple drafts in your journal
• Overall quality and completeness of the final writing product
• Development of theme (i.e. clarity and consistency)
• Appropriate use of literary devises and poetic form
• Final Poem posted in Turnitin.com AND in this blog space
• Performance and reading
• Conduct during writing workshop/SLAM readings

101 Poetry Prompts & Ideas for Writing Poems

from think written

Most of these creative writing ideas are simple and open-ended. This allows you total creative freedom to write from these poetry prompts in your own unique style, tone, and voice.

If one poetry idea doesn’t appeal to you, challenge yourself to find parallels between the prompt and things that you do enjoy writing about.


1.The Untouchable: Something that will always be out of reach

2. 7 Days, 7 Lines: Write a poem where each line/sentence is about each day of last week

3. Grandma’s Kitchen: Focus on a single memory, or describe what you might imagine the typical grandmother’s kitchen to be like

4. Taste the Rainbow: What does your favorite color taste like?

5. Misfits: How it feels when you don’t belong in a group of others.

6. Stranger Conversations: Start the first line of your poem with a word or phrase from a recent passing conversation between you and someone you don’t know.

7. On the Field: Write from the perspective of a sports ball {Baseball, Soccer, American Football, Lacrosse, etc.} – think about what the sports ball might feel, see, hear, think, and experience with this poetry idea!

8. Street Signs: Take note of the words on signs and street names you pass while driving, walking, or riding the bus. Write a poem starting with one of these words you notice.

9. Cold water: What feelings do you associate with cold water? Maybe it’s a refreshing cold glass of water on a hot day, or maybe you imagine the feelings associated with being plunged into the icy river in the winter.

10. Ghostwriter: Imagine an invisible ghost picks up a pen and starts writing to you.

11. Lessons From Math Class: Write about a math concept, such as “you cannot divide by zero” or never-ending irrational numbers.

12. Instagram Wall: Open up either your own Instagram account or one of a friend/celebrity and write poetry based on the first picture you see.

13. Radio: Tune in to a radio station you don’t normally listen to, and write a poem inspired by the the first song or message you hear.

14. How To: Write a poem on how to do something mundane most people take for granted, such as how to tie your shoes, how to turn on a lamp, how to pour a cup of coffee.

15. Under 25 Words: Challenge yourself to write a poem that is no more than 25 words long.

16. Out of Order: Write about your feelings when there is an out of order sign on a vending machine.

17. Home Planet: Imagine you are from another planet, stuck on earth and longing for home.

18. Uncertainty: Think about a time in your life when you couldn’t make a decision, and write based on this.

19. Complete: Be inspired by a project or task be completed – whether it’s crossing something off the never-ending to-do list, or a project you have worked on for a long time.

20. Compare and Contrast Personality: What are some key differences and similarities between two people you know?

21. Goodbyes: Write about a time in your life you said goodbye to someone – this could be as simple as ending a mundane phone conversation, or harder goodbyes to close friends, family members, or former partners.

22. Imagine Weather Indoors: Perhaps a thunderstorm in the attic? A tornado in the kitchen?

23. Would You Rather? Write about something you don’t want to do, and what you would rather do instead.

24. Sound of Silence: Take some inspiration from the classic Simon & Garfunkel song and describe what silence sounds like.

25. Numbness: What’s it like to feel nothing at all?

26. Fabric Textures: Use different fiber textures, such as wool, silk, and cotton as a poetry writing prompt.

27. Anticipation: Write about the feelings you experience or things you notice while waiting for something.

28. Poison: Describe something toxic and its effects on a person.

29. Circus Performers: Write your poetry inspired by a circus performer – a trapeze artist, the clowns, the ringmaster, the animal trainers, etc.

30. Riding on the Bus: Write a poem based on a time you’ve traveled by bus – whether a school bus, around town, or a long distance trip to visit a certain destination.

31. Time Freeze: Imagine wherever you are right now that the clock stops and all the people in the world are frozen in place. What are they doing?

32. The Spice of Life: Choose a spice from your kitchen cabinet, and relate its flavor to an event that has happened recently in your daily life.

33. Parallel Universe: Imagine you, but in a completely different life based on making a different decision that impacted everything else.

34. Mad Scientist: Create a piece based on a science experiment going terribly, terribly wrong.

35. People You Have Known: Make each line about different people you have met but lost contact with over the years. These could be old friends, passed on family, etc.

36. Last Words: Use the last sentence from the nearest book as the inspiration for the first line of your poem.

37. Fix This: Think about something you own that is broken, and write about possible ways to fix it. Duct tape? A hammer and nails? Use this hammer as inspiration for a poetry prompt idea!

38. Suspicion: Pretend you are a detective and you have to narrow down the suspects.

39. Political News: Many famous poets found inspiration from the current politics in their time. Open up a newspaper or news website, and create inspired by the first news article you find.

40. The Letter D: Make a list of 5 words that start with all with the same letter, and then use these items throughout the lines of your verse. {This can be any letter, but for example sake: Daisy, Dishes, Desk, Darkness, Doubt}

41. Quite the Collection: Go to a museum, or look at museum galleries online. Draw your inspiration from collections of objects and artifacts from your favorite display. Examples: Pre-historic days, Egyptians, Art Galleries, etc.

42. Standing in Line: Think of a time you had to stand in line for something. Maybe you were waiting in a check-out line at the store, or you had to stand in line to enter a concert or event.

43. Junk Mail Prose: Take some inspiration from your latest junk mail. Maybe it’s a grocery store flyer announcing a sale on grapes, or an offer for a credit card.

44. Recipe: Write your poem in the form of a recipe. This can be for something tangible, such as a cake, or it can be a more abstract concept such as love or happiness. List ingredients and directions for mixing and tips for cooking up your concept to perfection.

45. Do you like sweaters? Some people love their coziness, others find them scratchy and too hot. Use your feelings about sweaters in a poem.

46. After Party: What is it like after all party guests go home?

47. Overgrown: Use Little Shop of Horrors for inspiration, or let your imagination run wild on what might happen if a plant or flower came to life or started spreading rapidly to take over the world.

48. Interference: Write a poem that is about someone or something coming in between you and your goals.

49. On Shaky Ground: Use an earthquake reference or metaphor in your poem.

50. Trust Issues: Can you trust someone you have doubted in the past?

51. Locked in a Jar: Imagine you are a tiny person, who has been captured and put into a jar for display or science.

52. Weirder Than Fiction: Think of the most unbelievable moment in your life, and write a poem about the experience.

53. Fast Food: Write a poem about fast food restaurants and experiences. Do you like fast food? Write about a recent fast food experience in a poem – good or bad!

54. Unemployed: Write a poem about quitting or being fired from a job you depended on.

55. Boxes: What kinds of family secrets or stories might be hiding in that untouched box in the attic?

56. No One Understands: Write about what it feels like when no one understands or agrees with your opinion.

57. Criminal Minds: Write a poem from the perspective of a high-profile criminal who is always on the run from law enforcement.

58. Marathon Runner: Write a poem about what training you might be doing to accomplish a difficult challenge in your life.

59. Trapped: Write about an experience that made you feel trapped.

60. Passing the Church: Write a poem about noticing something interesting while passing by a church near your home.

61. Backseat Driver: Write about what it’s like to be doing something in your life and constantly being criticized while trying to move ahead.

62. Luster: Create a descriptive poem about something that has a soft glow or sheen to it.

63. Clipboard: Write a poem about someone who is all business like and set in their ways of following a system.

64. Doctor: Write a poem about receiving advice from a doctor.

65. First Car: Write an ode to your first car

66. Life Didn’t Go As a Planned: Write about a recent or memorable experience when nothing went according to plan.

67. Architect: Imagine you are hired to design a building for a humanitarian cause you are passionate about.

68. The Crazy Cat Hoarder: Write about someone who owns far too many cats.

69. Queen: Write a poem from the perspective of a queen.

70. Movie Character: Think of a recent movie you watched, and create a poem about one character specifically, or an interaction between two characters that was memorable.

71. Potential Energy: Write about an experience where you had a lot of potential for success, but failed.

72. Moonlight: Write about an experience in the moonlight.

73. Perfection: Write about trying to always keep everything perfect.

74. You Are Wrong: Write a poem where you tell someone they are wrong and why.

75. Sarcasm: Write a poem using sarcasm as a form of illustrating your point.

76. Don’t Cry: Write a poem about how not to cry when it’s hard to hold back the tears.

77. Listen Up: Write a poem telling someone they are better than they think they are.

78. Flipside: Find the good in something terrible.

79. Maybe They Had a Reason: Write a poem about someone doing something you don’t understand, and try to explain what reasons they might have had.

80. How to Drive: Write a poem that explains how to drive to a teenager.

81. Up & Down the Steps: Write a poem that includes the motion of going up or down a staircase

82. Basket Case: Has there ever been a time when you thought you might lose your mind? Jot your feelings and thoughts down in verse form.

83. Lucky Guess: Many times in our life we have to make a good guess for what is the best decision. Use this poetry idea to write about feelings related to guessing something right – or wrong.

84. Dear Reader: What audience enjoys reading the type of poetry you like to write? Craft a note to your potential audience that addresses their biggest fears, hopes, and dreams.

85. All or Nothing: Share your thoughts on absolutist thinking: when one’s beliefs are so set in stone there are exceptions.

86. Ladders in the Sky: Imagine there are ladders that take you up to the clouds. What could be up there? What feelings do you have about climbing the ladders, or is their a mystery as to how they got there in the first place?  Where might this ladder to the sky lead? Write about it!

87. Always On My Mind: Compose a poem about what it’s like to always be thinking about someone or something.

88. Paranoia: What would it be like if you felt like someone was watching you but no one believed you?

89. Liar, Liar: How would you react to someone who lied to you?

90. Secret Word: What’s the magic word to unlock someone’s access to something?

91. For What It’s Worth: Use a valuable object in your home as inspiration as a poetry prompt idea.

92. Coming Home to Secrets: Imagine a person who puts on a good act to cover up a secret they deal with at home.

93. Productivity: Talk about your greatest struggles with time management and organization.

94. Defying Gravity: Use words that relate to being weightless and floating.

95. Signs of the Times: How has a place you are familiar with changed over the past 10 years?

96. Sleepless Nights: What ideas and feelings keep you up at night? What’s it like when you have to wake up in the morning on a night you can’t sleep?

97. You Can’t Fire Me, I Quit: Use one of the worst job related memories you can think of as a creative writing prompt.

98. By George: You can choose any name, but think of 3-5 notable figures or celebrities who share a common first name, and combine their personalities and physical characteristics into one piece of poetry. For example: George Washington, George Clooney, George Harrison.

99. Shelter: Write a poem about a time you were thankful for shelter from a storm.

100. Cafeteria: Create a poem inspired by the people who might be eating lunch in a cafeteria at school or at a hospital.

101. Dusty Musical Instruments: Base your poem around the plight of a musician who hasn’t picked up the guitar or touched a piano in years.

There are unlimited possibilities for ways you can use these poem ideas to write poetry. Using a list like this can greatly help you with getting into the habit of writing daily – even when you don’t feel inspired to write. While not every poem you write will be an award-winning masterpiece, using these poem starters as a regular exercise can help you better your craft as a writer.

Due Monday, March 2nd - Composing & Performing Your Own Poetry

Overview:  It has been many years since I included an assignment such as this into the curriculum.  It is so easy to make English class all abut composing essays and writing blog responses. I did not always like poetry.  Point of fact, I always loved novels, plays, and short fiction the best.  My former boss, Ron Howland, taught a professional development course on poetry that made me fall in love with the genre, and I have been writing and performing ever since.  I actually keep most of my work close to my chest.  I always revisit and edit a collection I titled, i know what happens when you die.  It chronicles my life in three section, the first as a young teacher and newly married, the second as a young father, and the last in middle age thinking about next steps.  Recently, I began work on my next collection based on a concept by Stephen Merrick of The Magnetic Fields (see their website).  They put together an album called 50 Song Memoir, where each song captures a year of his life.  I loved this idea and used it as a catalyst to write new poems.  Further, I developed a definite style over the years, and decided to use this opportunity to explore forms, rhyme, and meter.  I will share my poems with you as we go through this unit (you will find four at the bottom of this post). Also, there are three poetry reading opportunities I would like to share with you, as a goal in your writing experience.

Directions:  Please peruse the following poetry reading opportunities, below.  Let me know if, at this time, you may have an interest in participating.  Next, please read some of my work below.  I share it with you because I am going to ask you to do the same and I feel it is only fair that I do so.  Also, I would like to show you my process and some of the possibilities that are out there for poets.  In this blog space, please share any thoughts and reflections you have about your relationship with poetry, the prospect of writing and reading poems in class, the possibility of performing in front of a live audience, comments on the upcoming events, and comments on the work I shared with you.

I look forward to your responses,

Mr. P.

11th Annual AHS Poetry Night

Here is the flyer written by founder Harry Durso (on the right):  The Robert Frost Foundation, has invited students and teachers from Andover High School to participate in a special 11th Anniversary Poetry Night at Café Azteca in Lawrence on Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at 7:00 PM. The event will be hosted by former AHS Teacher Harry J. Durso . The AHS Poetry Night is sponsored by LA VENTURE. Video Production is sponsored by Joe Spanos Productions. English Teacher, Eric Pellerin, will coordinate the event for Andover High School.

We are planning on videotaping this event for a later showing on Andover Public Access TV and local cable access stations in Lawrence and Methuen and on You Tube.

This is a Robert Frost Foundation event that is open to the public and is being held at a full service restaurant that is open for business during the poetry reading.

The student’s best behavior is expected.

Café Azteca is located at 180 Common Street in Lawrence and is easy to get to with off street parking nearby. Instructions and a map are also available on their web site. Although the street area outside the restaurant is supervised, you are asked not to leave valuables in your car.

Parents are welcome and encouraged to attend. Please be aware that the content of some of the poetry performed later in the evening may have adult themes.

If you plan on eating at Café Azteca, please arrive around 6:00 PM so as to be finished before the reading begins. You are welcome to make reservations by calling Café Azteca and mentioning that you will be part of the poetry reading.

Café Azteca is open for business and food and beverages are available during the event, but the participants are responsible for their own expenses.

Students are expected to provide their own transportation due to school rules. Students should call their parents when the reading is over as this will be an undetermined time. This is a Robert Frost Foundation public event.

Other poets from the Merrimack Valley will read after the Andover High School portion of the event is over.

El Taller of Lawrence

From the website:  Fueling the pulse of creativity through literacy, community gatherings, conversation and good food.  El Taller offers an Open Mic from 7:30 - 11 pm every third Thursday. I am hoping to take a group on March 19th!  Visit their website here.

MassLeap Youth Poetry Competition

Overview from MassLeap website:  From 2012 to 2018, The Louder Than A Bomb Massachusetts Youth Poetry Slam Festival succeeded in bringing young people together across geographic, racial, cultural and socio-economic lines. LTAB (a city wide poetry slam model founded in Chicago in 2001) is a friendly competition that emphasizes self-expression and community via poetry, oral story-telling, and hip-hop spoken word. Over the course of 7 years, Mass LEAP served over 1,000 teens and educators through this festival, featuring poetry slam competitions, writing & performance workshops, panels, special partnership opportunities and professional development for coach-educators. The festival went on hiatus in 2019. Mass LEAP hosted several community conversations to help re-name, re-brand and re-envision how a youth poetry festival can better serve the unique needs of our communities. Wicked Loud Festiva will work do further de-emphasize the competition by offering more generative workshops, non-competitive open mics, themed panels and opening pathways for young people to reflect on how their writing can lead to stronger communities.  Visit their website, here.

My Work

Overview:  Who's that guy?  Here are four poems in various styles from my collection.  The first was my first published poem.  The second, "white people cant dance" was my feeble attempt at a spoken word poem, written as a challenge from my SLAM Poetry club members. The last two come from the aforementioned 50 Poem Memoir I am currently working on.  I read "Dam" at an event held by The Robert Frost Foundation of Lawrence, where I was born.  "A New Hope" is an extended metaphor about Star Wars using a variation on the Sestina poetic form. I wanted the stanzas to look like little star destroyers.  Enjoy.

“the prayer of the smoker”

by eric pellerin

(from Merrimack Literary Review ed. by Ron Howland & Greg Waters, 2004)

dear god

it is i

a  subhuman

sneaking outside civilization to smoke a butt

the december wind cuts my face

as do the sharp glances of the passers by

passing judgment with their pretty pink lungs ripe

with self righteous indignation

having visited the oracle who told them

you will live forever

wanna smoke with me lord

i heard you hang with the lepers beggars and whores

wanna slum a bit further down the ladder

take one

lets breathe in together

place the camels to our thirsty lips

no filters

no lights

no ultra lights

low tar

no tar

no way

wusses

right god

quiet now

lets bring the matches to our lips

inhale

hold it now

let tobey and nicky work their magic on our iron lungs

hold it now

breathe it all in

ill breathe in the endless piles of paperwork

you breathe in the 100 years war

hold it now

ill breathe in

the computer glitches

the long rows of cubicles

the pimple on my chin

the copy due by five

the coffee four hours cold

the paper cut on my thumb

the pain in my back

the clinking of my car

the kids screaming in my ear

the wifes disapproving glare

the eyes staring back at my reflection before i go to bed wondering where it all went

hold it now

you breathe in

the gift of freewill

the murders

the rapes

the poverty

the racism

the sexism

the ageism

the thisism

the thatism

the billions who died in your name

the planet you created covered with hot top

the blame you receive for all of the above while others walk away clean

the sad sulks like me who take your list for granted and rant about my own

hold it now

together

breathe in oblivion

hold it now

exhale

drop it

stamp it out

hold the door

2004

“white people cant dance”

by eric pellerin

watch em try

            though

they cannot

            hear

music

            they

make rhythm n

            white

blues

            merely repeating

motown sounds

            slave songs

drowned out

            through olive presses

until the juice loses richness

            complexity

through years of sitting in oak barrels

            waiting for a chance to see the light of day

to breathe

            it is crushed

no longer resembling grapes

            pinot or sauvignon

it is only water

            now

there is no way

            to get drunk on manilow

or maroon 5

            they say they move like jagger

they do

            just

without the swagger

            of james brown

they prefer elvis

            impersonating

forgetting

            muddy waters

in a bar saloon

            billie holiday singing

for a fix

            ray charles

before pepsi ads

            without a remix

they cannot dance

            they cannot move

forward

            you have to know

how to look

            back

step

            to hear

they do not know how to

            listen

they press on

            sung by their own

they claim it

            as their own

forgetting the pain

            they caused

to create it

            apply it

to their petty problems

            then

give themselves a grammy

            give it to beatles

to buddy holly and his crickets

            to little taylors swiftly

who look like their daughters

            they are not ready

no i dont think they are ready

            for this jelly

they cant handle

            jazz

unless its norah jones

            blasting from ceiling speakers

at starbucks

            sipping coffee with too much cream

drown out the flavor

            with white liquids

whipped

            americans

dream

            without

brown sugar

            cain

un abel

            to open their eyes

they sip

            they can swallow

nyc

            in the key of alicia keys

they choke

            on jay z

they just like the chorus

            ignore the verse

which describe why nyc

            is the place to be

not just the upper east side

            near sex and the city

among charlottes and samanthas

            what about detroit

chicago

            need to channel gladys

aretha

            ella

or go further

            back

to ghana

            make you sweat

so

            get up

move

            sing it in rounds

move your feet

            whitepeople

into someone else shoes

            let someone else

do the stomping

            trace the steps

created from a world

            that only offered pain

by those who cannot

            hear

the music

            songs about you

songs about

            me

2013

“1973:  dam”

by eric pellerin

they set out to create a city on the mill

upon foundations of imperishable blue stone

laying granite foundation

upon a system of canals

leading to bodwell’s falls

there stood a great stone dam

to generate power

unable to hold back the current

of immigrants who would populate the

tall brick mills of abott lawrence’s vision

they were married in 1970

all blue eyeshadow and brown polyester

walking their first born son in a stroller down common street

past corpus christi parish where they religiously attend service

past tripoli’s bakery where they eat pizza

with sweet sauce and sparse mozzarella

to where the neon lights are bright

on route 28 broadway

they will stop to see the damn falls

praying it will help this colicky child stop crying

the sound of water crashing

unfailing waves falling into foam

juxtaposing a scarlet sun setting behind the crumbling bricks of

his story

her italian grandparents sorted laundry here

stripped to their waists handling steaming hot sheets

she took his name which means pilgrim in france

then off to canada to louisiana settling in lawrence

where the name signifies nothing

ultimately all their descendants will make missiles for raytheon

to point at the only people less fortunate than themselves

i could not sleep

from my stroller

i look at the falls

noticing how the water transforms

sounding like my mother’s womb

knowing my place is swimming in a sea

where i am at peace

they tried to return home by turning me around

where all i can see is smoke and brick

rows of three story houses

with three generations of families in each cell block

                                                                                                             

i cried

i made them turn me around

to look at the falls once more

at that time my voice determined where i go

silently seeing falls fall crash and settle

eventually they will need to take me home                                                                                                      

bring me back to a reality

where i will carry on traditions

i will never fit in anywhere

i will always feel poor

i will never be manly enough

i will always be too sensitive

too much

not enough

i will spend the rest of my life holding back

feelings i never know how to express                                                                                                            

who i am

until someone opens a gate

unleashing a barrage of rage

crashing down with nowhere to fall

nowhere to settle

nowhere to call home

2019

“1977: A New Hope”

by Eric Pellerin

A long time ago, in a country far, far, away,

under the sign of Libra, Apollo gifts a baby boy

to a family in Eastern Mass, who are movin’ on up to a place

called Groveland, with a white picket fence, a private yard, fulfilling their destiny,

of escaping drugs, alleyways, low performing schools, and other assorted dead ends, free

to dream beyond their parents’ prospects; this boy on a swing-set soars, feet pumping toward a sky full of hope.

He doesn’t know it yet, but his only hope

to escape his INFJ mind is born in a country far, far, away

gifted to a family in Romania who wait in line for bread, no free-

dom to learn, think, dream, own property, or practice religion.  The only girl

of this family will watch her father escape to Greece, work in a refugee camp, hoping to fulfill his destiny,

immigrating to America, praying his wife and daughter will find him in Eastern Mass, where freedom is commonplace.

The boy deals with the silence of this place

by arranging his action figures from Star Wars: A New Hope

on the coffee table, while mom watches black and white movies.  His destiny,

at this time, is to become a Jedi Knight, unlike his father, a teacher who is often away, 

working several labor jobs. There is a daughter, now. She shares the princess’s name, and plays with the boy

who often remains alone. It’s winter. Snowing. He longs to run through sprinklers, as summer always helps him feel free.

Raised by her grandmother, she was free

to be herself, to play with dolls, animals, and knew this place

would be her home forever.  But it is gone. She is gone. They told the girl

America would be like Dallas, with horses roaming on pastures made of grain, only to find her hopes

buried under concreate sidewalks, discarded trash, dilapidated buildings.  She thought they came to get away

from this?  Where is this land of opportunity?  Where are the starry nights shining above the green pasture of destiny?

His mother never thought this would be her destiny

moving an hour away from her mother, one would think she felt free

to live the life of her choosing. She does not.  Her mother never visits her. Castaway

from her family to this new town, it may as well be on the other side of the world, some place

like France, Spain, Romania.  Her husband works three jobs and she keeps house. She is lonely, yet remains hope-

ful, watching her stories and old films where people like her have big dreams, beyond being a mother to a girl and a boy.

Her mother never wanted to have this girl

her husband wanted children, and her mother helped her fulfil her destiny

by watching this child while she worked.  She had so many friends.  They were full of hope,

dancing, smoking, sharing a laugh, quietly gossiping of the goings on in Romania – so young. Well, free-

dom feels like a different word in this lonely, new country of opportunity, only to be scorned or with no place

to escape. She is no longer herself, just a wife, mother, servant, with no life. What purpose does she serve, anyway?

For now, anyway, he is just a boy and she is just a girl.

In this place, in time, they will begin to find themselves. Their ultimate destiny,

is to will freely choose one another, to fill in the missing pieces. Yes, their chance meeting will be their only hope.

2019

Due Monday, March 2nd - Documentary: "Louder Than a Bomb"

Overview:  The documentary Louder Than a Bomb is a film about passion, competition, teamwork, and trust. It’s about the joy of being young, and the pain of growing up. It’s about speaking out, making noise, and finding your voice.

It also just happens to be about poetry.

Every year, more than six hundred teenagers from over sixty Chicago area schools gather for the world’s largest youth poetry slam, a competition known as "Louder Than a Bomb". Founded in 2001, Louder Than a Bomb is the only event of its kind in the country—a youth poetry slam built from the beginning around teams. Rather than emphasize individual poets and performances, the structure of Louder Than a Bomb demands that kids work collaboratively with their peers, presenting, critiquing, and rewriting their pieces. To succeed, teams have to create an environment of mutual trust and support. For many kids, being a part of such an environment—in an academic context—is life-changing.

Louder Than a Bomb chronicles the stereotype-confounding stories of four teams as they prepare for and compete in the 2008 event. By turns hopeful and heartbreaking, the film captures the tempestuous lives of these unforgettable kids, exploring the ways writing shapes their world, and vice versa. This is not "high school poetry" as we often think of it. This is language as a joyful release, irrepressibly talented teenagers obsessed with making words dance. How and why they do it—and the community they create along the way—is the story at the heart of this inspiring film.

(Summary from Louder Than a Bomb Website.  Click the link for more information).


Directions: When we finish the film, please compose a comprehensive blog response of 300-500 words, describing your reactions to the film.  Post the blog response in this blog space.  Please be specific.  You will be asked to compose your own spoken word poems, and your final assessment for Margaret Edson's, Wit will be to create a group poem.

Due Wednesday, February 26th - Finish Reading "The Stranger" & Compose Practice Essay Blog Response

From The Stranger: The Graphic Novel (2016) by Albert Camus, Illustrated by Jacques Ferrandez.

Overview and Directions:  Please finish reading The Stranger by Albert Camus.  As you read, take note of significant moments in your journal.  When you complete reading the novel, take time to reflect.  Then choose one of the following prompts from past A.P. Exams (see blow).  Each one of the chosen prompts had The Stranger listed in the choices below the prompt.  These are perfect matches.  Compose a blog response using one of the prompts below as a guide in your writing. Think of it as a practice essay.  See what you can do in 40 minutes.  I look forward to your responses.

Prompts:

1979. Choose a complex and important character in a novel or a play of recognized literary merit who might on the basis of the character's actions alone be considered evil or immoral. In a well-organized essay, explain both how and why the full presentation of the character in the work makes us react more sympathetically than we otherwise might. Avoid plot summary.

1982. In great literature, no scene of violence exists for its own sake. Choose a work of literary merit that confronts the reader or audience with a scene or scenes of violence. In a well-organized essay, explain how the scene or scenes contribute to the meaning of the complete work. Avoid plot summary.

1986. Some works of literature use the element of time in a distinct way. The chronological sequence of events may be altered, or time may be suspended or accelerated. Choose a novel, an epic, or a play of recognized literary merit and show how the author's manipulation of time contributes to the effectiveness of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

2004. Critic Roland Barthes has said, "Literature is the question minus the answer." Choose a novel, or play, and, considering Barthes' observation, write an essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises and the extent to which it offers answers. Explain how the author's treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

2011. Form B. In The Writing of Fiction (1925), novelist Edith Wharton states the following: At every stage in the progress of his tale the novelist must rely on what may be called the illuminating incident to reveal and emphasize the inner meaning of each situation. Illuminating incidents are the magic casements of fiction, its vistas on infinity.

Choose a novel or play that you have studied and write a well-organized essay in which you describe an “illuminating” episode or moment and explain how it functions as a “casement,” a window that opens onto the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

2015. In literary works, cruelty often functions as a crucial motivation or a major social or political factor. Select a novel, play, or epic poem in which acts of cruelty are important to the theme. Then write a well-developed essay analyzing how cruelty functions in the work as a whole and what the cruelty reveals about the perpetrator and/or victim.

Due Friday, February 14th - "The Stranger" and "The Myth of Sisyphus" by Albert Camus

Overview and Directions:  Please read the summary of  Albert Camus's The Myth of Sisyphus.  Next, read The Stranger, Chapters 3-6 (the end of Part I).  Finally, compose a comprehensive blog post (300-500 words) applying Camus's theory of the absurd to Part I of The Stranger.  How is Camus trying to explain his theory through literature? How does his theory build and/or differ from Sartre's theory of existentialism?  Where are you seeing yourself in this novel? How can it help you in your life? How could it help us in  our society?

The Stranger by Albert Camus - Full Text

Three Stages of Existentialism 

Humans in Anguish:  "The man who involves himself and who realizes that he is not only the person he chooses to be, but also a law-maker who is, at the same time, choosing all mankind as well as himself, cannot help escape the feeling of his total and deep responsibility.  Of course there are many people who are not anxious; but we claim they are hiding their anxiety, that they are fleeing from it....Anguish is evident, even when it conceals itself."

Humans in Forlornness:  "When we speak of forlornness, we mean only that God does not exist and that we have to face all the consequences of this....The existentialist thinks it very distressing that God does not exist, because all possibility of finding values in a heaven of ideas disappears along with Him; there can no longer an a priori Good, since there is no infinite and perfect consciousness to think it.  Nowhere is it written that the Good exists, that we must be honest, that we must not lie; because the fact is we are on a plane where there are only men....Neither within him or without does man find anything to cling to.  He can't start making excuses for himself.

We are called upon to live without appeal, as appeals are intellectually dishonest. But perhaps there are other alternatives than: 1) accepting absurdity; 2) embracing hopeful metaphysics; or 3) Camus’ defiance. Perhaps we can just say we don’t understand life at all, but we affirm it anyway. We just try to live without being sure of anything. Be open to possibilities. Then we might ground the meaning of our lives in the small part we can play in bringing about a more meaningful reality, by working to transform reality. This is no answer, but a way to live

Humans in Despair:  "As for despair, the term has a very simple meaning.  It means that we shall confine ourselves to reckoning only with what depends upon our will, or on the ensemble of probabilities which make our action possible....No God, no scheme, can adapt the world and its possibilities to my will."

Summary of The Myth of Sisyphus

About the author:  Albert Camus(1913 – 1960) was a French author, philosopher, and journalist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. His most famous works were the novels La Peste (The Plague) and L’Étranger (The Stranger or The Outsider) and the philosophical essay The Myth Of Sisyphus.

Summary:  In The Myth of Sisyphus (1955) Camus claims that the only important philosophical question is suicide—should we continue to live or not? The rest is secondary, says Camus, because no one dies for scientific or philosophical arguments, usually abandoning them when their life is at risk. Yet people do take their own lives because they judge them meaningless, or sacrifice them for meaningful causes. This suggests that questions of meaning supersede all other scientific or philosophical questions. As Camus puts it: “I therefore conclude that the meaning of life is the most urgent of questions.”

What interests Camus is what leads to suicide. He argues that “beginning to think is beginning to be undermined … the worm is in man’s heart.”When we start to think we open up the possibility that all we valued previously, including our belief in life’s goodness, may be subverted. This rejection of life emanates from deep within, and this is where its source must be sought. For Camus killing yourself is admitting that all of the habits and effort needed for living are not worth the trouble. As long as we accept reasons for life’s meaning we continue, but as soon as we reject these reasons we become alienated—we become strangers from the world. This feeling of separation from the world Camus terms absurdity, a sensation that may lead to suicide. Still most of us go on because we are attached to the world; we continue to live out of habit.

But is suicide a solution to the absurdity of life? For those who believe in life’s absurdity it is a reasonable response—one’s conduct should follow from one’s beliefs. Of course conduct does not always follow from belief. Individuals argue for suicide but continue to live; others profess that there is a meaning to life and choose suicide. Yet most persons are attached to this world by instinct, by a will to live that precedes philosophical reflection. Thus, they evade questions of suicide and meaning by combining instinct with the hope that something gives life meaning. Yet the repetitiveness of life brings absurdity back to consciousness. In Camus’ words: “Rising, streetcar, four hours in the office or factory, meal, four hours of work, meal, sleep, and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday…”Living brings the question of suicide back, forcing a person to confront and answer this essential question—should I go on?

Yet of death we know nothing. “This heart within me I can feel, and I judge that it exists. This world I can touch, and I likewise judge that it exists. There ends all my knowledge, and the rest is construction.”Furthermore I can’t know myself intimately anymore than I can know death. “This very heart which is mine will forever remain indefinable to me. Between the certainty I have of my existence and the content I try to give to that assurance, the gap will never be filled. Forever I shall be a stranger to myself …” We know that we feel, but our knowledge of ourselves ends there.

What makes life absurd is our inability to know ourselves and the world’s meaning even though we desire such knowledge. “…what is absurd is the confrontation of this irrational and the wild longing for clarity whose call echoes in the human heart.” The world could have meaning: “But I know that I do not know that meaning and that it is impossible for me just now to know it.”  This tension between our desire to know meaning and the impossibility of knowing it is a most important discovery. In response, we are tempted to leap into faith, but the honest know that they do not understand, and they must learn “to live without appeal…”  In this sense we are free—living without higher purposes, living without appeal. Aware of our condition we exercise our freedom and revolt against the absurd—this is the best we can do.

Nowhere is the essence of the human condition made clearer than in the The Myth of Sisyphus. Condemned by the gods to roll a rock to the top of a mountain, whereupon its own weight makes it fall back down again, Sisyphus was condemned to this perpetually futile labor. His crimes seem slight, yet his preference for the natural world instead of the underworld incurred the wrath of the gods: “His scorn of the gods, his hatred of death, and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which the whole being is exerted toward accomplishing nothing.” He was condemned to everlasting torment, and the accompanying despair of knowing that his labor was futile.

Yet Camus sees something else in Sisyphus at that moment when he goes back down the mountain. Consciousness of his fate is the tragedy; yet consciousness also allows Sisyphus to scorn the gods which provides a small measure of satisfaction. Tragedy and happiness go together; this is the state of the world that we must accept. Fate decries that there is no purpose for our lives, but one can respond bravely to their situation: “This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral of that night-filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

Reflections – Camus argues that life is meaningless and absurd. Still we can revolt against the absurdity, and find some small modicum of happiness. Essentially Camus asks if there is a third alternative between acceptance of life’s absurdity or its denial by embracing dubious metaphysical propositions. Can we live without the hope that life is meaningful, but without the despair that leads to suicide? If the contrast is posed this starkly it seems an alternative appears—we can proceed defiantly forward. We can live without faith, without hope, and without appeal.

Ryan Gosling reading Camus!

Ryan Gosling in La La Land!

Camus says, "What does it all mean, Ryan Gosling?"

Due Wednesday, February 12th - Read "The Stranger" by Albert Camus, Chapters 1-3

Overview and Directions:  Read The Stranger by Albert Camus, Chapters 1-3.  Please apply the ideas of Existentialism to your reading of the text.  Pair direct quotations from the novel with Sartre's essay on Existentialism.  I look forward to your responses.

The Stranger by Albert Camus