Thursday, March 4, 2010

Three Beautiful Things 03/03/10: Energy, Cool, Rest

1. Felt my first upsurge of energy in weeks today. What did it? Sonnets. Yes. Working with my students to see all the beauty and rhetoric concentrated in the sonnet got me fired up. It felt good.

2. It might be a misfire, but I love confronting my students with the idea that if they are going to insist on being cool, the deepest pleasures of poetry will pass them by because a person cannot have his/her cool on and simultaneously be waylaid by poetry's beauty and impact. It really helps in making this point to be what I am: totally devoid of cool. Or coolness. Or coolocity. Or El Coolerino (if you're not into the whole brevity thing).

3. I'm giving all I can to my work, but not too much. That's the goal. Rest. Keep rested. I rested well today after my Rafa Nadal performance in Intro to Lit: Poetry today.

1 comment:

Songwraith said...

Number 2, (the set aside of cool) to open the doors for real creativity, and emotion, and honesty is an impressive and insightful observation--no doubt part of the reason for your success as a teacher/mentor.