May 21, 2007

A Resource for the Sound of Poetry

In the past, when I’ve taught poetry, I’ve had to do a lot of reading aloud (or ask the students to stumble through the poems for the class’ benefit) in order to convey the importance of sound in poetry.
Now the University of Pennsylvania has given us a great resource – PENNsound – a website dedicated to recordings of famous writers, especially poets.
Here you can find recordings of Amiri Baraka, Allen Ginsberg, Marjorie Perloff, Gertrude Stein, Jack Spicer, June Jordan, and many, many others.
No more reading aloud for me – I”ll let the writers speak for themselves.

Thanks to Book Ninja for putting me onto this site.

* Filed by Andi at 8:11 am under Teaching Triumphs and Travails
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Looking, Lolling, and Listing in Lia Purpura’s *On Looking*

Sometimes I read books and think – dog-gone-it, I was thinking the same thing; I should have written that down before she did. Sometimes I read books and think – wow, I never would have thought of that. Today, when I finished Lia Purpura’s On Looking I thought – Whew! I thought of some of those things, but boy am I glad she wrote them down instead of me.

Purpura’s grasp of observation is stunning – she notices the way animals are beautifully crushed by cars, how plastic grocery bags caught on a breeze resemble marine egg sacs, the recurrence of a safety pin lying forgotten on a lawn. And then she takes these observed things and weaves them, bending metal and idea, leaf and thought, into lovely lyrical essays that remind us what it means to live with loss, and hope, and invisibility, and language.

Like no other book I’ve ever read, Purpura’s essays make me want to be a better writer. I hope they do the same for you.

On Looking: Essays by Lia Purpura Cover of Lia Purpura's On Looking

* Filed by Andi at 7:09 am under Book Recommendations
* 1 Comment

May 16, 2007

Laughter, Honesty, and a Whole Lot of Perspective

Anne Lamott’s new book Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith contains every bit of the wit and wisdom you expect from Lamott. She’s funny, precise, and true – a triumvirate of entertainment and contemplation.
Lamott weaves in lots of hikes on Mt. Tam, rides in cars with odd car-service drivers, Sunday School, and her son, each with her own brand of irreverent faith in God, humanity and herself.
I put this book down confident that life will probably not get better or even easier, but that if I just do my best I’ll make it through almost intact.
A great summer read or book for anyone struggling with this walk called life.

Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott Cover of Anne Lamott's Grace Eventually

* Filed by Andi at 10:54 am under Book Recommendations
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May 7, 2007

Humor

What’s the saying that advisors give to public speakers – “only tell jokes if you’re funny?” I think the same applies to writing, but that said, I think that humor is highly underrated in writing, especially nonfiction writing.
Take, for instance, Dave Barry – whose review of the new book Send is quite funny. Barry has insight, honesty, and wit to boot. He may seem silly, but all in all, he’s got something to say, just in a funnier way that most of us can manage.
Or Anne Lamott – no one else can describe an estranged boyfriend’s befuddlement over finding her in his bed quite like she does. “He looked as if he might be about to burp up a newborn chick,” she says in her new book Grace (Eventually).

There’s something profound about discussing sincere matters of life with a touch of humor. My friend Joel Tan once told me, about an essay that was eventually published in the Santa Monica Review, that I needed to add a little humor. The piece was well-written he said, but since it was about my dad’s depression and my process of dealing with that illness, he suggested that lightening the tone and weight a bit at points might bring the depression itself into bright relief. What a smart guy!

But I find myself, most of the time, wanting to be so sincere, so profound when I write, that I forget that many of my most painful moments are lanced with laughter. Sometimes humor is all that keeps our lives, these cracked jars of clay, from exploding out like so much shrapnel from under our covers where we lay crying, giggling, trying to survive.

* Filed by Andi at 6:19 am under Written and Wrought
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