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In her book, The Poet’s Pen, Betty Bonham Lies has innumerable suggestions of prompts to use in a writer’s notebook and, more importantly, to use as a way for students “to look at themselves through the somewhat distancing lens of language.” (Betty Bonham Lies, The Poet’s Pen: Writing Poetry with Middle and High School Students (Portsmouth, NH: Greenwood PublishingContinue reading “letter to yourself”

“All around the Mulberry bush,the monkey chased the weasel.The monkey stopped to pull up his sock.Pop goes the weasel!” For the longest time, the phrase “pop” would most likely take the listener’s brain back to something from his childhood — the nursery rhyme, pop-up toys themselves, a jack-n-the-box, soda ‘pop’, or even that feeling ofContinue reading “pop-up”

Tomorrow I challenge you to consider the ideal community. The island of Utopia is in the middle 200 miles broad, and holds almost at the same breadth over a great part of it; but it grows narrower toward both ends. Its figure is not unlike a crescent: between its horns, the sea comes in elevenContinue reading “utopia”

No, the theme for Friday, April 15 will NOT be at all related to taxes, taxing, or being taxed. Isn’t it enough that they exist? Rather, an item of interest. April 15 is the birthday of, among others, Butch Cassidy (1866-1908), the infamous outlaw of American’s Wild West and the ringleader of the Wild BunchContinue reading “Butch Cassidy & The Wild Bunch”

Tomorrow’s theme sounds needlessly reckless, I admit. I don’t mean for you to close your eyes while driving, to skip critical meetings at work because you would rather search around town for the best Cuban sandwich, or to let your kids run rampant all through the house because you are packing up for Mykonos. No,Continue reading “lose control (a.k.a let go)”

I may have enjoyed that list of things to do when I’m not turning my brain to mush (see 65 Things to Do While Watching TV) much more if it had included the following: play parlor games. The Victorians were a tightly wound bunch. According to Foucault, “[n]ineteenth-century ‘bourgeois’ society — and it is doubtlessContinue reading “parlor games”

Over the weekend (when I should have been grading about a million essays, projects, tests, and other assignments as our school’s quarter came to a close at 8am this morning), I re-watched A River Runs Through It with my boyfriend. Early on in the film, there is a scene where Norman is being home-schooled by his strict,Continue reading “being concise”

“How blue can you get, baby?The answer is right here in my heart. I gave you a brand new Ford;you said, “I want a Cadillac.”I bought you a ten dollar dinner;you said “thanks for the snack.”I let you live in my penthouse;you said it was just a shack.I gave you seven children,and now you wannaContinue reading “blue monday”

My first Sunday theme… it’s gotta be relaxed, yummy, comforting, cozy, renewing and life-affirming. Well, I may have gotten a little carried away on those last two. Anyway, I told you to be patient about the fluffernutter theme and… well… I think two days qualifies as patience enough in our instant gratification-enabled society. So, tomorrow’sContinue reading “improve the fluffernutter”

Often one of the first things I notice about someone is his hands. The muscularity, the boniness, the length of the fingers, the stretch of the tendons, the particular curve of his nails… My grandmother used to comment on my beautiful “moons” by which she meant to refer to that lighter portion of one’s skinContinue reading “open your hand”