Once again, it's cold and snowy and we're all trying our best to keep busy and warm.
Things accomplished this week:
* Annual Work Reports: Two down, one more to go.
**Grading first batch of papers. Nearly done. Editing other people's work. Nearly done.
NB: I have handed back papers (critical and creative) last week, but once the work cycle commences, it's constant until the end of the semester. I'm blessed to be working with a student who is working on a novella.
She is a teacher's dream and no doubt is going to be a writer with a brilliant career. Already, she has several publications. And, she
listens to me. I'm so proud of her.
Getting ready for a poetry reading at St. John Fisher College, February 19th, 2015, at 7:30 p.m. in Wilson Formal Lounge.
Kitty Jospe will be reading from her just-released poetry collection Golden Smoke (Foothills Publishing,2015). This reading is free and open to the public.
Poet’s
Statement:
I have always been intrigued by the
power of paradox to sharpen our awareness and bring us to
imagine the unimaginable. The title of this collection of
poems is inspired by the plant Golden Smoke (Corydalis
aurea). Its yellow blossoms also give it the epithet of
Scrambled Eggs. Known for its medicinal qualities when
brewed in tea for various aches and pains, it is also
poisonous if ingested. The long-lived seeds may lie dormant
until stimulated by such disturbance as fire.
Golden is a word attached to
mathematics, myth, and perhaps what lies beyond any
metaphorical smoke. The opening and closing sections of this
book derive from words in the title poem:
“Wordless charcoal”
combines a fire’s destruction with creation of charcoal as
medium to trace and transcribe memory of experience. “Half-cadences”,
also known as “incomplete” or “cadences imparfaites”, fool
us into thinking the music we hear has reached an end. The
poems in the section “Scrambled” and “Color for
burnt land” celebrate the power of emotion, art and
imagination.
In
Praise of Golden Smoke:
“Kitty JospĂ©’s poems powerfully
engage the world in their range and depth of observation. The
reader has the additional pleasure of wandering through
museums with an eloquent docent and insightful poet at our
side. //If some poems embrace commitment to family and
community, others meditate on heart-wrenching loneliness and
loss. As she writes, “Hang on/ we need to/hang on/tight.”
She does.” Grant Holcomb, Director
Emeritus of the Memorial Art Gallery
Took my Encounters Class to Memorial Art Gallery on Thursday, 2/5/2015.My students loved it.
The current exhibit:
Infinite Place: The Ceramic Art of Wayne Higby
January 25–March 29, 2015 in the Grand Gallery
Photo from Memorial Art Gallery Website
is not to be missed. It's just breath-taking. I love how its cumulative effect shows Higby's passion and process.
Today, February 8th, 2015 I plan on venturing out to hear the Cordancia SINGS at Christ Church at 3 p.m.
Tickets 15/Regular, STUDENTS AND SENIORS $10.00.