READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS FOR WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 18 - SEPTEMBER 24, 2006:

Tuesday, September 19, 2006:

Please read Chapter 4 (Making the Line (II)) in Writing Poems.

Thursday, September 21, 2006:

Please read Chapter 5 (The Sound (and Look) of Sense) from Writing Poems.

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And here's the memoir prompt from The Autobiography Box for blog posts due on Sunday, September 24:

Is there a piece of music that reminds you of a particular time and place in your life? In Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, there is a violinist named Vinteuil who plays a simple and not very interesting theme of music. But as the years go by, Marcel finds that even a mediocre piece of music can carry with it lots of memory. The music that may cause an outpouring of memories for you may be a Beethoven sonata or a silly pop song. Thin of one of these tunes and describe the memories that come to you.

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Don't forget that Poem #2 (A Poem About Family and/or Childhood Memory) is due on Tuesday, September 26!! Here are the guidelines :

Please write a family-related poem and/or a poem of childhood memory.

The challenge of this assignment is to write a poem dealing with family and/or childhood memory that completely avoids hackneyed language, cliche, and sentimentality.

The poem should incorporate concrete details and sensory images.

Be sensitive to the music of language, and carefully consider how sounds are determined by word choice, line length, line breaks, etc.

Please make sure to give your poem a title, and that your poem is typed/word-processed.