Workshop
By Billy Collins
I might as well begin by saying how much I like the title.
It gets me right away because I’m in a workshop now
so immediately the poem has my attention,
like the Ancient Mariner grabbing me by the sleeve.

And I like the first couple of stanzas,
the way they establish this mode of self-pointing
that runs through the whole ( Read more... )

Two nights ago, Hobart and William Smith Colleges honored Wangari Maathai with the Elizabeth Blackwell Award, which is given to a woman who has broken through stereotypes of woman and used her talents for the betterment of humanity. Dr. Maathai is the 2004 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, for founding the Green Belt Movement, which works for ( Read more... )

She stored up the anger
for twenty-five years,
then she laid it on the table
like a casserole for dinner.

"I have stolen back
my life," she said.
"I have taken possession
of the rain and the sun
and the grasses," she said.

"You are talking
like a madwoman,"
he said.

"My hands are rocks,
my teeth are bullets,"
she said.

"You are
my wife,"
he said.

"My throat is an ( Read more... )

I miss High School. I have only just realized how good Knolls was. I don't mean it was an idyllic time, that the school doesn't have its flaws. But I have only just realized how smart some of my teachers were and how dumb some of my professors are now.

My Asian Art class, while being seemingly pointless, is run by a teacher who frustrates the hell ( Read more... )

Trying to explain where I go to school isn't easy. I go to William Smith College. Usually people get this either mixed up with Williams, Smith, or William and Mary. William Smith College is one half of a coordinate institution- Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Hobart is the men's school. William Smith is the women's school. We take class together ( Read more... )

1) Khaos Komix.

2)... and also Sailor Moon, god damnit.

3) Dresden Files slash fics. (2 links there)... Okay, so maybe not making me "gay" persay, more just making me v. v. "excited" in ways that would shock and astound Hayes himself. Even if you haven't read the books. These are still delicious. Both by, thehoyden.

I officially got into the Tuebingen program for next Spring, and I just handed in all the paper work, my $350 check (also the last check in my check book...), and have reached the point of no return. I'm extremely excited, yet apprehensive. I just checked on the dates when the program begins (which took about an hour of serious research on the ( Read more... )

I like memorizing poetry. In times of need, there are certain poems that I come to my mind and lips, poems that feel right when you say them, that fill your mouth and cover your tongue and teeth, flowing over your lips in just the right way.

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow ( Read more... )

I think I want one on my wrist of a white rose and the words "Wir schweigen nicht" (We will not be silent)... which I may get after I come home from Poland this summer. In remembrance. I may not have mentioned it previously, but I got into the March of Remembrance and Hope, a Holocaust Remembrance trip that goes through Germany and Poland and ( Read more... )

Sometimes it just happens... Sometimes it happens with the help of alcohol and the brilliant idea to eat soy bacon before you leave the house to party ( Read more... )