Wednesday, March 15

One week after Wicked already! Wow. Time goes fast.

Today we had class. I was going to wake up super early so that I'd be able to type one more thing out and email it to myself before class started....well, I set my alarm for 6:30 and it didn't go off...so I woke up at 7:15, pretty much right before the girls left for class. Whoops. So I typed something fierce and was finished and got ready in time to be only half an hour late for class. Not too bad. I didn't miss much. Again today, because of neighborhood visits we didn't have practicum group, so I went home for my 33 cent lunch of mac and cheese and went on the computer again to check stuff (you know, Oprah tickets, weather updates [crazy snow storm coming through], etc.) and then went to the CBF to volunteer my afternoon away. I know I've said this before, but the people that work there are always so friendly! It's a good place to work! And Pam will be coming with me next time to help too. yay!
We ate a super early supper at 4:30 before a poetry reading at 6:30. It was at the a school location of the art institute of Chicago on Michigan Ave. I wasn't expecting it to be all that great--yah yah poetry reading. They'll sit there and read their stuff, what's new--but this guy was really really good! His name is Ted Kooser, the Poet Lauriette of the United States Library of Congress in Washington DC. What a title. To give you a little bit of an idea of what he looks like, he looks like Gollom from the Lord of the Rings...kinda skinny, cute, kind of bald, with glasses and ears that stick out a little bit. Cute for an old man. He reminded me of a prof, for sure.
Here are some notes for my arts journal entry:

-I wonder what was happening in this very ballroom 100 years ago?
-It reminds me of Mary Poppins--the drapes, line of lights, small balconies, there should be a huge staircase like in the Sound of Music.
-Ted is late, the audience is restless.
-There is an auction at the back of the paintings that were inspired by a few of Ted's poems. The money from the silent auction sales go towards the poetry center and keeping poetry alive.
-Ted's voice is calming, like a grandfathers
-his poems are about things in life
-short poems, descriptive
-gesture poem: the figure skater (we received that one in class today)
-poems about: the weatherman, spiral notebook, urine sample, sharing the sandwich, anecdotal poem (tell me what you want to tell me)
-many of the poems are followed by "hmmm" from the audience.
-His descriptions were so vivid and true that I would close my eyes and picture the scene in my head--especially the two elderly people sharing a sandwich at a deli.
-Ted also explained why he wrote the poems and his inspiration behind them. Very cool to know if one owns the book already...kind of like the soundtrack to wicked--owning and knowing it beforehand and the performance explained it all for me.
I really enjoyed this poetry reading. It was just the right length and he was captivating us as an audience with his amazing reading skills, thoughtfulness in the poems, his wisdom, and his appearance. I'd go to another of his poetry readings. Thank you Ted!

We also had another poet, Chicago's greatest, in class today. I'll have to get his name and update this tomorrow, but he was hilarious! The first thing I heard him say was a comment on how the coffee in the office was way too weak...now that's a comment I can agree with...we bonded. hah. One of chicago's finest. He is a Jewish Puerto Rican and came to Chicago when he was 9, had just finished 4th grade in PR. He had to start over in English here...but his poems were funny and cute and had a beat and some rhyme and his inspiration came straight from this city. I would have loved to have a video of him in class today...probably in his element in front of us. Hilarious.