Thursday, December 10, 2009

Final Thoughts

"I think it is all a matter of love: the more you love a memory, the stronger and stranger it is." -N.

Lolita is about it, this class was about it, and I'll never forget the people, places, and images that I have been introduced to by all of you this semester. Thanks for all the fish! (even if they were transparent)

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

A Stremmelman

Created for Children's Literature one year ago (based on true events), I thought that perhaps this class would appreciate it as well. Let me know what you think!

A Stremmelman by C. Clark



It was the day I saw a man,

A'comin' down the street.


He seemed to me the kind of man

That I would like to meet.


With big white teeth that blazed the trail,

It seemed to me he was the gale,

That lifted me up off my feet.


For swiftly by me he did blow,

On his double bike a'he did go!

It wasn't just the Stremmelman!

It was also Sam, who's not a man!


It seemed to me, by way of pedal,

That nothing in their life could meddle,

With the glee that they both surely share.

Both smiling in a way so simple,

Creating four big, charming dimple,

While streaming 'round them went their hair.


So I asked myself, in the ways we do,

what paths lay ahead of these happy two?

Will adventures abound, both happy and sad?

Will beasts be fought, or wolves be had?


Will slippers be lost, then found and refit?

Will wives be killed or wrists be slit?

Will their bike fly away to the moon with a creature?

Will they walk down gold paths in a motion feature?


For as they road past me with their smiles,

I had to sit and dream of miles,

And miles and miles and miles and miles,

They would continue to go with their shiny smiles.


Whatever road they chose to take,

Whatever story they chose to make,

The one important thing to know,

Is that they were the ones who chose where to go.


For it can be said you repeat the past,

But always remember that your word is last.

You choose the story in which you will live,

The words will be written that you wish to give.


So a new page was added to their book on that day,

In a great, displaced, sorta kooky way.

And I continued my walk while dreaming some more,

Of the places that we all will someday explore.



It was the day I saw a man,

A'comin' down the street.

He seemed to me the kind of man

That I would like to meet.


With big white teeth that blazed the trail,

It seemed to me he was the gale,

That lifted me up off my feet.

The Link of the Bobolink




Emily Dickinson - "1620" (or perhaps "1591")

The Bobolink is gone — The Rowdy of the Meadow —
And no one swaggers now but me —
The Presbyterian Birds can now resume the Meeting
He gaily interrupted that overflowing Day
When opening the Sabbath in their afflictive Way
He bowed to Heaven instead of Earth
And shouted Let us pray —

John Shade - "Pale Fire"

But all at once it dawned on me that this
Was the real point, the contrapuntal theme;
Just this: not text, but texture; not the dream
But topsy-turvical coincidence,
Not flimsy nonsense, but a web of sense.
Yes! It sufficed that I in life could find
Some kind of link-and-bobolink, some kind
Of correlated pattern in the game,
Plexed artistry, and something of the same
Pleasure in it as they who played it found.