We asked the captain what course of action he proposed to take toward a beast so large, so terrifying, and unpredictable. He hesitated to answer, and then said judiciously, “I think I shall praise it.” Robert Haas. Epigraph to his second book of poems, Praise: 1979 If you work in a school you get two … Read more
Every year at the annual Eagle Society poetry reading a lower school student demonstrates that s/he has spent homework time memorizing Shel Silversteins’s twelve line epic that begins: Homework, oh homework I hate you, you stink. I wish I could wash you away in the sink. If only a bomb would explode you to bits, … Read more
This week in the NYTimes – news of a rather discouraging report about music and arts education across the US. And even the test sample was smaller. In the test, formally known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress in Arts, administrators at 260 public and private schools were asked how much time they devoted … Read more
What’s the difference between a metaphor and lying? With a president who reads Derek Walcott and quotes June Jordan it’s good to have comedians at home with T.S.Eliot. This week inaugural poet Elizabeth Alexander explained metaphor to Stephen on The Colbert Report. Get More: Comedy Central,Funny Videos,Funny TV Shows Meanwhile at PDS English teachers had … Read more
PDS has new science laboratories. Time for a poem from the Czech poet-scientist Miroslav Holub. In the Microscope Here too are the dreaming landscapes, lunar, derelict. Here too are the masses, tillers of the soil. And cells, fighters who lay down their lives for a song. Here too are cemeteries, fame and snow. And I … Read more
Suddenly there’s Poughkeepsie what a hard time the Hudson River has had trying to get to the sea it seemed easy enough to rise out of Tear of the Cloud and tumble and jumps draining a swamp here and and other smaller longings for the wide except for its spelling ocean sixty miles away is … Read more
Ninety years since the end of the First World War. Passengers at Paddington station on Armistice Day, 11 November 1919. stopped for two minutes silence to remember those who never returned. Most of the men have taken their hats off out of respect. Over 25,000 Great Western Railway workers were killed in the war. Railway … Read more
One impulse from a vernal wood May teach you more of man, Of moral evil and of good, Than all the sages can. William Wordsworth makes this assertion in his 1798 poem “The Tables Turned”. In the poem he is continuing a dialogue with a fictional friend who has urged him to study more, read … Read more
When the night winds whistle through the trees and blow the crisp brown leaves a-crackling down, When the autumn moon is big and yellow-orange and round, When old Jack Frost is sparkling on the ground, It’s Thanksgiving Time! – from Thanksgiving Time by Langston Hughes I hope your holiday is wonderful.
A tag cloud is a visual presentation of text. It uses word frequency to provide a blink-worthy read of information. It communicates a great deal in a few seconds and provides an instant take. I entered the text of our mission and description et voila! A poetic distillation of meaning. caring citizens collaborative committed community … Read more
The title and content of this entry have changed. The original title – A Challenge to Stephen Colbert – referred to the Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report where the grippy and relentless megamerican Stephen Colbert holds court. The show opens with dramatic graphics of eagles, waving flags and the swooping adjectives that Colbert proclaims for … Read more