27 March 2007

My heart belongs to Columbus


You must know that I risked losing the entire contents of 342 Olin Hall by taking this picture. Opening these huge windows is no easy task, especially when there's a thunderhead looming outside. I'm ashamed to admit that I'm too wimpy to get the window open on my own, so I had to ask the custodian. But here's my thunderhead du jour. Only my Edgar Allan Poe doll was disrupted by the great wind. The dug-up lawn is a remnant of this steam pipe disaster.

It wasn't just bracket-savvy or my friendship with Cornshake that prompted me to put OSU as winner of the NCAA championship. It's my utter delight in getting an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council. Thank you, state of Ohio! Naming a road after the Biddingers was really an honor, but this means so much more for my career. $5K will really help me out.

On an unrelated note, the other day my advanced poetry writing undergrads created their own exercises using Simone Muench's stipulations exercise.

Here's one that they created:

The Diva/Nation

1. Incorporate a childhood game.
2. Name a famous person.
3. Can’t use like, from, to, then.
4. Use a line from a movie.
5. Use a fruit or meat dish as a verb.
6. Rearrange some of the words in both the movie and the fruit line to make a new line.
7. Use a slash.
8. Write a line of alliteration.

Here's one I created with my MFA teaching intern, Aaron M. Smith:

The Uncanny

1. Write a poem that starts in a natural setting.
2. Use either a math equation or theory, or a science theory as part of the poem [optional].
3. Include an animal that is inappropriate for the natural setting.
4. You cannot use the first person (I).
5. Include a sharp metal object in the poem.
6. Include an unusual or invented food item.
7. Include some kind of doubling.


And now, right on cue, here comes the downpour.

8 comments:

Justin Evans said...

Wow!

Those writing exercises are tough. I don't think I could do it unless I used some of Hunter Thompson's methodology of drugs, violence, and insanity.

I'm certain, however, you will be able to navigate your way around them with ease.

marybid said...

The proof will be in the pudding!

(That sounds so funny...)

cornshake said...

congrats on the OAC grant!! buy yourself something really swanky for your home office to remember this by...

marybid said...

Thanks for the congrats! I am so excited.

Oliver de la Paz said...

Congrats on the grant!

Suzanne said...

Congrats!!

Jeannine said...

Yes, that's fantastic about the grant - congrats and remember to celebrate!

myshkin2 said...

Congrats too, but don't forget to save about a thousand of it for taxes next April. Having received a coupla OAC grants in the past, I know how painful that can be.

Charleston gratitude and overdue update

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