Good Quotes from Class Today

Today was a day of excellent quotes in my Poetic Form and Theory class.

"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then... I contradict myself;
I am large... I contain multitudes."
-Walt Whitman, excerpt from Song of Myself

"Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom."
- James Wright, excerpt from the poem A Blessing

"He raised up his hook into the terrible starlight
And slashed the wind."
- James Wright, excerpt from the poem Hook


I took a class from this professor last semester and absolutely adored him. He's one of the best teachers I've EVER had, and when I'm a teacher, I want to be like him. He's passionate and poetic, insightful and positive. He's personal, yet professional. He lets his students know enough about him that we feel like we know him, yet leaves much unsaid such that he remains a figure of tantalizing mystery. Every sentence he speaks reflects his brilliance as a teacher, an academic, a reader/analyst, a poet, and a- as my friend put it- "Grade 'A' human being." I have taken to writing down some of the things that he says that strike me as profound, insightful, amusing, and often downright funny. Here's the list from today.

"Breakage has to occur before we become something other."

"Reading itself is a creative act."

"Read poems with a dreamy attentiveness."

"The heart of poetry is contradiction."

"Achilles is The Terminator." (Just plain funny!)

"I think this is a kick-ass poem!" (The fact that he said 'kick-ass' to describe a poem makes me really happy)

"Obviously it's a rhetorical question because you're like 'NO.'" (This was in reference to the question in the poem Hook, 'Did you ever feel a man hold Sixty-five cents In a hook, And place it Gently In your freezing hand?' You have to imagine the facial expression, the tone, and the hand actions on this one to get the full effect.)