On the benefits of poetry to parents

Elliot Vanskike of The Poetry Foundation muses about clinging to poetry of moments of high emotion or extreme vulnerability in life. He mentions Yeats's "A Prayer for My Son," Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Spring," Stevie Smith's "Not Waving but Drowning," Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," George Garrett's "Or Death and December," and his small children can now recite e. e. cummings and Blake's "The Tyger."

I can recite my favourite poem, Yeats' When You Are Old:"

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

Other than that, my head swims in T. S. Eliot (usually Prufrock - ugh, what does that say about me? "I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker"?), and scads of Canadian modernists (Purdy, MacEwen, Atwood, Kroetsch), with a smattering of Neruda (my cousin Kielan kindly read out "It Is Born" at our Uncle Michael's funeral, at my request).

Vanskike also briefly makes fun of the poetic gems of Lily Allen, but it reminded me that there are many musicians who are poets (or should be) - and I don't mean Leonard Cohen. I'm thinking of Aimee Mann, in particular. Some of her rhymes are inspired: one autumn, I was quite hooked on "Ray, can we repay/Ourselves for days that we've lost through indecision/With one of recognition?/If so, then here I go/'Cause some things you know/And some you just believe in/And hope it comes out even." She also has my undying love for rhyming "here" with "chanticleer."

What are the snippets of poetry or musical lyrics that stay close to you? What have you memorised? What have you read at weddings (or funerals)? Comments encouraged!

Literacy initiatives at my old high school

Heritage Regional High School, formerly Macdonald Cartier High School, where I attended the now-unavailable International Baccalaureate program, was written up in the Gazette recently for some upcoming literacy initiatives.

First of all, due to re-shuffling since I left (and MCHS was always big), the school's catchment area is now roughly the size of Northern Ireland. Yikes!!

I have many very, very fond memories of teachers, especially in the English department, from my time at MCHS, including Carol Tynan, Carmen Woolgar, and Mr Jones (I still think of you when I hear the Counting Crows song) in the English department. Woolgar and Jones had enough faith in me, despite shyness and general uncoolness, to cast me in the school play, and Mrs. Tynan, especially, encouraged my writing. I still remember her obstinate ways, too, including making us all memorize passages from Antony and Cleopatra ("You'll remember these later and thank me!"), exhorting us to learn the rules before we break them (using the story of Picasso scrawling something abstract on a napkin as payment at a bar. When an observer points out he could have scrawled something similar, Picasso admits, "Yes, but first, you draw a horse!") and making us listen to Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel #2," refusing to explain the opening lines, and making sure we didn't tell our parents we heard them.

Another thing I always found interesting when I looked back at my time at MCHS was that we had a very large library, staffed by an actual librarian or tech (I confess I didn't much care at the time, but as my Math teacher frequently pointed out, she was young and hot). It was two floors, no less. I should really go back and investigate. It's just so hard to find a reason to visit St. Hubert, across from the military base. A real tourist destination, let me tell you.

Anyway, the Gazette piece profiles a new(ish) English teacher's efforts to galvanise interest in literature among the students, including talks by Mike Boone (about journalism and hockey), Endre Farkas (about poetry), Sheree Fitch (about writing), Norman Nawrocki (about multi-media creativity), and the Montreal Shakespeare Theatre Company's Dany Lopez (about Shakespeare). English teacher Mary Eva's other big project is a Hemingway Six-Word Short Story contest (oh, for God's sake, if you don't know what that refers to, look it up).

Love it!