Sunday, March 25, 2012

Garbage Truck


After much deliberation, I've decided simply to post this poem, and see what you folks might make of it - without my guidance. Consider the title, the speaker (we call the narrator of a poem, the speaker) the images throughout, etc. Have at it ladies and gentlemen; I am eager to see what you have to say.


Garbage Truck

by Michael Ryan

Once I had two strong young men hanging off my butt
and a distinctive stink that announced
when I was inching down your street
at the regal, elephantine pace
that let my men step down from me running
to heave your garbage into my gut
then fling the clanging metal cans
to tumble and rumble, crash and leap
back to sort-of-where you'd lugged them to the curb
before another oblivious night of sleep.
Did you think life was tough?
I reveled in it, all the stuff
you threw out, used up, let rot,
the pretty packaging, the scum, the snot,
vomit and filth, everything you thought
useless, dangerous, or repugnant:
I ate it for breakfast. I hauled it
out of sight. And what did I get?
You were annoyed by my noise.
You coughed at my exhaust.
Your kids stopped playing in the street
to pinch their noses and gag theatrically
with no clue how sick they'd be without me.
I was the lowest of the low, an untouchable,
yet I did what I did and did it well.
Now I am not laughable: a "waste management vehicle"
denatured robotic sanitized presentable.
My strong young men are gone. I have no smell.
I'm painted deep green to look organic and clean.
Your "residential trash carts" are matching green
injection-molded high-density polyethylene
that barely thuds when I lower them to the ground
after I've stabbed and lifted and upended them
with twin prongs that retract into my side
so not to scratch anything or scare anyone.
Who can complain? Right there on your street
I mash and compact and obliterate your waste.
You need never give it a second thought.
It's safe it's easy nobody gets dirty.
It's how you want your life to be.
But life's not garbage. Garbage is life.
Look what you've got. Look what you throw out.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Modern Love

The robins and bluebirds have returned. Days are getting longer and the earth is getting warmer. Flowers are springing up through the clods; they'll bloom in just a few short weeks. Spring and love are in the air in equal measure.

Or so I've been told. I am oblivious to such things. There is no joy in my life. Allow me to share my misery ...

The following poem is taken from Modern Love, a poetic sequence by the British writer George Meredith. Please read the poem and share your thoughts as comments. Remember to post at least twice, once in response to my queries and again in response to your classmates. Consider the following questions ...

  • What is the concept of modern love as offered in the poem? 
  • How does this concept of love compare with your own?
  • Are there any images in the poem that seem strange? ... why are they strange?
  • What might be the significance of the words that are capitalized?

from Modern Love



By this he knew she wept with waking eyes:
That, at his hand's light quiver by her head,
The strange low sobs that shook their common bed
Were called into her with a sharp surprise,
And strangled mute, like little gaping snakes,
Dreadfully venomous to him. She lay
Stone-still, and the long darkness flowed away
With muffled pulses. Then, as midnight makes
Her giant heart of Memory and Tears
Drink the pale drug of silence, and so beat
Sleep's heavy measure, they from head to feet
Were moveless, looking through their dead black years,
By vain regret scrawled over the blank wall.
Like sculptured effigies they might be seen
Upon their marriage-tomb, the sword between;
Each wishing for the sword that severs all.



     - George Meredith

How to Cite an E-Book

For those of you who have been wondering how to cite an Ebook from Kindle or Nook (either as part of a bibliography or parenthetically), I think I've found a resource.

A short search on the Modern Language Association's (MLA) website revealed the following page ...

EBook Citation Format

I've included all the relevant information here for everyone, but each of you should visit the MLA website on your own, and explore the resources available for you. The numbers that follow some paragraphs (i.e. 5.7.18) refer to specific sections of the MLA Guide for Writers of Research Papers.

"In general, a work formatted for reading on an electronic device like Kindle, Nook, and iPad is covered by 5.7.18. Begin the entry in the works-cited list like the entry for a comparable printed work and end it with a designation of the medium of publication. The medium is the type of electronic file, such as Kindle file, Nook file, EPUB file, or PDF file. If you cannot identify the file type, use Digital file. For example:

Rowley, Hazel. Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage. New York: Farrar, 2010. Kindle file.

If the work presents electronic and print publication information, the electronic information should usually be cited.

Most electronic readers include a numbering system that tells users their location in the work. Do not cite this numbering, because it may not appear consistently to other users. If the work is divided into stable numbered sections like chapters, the numbers of those sections may be cited, with a label identifying the nature of the number (6.4.2):

According to Hazel Rowley, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt began their honeymoon with a week’s stay at Hyde Park (ch. 2).
or
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt began their honeymoon with a week’s stay at Hyde Park (Rowley, ch. 2).

(The abbreviation ch. is shown in 7.4. There is a comma in a parenthetical citation after the author’s name if the following reference begins with a word.)

If the work is a PDF file with fixed pages, cite the page numbers. If the work lacks any kind of stable section numbering, the work has to be cited as a whole (6.4.1)."