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This morning Aidan (my six year old son) and I sat for an hour together watching Ted Kooser read his poetry to a packed hall at UC Santa Barbara in August of 2005. Kooser has such a gentle and honest style. He helps us notice the simple magnificence that surrounds us all. It was an hour well spent. Aidan was enthralled.

Tags:   performance · poetry · reading · videoNo Comments.

Thrown with a slap
The heft of cool clay
Against stainless steel wheel
Etched with concentric circles.
Center.

Crooked, imbalanced
Like the bent rim
From a childhood bicycle
It thumps with
Centrifugal petulance

Against cupped and pressing
Hands slouched over the work
Muscling into form
As the whirl of the wheel quickens
and flings droplets like chocolate milk.

Thumbs digging in
Dirty fingers and
Knuckles caked with mud
Shapes up and yields
To fine form.

Until a final pull
When the clay bucks and finds its own way.

Tags:   art · child development · poem · potteryNo Comments.

Wandering in apart from the herd,
Unpredictable (dangerous),
Spirited and wild-eyed,
With steady hand,
Outside the lines you go.
Corralled into rows,
Orderly, controlled,
Understanding the boundaries now,
Your hand begins to shake.
First grade eyes welling with tears.
               He’ll adjust in time;
               It’s the most natural thing.
You learn helplessness.
Managed into form;
Artificial accomplishment,
Leaves you wanting more
               stars, stamps, stickers.
You learn what’s important
In single-file efficiency
Through curriculum and test.
The best stamped grade A,
Fit for mass consumption.
The rest, creative and curious,
Spilt on the kill-room floor.

Success conferred upon you
Like a sledgehammer to the brain.

Tags:   criticism · institutional matters · learning · poem2 Comments