the same round here. I once touched a student on her shoulder because she
was so tensed, just touched. Nothing happened, she sort of looked at me
inquiring if anything was wrong...
It would have been so much easier if she had relaxed her extremely stiff
shoulders.
But then that is how it must be within the system: concrete-like.
On 6/1/07, Halvard Johnson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Here in Litigationstan the only safe thing is never to touch them at all
> unless they're collapsing in a fit of epilepsy and never to call them
> anything
> but Mr. or Ms. So-and-so, or, collectively "people."
>
> And then you can't be entirely sure that you're safe.
>
> Hal
>
> Jay Billington Bulworth for President
>
> Halvard Johnson
> ================
> [log in to unmask]
> [log in to unmask]
> http://home.earthlink.net/~halvard
> http://entropyandme.blogspot.com
> http://imageswithoutwords.blogspot.com
> http://www.hamiltonstone.org
>
>
>
>
>
> On Jun 1, 2007, at 11:23 AM, andrew burke wrote:
>
> > Ah, Fred, you've clipped me on the chin with that one. But I don't
> > call them
> > 'dear' - I pat them on the shoulder or head paternalistically and
> > smile, in
> > 'an attempt to appear residually cute'. Hold that poem for the next
> > 'senior's anthology' ... Androo
> >
> > On 01/06/07, Frederick Pollack <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hold That Pose
> >>
> >>
> >> I've started addressing my female students
> >> as "dear." I've started alluding
> >> to "students" in poems, thereby admitting
> >> that almost all poets teach and that
> >> poetry is a minor academic
> >> hobby. I long since started referring
> >> to "poetry," "poems," "poets," "the poem,"
> >> "the poet" in poems, which, unless
> >> you're Rilke or Wallace Stevens, or too
> >> provincial to know better, is a major
> >> no-no, reducing poetry, poems, etc.
> >> to the level of a domestic appliance like
> >> a washer-dryer or email. And, deplorably,
> >> I mention "I," which has the same effect.
> >> But the worst is addressing my female students
> >> as "dear." It may be an elegy
> >> for youth and sexuality; a plea,
> >> on the basis of age, for their forbearance; a way
> >> of making myself seem paternal and them
> >> work harder; or, because I'm not yet
> >> decrepit enough to pull it off,
> >> an attempt to appear residually cute.
> >> The wattles in the mirror contain
> >> specialized cells tuned
> >> to falling real-estate values, health-plans
> >> planning to double their rates or abandon
> >> my pre-existing conditions;
> >> the famous inner seventeen-year-old
> >> avoids mirrors, therefore,
> >> and spends his whole day hating and afraid.
> >> The thought, on whose keen double edge
> >> I prided myself, has sprouted
> >> new blades like an unruly gadget,
> >> cutting my fingers as I try to write
> >> my sermons, which are further hampered
> >> by fragmentary text and doubtful doctrine;
> >> today's is "Nothing is hidden."
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Andrew
> > http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
> > http://www.inblogs.net/hispirits
> > http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
>
|