Essays: April 2003 Archive Page

"Anyone can write a bad poem. To appreciate a good one, though, takes knowledge and commitment. As a society, we lack this knowledge and commitment. People don’t possess the patience to read a poem 20 times before the sound and sense of it takes hold. They aren’t willing to let the words wash over them like a wave, demanding instead for the meaning to flow clearly and quickly. They want narrative-driven forms, stand-alone art that doesn’t require an understanding of the larger context.|I, too, want these things." Bruce Wexler

--Poetry is Dead. Does Anybody Really Care?MSNBC/Newsweek)

A heartfelt elegy, but perhaps overstated. Due to the enthusiasm of several members of the UWEC English faculty and a larger number of students, the local scene in Eau Clare features visiting poets, poetry slams and more. Will the students continue their love for poetry after they graduate? One hopes so. Wexler's essay is perhaps an agit-prop piece, inciting the faithful to rise up and take action. Don't miss the reference to Frost in the closing lines.

"In my opinion, the application forms for humanities Ph.D. programmes should carry the warning: 'Enter at your own risk.' The fine print should read: 'The risks include poverty, shame, humiliation, and clinical depression.' You will of course find no such warning on the graduate-school application forms. And incredibly enough, even at this stage in the game, you may still encounter tenured faculty members in said programmes who refuse to even consider the very sensible proposal of limiting graduate-school admissions in order to address the problem of an oversupply of academic job candidates, and who justify their position with such nuggets as, 'Well, nobody's forcing them to go to graduate school.' The more fools they. And the more fool you if you don't ask yourself some pretty tough questions before you sign on with them." Invisible Adjunct

--Still Thinking about Graduate School in the Humanities?Invisible Adjunct)

A painful assessment of the dark side of academia. An "adjunct" is a college teacher who does not have a long-term contract.

"I started an e-mail network almost spontaneously several years ago, when my next-door neighbor was mugged walking home from the bus stop at 6:30 p.m. Outraged, I sent out an e-mail to perhaps 20 neighbors, and within 24 hours, a dozen of them had volunteered for neighborhood patrols. | With that, our e-mail network was born." Jim Buie --Neighborhood Networks Recreate Village AtmosphereNat'l Neighborhood News)

Via KairosNews.