Day of wonders

1.  I got to class on time, in spite of how late I had to drive last night!

2.  Jim's become even more picky---there are 15 spots every summer, but he took only 12 of us in 2011, then 11 in 2012, and now 10 this year---(in view of which) I'm really glad I got accepted for the third year in a row!

3.  Jim remembered me!

And not even half of the day is over, but I wanted to blog already, just in case I get too wasted to write later :)

The poems he read us while introducing the class this time were by James Wright, Charles Wright, and James Tate (in that order).  I think I might spend the rest of this week posting the James Wright pieces he mentioned today ...  here's the one we discussed in detail:

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Northern Pike

By James Wright

All right.  Try this,

Then.  Every body

I know and care for, 

And every body

Else is going 

To die in a loneliness

I can't imagine and a pain

I don't know.  We had

To go on living.  We 

Untangled the net, we slit

The body of this fish

Open from the hinge of the tail

To a place beneath the chin

I wish I could sing of.

I would just as soon we let

The living go on living.

An old poet whom we believe in

Said the same thing, and so

We paused among the dark cattails and prayed

For the muskrats,

For the ripples below their tails,

For the little movements that we knew the crawdads were making under water,

For the right-hand wrist of my cousin who is a policeman.

We prayed for the game warden's blindness.

We prayed for the road home.

We ate the fish.

There must be something very beautiful in my body,

I am so happy.