Dedicated
Ms. LDM, the Instituto's resident Rimbaud and so much more, bestowed upon me the gift of a bound collection of all her writing this past year. This was on the volume's dedication page:
I dedicate this amateurish work of shit to my three-year English teacher, Paschal Booker, for convincing me off my ass only to set it back down in front of the computer in the back of the room. I would like to let him know that I got a paper cut on an ant bite while compiling this, thus I think that the lack of wrapping or cover can be excused.
Hardly amateurish, and hardly shit. L sits in the back corner of the room: when she's not throwing down some of the most astounding fiction and poetry I have ever read (note that I do not say most astounding student fiction and poetry), she is off discovering the trails of her ancestors: this past week, she pinned Tristan Tzara's Dada Manifesto to my bulletin board, after which she asked if she could print out the Surrealists' 26-page manifesto, while she went off on a disquisition on Breton. This is a young woman bound for glory. In my awarding her the Outstanding Student Award for English III at this past week's Awards Day, I called her the Queen of all Genres, the Archivist of the Western Slopes, and a writer who is herself a living manifesto...
Her discovery of herself and the treasure within her is what we teachers live and love to see...
I dedicate this amateurish work of shit to my three-year English teacher, Paschal Booker, for convincing me off my ass only to set it back down in front of the computer in the back of the room. I would like to let him know that I got a paper cut on an ant bite while compiling this, thus I think that the lack of wrapping or cover can be excused.
Hardly amateurish, and hardly shit. L sits in the back corner of the room: when she's not throwing down some of the most astounding fiction and poetry I have ever read (note that I do not say most astounding student fiction and poetry), she is off discovering the trails of her ancestors: this past week, she pinned Tristan Tzara's Dada Manifesto to my bulletin board, after which she asked if she could print out the Surrealists' 26-page manifesto, while she went off on a disquisition on Breton. This is a young woman bound for glory. In my awarding her the Outstanding Student Award for English III at this past week's Awards Day, I called her the Queen of all Genres, the Archivist of the Western Slopes, and a writer who is herself a living manifesto...
Her discovery of herself and the treasure within her is what we teachers live and love to see...
Labels: dada boogie
posted by murat11 at 6:00 AM
12 Comments:
Well, shucks, this made me feel all warm and gushy; just the reaction Ms. LBD was probably trying prevent. Of course you're right, though: this growth is exactly what teachers live and love to see. Cheers to both of you dedicated souls -- it sounds like it has been a wonderful year!
Anno: I love the damping down of the emotion; you should have seen some of her yearbook signatures this past week: Cujo + Lovecraft. You'd think diabolical from all the gore, but she has a sweet heart of gold.
All you comment readers out there rest assured that Ms Anno knows full well that the initials are LDM: like some of us, her fingers move faster than her intentions "of" a Saturday morning.
LOVE reading about your students.
Happy Summer from a self possessed(not on purpose) Nashville sib.
Thank you, mi hermana. Self-possessed you are not. Happy summer to us all...
Now that must be feedback for the soul, Professor. Good on you.
Fantastic on every level.
Michael: Just watching her intuitively navigate many of the same trails I navigated about twelve years ago is a treat. And these navigations are with my full support, though I never once said anything about Tzara, Breton and his gang, etc. Gotta love the collective unconscious.
Tammie Lee: We're in the golden days: the last week of school, when cool surprises break out all over...
Reading this was sweet, reminded me of my nightmare teen years, all confused and angry and confusing anger for protection and control. I sprinkled that anger stuff liberally around to ward off the demons, never thinking it’d have the same effect on angels. So it’s good to hear the protective talk of a young heart’s work being shit is just crap because you were able to get to her and she knows it but says it’s ant-bit anyway so here, take this shit. LDM is the material indeed. And I’m glad you put these bits out here. They do more of that good work even better’n your sonnets : )
Sister A: What's so funny to me is the "convincing me off my ass," when in truth, I have always given LDM way more berth than anything else, just room to wander and be the artist that she is. She's always been a hell of a writer, even back to her freshman year, but long about mid junior year, she got serious, and somewhere along the way she realized that I have read a helluva lot of interesting shit through my days...on her own, she started tracking down the very same trails I hit when I said yes to writing and not maybe.
It's good to have you peeking out, ma soeur...
Yes, peeking I is ; )
Well, I understand that off my ass stuff to mean it took a long time to really get, I mean really get your sincerity, for it so soak in to a disbelieving, doubting-in-oneself self, to the point you dare put forth a blossom or two. And hey, if that blossom receives the ooh-ahh response from Mr. B that you expect, then yes! Means you can take another step and if that step gets it, then another…until you really do believe in yourself although you don’t want to let on that you do… There’s nothing like someone believing in you and you seeing that they do : )
Ms A: Amen to all that, minha irmã.
Post a Comment
<< Home