Gahanna - ya know ya wanna...

These young ladies are practicing attitude!

Laughing with us or at us - your call.


Another fan overcome by emotion.


Visited Ghanna Middle School a couple weeks back. Here're some pics taken by Lisa the Librarian who invited us down!

In Dog We Trust

We live in a very doggy neighborhood.

This morning our neighbor’s beagle was trying to warn the whole block of some imagined, impending danger and began barking and howling around 5am and continued this feat for three hours. God knows what was rattling around inside the little guy’s skull that made him decide the best course of action would be wailing like some Scottish ghost walking the upper floor halls of a moss covered castle overlooking Loch Ness.

I come from a canine friendly family – my parents have bred and raised English Mastiffs for years and usually have a half dozen or so of the 200 plus pound dogs lumbering around in a pack around their place. One of my sisters raises boxers – a breed that always looks to be incredulous and another sister has a farm where her mismatched pack of dogs roams unencumbered. We have a beagle mix of our own named Hector Wingnut Rodriguez who was brought home from a Home Depot parking lot and our foo foo dog – Suzette Crème Fromage a Papillion with a mild case of OCD.

Even with all this experience I rarely can guess what is going on in a dog’s mind. Why does Suzi suddenly jump from a deep sleep and race to another part of the house? Why did Mikey – a one eyed Boston terrier we once owned lick walls? Did Hector expect us to pay him for the trenches he dug across our back yard? What is the next door neighbor’s beagle’s problem? Who knows?

One of my favorite inscrutable dog actions is my parent’s pack of mastiffs harmonized howling whenever they hear a siren go by the house which - since a fire station is only a block away - happens with some frequency. We don’t know which of their dozens of dogs started the tradition but even as one is replaced with the next the habit is passed down so that the entire mob joins in the a cappella choir.

My father is near the top of the food chain when it comes to backyard mechanics. He has a garage that is better equipped than most Sears car repair centers. So his is the place where brake jobs, oil changes, and even bodywork and paint jobs are performed. On several occasions I have helped with different projects including the resizing of eight foot tall four foot wide metal storage bins where I learned to become quite proficient with an acetylene torch.

During one of these activities – instigated by me – bodywork and painting of a friend’s RX7 my dad was seriously injured. While crouching down to primer the back bumper of the little sports car he tipped over accompanied by a snapping sound. Both of his knees are replacements and we assumed that one had given out. Lying on his back wincing as if he were listening to a preliminary round of American Idol the old man is shouting at me to “Snap it back – snap it back!”

And I’m going like, “What the hell you talking about snap it back!?”

“Damn it, just pop my knee back in!”

Now might be a good time to let you know my dad is a lunatic – he’s been kicked in the teeth by a horse he tried to stop by grabbing its tail as well as being ejected like a champagne cork from the back porch while working on a live 220 line. Thus I took his suggestion of popping his knee back into place like it was part of a Lego set with a grain of salt. Even so I picked up his foot to see what could be done. His leg flopped around like a broken bicycle chain wrapped in a tube sock.

“Ain’t no popping into place happening here – I’m calling 911,” I said.

That’s when the magic happened.

As the ambulance arrived – sirens hailing their approach my parent’s mastiffs were in ecstasy. It had come! Their howling finally paid off – the magic squealing flashy light thing that they had been summoning through generations of champion producing bloodlines had paid off. Their ancestors were avenged and now smiled proudly down from canine Valhalla upon their progeny as they rolled in the grass flashing the whites of their eyes and kicking their legs as if they were experiencing small electric shocks – which they may have been. Like an obscure aboriginal legend passed down during clandestine rites of passage ceremonies these dogs had no idea why they howled and to suddenly be face to face with their deity – well let me just say it was overwhelming.

Dad had fractured his femur but he healed well and is up and about again and now his dogs have a new story to pass onto their pups, of the time when the siren – every bit as magical as Ulysses’ - actually paid a visit.

Got Platelets?

Those who know me and my triathlon habit know that the part of the race I loathe is the run. I’d be much better ending a race moving large rocks or chopping down a tree than running any distance. 200 to 205 pounds is a bit of a load to rumble down the road with.

So what am I doing this year? I’m training to run a half marathon in May. I still plan on doing three or four Tris this year but this Cleveland Marathon is special. I’ll be running as part of Team Stephanie in honor of Stephanie Lufkin – our granddaughter who we lost last May to complications associated with the blood disorder ITP.

I joined team ITP as a memorial to Stephie and I’ll be wearing this gear during all my races until it is threadbare. Take a couple minutes and check out Stephie’s page. Then if you’d like feel free to become one of my sponsors.

I heart Warrensville Library

Started an after school writing program
at the Warrensville Heights Library yesterday. Fridays @ 3:15 'til 5:15. I had a crew of vivacious participants at our first session where we talked a bit about understanding metaphor and wrote about our circle of friends as if they were all parts of a single body. I'm looking forward to our next meeting, part of the drop-in writing and performance sessions that the education department of Playhouse Square and I came up with a couple years ago and still going strong.

Who amongst your friends would you compare to the brain - the eyes - the feet - the heart etc. etc.?

2 minute play #7

Diner – two men are sitting at the counter next to each other with cups of coffee. They are facing the audience. The men are dressed as if they are ready to work in the fields. Ball caps with agricultural themed patches i.e. John Deere or Monsanto. Carhartt type bib overalls long sleeved flannel shirts – sleeves buttoned at wrists heavy boots caked in dried mud. The men are in their late forties early fifties.

Man 1: “So then she says to me – you and your dad are both a couple pussies”

Man2: “Well that’s a bit harsh. This was yesterday?”

Man1: “Yeah - Tell me about it, I’m thinking like – c’mon Mom give me a break”

Man2: “How old’s your old man again?”

Man1: “I don’t know – eighty-something I guess.”

Man2: “Wow”

Man1: “Yeah”

The men drink their coffees – a waitress shows up and gives them a warm up – no words are exchanged but Man 2 winks at her.

Man2: “Oh – did you hear? The Barnharts’ have got gnomes.”

Man1: “That blows – they builders or diggers?”

Man2: “They got diggers – the pasture looks like some drunk has been driving a big ass trencher all over it. Deep too, one of the girls fell in and Andy had to lie on his belly to reach her.”

Man1: "Goddamn gnomes – anyone see them yet?”

Man2: “Naw, you know how it goes”

Man1: “I had builders once.”

Man2: “I remember”

The men gaze into the distance for a bit.

Man1: “Wake up and you can’t even get to your barn, the whole yard lousy with arbors and wishing wells, little windmills all made outta my firewood god I hated those bastards.”

Man2: “You know – I heard that the diggers and the builders are actually the exact same species – you take a digger and throw him in with a bunch of builders he becomes a builder.”

Man1: “Yep – that’s a fact. They’re pert near kept alive by peer pressure – I heard tell if you got an even number of diggers and builders in a group they’ll freeze in place – won’t do a thing – you can stack ‘em like bales of hay and just drive em off your property in a cart. ‘Course I ain’t never seen it happen – hell I never even seen the ones that was building all that crap in my yard.”

Man2: “How’d you get rid of ‘em?”

Man1: “Well, I ain’t proud to say – but I bribed ‘em. Thousand dollars worth a hand tools – 55 gallon drum of Country Time lemonade and a pickup bed full of onions – I figured there had to be a couple a dozen of ‘em as fast as they was building that stuff”

Man2: “Dude, you negotiated with gnomes!?”

Man1: “Negotiate? Hell, I gave up – all I know is they took the stuff and was gone. Sometimes ya gotta bite a bullet – You watch if you don’t see Andy at the hardware store buyin’ a butt load of fancy shovels an' picks.”

Man2: “I guess, but it still don’t seem…”

Man1: “You come and talk with me AFTER you’ve had gnomes.”

The men finish their coffees.

Man1: “Okay – gotta hit the fields”

Man2 “Seeya ‘morrow”

Just deserts...

Phoenix Arizona was amazingly green
relatively speaking – compared to other summertime trips to the state. We have just returned from the International Reading Association conference where we signed books and ran the Poetry Olio. The Poetry Olio is an evening of poetry and sometimes song which happens one evening each conference. Sara and I have been involved with this event for quite a few years, acting as some of the principle ringleaders the last couple.

We had a stellar line up this year thanks to the efforts of Dr. Jim Blasingame – full time young adult literature expert (and part-time cowboy poet) from Arizona State University. Our performers included – Simon Ortiz, Alberto Rios, Laura Tobe, and Kyle Wilson. Our featured poet was the ever enjoyable Nikki Grimes – winner of a pickup truck’s worth of awards for her many books. Sara and I were also on stage. I’ve got to say – of all the Olios I have attended this one took the tamale for sheer literary power.

Debbie uncharacteristically standing still.

Luckily for us though, the time in Arizona was not all work – we managed to squeeze some hikes into the mountains in as well thanks to our very good friends Debbie and Guy – who fed, watered, and sheltered us during our visit.

Sara and Debbie

Petroglyphs

Moose Goosing - Texas Style

Just back from a visit

to the Highland Park School district which hugs the city limits of Dallas Texas – We visited both the intermediate and the middle school which are joined at the hip in a state of the art complex.

Everything about the visit was great – the hotel, our poet wranglers Leesa and Sally couldn’t have been more on top of things and the students were attentive, lively and engaged. It would be easy to just gush about how peachy keen everything was – so let’s suffice to say the visit was top notch.

While there, we presented an impromptu teacher session for a rather diverse group from the district schools. We had high school English teachers, third grade classroom teachers, Spanish teachers and even some folks from the front office sit in on the session.

We talked about strategies using poetry as a tool for literacy and comprehension in the classrooms and then we ran a quick demonstration poetry slam with a handful of the attendees. Now since we hadn’t given any prior instructions to those attending the session, we provided the poems for the contestants to perform – in a real slam the participator would be performing their own material – but as we are modeling how to run one of these we give the teachers work to stage. We use verse by authors like Marge Piercy, Billy Collins, Marc Smith, Langston Hughes and our ringer Mason Williams.

The subject matter of the pieces range from rivers, bonsai trees, teaching poetry, paternal relationships to moose goosing – that’s Mason’s contribution – a humorous piece about well, sticking your thumb in a moose’s hiney. Invariably the piece about moose goosing will win the slam and we use this as a teaching moment – explaining that the chance of actually picking your best poet via a poetry slam is pretty slim. But, what we do advocate as the real benefit of using slam in schools is the fun and excitement that surrounds the whole event – making writing and sharing a playful activity rather than a source of anxiety.

So as usual – Mason’s piece won the slam and the woman who performed it had the rest of the audience shrieking with laughter and stomping their feet. Then, something very interesting happened. From what I gathered later, this participant held some sort of authority position in the school – her job required her to expedite tasks required of the rest of the teachers so she spent a lot of her day asking co-workers where this bit of info was, when will I get this, have you finished that yet…

This is the persona that the others in the room knew her by. They had no idea that she could belt out a piece about sticking an umbrella into a moose’s bottom with such gusto. It was reported to me that one teacher commented that they had no idea this person was so much fun, since all previous interactions were task expediting centered – this person even went on to say – “I think I’d like to go out for lunch with her sometime.”

THIS is what bringing the arts into the forefront of a school can do. It can change relationships, open eyes, give people the opportunity to show another side of their personality. I can really empathize with our moose-gooser. I have organized innumerable events and been the task master on many occasions. It is a lonely job at times and never garners the appreciation equal to the effort expended. We moose-goosers have to learn to be satisfied with the awareness of a job well done whether we receive public accolades or not (or in the worst case scenario – watch as others claim the glory for our efforts.)

So this post is for all those moose-goosers out there, you know who you are – the ones who make things happen on time – see that the check is in the mail – cross the T’s and dot the I’s – feed the visiting author - make those calls to the procrastinators and are general pains in the butt for the greater good. Wipe off your thumbs and point them to the sky!

Thanks for a job well done!

photos by Leesa Cole

Plano Texas - Teaching Teachers

Had a long

but successful day leading a couple professional development sessions here in Plano. Two three hour sessions with 75 Language Arts teachers in each. Special thanks to Lisa for all her help making us feel welcome and seeing that we had all the supplies needed, feeding and watering us as well as taking these pics.

Cleveland Montessori High School

Just received these pics from the Cleveland Montessori High School. I visited there a couple weeks back...





Another good bunch of kids – we talked imagery and metaphor – read some poems out loud and laughed quite a bit. I‘m not really sure what the paper moustache was all about though.

Thanks to the students and staff of a really cool school.

Well Defined Vocabulary in Rhyme.

It's official!

Well Defined Vocabulary in Rhyme - is published.

Actually it came out at the beginning of the week - I was hoping the publisher would have the Spring catalog up @ their website, but that is still coming. I know it's not really spring out there - but the publishing industry is always a couple months ahead of the calendar I just received my April issue of Bicyling magazine.

Anyway - I think the book came out really well. Well Defined that is - the April issue of Bicyling magazine isn't too shabby either - but I really don't have a vested interest in that publication...