DUE MARCH 26

Well, we are having class. I've really ended up sick
though (grr). So I believe it will be abbreviated. Here
are some assignments for over break. Understand that
I approach this class a bit more as if the students were
aching to write and do these various assignments . . .

So, these assignments, for over spring break, will help
you with your book, and, well, will be a lot of fun. They
are all to be posted on your blog by NOON on March 26.

Do a couple in the next few days. Then casually work
on a couple more etc. This will help you generate work
for the book, so in a way, other than # 5, it's all part of
assignment #8.

When we return we'll really turn attention to the
assembling / perfecting of the chapbook.

1. Post the TITLE of your chapbook, followed by
your table of contents (as it presently stands--it will
change, obviously, as we move forward).*

2. Write, and post, a 13 line erasure poem of a
newspaper article. Give it a title. Write it IN LINES
(not as a prose poem). Reference the article at the bottom
of the poem, in a note (where it appeared, title).*

3. Write a poem in which you steal a line from
Samyn (more exactly, from a poem of hers from
My Life in Heaven). The poem (yours) should
have a one word title and for the last two lines
rhyme the end words. Your poem should be between
fifteen and nineteen lines long. Include Samyn's
line AS IS, entire, anywhere in the poem. At the
bottom of your blog post, give the title of the Samyn
poem you used.*

4. Write a 150 word paragraph describing what you think
the qualities that define your book are (so far)--everything
from themes, to stylistic ideas. If you had to write a short
150 word description to stick on Amazon, describing your
book, what would it say (look at books on Amazon. Look
at the description for Orphan, Indiana, for example (one
of my books)? Post the paragraph on your blog.*

5. Pick two of your classmates' poems from the blogs
simply as poems you totally dig. Say why in fifteen words.
Post the poems on your blog.*

6. Read the entire Schomberg book.* Imitate a Schomberg
poem, if you want, for your book (the assignment here is
just to do the reading--but feel free to imitate the word for
your chapbook . . .).

7. Peruse Lulu's website, checking out how you will make your
chapbook. We'll talk generally about this in class, though you
will need to do the work and figure this out. It cost a few dollars
(perhaps not if you decide to sell it).

8. Keep working, on your own, on poems for your chapbook
because on April 2 you will bring in 16 to 24 pages of poems
for the last go-through in class for your chapbook. If you want
to, and I hope someone will do this, you can bring your poems
for this in and hand them out on March 26, which will give
us a bit more time to do them all. As usual, we're fighting
for time. Any volunteers? You don't have to stick to what you
bring in, btw. You can keep working until the point where
you send the ms off to be printed (electronically).*