In the end among the pleasures.

In the end, jazz has been my passport.
In the end, all of us have taken various types.
In the end, every book begins with dissatisfaction.
In the end that changed the world.
In the end, the crowded red double-decker bus inched its way...
In the end, without the new media.
In the end, who were among the earliest?
In the end, there are by now many.
In the end, my part in this book.
In the end, intricate designs created from many gleaming pieces.
In the end, all we can do is gaze in wonderment.
In the end  in the faraway land.
In the end, if you are beginning.
In the end it grew too big.
In the end too unexpected.
In the end on a spring day.

Thirteen Ways of Interpreting a Dream

I
Among all the innumerable nights
Counting sheep or breathing,
I eventually dreamed or didn't.

II
You had another idea
Like an insomniac
Who paces around the house as if in a dream.

III
The dream was a nightmare.
It made me feel more alive.

IV
A sleepless night and a turn
Are several.
A sleepless night and a turn and a dream
Are several.

V
I know I prefer
A victorious leap through the fiery ring
Or the magic of a circus,
The dream lingering
While I shower.

VI
My wife turned in the sheets
Pulling them away from me.
The dream was interrupted,
Returned to, lost.
I didn't know
If I would be able
To return to sleep.

VII
O wandering women of Lethe,
Why do you imagine fairy tales?
Here, in the darkness, the dream
Keeps to itself,
Haunts the men on the shores.

VIII
I know demonic whispers
And iron tortures of the heart,
But I am lost, too,
When the dream consumes
What I know.

IX
When the dream came upon me
I was unprepared
Outside a square.

X
When dreams storm
In a somnambulant cloud,
Heavenly heavings of metaphor
regale the uninitiated.

XI
She roamed from Purgatory
In a purge.
Often, abstraction engorged her
In that she mistook
What really happened
As dreams.

XII
Lights dim within the compound.
Dreams are hammering in.

XIII
It was all times of the day
And seasons
And it was a murderous one.
The dream escaped
Through the veil.

Does anyone teach science?

aluminum floor vents rattling
door squeals closed
another one shuts
someone walks down a yellow hallway
two ladies wearing abayas speaking Arabic
someone whispering
a mop bucket rolling down the corridor
sliding glass doors opening
a scratchy walkie-talkie report and beep
coughing
photocopier stuttering
footsteps on marble tiles
keys jingling in someone's pocket
how are you?
squeaky shoes
the rumbling custodian's cart
a bird chirping
an echo
i'm finished, sir
water running
people talking
how do i change it to English?

A Desert Love

Surrounded by wind, dust,
All alone in a car driving across the desert.
I think of my love,

Where she walks and wanders. My love
Made of sand and a cloud of us. Dust
That makes a terrible desert

Out of air. Out of the desert
We reached what we thought was love.
What we thought was dust

Returned to dust, a desert love.

Evil

You dream terribly. What success
Measures your sacrifice? Bubbles
Of blood stain grass

Where a corpse lies. Grass
Over graves of your success,
Your victim still suspires & bubbles

Appear on parted lips. What bubbles
Beneath the surface? Grass
Eventually dies in this cold tussle with success.

No success at all; bubbles of deliverance, dead grass.

Activity: Write an ABACADABA

Write a poem that matches the following rhyme scheme:

_________________________ a

_________________________ b

_________________________ a

_________________________ c

_________________________ a

_________________________ d

_________________________ a

_________________________ b

_________________________ a

Write a Cinquain

My graphic organizer on the whiteboard.

Wikipedia indicates that a cinquain is a poetic form that uses a 5-line pattern. There are different variations of the form, but we worked with the following structure:

Line 1: 2
Line 2: 4
Line 3: 6
Line 4: 8
Line 5: 2

Each line should include the number of syllables or, if that proved too difficult, words to include in each line. For an added twist, we added lines in reverse order to create a butterfly cinquain:

Line 1: 2
Line 2: 4
Line 3: 6
Line 4: 8
Line 5: 2
Line 6: 8
Line 7: 6
Line 8: 4
Line 9: 2

The explanation might not be clear, but, perhaps, by looking at what we made, it might become clearer.

sometimes

you look at me and see your reflection
or you see what's on the other side

i let the sun in during the day
the moon at night

nothing else may pass
unless i am broken

how to be your own BFF

dress nice
take selfies
(multiple times a day, if possible)
write notes to yourself
leave them on your fridge
tweet pictures of your cat and like them
treat yourself to a daily treat
(something sweet)
make heart shapes with your hands
when you see something that makes you smile
tell jokes that only you laugh at

you know who loves you

Exquisite Corpse Poem

Last week we wrote an exquisite corpse poem. Each line had to contain one of the following words: crash, flower, canvas, snap, turn or sleep.

Noor Al Thani
SomayaDorzadeh
Bob Marcacci

silence crashed down around us
the flowers are colorful in the forest
like the colors used in a canvas
in a field of flowers
sometimes we have to turn back to make up things
like restoring an artwork or a blank canvas
whose turn was it? she thought
sleeping eight hours a day is what makes you fresh in the morning

*

I always draw nature on a canvas
to me it resembles sleep
we turn over in our sheets and dream
students sleep late every day to finish their homework
crashing instantly afterwards
a sleeping cat rushed out from under the table
drawing on canvas is what makes your art beautiful
it resembles flowers full of life and color

*

their stems snapped and left its part behind
we slept on the fragments
the driver crashed his car while driving
driving over the breathtaking flowers
I thought, "this would make a great snap" and took out my phone
I do not take snaps because I think it is a waste of time
it drives me away from sleep and ruins my eyes
snaps the cord and reminds me who I really am