10/16/2009 Homework!
I've been taking a creative writing class at StoryStudio Chicago for the past few weeks. It's been a lot of fun. The best part is just being in a classroom again. Gee wiz I sure like it! We have writing assignments and HOMEWORK. I was good and tried doing some of it last weekend right after the class (we each drew slips of paper and had to write about the person described. I got "tollbooth attendant on a Monday morning. " I named her Louise).
However I sort of waited on finishing the rest until this evening. I guess procrastination never truly abandons us. I went out with some of my coworkers after work today for a drink, and as I was sipping my martini and thinking about the start of the weekend I thought, hmmm, now that I'm imbibing, maybe I should have done my homework earlier! But that thought didn't last too long as my attention returned to my 4 coworkers and our immense pride in ourselves for actually GOING OUT after work- as in, SEEING EACH OTHER OUTSIDE OF THE OFFICE. Not only that, but a group of us actually peeled ourselves away from the computer and the phone and ate lunch TOGETHER today and AWAY FROM OUR DESKS. This never happens. And it made me happy.
With this feeling of satisfaction, I got home and was picking up the cat and cooing into his face and telling him how much I love him, when that rotten animal lunged at me with his TEETH, hard, so that I now have this huge scratch going down my nose. I mean what kind of "congrats on being halfway done with being on call" greeting is that? That boy is in some trouble. So, I cleaned up my nose, sat down on the couch, and worked on finishing my assignment for tomorrow.
And I wanted to share this assignment, because I've really enjoyed working on it and it's a good "get me started" exercise. We were all given a copy of the poem Where I'm From by George Ella Lyon (who I guess is a woman named George? ? ). What we had to do was make our own version of the poem. We read our rough drafts in class last week and had to polish them up for tomorrow. Y'all should try it- it's kinda cool to see what comes to mind!
Here's mine:
I am from Windex,
from the wet vac and the spot remover
I am from the hobbly nobbly roots
and the shade that never allowed the annuals to grow.
I’m from the lilac bush,
deep purple piercing through the windshield gleam
on a country dirt road,
its shoots rescued by DeLisle women
before the earth was churned into a subdivision.
I am from Shake n’ Bake pork and mashed potato flakes.
Keep your elbows off the table, and
Say Please and Thank you.
Place the fork and knife on the side of your plate when you’re done.
I’m from green customs labels and packages on the doorstep,
chocolate digestives, custard creams, and ginger snaps
nestled within bubble wrap and
Marks and Spencer socks.
I’m from the cacophony of barks and toe nails
scrambling on Pergo floors
to the frightened person standing on the porch.
I’m from latchkey mornings and papers to grade,
Working parents dissolving in the June warmth. One summer was filled with musty library books and crinkly laminated covers,
the “Shelby Township’s top readers” headline rolled into the newspaper box,
and my sister’s face in newsprint.
Then came a crisp morning and we trudged off,
backpacks bouncing with each step
taken through the dew.
Lindsay Walker Rhodes
