Day 17, April 2, 2020

Day 17, April 2, 2020

I have always been attracted to sweet and melancholy melodies. I wonder if that comes from being the son of a violinist. In high school I saw this girl in my grade, Anne, sing a solo in chorus from Les Misérables, and I was smitten. And later when I started playing in a trio with her and Brig, I had one of those incurable and unconsummated teen crushes. She sang Joni Mitchell songs and Brig and I played guitar and carried sheet music scotch taped together seven or eight pages long that we'd lay across the floor wherever we played. It was a little ridiculous, but wonderful fun, and satiated my crush so a small degree.

Some spring flowers by the Sawmill River

Our senior year, I went with a group of friends to see Neil Young play a solo acoustic show at, what was then called, Great Woods. It was a truly transcendent show, not the least of which was due to a downpour, followed by chants of "No rain! No rain!" echoing his Live Rust album, and some frenzied mud slides down the slope. The next morning we gathered at Anne's house to eat breakfast, and when the paper arrived we jockeyed for position to read the review of the concert. I allowed myself to be edged away from the table and picked up the front page of the Boston Globe from the floor, which showed the devastating aftermath of the Chinese government's crackdown in Tiananmen Square. The pro-democracy movement had been crushed. It was the end of a moment. I never felt so apart from my peers as in that living room. I wished I had not seen the paper so I could still revel in ignorance and innocence.

It was a historic time, the fall of the Berlin wall, the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa, Galsnost, and the Pro-Democracy Movement in China, all within the span of a few years. It seemed like real change was happening in the world at an unimaginable pace. But along with progress, there was disappointment. Utopia does not emerge from a few moments of celebration. I guess I know that now. 

And like in high school, I wish I could revisit the moments before the pandemic overtook our lives and bask in that moment a little longer. 

I was leading a Changing Lives Through Literature book group, which is made up of probationers, probation officers from the superior and district courts, and judges from the superior and district courts. We are all in the classroom together, reading, writing, and discussing literature. After five weeks, I had finally learned everyone's names, we had just finished reading Daniel Hales' Run Story, and Leslie Marmon Silko's  Ceremony. We were about to start Toni Morrison's Bluest Eye, and Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. The group really had some momentum, Daniel had just visited the class to talk about his book, and as happens every year I facilitate the group, everyone was impressing me with their insights and interpretations. 

At the beginning of each reading group, I would ask all the participants to share a beautiful thing they had witnessed over the course of the previous week and written down on one of the 3x5 cards I had given them. But really, the reading group was my beautiful thing each week. It was amazing to see people who had experienced so much suffering, challenges, and loss in their lives, think so deeply and intelligently about the literature we were reading. It was beautiful.

We didn't get to finish our group this year. But at least I was able to hand out Ceremony and On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous  so they all have something to read. I hope they are all doing well and staying safe.

And I hope you are all doing well and staying safe. It is hard some days. 

But it is also a beautiful thing to remember who we were, to reach out to the people in our lives now, and to think about what we will read next.

Take care and be well,

Leo

Another view of the Sawmill River.

From Our Friends:

From the Montague Reporter

Daniel Hales' new book of poetry.

Are you craving some local news? For the last several years the Montague Reporter has been my respite from mainstream media. For the duration of the pandemic, the paper has ceased print production, but is opening its paywall to all readers, so feel free to read and enjoy. And if you can send them a few dollars to support the reporters during this uncertain time, I'm sure they would appreciate it.

From Mass Poetry:

Mass Poetry has put out a call for Poems of the Moment that resonate with this moment in time. Selected submissions will be highlighted in a newsletter.

From Poet Daniel Hales

I just received his new book, ¿Cómo Hacer Preguntas? or How to Make Questions: 69 Instructional Poems in English. I can't wait to read it. You can see Daniel read some of his work from Run Story here:

Today's Online Teaching Tips:

From Higher Ed Jobs

An article talking about some of the challenges students with disabilities face when moving to an online class. Not a lot of details, but good reminders.

From Academic Impressions

A free webinar on How to Manage Stress as a Faculty Member During Uncertain Times. Seems like that might be helpful.

The first wooly bear of the season.