Grateful Note: The Poetry of Hopkins for Our Spring and Fall

This morning, I'm grateful for the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins with his sounds and sights of splendid splotches of imagination and visualization in poems such as "Pied Beauty": 

   For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

      For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;

   Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;

      And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

My first encounter with Hopkins was in a college course with Dr. Gilbert Findlay at CSU, a professor who I am also grateful for, for so many reasons. Dr. Findlay's frequent go-to approach to poetry was to "stick the poem in your ear," reading it dramatically with his animated Scottish accent, and to further challenge us to "take this poem and look at it," and to often look at it again, and again. The rhythms of close reading, reader-response discussions, and more independent close reading challenges did much to coach my attention span and appreciation of poetry, poetic craft, and various and sundry poets. 

Grateful Note: Bill Moyers Was (and Is) a Great Guide to Better Conversations, Relationships, and Ideas

This morning, I'm grateful for the life and work of Bill Moyers. Back in June of this year, Moyers moved on to join the Undiscovered Conversation after his earthly life ended, thereby wrapping up his life's calling of being a charitable, thoughtful, conversant journalist and all-around decent human being. 

My first encounter with Moyers was via my senior English class back in the mid 80s when our teacher showed video recordings of Moyers interviewing philosopher Mortimer Adler about Six Great Ideas (truth, goodness, beauty, liberty, equality, and justice). I was intrigued by Adler's rough and tumble approach to conversation and philosophy; I probably soaked up a little too much of that approach and attitude over the years of watching, listening to, and reading Adler. The much better influence was actually Bill Moyers, who artfully asked questions about ideas, relationships, flourishing, society, and self-development, inviting all sorts of people into conversations, questions, and relationships. Those weren't the sort of conversations I was used to at home, at school, or elsewhere in public. Although they're both good to emulate as stewards and curators of ideas, I often find myself needing to be a lot more like Moyers and a little less like Adler in terms of engaging others and ideas. (My lovely wife's cue for this has been variations on, "You might want to soften that...")

Grateful Note: Many Students Really Do Want to Learn, Even in an AI Age

This morning, I'm grateful for how my three sections of English composition at our community college this semester are packed with students who want to learn. 

Despite the hysteria I sometimes hear from columnists, news commentaries, and some educators, most of my students seem interested in learning how to use AI tools responsibly for learning and writing, as well as how to work and learn well without the tools.