Semantics

Hump. What a word. Hump—a camel, a bump, sex, loading a truck with boxes and bags, the peak in a week. Wednesday is Humpday.

Why would I bring up such a topic? Well, today's Wednesday and I'm going to be humping it. Check out my to-do list:

1. Call in well for work at the CAP Tutor Center.

2. Hike Table Rock with my older son's, Gavyne's, class—accompanied by my wife, Renee, and our younger son, Baylin.

3. Update my writing portfolio for my interview at Whitecloud/Caveat Press tomorrow.

4. Get a haircut and shave off my soul patch.

5. Go to my ceramics class and hopefully get something accomplished.

6. Prepare a poem for my poem lab tomorrow in Adv. Poetry Writing.

7. Compile my poetry journal into a coherent, two-page log for my A.P.W. class.

8. Eat, breathe, drink, defecate...procreate?

I finished my assigned readings for poetry class yesterday: Roman Jakobson and Clark Coolidge. Jakobson uses such stilted language as to create a wall between him and the reader. I find it interesting that the Russian Formalists, who studied and were influenced by Primitivism, resort to such lofty language.

Have you ever heard of the technique used to help students with learning disabilities? They place different colored transparencies over the text to capture their attention. I wished I had some of those colors while reading Jakobson. He's dull, but with some agonizing reading and interpretation, I understood most of what he says. Hint: always keep a dictionary close at hand while reading any Russian Formalist.

Clark Coolidge on the other hand, while writing seemingly incoherent poetry, keeps it simple and clever. I don't know if I looked for the correct things while reading his poem, "The Maintains," but I noticed his use of alliteration, mirrored alliteration, and echo rhyme. He also uses the same word repeatedly but in different contexts to create different semantic meaning. I would provide examples, but I need to help with our hiking preparations.

Thanks to all who read my blog, and special thanks to those who comment. I only request you sign your comments if you come up as anonymous. I like to know who's talking to me; However, if you don't feel comfortable leaving your name, don't let it stop you from posting a comment.