Five Ways of Looking at a Poetry Class

I.
I bring in two poems: Langston Hughes’ Dream Variations, and He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by William Butler Yeats. It’s too much material for an hour-long class. Especially since I also want to touch on Dream Deferred and MLK’s I Have a Dream speech.  
The night before class I dreamed that I saw Barack [...]

Quote Unquote

Poetry took a hit in politics yesterday. In response to Barack Obama’s flair for eloquent and passionate speeches, Hillary Clinton was quoted in the New York Times (Sunday, Jan. 20) as saying:
“You campaign in poetry, but you govern in prose.”
I agree with Clinton on many issues. But I beg to differ with her here.
Instead, I choose [...]