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An Earthquake, Advice for the Female Poet, and Three Naked Men
This newsletter will include my musings on a free MFA I’m getting courtesy of Ray Bradbury (start at the 8'33" mark in this lecture. He describes how to do it.)
The poem: Dancing with the Devil — Advice for the Female Poet
by Barbara Kingsolver
The Essay: Back to the Garden
by Michael Ventura
The Short Story: In the Event
by Meng Jin
The poem is a delicious and brutal poem with a killer last line. Female poets, hell females all, read it and see yourselves reflected.
The short story was very difficult for me to stay with, had an interesting ending, but I had to make myself get there, continually picking up the book and holding my own feet to the fire of my oath to complete this reading every week. Maybe it just wasn’t my style. It seemed disjointed and full of description, but not a lot happening. Again, this could be a simple result of my lack of education in and exposure to this field.
What really moved me was the essay.
Back to the Garden, by Michael Ventura is very short essay, but it goes deep. And of course it hooks you with the first sentence: “There were these three naked men.” Okay, so I have to find out, right? Once I knew…
