News of the Mundane: I have a new poetry project to do for English. We've been assigned to pick out our favorite poem by an American author. We must then memorize the poem and deliver it to the class. We also have to write a biography of the author, an analysis of literary devices used in the poem, an essay on the poem's theme, and an original poem in the style of the author.

I haven't decided what poem or even which author I'm going to use. I can't actually use my favorite poem because it's pretty inappropriate for a high school American Lit class. My favorite American poem is e.e. cummings' "i sing of Olaf, glad and big."

I'd like to reprint it here, but copyright laws are irksome. If you're lazy, I'll just tell you that I can't use it because of (among other things) the line, "I will not kiss your fucking flag."

All in all, I'm out of luck. I've now got to find a second-favorite poem, and I'm not sure what that would be offhand.

I want to pick an author that no one else will, so that rules out Robert Frost, Edwin Arlington Robinson, and Carl Sandburg.

The poem has to be at least eight lines long, so Dorothy Parker is out as well. I think Parker would also be disqualified because she writes doggerel; my English teacher is rather pretentious.

I can't stand Dickinson, a.k.a. Little Miss Morbid, and I'm sure someone else will use her anyway. I've really only mentioned her because of a trick I learned from I-don't-know-where. Think of the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas." Now click this link. Seriously, it works for almost all of her poems.

I'm almost tempted to memorize Howl and just deliver that. It's obscene, but the essay would be easy:

Allen Ginsberg is disillusioned. He sees lots of people on drugs. He likes Carl Solomon, and he is with Solomon in Rockland. Boy, America sucks.

I think I need to do some research and find a good poem.