No words

I took an exam this morning, the last exam in my Life-Span Developmental Psychology course. The content spanned three chapters - middle adulthood, late adulthood, and death. Honestly, I don't think I've ever been so affected by the material I've learned about in any class I've taken. True, a lot of it is fascinating stuff - chemistry, physiology, cognition, memory, literature; you name it, we've taken those classes, hated a lot of them, but loved most of them.

There have been fewer moments of feeling any intense or semi-intense emotional response to the topics. Studying for this exam was one of those times. I'm reading from my textbook and it talks about how much we associate negative stereotypes with aging, even though a good chunk of those notions are not substantiated by evidence. 

But seriously, one thing I've always been nervous about is growing old. It really has nothing to do with looking old. It's more about not having control over your life, your senses, your physical wellbeing, your body. It's about losing memory and forgetting loved ones and becoming a burden on them. It's about the end of life as you always knew it, and the end of a life that has become unrecognizable. Even though reading about late adulthood quashed a number of ageist stereotypes, it did only marginally well at helping me cope with the idea of impending death. Everyone copes with the notion of dying differently. 

And when you have an instance like the one Friday in which it's children who have died. Not older people who have lived long, fulfilling lives, but kids -- what do you do? How can you look through pictures like these and not sob with the family members and classmates of the victims in the Connecticut shooting? They were kids. Kids with futures and lives ahead of them, worlds for them to build and expand, families for them to love and be loved by. How do the children, the witnesses, accept or understand a tragedy of such magnitude? What do you tell them? And they were teachers. Teachers who had families and friends and classrooms. They were teachers like this one, who protected their students and reassured them while they hid inside a locked bathroom or a gym closet. How do you handle such a tragic, senseless loss of human life?

And how, when you hear or read about an instance like this, can you not make amends with others, and bring those closest to you in for a hug - to reassure yourself that they are indeed still there, and that yes, you are so lucky to have them with you. 

I flipped through those images above and could immediately put myself in the place of those parents. Not as a parent, but as an older sister to two siblings of elementary school age. And all I could do was be thankful that, this time, these two kids were safe.

Indian poet Neema Alexander once wrote,

"We have no words 
For what is happening-"

No words for this, only heartache.

I'm starting to become a fan of Louise Glück

Louise Glück.

Have you ever heard of her?

I hadn't either, until about, oh, a week and a half ago.

At first, to be honest, I thought she was deceased. Turns out Ms. Gluck is still very much among the living, something I'm beginning to be thankful for as I read more of what she's written.

You should read First Memory

Long ago, I was wounded. I lived
to revenge myself
against my father, not
for what he was--
for what I was: from the beginning of time,
in childhood, I thought
that pain meant
I was not loved.
It meant I loved. 

And then after that, The Night Migrations 

This is the moment when you see again the red berries of the mountain ash and in the dark sky the birds' night migrations. It grieves me to think the dead won't see them— these things we depend on, they disappear. What will the soul do for solace then? I tell myself maybe it won't need these pleasures anymore; maybe just not being is simply enough, hard as that is to imagine. Why read them in that order? Because that's the order that I read them in. They both seem so melancholy and meditative, and they remind me of Billy Collins' The First Dream. If you haven't read that either, you should. But yeah, Louise Gluck. And these two poems. They are so open and honest and striking in their loneliness. I'm waiting for them to take a more optimistic turn, but that doesn't seem likely or even necessary. ~ Viscountess, 2012-13

LEP Holiday Arts & Crafts

I'm sure by now most everyone knows that the LEP just wants to have fun. I mean, that's like a summary of our mission statement.

So it makes sense that we would have an event just to decorate a Christmas tree and make greeting cards, right? And even if it didn't make sense, we would still have done it. Because have you ever MADE greeting cards before? It's so. much. fun.

 


This was the first time I've ever decorated a Christmas tree before. And I was trusted to buy all the ornaments. I mean, that makes sense. I think I went a liiiittle overboard with what I got, but everything was so cute.

Tiny snowmen bells with colorful earmuffs.

Ceramic penguins wearing green hats.

Soft, plushy snowmen with hats and scarves.

Little gold and red ball ornaments that sparkled.

Crystal-like snowflakes that capture the light.

Delicious-looking gingerbread people.

The dozen red-and-white-striped candy canes we didn't use.

And miniature presents underneath the tree.

I mean, aren't they cute? They're the most adorable little ornaments I've ever seen. And I've seen a million ornaments in my time as a Christmas-tree-decorater-extraordinaire.

We of course had our star for the top of the tree, in beautiful shimmery LEP red and gold. It was great, even if it did kind of overwhelm Erich's miniature tree. Still, we made it work. Although, I'm prettttty sure the star is the last thing to go on the tree (from what I've heard and seen on TV), we broke with tradition and put the star on like, somewhere in the middle of decorating. We are just amazing at this stuff.

The most important ornament of all time.

The most important ornament, though, was this one. It's a dragon. A GOLD dragon. An LEP dragon. Wrapped around a Christmas wreath. Isn't it perfect? It really, really is. Kind of heavy for the cute little tree, but we used the power of SCIENCE to balance everything out. So there was this one ornament on one side of the tree, and all of the other ornaments hanging on the other side. Genius.

This was just so much fun. I don't think anyone else was as enthusiastic about decorating the tree as I was. Case in point: no one got up to help with it no matter how many times I asked. They just wanted to look at the ornaments and say how cute they were, and then went back to making cards. So I decked the tree out and they made cards. And we all ate cookies and listened to Christmas music. Holiday spirit FTW.

The tree will be going up in our cubicle soon, to celebrate the holidays in the SOC. In the meantime, it's hanging out in the Chem Lounge, with all of the other holiday decorations in there.

Oh, and the cards, you ask? What about the cards? Well, I'm not sure what we'll be doing with those. Maybe sending them off to Timbuktu. Or selling them to fund our secret punch addiction. Or maybe we'll just put them in a a bottle and throw them out into the ocean, so send League love across many leagues of the sea.

- Viscountess, 2012-13

Fairy tales & photographs

Finals are looming on the horizon, a predator laying in wait before pouncing on its unsuspecting prey. When it's finally ready to escape the depths of its semester-long hibernation, the herd will quickly run into action and flock to . . . the library?

The library: fortress of the feckless freshman, sanctuary for the sleepy senior, and destination for disheartened students during those dreary days of doom. Been there, done that, what else is new? 

Well, have you been to the library recently?

If you're not planning on visiting the Mardigian until finals are underway, I'll tell you what's new - a Grimm's fairy tales display, that's what! A really cool display celebrating 200 years of scaring kids into using their imaginations.

I really really wish there was an actual gingerbread house in the Hansel and Gretel display. That would've been so cool! 

Aww, and there's cute little Red Riding Hood. Bonus points if you can guess which doll was dressed up to play the part of Red. Hint: She's so very cuddly.

And my little sisters love the princesses, so obligatory pictures of three of the big ones.

My little sister's favorite, though, Rapunzel wasn't to be found. Her movie is there, but it's just not the same as meeting her in the flesh and blood, or in the plastic. Whatever.

I had a friend named Raquel, who had really beautiful, straight, soft brown hair that was so long it grazed her ankles. She would grow it out and then cut it to donate it to Locks for Love. We just thought she grew it out in case she was ever locked in a tower and someone wanted to climb up there and get locked in with her, so we called her Rapunzel.

There are a few more displays out there in the library, so if you're ever in the neighborhood, you know, stop by.

What writers write

The only thing I've ever read by Kurt Vonnegut is his short story Harrison Bergeron. It's a dystopian short story about a future America in which everyone is completely equal. The equality is enforced by the Handicapper General, who gives people masks, hangs weights around their necks, shaves their eyebrows, and makes them wear "radios" which provide a constant stream of noise to interrupt their thoughts. Everyone is made equal by stifling the things that make them beautiful, intelligent, and unique.

I've heard of his novels, like A Man Without a Country and Slaughterhouse Five, but Harrison Bergeron is the only thing I've ever read by Vonnegut. So when I think of this Vonnegut, I think of tragedy and dystopias and a bleak future.

You can imagine, then, that when I read this poem which Vonnegut wrote in 1961, I was more than a little surprised.

Two little good girls
Watchful and wise –
Clever little hands
And big kind eyes –
Look for signs that the world is good,
Comport themselves as good folk should.
They wonder at a father
Who is sad and funny strong,
And they wonder at a mother
Like a childhood song.
And what, and what
Do the two think of?
Of the sun
And the moon
And the earth
And love.

It's such a charming poem, good and sweet and hopeful. Nothing at all like Harrison Bergeron. Something I would have expected maybe from Shel Silverstein, but not Vonnegut. It's just so cute and nice, and reading it kind of renews your childhood wonder. It makes you look at the world through an honest, youthful lens, if only for a moment.

- Viscountess, 2012-13

Serendipity

Do you know the Academy of American Poets? 
(Yes, I just linked you to the Wikipedia article)

The AAP is basically your one-stop shop for all things poetry. Their aim is "to support American poets at all stages of their careers and to foster the appreciation of contemporary poetry." They have a number of prestigious awards that they give out annually. Their website is a treasure trove of information on every American poet, with selected works as well as audio of their poems that you can listen to for free. You can find some pretty fun things on their site - resources for teaching poetry, there's a poetry calendar of events going on throughout the US, you can even find poetic "landmarks" like the homes or grave sites of your favorite poets of yesteryear.

One of my favorite things about the Academy is their "Poem-A-Day" program. Every weekday morning, I'll get an email from the Academy with a new poem from a contemporary American poet, usually one that I've never heard of before. On weekend mornings, the Academy sends out famous poems by some of the world's most renowned poets.

I think Friday might be included as part of the weekend because today's poem was Shakespeare's Sonnet #30. Who knows how many times I've read that one. Tens of hundreds of thousands maybe, give or take. But I'm not complaining. Actually, there probably isn't a more perfect poem to match my current, almost perpetual, state of mind than this sonnet. 

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:

When the world is quiet, and you have a moment alone in your own head, your mind sometimes wanders to an earlier time. For some reason, you start to remember the negatives of your past, and the old wounds open up again and feel new.

Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancelled woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanished sight:

Tears fall for all of the mistakes, the goodbyes, the losses, the untimely actions, the spoken and unspoken words. . .

Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoanèd moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.

It's easy to get caught up in a cycle of regret, to feel like your failures will continue to follow you where ever you go. You might think that you'll have to continue to atone for your sins for the rest of your life. Nothing you do, no matter how much you improve, no matter how much you've realized since, will change the past. How, then, can you move on?

But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.

I think about a friend of mine, and about how much our friendship means to me. I think about how much my friend is always such a joy, and how seeing my friend brightens my day. Even just thinking about my friend lifts my spirits. The mistakes and failures and losses are still there, but at least for that moment they aren't weighing me down. Sorrow, for the moment, has ended. I think about my friend and all of a sudden, life doesn't seem so bad.

- Viscountess, '12-13

We baked, we sold, we conquered.

We had a bake sale on Tuesday.

We wore fedoras. And sunglasses. Or at least I wore sunglasses for a while until I realized it was hard to make eye contact with potential customers if they can't see your eyes. Erich tried on some shades, too, but ultimately decided against them. And he was having too good of a hair day to put on a hat.

Kudos goes to Sara M. for most of the delicious and beautiful items we sold at our sale. Snow White's Curse, Buried Treasure, Smooth Criminals - the list goes on. Also, mucho grazie to Erich for his spectacular jungle-themed chocolate covered pretzels.

Pictures of these delicious delights will be up here soon so you can froth at the mouth this early in the morning!

- Viscountess, '12-13

Maps maps maps maps maps

We got a new map! 
And some cool new map tacks!
Watch as we update it to show what parts of the world we've visited!

 

                                   

                    

Viscountess of Affairs, '12-13

Previously, in LEP . . .

We had a super top secret meeting earlier this week that we invited the whole world too. And the whole world showed up and drank some secret punch.

Speaking of secret punch. Yeah, we'll be getting the rooms set up for our future meetings, but this time we kind of just decided to go into this one seemingly empty room in the Science Building and use it as our secret meeting headquarters.

I guess it would've been okay if there wasn't going to be a class going on in there five minutes after we finally got ourselves settled and poured the punch.

Fortunately, the professor (I think he's a physics guy) was pretty cool about the whole thing, and was even brave enough to try our punch. I mean, a professor has to be brave to say yes when a random student he's never met before asks "would you like to try some of our secret punch?" He said it was good. I think he was just trying to be nice though.

(I had to tell him what the ingredients were though after he tasted, kinda felt obligated to answer his question. Professors just have that effect on you.)

Meeting minutes are on CTools, so you can see what we talked about there. I wanted to say though, that I'm kinda hoping we do more with these cute little journals. Take it around with you wherever you go - it can slip into your pocket or purse or fanny pack really easily. Jot down things that inspire you. Write a poem from the point of view of the rock behind the UC. Anything really. Just write.

This time, our Princess of Rhymes gave us a prompt - to write a limerick. I wish I had Sara M.'s or Erich's written down so I could share them. You'll just have to bear with me here and read mine instead:

One day on the way to Manila
I stopped at a shop for vanilla
to add to a cake
I was planning to bake
for the 1st birthday of my chinchilla.

No idea why, but my default limerick rhymes are Manila or Nantucket. Go figure.

Viscountess of Affairs, '12-13

Pasta, Pears, and Poetry

I don't know how many people use Google Reader or even know what that is.

If you have a Google account, you need to try it out. It's definitely not a new thing; Wikipedia says that it was introduced in 2005. But if you have a Google account, you like to follow a lot of different websites and blogs, and you're not using Reader, then you're doing it wrong. Go check it out!

I use Google Reader to stay updated on:

- my friends' Tumblr blogs (here and here)
- The Onion: America's Finest News Source (my favorite one!)
- Neil Gaiman's journal
- my friends' updates on Goodreads
- A Cartoon Guide to Becoming a Doctor
- Inkygirl: an illustrated guide for those who write and draw for young people
- the Makes Me Think site
- new book releases on Amazon
- xkcd, a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language
- Bakerella (the lady who came up with cake pops!)
- Savage Chickens: Cartoons on Sticky Notes
- NY Times Health
- NY Times Books

In case you were wondering, no, I'm not getting paid to advertise the wonderful thing that is Google Reader. Nor am I getting paid to advertise for any of the above sites. If only making money were that easy, I'd be singing about these guys from the rooftops.

Kevin Young

I'm really bringing this up because I just read an article on NYT Books about a poetry anthology that just came out, called The Hungry Ear: Poems of Food & Drink." It's an anthology compiled by an editor named Kevin Young.

I've never heard of him before today, but a quick glance at his page on the Academy of American Poets site says that Young is a pretty important poet (Harvard, Stanford, AND Brown?!). He's an award-winning poet known for his poetry centered around African American culture and themes.

This article was a review about Young's latest anthology, a collection of poems related to the world of food. The NYTimes review was not entirely favorable; the author, Dwight Garner, said that there are a number of great poems included, but to find them you have to sift through a lot of the lesser ones. Garner was also critical of several omissions Young made of  "canonical" food poetry. You can, of course, read the full article yourself for more details.

What made me laugh in the review, though, is Garner's suggestion that a "Best Bathroom Book" category should be added to the National Book Awards. Apparently Hungry Ear would be a sure winner for 2012.

Viscountess of Affairs, LEP

General Body Meeting Tomorrow!

Super exciting news!

Don't forget to attend our second general body meeting tomorrow! We'll be meeting somewhere in the science building, either room 216 or 217, on the second floor of the SB. If not, we'll just camp out in the halls somewhere and wreak havoc among the lab students :D

Also, in case you were wondering, here are a few pics of what our writing notebooks look like. They're about 4 x 6in in size, so compact and portable! :)

Wow, it's been so long since we last posted...

It really has.

The last post was from . . . over a month ago. So much has happened since then. Really. I don't know where to start updating you guys about what we've been up to. Should I go in order of my favorite things that happened? Or maybe random order is more fair? How about alphabetical order? That sounds reasonable to me.

Actually, chronological order makes the most sense. Yeah, let's go with that.

So, on Tuesday October 2nd we had our first event of the year! Last year we thought we'd kick off our first year with a coffee shop poetry reading. You know, the greatest, most cliched thing there is about poetry. Yeah, well this year we thought we'd be punny (ha. ha.) and have a kick off event that tied in with our "Global Diversity" theme. We called it "Global di-VERSE-i-TEA." So great, right? :D

Well, it was! It was really fun! We had plenty of people stop by and read their favorite global poems. One guest read some of her own work, which was really great. I wish I could remember what her name was because she read her poems fantastically, very animated and it drew you in to what she was saying. My favorite reading was our own Sara M's! She read "But He was Cool" by Don Lee or Haki Madhubuti.

You need to see pictures of our decorations, too! Find them on our Facebook page!

On October 11th, we went to the Homecoming Week Family Fun Night in the Fieldhouse and had a ton of fun with the kids and their alumni families. We helped them transform into princes and princesses by decorating crowns, wands, and shields. A case of missing bedazzled jewels didn't stop our station from being the most popular one at the party! UM-Dearborn has a lot of royal students in its future.

We were so busy trying to turn our guests into royalty, but we did manage to snap a few pictures in the process!

Also on Thursday October 11th, we had our first general body meeting of the semester where we talked and drank punch and had a jolly good time. Our meeting minutes are up somewhere on CTools if you missed it! Science building is where we met. Not the place you'd expect to find a group of poets, but yeah, the majority of our Royal Court consists of scientists. Who says poetry and science don't mix?

I (hopefully) surprised the gang with some brand new world-themed notebooks to write in. You're supposed to carry it around with you wherever you go, and jot down any ideas or verses that come to mind that you'd think would be part of a great poem. If you're a member of the LEP, let me know when you're coming to one of our next meetings so I can be sure to have one for you too!

Okay. that's it for this super long post. I promise to start posting more regularly!

Amal

Global Di-VERSE-ity: New year, new people!

I've been on campus pretty much every day this past summer. At least, every weekday. And from the start of July til the end of August, I've gone to school as early as 6am and stayed as late as 8pm (only once though!).  I felt like I owned the place- got the first parking spot in the SSB lot, was one of the first and last people at school, there were no geese around, I knew who all the people who were there doing research, and the halls weren't crowded at all. It was FABULOUS. I felt like I was in my own home and I made the rules and that I had the keys to the kingdom.

Then all of a sudden it's September 5th. And SCHOOL STARTS. And there are LOTS of PEOPLE. And there are so many CARS and people DRIVING and the lots are FULL. And people ask you for directions to the Science Building. And people are reading the campus MAPS. I tried doing that freshman year and couldn't for the life of me figure it out. And there are GEESE. How do the geese know that school started?! They were gone all summer then, bam! first day of classes and there are all these geese EVERYWHERE.

Campus is not the sleepy, quiet, quaint little place it was over the summer. It's full of people and noises and stuff going on and full parking lots and I can check out a billion books from the library again and there are long lines at the McKinley Cafe. Speaking of the MKC, did you know that there's now a TOASTER in Subway! A whole slew of new things happened this summer in prepping for the new year - the TOASTER, the library was PAINTED, its computers were UPGRADED, there's a new RECYCLING system, a FLAG MURAL was installed, the BOOKSTORE got a makeover (if you look up!), the SAO became the Office of Student Engagement, there's a new cell phone charging station in the UC, and there are SO MANY NEW PEOPLE. 

The League has spent the sleepy and hot summer preparing for this new year, the new crowd, and these new changes. We want to match the diversity of our campus community by celebrating the diversity that exists in the world of poetry. Hence: Global Di-VERSE-ity! It's brilliant, isn't it? We'll be exploring diversity in poetry in multiple REGIONS of the world, in different TIME periods, by looking at how various THEMES are treated in poetic works, by looking at cultural TRADITIONS, and by FOOD. Always the food.

We have so much planned and in the works that we'll be unveiling and talking about each week, and of COURSE you can join us whenever and however you'd like! We're on here, Facebook, Twitter, CTools, and Tumblr. And we have meetings and stuff too with SECRET PUNCH. You might need a passport to join us, though. I'm not sure.

This is my 5th (and final!) year on campus, but with so many of my friends gone and so many new faces around here, it almost feels like freshman year all over again. I'm excited for everything this year has in store, and I'm really excited that all of you will be there to share it with us!

- LEP Viscountess of Affairs

Global Di-VERSE-Ity: A new year for LEP

Hey! I'm Wafa, the current Princess of Rhymes, taking over for (but never achieving the same blog-worthy status as) our former Princess Myra, Master Blogger. As the summer drags on, my favorite LEP people are welcoming a new and amazing year of poetry. This year, we're trying something different and we've decided to have a theme to inspire wonderful works and performances. So get ready for "Global Di-VERSE-ity!"

To kick off our trot around the globe, here's a cool story I heard in the seventh grade. It's about a Caliph in eighth century Iraq who had a great memory for poetry. Poets would come to Basra to present their work to him with hopes of receiving payment for their original pieces. Being a particularly stingy and somewhat clever guy, the Caliph tricked the unsuspecting poets out of their pay. He had the ability to memorize something after only hearing it once, so when the poets would recite their poems, he could recite it back and claim that he had heard it before. To make his story more believable, the Caliph would call upon his servant, who could memorize things after hearing them twice. So the servant would hear the poet and the Caliph recite the poem and then follow suit. Is it a coincidence that the maid memorized things after hearing them three times and joined in on the fun? This went on for some time and the poets of the time were out of luck unless they could out-do the Caliph.

An Imam named Asma'i heard about the plight of the poets and decided to do something about it. He disguised himself and paid a visit to the Caliph with a new work. The Caliph agreed that, if this was in fact an original work, he would pay his veiled visitor the weight of his poem in gold. So the Imam recited his poem and the Caliph was dumbstruck. He heard a long, winding poem filled with outrageous rhymes and amazing alliterations that had such a quick tempo it was difficult to follow. The Caliph called his servant and maid and neither of them had heard anything like it. Admitting defeat, the Caliph ordered his servant to give the stranger the promised payment.

"Excuse me, sir, but I've carved my poem on a large boulder, one so big you need ten people to carry so please send some of your strongest men to weigh it," the Imam said.

"What kind of joke are you playing?" the Caliph demanded. "Who are you? Uncover your face and tell me who you are!"

The Imam unveiled his face and the Caliph was shocked.

"Imam Asma'i! What do you mean by all of this?"

"You were conning the poets out of their money and they have no way to make a living, so I did the only thing I could do. I'd like my payment now." But the embarrassed Caliph did not want to pay so the Imam and the Caliph agreed that the payment would go to the poets.

I really like this story and I think the poem is really cool. My Arabic teacher had a contest to see if any of the students could memorize the poem and a few of us did (I did!). Here's a link! It's not as fast paced but you can hear the alliteration and rhyme.

If you have any favorite poems from around the world you'd like to see featured here on our blog, tell me about it in the comments or contact LEP on Facebook, Twitter, or email us at umdlep@gmail.com.

THANKYOU♥

the design on the back of our shirts/hoodies!

So. Yesterday (April 5th) was our first annual Poetry Picnic, and I just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who helped out with our first ever Poetry Picnic yesterday. It was a huge success and it was one of the funnest days I've ever had on campus. And our shirts and hoodies were amazing. Pictures and videos should be up soon, and expect a blog post about the actual event itself possibly over the weekend!

Thanks to Society of Pathology, Lyceum, and IASA for cosponsoring the Picnic, performing, and helping us out! Thanks to the Greek organizations for volunteering their members to help out, coming to the Picnic, and supporting Danielle B in her performance. Thanks to Brandon and the UMD Jazz band for playing such amazing and fabulous music for us to open the Picnic. Thanks to everyone who performed and read poetry! And of course, thanks to all of our friends for attending the picnic and having a great time!

A ton of time and effort went into making the Picnic into what it was, and I can't say thank you enough to the following people for just doing a spectacular job.

To top off the list, we have Erich Beregszaszy, our most esteemed Duke of Scribes. Putting together the Picnic was of course a combined effort, but Erich was totally the genius behind the entire day. The Picnic was based off of the annual picnic held at his high school, and he brought it to UMD for us. Not only that, but Erich came up with all the cool ideas for decorating and giving Kochoff an authentic outdoor feel so we wouldn't have to worry about crazy MI weather. And he did an insanely amazing job! You'll see the pictures soon, but everything was so creatively put together and fabulous and that just made the Picnic a million times more awesome than your average picnic. We had balloon trees, balloon clouds, a photo mural, a trellis in the entry way, floaty fabric to look like sky, and GRASS MATS that looked like actual grass. It was perfect. Erich definitely deserves a very special thank you for all of his work. THANK YOU, ERICH!

Then we have Wafa Algahmi, our very valuable Countess of Expression. Wafa was very prompt and timely about making sure everything getting done on time, and brough up a lot of things we needed to address during the planning stages. She found our picnic basket sellar, and we ordered 30 picnic baskets and stayed within our limited budget. Her biggest contribution to the Picnic, though, was theDeath be not proud video. Remember that? She set up the filming schedule, bought the supplies, organized the actors's schedules, and then put together all of the video footage into a fantastic movie that we finally had a chance to screen at our Picnic yesterday. It'll soon be out on DVD and Blu-ray, and who knows, there may be a musical version in the future. THANK YOU, WAFA!

We also have Myra Khan, our most honored Princess of Rhymes. Since the beginning of the LEP, Myra has been one of our go-to people whenever we needed creative advice, especially when it came to buying things. This time, we needed to buy 20 picnic blankets, and Myra and her lovely mom were able to to pick out the best cloth from JoAnn's for us, including a cute one covvered in watermelon slices. THANK YOU, MYRA!

Sara Milward, LEP "Jester of Gestures" and saxophone player was the one to get us in touch with the Jazz band to play at the Picnic. She also helped out a TON with set up and assembling the garden display in the Kochoff entranceway. Sara was also a star in our video, and we shared a hot glue gun, so she must be fantastic. LOVE YOU, SARA.

Sara Arnold, Miriam Bukhsh, and Jamilah Alhashidi were wonderful at putting up the photo mural (which did NOT want to stick to the wall), making the balloon clouds, and decorating the room with flowers. Sara A.'s height was a huge asset to us! Moe Sadek was great at helping with setup, directing people into the Picnic area, and taking photos of everything. He also wrote a poem that the Society of Pathology read during their performance. Thanks a million, guys! :D

Keysha Wall from Lyceum helped out from 8am to 3pm with EVERYTHING - set up, tear down, running the event, singing, running around, etc. She was amazing help! Kent from Lyceum and Lance Slatton did a fabulous job assembling the trees with help from various people. Byron Cheng is the man with the amazing lungs who blew up 144 green balloons BY HIMSELF for these trees, and Marie Arnaout and Maddie from Delta Phi Epsilon sorority were a great help as well! We also had help from Emma Slonina and Nadia Khalyleh during set up and clean up, and apparently Emma is great at dancing too. We would also like to thank Zina Karana for bringing in her little brother and sister who had a great time at the picnic by participating in our bubble wrap popping challenge, and then popping all the balloons we had. Nice work, everyone!

As you can see, we had  a great team of people working on this in pre-planning and also on the day of, and without this combined effort, the Picnic wouldn't have been as great as it was. 

Amal A.
LEP Queen of Poetry

Poetry Picnic 2012

This contains pretty much all you need to know about Poetry Picnic 2012!

The League of Extraordinary Poets (LEP) is excited to invite you to the first ever UMD Poetry Picnic! 

The Picnic will be held on Thursday April 5th from 11am-3pm in Kochoff Hall.

What is the Poetry Picnic, you ask?

Well, basically it's a huge indoor picnic where you get to eat food, hang out with friends, and watch people participate in a fun competition that doesn't require you to know much about poetry at all. Seriously. 

Teams compete (for prizes!) in a three-round poetry competition. Each team chooses an established poet to serve as their poet mascot, and the teams then choose any of their mascot's poems to perform in any of the rounds - dramatic reading, skit/interpretive dance, and the wild card round. Performances are judged for awesomeness and creativity, and prizes are awarded. 

Did we mention there is a picnic involved? Yay!

Everyone is welcome to attend the picnic! But, if you'd like, you can RSVP and we'll prepare a picnic basket for you and reserve a picnic blanket for you, too!

The handy-dandy "How To Poetry Picnic" guide gives you virtually all the information you need about the Picnic. If you could share this with your friends, colleagues, students, neighbors, etc., that would be terrific!

So. In summary (click on the links):

Event: Thursday April 5th from 11am-3pm in Kochoff Hall

Poetry Picnic Guide

Facebook event page

Team Registration

RSVP and we'll make you a basket

Questions? Email umdlep@gmail.com

Yay!

Amal Algahmi

Queen, League of Extraordinary Poets

Picnic Poetry (no, I didn't write that wrong)

Hey everybody! :D So as I'm sure you ALL already know, the LEP's end-of-the-year bash is coming up: POETRY PICNIC!!!! We plan to make this an annual event, but this is our very first time so we intend to make a major impact on the campus community with all the awesomeness that this event will bring. Counting today, there are 11 days left until we officially "Poetry Picnic"! I thought I'd use this blog post to celebrate poetry related to picnics- after all, who doesn't love picnics? There's something innately fascinating about sitting outside in beautiful weather with people you adore and...stuffing your face. No, really, there is. ^_^

This particular poem actually doesn't have a title but I thought it was great! It's by Carol Gioia. :)

Pack the picnic basket

with all the foods we love,

take along a frisbee,

a baseball, bat and glove.

Bring a blanket to sit upon,

bug spray, and sunscreen, too,

get the kids into the car

with the dog, and me and you

Finally we are on our way

to have a day of fun,

searching for the perfect spot

to frolic in the sun.

A grassy knoll and shade tree

beside a lazy creek;

pull over, this looks just right

for a picnic quite unique.

Setting up a lavish feast,

joy we can't contain,

our happiness is dampened

when it begins to rain.

Good thing that LEP's picnic is indoors! :D No worries of rain or bugs or grass stains or the wind blowing your paper plate away (happens to me ALL the time) to worry about. Instead, we're recreating the fun of a picnic indoors AND with poetry! So be there or be square! Thursday, April 5th from 11 am- 3 pm in Kochoff Hall!

-Myra Khan

Princess of Rhymes, LEP

This past week for the LEP

So this past week has been super duper busy for all of us! And you know what? It's been a great success!



On Monday the 19th, we revisited Seussville!
Back when we were celebrating Octember, we held "A Night in Seussville," where we collaborated with the Student Activities Office and invited kids and their families for a fun night of Dr. Seuss games and activities. We decided to go back to Seussville again, but this time to celebrate March is Reading Month! With our friends and wonderful collaborater on the project, Teri over in the SAO, we had a really awesome event! The night started out with a dinner for the guests (I mean, we're pretty nice people), and then the festivities began. 


Games. Cats. Hats. Photos. Hat making. Book reading. Eating. Laughing. Face painting. Tail pulling. SEUSS.

Then, on Wednesday the 21st, we engaged in cupcake wars! 
Unfortunately, this bake sale date was double booked so there was another bake sale going on in the UC at the exact same time. Luckily for us, our competition was in the form of our friends in the medical fraternity, Phi Delta Epsilon, who also have members in the LEP! So, the cupcake wars were more like those pillow fights you have at sleepovers rather than all out battles. Thanks to everyone who wore crowns and helped out by bringing stuff and/or manning the table. And Sara, I still have your cookie holder thing! You can see pictures from the bake sale, taken by me, the world's 2nd to last best photographer! 




Finally, on Thursday, we had our Paths to Publishing workshop!

This was the third and final installment in our Winter 2012 Poetry Workshop Series. Our guest presenter for the evening was none other than our Empress, Dr. Finlayson! She gave a really great and informative talk about how to break into the publishing arena, both within and outside of poetry. A lot of work is involved, from writing, to making a name for yourself in your local poetry scene, to blogging, to submitting . . . and submitting . . . and submitting. It gave me some ideas on how to establish a writing scene on campus and help poets with true passion get their work noticed. The handout that she gave us should be on CTools soon, so be on the lookout for an email about that! Thanks so much, Dr, Finlayson!


Aaaaaaaaaand, now that all of that's over, we are in FULL POETRY PICNIC MODE! 


Yeah.


- Amal A
LEP Queen of Poetry

Abraham Lincoln: Closet Poet

I've always loved Abraham Lincoln. Like...really. O_O I am so far beyond obsessed that I've decided to name my future son Abraham. Yes. Its gone that far. (Although another LEP member, Miriam Bukhsh, has agreed to bring the awesome top hat for my son to wear. :D) But I think he's AMAZING! He's always ranked as one of the three most influential and popular presidents- and he's on Mt. Rushmore! Getting your face carved into stone? That says it all. :|

But Lincoln's life was full of struggles and disappointments, his father lost all his property in court cases and it eventually led to Lincoln growing up in a one-room log cabin. Due to their unfortunate financial situation, Lincoln's family was constantly moving. His mother died when Lincoln was 9, so his older sister took care of him until his father remarried. However, his older sister then died after giving birth to a stillborn son. :(  Later on, he would face tragedy after tragedy in regards to his own children: Edward Baker Lincoln died of tuberculosis when he was four, William Wallace Lincoln died of typhoid fever when he was twelve, and Thomas Lincoln died of heart failure at the age of 18. Robert Todd Lincoln is the only son to have made it to adulthood and eventually became Secretary of War. He carried the burden of taking care of his mother after his father's assassination, and finally admitted her to a mental hospital when her condition became too terrible to handle.

Despite all of this, Abraham Lincoln led the country through a Civil War, ended slavery, and delivered the Gettysburg Address, which is quoted as one of the most well-known speeches in United States history. BUT did you also know that he wrote poetry? :D Yes he did! Lincoln wrote short pieces whenever he was in a "poetizing mood". He was particularly fond of his childhood home and wrote a really beautiful piece when he went to visit it again years later:

My Childhood Home I See Again
Abraham Lincoln

My childhood's home I see again
And sadden with the view,
And still, as memory crowds my brain
There's pleasure in it too.

O Memory! Thou midway world
'Twixt earth and paradise
Where things decayed and loved ones lost
In dreamy shadows rise

And, freed from all that's earthly vile
Seem hallowed, pure and bright
Like scenes in some enchanted isle
All bathed in liquid light

As dusky mountains please the eye
When twilight chases day
As bugle-tones, that passing by
In distance die away

As leaving some grand waterfall
We, lingering, list its roar
So memory will hallow all
We've known, but  know no more

Near twenty years have passed away

Since here I bid farewell

To woods and fields, and scenes of play,

And playmates loved so well.

Where many were, but few remain

Of old familiar things;

But seeing them, to mind again

The lost and absent brings.

The friends I left that parting day,

How changed, as time has sped!

Young childhood grown, strong manhood gray,

And half of all are dead.

I hear the loved survivors tell

How nought from death could save,

Till every sound appears a knell,

And every spot a grave.

I range the fields with pensive tread,

And pace the hollow rooms,

And feel (companion of the dead)

I'm living in the tombs.

WOW! :D And just when I thought the guy couldn't possibly get any more amazing! Who else is going to see BOTH of the Abraham Lincoln movies coming out this year after reading this? ;) I AM!

The LEP hearts you, Mr. Lincoln. :)

-Myra Khan
Princess of Rhymes

P.S. Some fun random facts: -Abraham Lincoln stood at 6'4" (our country's tallest president!) and and wore a stove-pipe hat (that he used to store letters and important documents in) that was about another twelve inches.
- Lincoln has no living heirs.
-Lincoln wrote his own speeches
-He loved gadgets! He is the only president to ever hold a patent. He issued one for "a device for buoying vessels over shoals"
-He's super cool.

P.P.S. Sorry for the weird formatting guys! I tried for a billion hours to change it, it insists on staying weird for some reason :/