In the poetry mooc I am taking, there was an exercise to write lines then work them into two or three or four sentence poems. So here's what I wound up doing... finished poems at the very end.


in the gym a tramp-stamped woman half naked on the treadmill
my body surrounded by stacks of books my cluttered mind grasping for words
a red ripe tomato fallen from the garden's green vine
six nights sleepless, the seventh day wakeless
cat vomit in the hallway cat shit in the box cat hair on the sofa cat love in spite
fortunately misfortune favored some other fool


Tramp-stamped woman
naked on the treadmill
working breakfast out
breathing sweat in

Surrounded by stacks of books
My cluttered mind
grasps and holds
only these words

A red ripe tomato
fallen from the garden's
green vine sits in black soil
waiting to be eaten.

Six nights sleepless
the seventh day wakeless
and you---- tell me, what
did you dream?

Cat vomt in the hallway.
Cat shit overflows the box.
Cat hair covers the sofa.
Cat love, in spite, warms hearts.

Fortunately misfortune favored
some other fool
so I escaped blameless
unscathed by trial or time


phone ringing in an empty room
is no one left to answer?

phone ringing in an empty room
awaiting answers

phone ringing in an empty room
the curtains drawn

I'm asleep on skis
my life the slope

I'm asleep on skis;
are you the tree or the pole?

I'm asleep on skis
awaking to face-first snow

The rain fell all afternoon
Tonight the gutter barrel
reflects on the moon

The rain fell all afternoon
washing out our plans

The rain fell all afternoon
and you, my umbrella
inverted n the wind


-------------------------------
Surrounded by stacks of books
my cluttered mind grasps
and holds only these words.

The rain fell all afternoon
and you my umbrella
inverted by the wind

Fortunately fortune misfavored
some other fool and I escaped
unscathed by trial or time

phone ceaselessly ringing
an empty room
awaiting answers

The rain fell all afternoon ;and by night
our gutter barrel reflects on the moon

Experimental poetry from our poetry class! We had to take one of our poems and via arbitrary rules, cut it up into something else. Here's the poem I started with and the rules I chose, and the resulting poem.

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Now that I know I can successfully take a college level course, and that I enjoy learning online - I am going to try and take advantage of all the wonderful opportunities there are for online learning. In fact, I have developed A Plan!

The majority of my learning will be through Coursera, because I really enjoyed the format of the sociology class there, and there is something to be said for having a live real-time sort of feel to the class. I liked the way things were set up, and having active forums to discuss the topics in was really great.

So here is my main schedule with Coursera courses:

July:
Listening to World Music - July 23, 7 weeks
Book - none

August:
Intro to Sustainability - August 27th, 8 weeks
Book - downloadable from http://www.earth.illinois.edu/sustain/sustainability_text.html - downloaded epub version!

Sept:
Statistics One - Sept 3, 6 weeks
Book - Statistics by Freedman, Pisani, & Purves , download R software

Modern & Contemporary American Poetry - Sept 10, 10 weeks
Book - none (read Walt Whitman Song of Myself, some Emily Dickinson before first class)

History of the World since 1300 - Sept 17, 12 weeks
Book - Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A History of the World: From 1000 CE to the Present Volume II - already purchased!

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