Clark Park, Spring
A short publication note and a shorter poem.
Happy April, everyone. With apologies to friends and followers who have already seen me post this elsewhere: I was recently awarded the John Clare Prize for poetry at Wayne State University for my poem “Clark Park, Spring.” I thought you all might like to read it.
The reviewers noted in their letter to me that “There is so much tenderness, humor, and grace to admire here,” which I thought was very kind of them. Working toward grace and tenderness are daily tasks for me, tasks at which I fail often. It’s nice to be reminded that even if I don’t always succeed at them in the physical world, I can occasionally write them into being and so remind myself of their importance.
I’ve been working at trying to make poetry a more regular part of my writing practice, so as I get more of my backlog of drafts into acceptable shape, I’ll try to remember to share them here, too.
There is so much to do in the final three weeks of this semester that I probably won’t publish Tabs Open again before the end of the month. I have many more thoughts on the use of AI in classrooms and how teachers might handle it, given some recent experiences, and so will have a lengthy missive to share on that at some point once the school year is over. Some of the principles and beliefs I wrote about on that subject in December have been reified this time around, others have gone out the window entirely.
Alright: thanks, as always, for reading. I’ll write you all again in a few weeks.
-Chuck