New to Goodreads

I'm new to Goodreads. I have no followers at this time, so who knows if or when anyone will see this -- but here goes!

My new book, "Great American Poems - REPOEMED," features poetry of Dickinson, Cummings, and Frost -- so I'll start with some lines from these three poets.

First, in "What Fifty Said," Frost opened his poem with the following:


When I was young my teachers were the old.
I gave up fire for form till I was cold.
I suffered like a metal being cast.
I went to school to age to learn the past.


As an educator, I find these lines quite depressing since the speaker (i.e. the student) had to give up "fire for form" due to a traditional approach of teachers presenting mind-numbing content in an uninspiring fashion. I hope that this is the exception rather the rule these days since students have access to digital technologies that allow them to be producers, publishers, audience, and reviewers in global collaborations.

Of course, Emily Dickinson wrote "This is my letter to the world." I suspect if she were alive today, the poem would, instead, read as follows:


This is my Twitter to the #world
So please retweet for me—
With simple news and pithy quips—
A social Tapestry.
My message is transmitted
To Tweeps I cannot see;
And I would love to follow you
If you would follow me!


Even Cummings said "to hell with literature" in his poem "let's start a magazine." He wanted something "...redblooded /
lousy with pure
reeking with stark
and fearlessly obscene."

Certainly Cummings would have loved the digital age-- talk about "reeking with stark" (and yes, "fearlessly obscene"). I wonder how he would have stretched the limits of poetry if he had had more than a typewriter? I suspect his poem "let's start a magazine" would have started something more like...


"let’s start up google+

to hell with Facebook
we want something redhot"


Frost ended "What Fifty Said" with the following lines:


Now I am old my teachers are the young.
What can't be molded must be cracked and sprung.
I strain at lessons fit to start a suture.
I go to school to youth to learn the future.


I appreciate Frost's acknowledgement that, at fifty, he went "to youth to learn the future." I think if he, Cummings and Dickinson were alive today, they'd be "graced with guts and gutted with grace" (Cummings' words) in every sort of social media and digital device available.

They would all be writing more than letters to the world.