My younger daughter's 6th grade literature class is going to be having a monthly poetry reading. We parents were asked to help out by providing some sort of food for their poetry readings. You see, their teacher is going to transform the classroom each month to provide 'atmosphere' and everything is better when a snack is involved, right? Immediately an image pops into my head of the quintessential 1950's Beatnik coffee-house. Complete with bongo drums, black turtleneck sweaters, beret's, goatees, dark sunglasses and cigarettes. (Note: I didn't create the image on this page...it's just one I've seen around the internet). Naturally I signed up to bring food for the first reading, which is tomorrow. I suppose coffee and cigarettes are out of the question, so I have to think of something age appropriate. Chex Mix and bottled water might please the masses but that doesn't seem jazzy enough somehow. I guess I'll go wander the store later and see what kind of inspiration I get. Maybe something from World Market - food with an international flair, if you will. I'd love to find some cocktail napkins with a Beatnik theme - how fun would that be? I suppose I could go to the craft store and find a rubber stamp that says 'cool' and make my own. Am I getting carried away? Probably.
Interestingly enough, I asked my daughter what she thought I should bring and she said, "Mixed nuts. Aren't there always nuts at a coffee house?" She was serious. That was a difficult question to answer without laughing! Perhaps I will send nuts. And we actually do own bongo drums...
In the fine tradition of poetry reading everywhere, I'll leave you with a poem. I read somewhere that he wrote this as a response to some criticism of poets in a newspaper. I can't verify that but it sounds right. Put on your shades, Daddy-O, and give us a recitation:
Epigram
Sir, I admit your general rule,
That every poet is a fool,
But you yourself may serve to show it,
That every fool is not a poet.
-Samuel Taylor Coleridge
11 comments:
I take it she is going to read out the one that starts with "There was a young man from Nantucket..." :D
Lol! No.
She is looking at some poems by Shel Silverstein. (When you spit from the 26th floor, and it floats on the breeze to the ground...)
She has to write an original poem for one of the readings...she's not too happy about that.
What a fun idea! I like it that you want to go with the theme of the beatnik/bongo drum era. I was also thinking mixed nuts, so your daughter and I are on the same track there.
It'd be fun if you instructed the class to bring their sunglasses to wear.
Mixed nuts and those little green and pink mints!! No wait.. that's starting to sound like a baby shower.
Maybe not.
risible: yeah, I'm not sure who's having more fun with this, me or my daughter!
mahala: maybe andes mints..they're more sophisticated..lol!
and espresso.. can't forget that ;)
Yeah, espresso will get them nicely wired!
Yeah, like ... everyone knows they have mixed nuts at a coffee house, LOL.
Can't wait to hear how it went. See if you all snap your fingers rather than clapping...that sort of stuff.
How about "The boy stood on the burning deck?" :D
Chocolate covered espresso beans are delicious! and you could limit the number so the kids don't get too caffeine high...
"The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot." -Salvador Dali
So...
My speech teach pulled this quote out on us
and the funny thing about this quote is
you really shouldn't quote it
because
it mocks the quoter.
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