cynthiabateman

by Alexandra Bateman The surface are of our love is larger than that of the world We are like two complimentary angles, Together creating a whole. Without you, I feel like a semi-circle- Half of me is missing.  You make my heart swell to its maximum capacity .  The rate of its beat increases, And I feel that the odds of it exploding are greater than or equal to Snow in winter. Consider my soul a down payment  on our love; My feelings for you a scend each... Read Full Story

Yes that's right, if alive today, Poe would be 201 years old. In honor of this master of the macabre, I'd like to share a couple Poe tributes with you. First, a limerick written by Alexandra Bateman for her eighth grade English class's Poe birthday party.  A dreary man in a graveyard, His face sharp as a glass shard, Lay down in the grass Straight above his lass And wrote to her in the graveyard.  Next, a video in which Poe "himself" reads The Raven . I think it's a beautiful rendition... Read Full Story

Just a few photos I wanted to share.    Some sort of bird's nest. It had a circular opening on the other side about the size of a small orange. Post-Thanksgiving remnants These next photos are courtesy of Alexandra Bateman (and edited by me).  Hope you find these as soothing as I do. Enjoy! Read Full Story

Yesterday I went into the local health food store in town to buy powdered peanut butter (No, it's not gross, and that's not the point of this post). While browsing in the store, I passed a sale counter of diet soda. To save myself a stop at another grocery store, and I decided to buy three six-packs of this soda. The only price on the soda was listed as .79 per can, and yes, it is my fault for not clarifying the price before I took the soda to the counter for purchase. At .79 a can, though, I... Read Full Story

Okay, so the title's a little cutesy for such a serious event, but I couldn't resist. In case you haven't heard, shortly before midnight on New Year's Eve, red-winged blackbirds began falling from the skies around Beebe, Arkansas. The latest count puts the number of dead birds around 5000- 5000 dead birds falling from the sky in less than an hour! Call me crazy, but that sounds like an X-File . The official word so far from the "experts"- the birds may have run into chimneys, trees, walls... Read Full Story

Like so many, every January 1st I set some crazy resolution I know I'll never achieve for the year to come. Not this year, though. I've been doing quite a bit of reflecting lately on myself; my current habits, hobbies, and haunts; and my hopes for things to come. The result of all that reflecting, I'm sorry to say, is that I've discovered I'm way out of line, out of focus, out of touch with who I am, who I want to be, and how I want to exist within this material space called Earth. I'm like a... Read Full Story

Woke up at 7:30 this morning, the anticipation of opening Santa's offerings overflowing from my every pore. But unlike years past, when I was the one asking for a few more minutes sleep when my daughter came rushing in squealing in surprise that Santa had, in fact, come; I find myself this morning lying in my bed waiting on her to wake up and get with the Christmas program. As I reflect on Christmas's past, I can't help but feel a little saddened by her continued state of slumber. Apparently... Read Full Story

Alan Watts was a British Eastern Philosopher who wrote such books as The Way of Zen and Psychotherapy East and West . I find his work to be both inspiring and insightful. There's a great series of videos on YouTube that are set to his philosophy. One in particular,  The Unsettling Truth About Life , seems especially relevant at this time of year and at this stage in my life. Check it out. Let me know what you think.  Read Full Story

Make Them Squirm in Their Places: The Role of a Pedagogy of Discomfort in Ecocomposition  my research regarding the importance of embracing emotion in a writing classroom. The paper is geared towards ecocomposition studies, but I think it applies to Composition studies across the discipline (as well as many other fields). Certainly, Megan Boler's idea of a pedagogy of discomfort is not aimed primarily at Composition studies.  Read Full Story

I am.... Thanks to Nikki for this idea. You can make your own Wordle  here. Read Full Story