poetry day 1

first of all, the keys on this computer are weird. each number key has four characters on it and i cant figure out how to use them all. like the at symbol. good thing i have emails saved in my address book because i cant type the at sign. nor can i figure out apostrophes. i guess i could be a dumb american and ask some nice czech student. but for now, i improvise.

this morning i had my first class at charles university. and its lovely. hot. but lovely. alison deming is my poetry professor for the next two weeks. we introduced ourselves. we dicussed the summe theme for the program...faith and textuality... and where we each stand on the issue and what we want to get out of the theme this month. we discussed our goals as far as poetic form and components for the class. we workshopped two poems. and alison gave us some travel writings tips that i think i will find VERY helpful. ive been trying to journal every night, but find im just making a log of what ive done every day. its boring. its uncreative. its nearly useless because i wont want to reread it. i want a journal that is intriguing. that is indicative of my experience but can also be used to later inspire poems about my experience. i know i wont write nearly enough here, and much of my writing about prague will come later. i want my journal to be a springboard. i want someone years down the road to pull out excerpts and find them publishable. i want my journal to be not a log, but a piece of artwork.

a brief description of alisons sugesstions... find something to observe everywhere. a saint, a food, a word, a type of architecture... something unique to this place that intrigues me and repeats itself. and keep a focus journal of the encounters i have with it. try to find a new word everyday. something i could only get here. come up with a research question. find a story every day. think in metaphor, avoid talking about feelings. i know there were more, i wrote it all down. but thats all i can come up with off the top of my head.

im currently standing at a computer console in the hallway at the top of the second floor stairway...though i think they call this the first floor because my class is in 215 and its a floor up... and its hot. its 1 in the afternoon. im hungry. i think its time to go grab some lunch at the local grocery store near the dorm. take my journal and the brothers k to the castle park. read. write. just BE in this city. ive walked around so much in my excitement the last few days. today id like to sit. pretend i live here. let praha influence me just by being in its midst. there will be time to be a tourist later...