the silence perpetuated by the dots... breathtaking

I paid a visit to Heritage Woods Secondary a couple weeks ago (just before the strike flared up) and ran some poetry workshops. The work of a number of the participants stood out to me, especially that of grade 11 student Sam Massooleh. After the class I was discussing his writing with his teacher, when she mentioned that he had "made a video I might want to see."

In the video, Sam channels Woody Allen while considering the poem "Blueberry Haiku" (and ultimately writing a 24-page analysis of it). The piece circles around ideas of how, and if, one can "get" a poem, and includes some wonderful little scenes and lines (like the title quote) that could have been pulled from just about any first-year poetry class (and hell, probably a few graduate classes as well). It's pretty great stuff, and certainly much better than anything I was putting together when I was sixteen:



Thanks to Sam for giving me his blessing to post the video, and best of luck to him and his classmates as they attempt to "get" poems for those vicious provincial exam essay questions!