![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/162\/2012\/08\/greenglass-300x199.jpg\" "\\"greenglass\\"")
<\/a>Three minutes, maybe four. Six minutes, maybe seven. A little bit of time.<\/p>\nThis morning open Google chrome to my homepage the University of North Carolina Asheville. Once it\u2019s loaded, a quick glance at upcoming events. A post Civil War lecture.<\/p>\n
First thought: Living in the South, I really should know more about the Civil War and its aftermath. Click.<\/p>\n
The link takes me to the North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement\u2019s Appalachian Studies Authors Series. I\u2019ve already received an e-mail message and read a story in the Asheville Citizen Times<\/em> about this series.<\/p>\nWhen I first learned about it, and on reading about the series again this morning I feel envy, doubt, fear. How did the NCCCR get Charles Frazier, a pretty reclusive, nationally celebrated writer who lives in Asheville? Should I take greater interest in his work and the work of other local authors who explore regional culture?<\/p>\n
Are my tastes in literature too cosmopolitan (read: Jewish<\/em>) for this community?<\/p>\nOn the way down the screen to find information on the talk, I see information on other NCCCR programs: Asheville Community Theatre\u2019s Readers Theatre, Astronomy Club of Asheville, Celebrating Life in the Mountains, Dante Lecture\u2014stop.<\/p>\n
A special lecture by a noted Dante scholar, retired from Brandeis where, among other things, he served as the Chair of the School of Humanities. Why don\u2019t I know him? Am I failing to network enough on campus?<\/p>\n
The (at this point not so) new director of the NCCCR seems to be doing a good job organizing and presenting interesting programs. Why hasn\u2019t she noticed me, if not my work as a writer, then my work organizing programs for campus and community? Am I irrelevant, inadequate?<\/p>\n
I drag cursor to the bookmarks bar. Find Good Letters. Words. Made Flesh<\/em>. Click.<\/p>\n\u201cWeddings, Women, Sweets, and Wishes\u201d: 133 Facebook shares, fourteen Tweets, 152 other shares.<\/p>\n
Check my most recent Good Letters<\/em> post, more than a week before: Seventeen Facebook shares, five Tweets, twenty-two other shares. Is my work not interesting enough to share widely? Click.<\/p>\nScan The New York Times<\/em> headlines:<\/p>\n\u201cCiting Growth, Fed Chief Gives No Hints of New Stimulus.\u201d Will this keep the market from recovering from its recent losses? What about my <\/em>investments?<\/p>\n\u201cObama\u2019s Campaign Raised $60 Million in May.\u201d Will Obama have enough funding to campaign aggressively and effectively this fall?<\/p>\n
\u201cSan Diego and San Jose Lead Way in Pension Cuts\u201d; \u201cThe Alzheimer\u2019s Gene: One Family\u2019s Saga\u201d; \u201cCT Scans Increase Children\u2019s Cancer Risk, Study Finds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Retirement, health, politics, worry, worry, and more worry. Uncertainty and fear.<\/p>\n
Good morning. Click, click, click. Tick, tock, these words that say time is passing<\/em>.<\/p>\nFor me, this morning, like many mornings, the passage of the short period of time (eight, nine minutes?) between completing my morning practice (sitting meditation, reading of the daily psalm before and after the sit) and beginning to write (journal, essay, poem) might more accurately be represented by the words click, click.<\/p>\n
Nine or ten minutes, not much time. Insignificant, really. Really?<\/p>\n
So often I\u2019ve pointed out to students\u2014lit students, young poets\u2014how poets of one generation often direct their attentions to places, people, and situations that previous generations of poets ignored because they were too trivial or domestic or simply not the stuff of serious poetry.<\/p>\n
One example is W. C. Williams\u2019 poem \u201cBetween Walls.\u201d<\/p>\n
Between Walls<\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
the back wings
\nof the<\/em><\/p>\nhospital where
\nnothing<\/p>\n
will grow lie
\ncinders<\/p>\n
in which shine
\nthe broken<\/p>\n
pieces of a green
\nbottle<\/em><\/p>\nSuch an unlikely place to find a poem!<\/em><\/p>\nSo often I\u2019ve encouraged students to look away from the words in a poem that seem most important. In \u201cBetween Walls,\u201d the words hospital, cinders, shine, broken, pieces, green, and bottle.<\/p>\n
Instead of these words, I might say to students, consider \u201cof the\u201d and \u201cof a.\u201d<\/p>\n
How expressive could these two nearly identical, functional phrases be? What about the order in which they occur, first \u201cthe\u201d then \u201ca\u201d? Anything of interest?<\/p>\n
From \u201cof the\u201d to \u201cof a,\u201d the poem moves from definite to indefinite, specific to generic, narrow to wide. This development corresponds to a change in what\u2019s perceived. From lifelessness, \u201cthe back wings\/of the\/\/hospital where\/nothing\/\/will grow\u201d to life, broken and beautiful, \u201cshine\/the broken\/\/pieces of a green\/bottle.\u201d<\/p>\n
When one widens one\u2019s view of things, to take in more than one\u2019s personal interests (from the<\/em> hospital to a<\/em> bottle), one may find beauty where it\u2019s least expected.<\/p>\nOf the, of a. Words that might have been easily overlooked turn out to express the poem\u2019s deepest wisdom!<\/p>\n
What about the ten or eleven minutes I spend clicking around before getting down to work? Might they have any wisdom to offer?<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know enough; I\u2019m out of touch; I\u2019m not smart enough, talented enough; I\u2019m not in control\u2014of the economy, the government, the genetic destiny of my own body\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\nIs this the story I tell myself with every click?<\/p>\n
Is there another underlying story? Is it this: I\u2019m vulnerable; I\u2019m imperfect; I\u2019m mortal; I\u2019m afraid?<\/p>\n
Clicking away\u2014morning, afternoon, and evening, that habit, foolish or wise, may not be, finally, so harmful.<\/p>\n
The destructive habit may be this: Feeding, as if it were ravenous, the belief that I must be in control, powerful, all knowing, always at the heart of things. Anything less means I\u2019m a failure.<\/p>\n
The unproductive habit may be turning away, again and again, from the fundamental story of life, at least of my life: I\u2019m vulnerable; I\u2019m imperfect; I\u2019m mortal; I\u2019m afraid.<\/p>\n
Nourishment, perhaps, is to be found right there, in the very experience of that which I have been conditioned to see as weakness that needs to be overcome.<\/p>\n
Why do I practice meditation? Why do I read the daily psalm? Why do I write?<\/p>\n
One reason has become clear to me now, to practice being with, rather than clicking<\/em> away from, life itself, broken, shining, green.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three minutes, maybe four. Six minutes, maybe seven. A little bit of time. This morning open Google chrome to my homepage the University of North Carolina Asheville. Once it\u2019s loaded, a quick glance at upcoming events. A post Civil War lecture. First thought: Living in the South, I really should know more about the Civil […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1053,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,8,49],"tags":[375,394,45],"class_list":["post-1045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith-topical-categories","category-richard-chess","category-writing-topical-categories","tag-media","tag-the-writing-life","tag-writing"],"yoast_head":"\n
Finding Poetry and Meaning in Internet Clicks<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Three minutes, maybe four. Six minutes, maybe seven. A little bit of time. This morning open Google chrome to my homepage the University of North Carolina\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2012\/08\/finding-poetry-and-meaning-in-internet-clicks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Finding Poetry and Meaning in Internet Clicks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Three minutes, maybe four. Six minutes, maybe seven. A little bit of time. This morning open Google chrome to my homepage the University of North Carolina\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2012\/08\/finding-poetry-and-meaning-in-internet-clicks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-02T07:32:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-07-18T17:13:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/files\/2012\/08\/greenglass-300x199.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Richard Chess\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Richard Chess\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2012\/08\/finding-poetry-and-meaning-in-internet-clicks\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2012\/08\/finding-poetry-and-meaning-in-internet-clicks\/\",\"name\":\"Finding Poetry and Meaning in Internet Clicks\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-08-02T07:32:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-07-18T17:13:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#\/schema\/person\/4e5963b3e308f7f4b571655e7dd60073\"},\"description\":\"Three minutes, maybe four. Six minutes, maybe seven. A little bit of time. This morning open Google chrome to my homepage the University of North Carolina\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2012\/08\/finding-poetry-and-meaning-in-internet-clicks\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2012\/08\/finding-poetry-and-meaning-in-internet-clicks\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2012\/08\/finding-poetry-and-meaning-in-internet-clicks\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Finding Poetry and Meaning in Internet Clicks\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/\",\"name\":\"Good Letters\",\"description\":\"Words. Made flesh.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#\/schema\/person\/4e5963b3e308f7f4b571655e7dd60073\",\"name\":\"Richard Chess\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/481f1a0ef61a1d42cc2dae840145adeb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/481f1a0ef61a1d42cc2dae840145adeb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Richard Chess\"},\"description\":\"Richard Chess is the author of four books of poetry, Love Nailed to the Doorpost (University of Tampa Press 2017), Tekiah, Chair in the Desert, and Third Temple, all from University of Tampa Press. Poems of his have appeared in Telling and Remembering: A Century of American Jewish Poetry, Bearing the Mystery: Twenty Years of IMAGE, and Best Spiritual Writing 2005. He is the Roy Carroll Professor of Honors Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. He is also the director of UNC Asheville\u2019s Center for Jewish Studies. He is also the Chair of UNC Asheville\u2019s English Department. You can find more information at www.richardchess.com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/author\/richardchess\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Finding Poetry and Meaning in Internet Clicks","description":"Three minutes, maybe four. Six minutes, maybe seven. A little bit of time. This morning open Google chrome to my homepage the University of North Carolina","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2012\/08\/finding-poetry-and-meaning-in-internet-clicks\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Finding Poetry and Meaning in Internet Clicks","og_description":"Three minutes, maybe four. Six minutes, maybe seven. A little bit of time. This morning open Google chrome to my homepage the University of North Carolina","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2012\/08\/finding-poetry-and-meaning-in-internet-clicks\/","og_site_name":"Good Letters","article_published_time":"2012-08-02T07:32:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-07-18T17:13:52+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/files\/2012\/08\/greenglass-300x199.jpg"}],"author":"Richard Chess","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Richard Chess","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2012\/08\/finding-poetry-and-meaning-in-internet-clicks\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2012\/08\/finding-poetry-and-meaning-in-internet-clicks\/","name":"Finding Poetry and Meaning in Internet Clicks","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-08-02T07:32:11+00:00","dateModified":"2013-07-18T17:13:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#\/schema\/person\/4e5963b3e308f7f4b571655e7dd60073"},"description":"Three minutes, maybe four. Six minutes, maybe seven. A little bit of time. This morning open Google chrome to my homepage the University of North Carolina","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2012\/08\/finding-poetry-and-meaning-in-internet-clicks\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2012\/08\/finding-poetry-and-meaning-in-internet-clicks\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2012\/08\/finding-poetry-and-meaning-in-internet-clicks\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Finding Poetry and Meaning in Internet Clicks"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/","name":"Good Letters","description":"Words. Made flesh.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#\/schema\/person\/4e5963b3e308f7f4b571655e7dd60073","name":"Richard Chess","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/481f1a0ef61a1d42cc2dae840145adeb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/481f1a0ef61a1d42cc2dae840145adeb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Richard Chess"},"description":"Richard Chess is the author of four books of poetry, Love Nailed to the Doorpost (University of Tampa Press 2017), Tekiah, Chair in the Desert, and Third Temple, all from University of Tampa Press. Poems of his have appeared in Telling and Remembering: A Century of American Jewish Poetry, Bearing the Mystery: Twenty Years of IMAGE, and Best Spiritual Writing 2005. He is the Roy Carroll Professor of Honors Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. He is also the director of UNC Asheville\u2019s Center for Jewish Studies. He is also the Chair of UNC Asheville\u2019s English Department. You can find more information at www.richardchess.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/author\/richardchess\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1053"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/162\/2012\/08\/greenglass.jpg\" "\\"greenglass\\"")
<\/a>Three minutes, maybe four. Six minutes, maybe seven. A little bit of time.<\/p>\n