Monday 15 October 2007

16 and Sunny Today

We were looking at those seven poems again today, this time more conventionally. Trying out the "what is nature doing in these poems" question, to which two or three students offered useful responses. It might lead to figuring the human/natural "conversation," as Pamela Banting calls it, in fresh ways (beyond, for example, calling nature "God's creation").

Two other ideas I'm thinking about for this class: Get Luther Dean Mary Vetter, a botanist, to take us for a walk down by the lake, drawing our attention to whatever she knows about. And/or take the class to the Joe Fafard show at the Mackenzie. See what kind of conversations he's been having in his work.

Today at Luther a reading room was dedicated to Margaret Belcher, long-time Regina-area birder and naturalist whose Birds of Regina, first published in 1960, helped turn Trevor Herriot on to birds. Trevor was there today for the dedication. The ceremony was, for me and quite a few others I think, a meaningful connection to Belcher's passions as a naturalist and to Luther's past (she was a Luther student early in her career).

5 comments:

Brenda Schmidt said...

I'd love to walk with a dean/botanist and see the Fafard show. Can I survey your class?

Gerald Hill said...

Sure. Or maybe we'll look at one of your poems, and phone you from the classroom (which I've done before) during our discussion. Interested?

Brenda Schmidt said...

I'm game. Unless you call collect...

Gerald Hill said...

That's a deal. Somebody will phone from class at about 1:00pm Friday. Topic of conversation: "More Than Three Feet of Ice" (the poem, not the book). I'll see what questions we can generate for you.

Brenda Schmidt said...

It's a date!