Advice on Essay-Writing

"Walk over the rice-paper, Grasshopper ..."


“Sometimes the best performance is lost on the wrong audience.”
– Jack Kirby, Mr Miracle

I had a couple of questions
about the essay
I was hoping you’d clarify
I feel I covered
all these points
in the workshop yesterday
for the record, though

How formal does it
have to be?
not very formal
If I'm doing a poem
which isn’t based
on an anthology poem
can I substitute references to other texts?

No
How should I format
those references?
I'm only interested in discussion
of poems from the anthology
You don't need a reference
for them

My creative process in
coming up with this poem
was honestly not
two pages worth
so what's the minimum length
the essay should exceed?
2 pages

Do I have to include
an introduction
body & conclusion?
Lacking a thesis question
& points to argue
I'm finding this a difficult model
to follow

It just needs to make sense
What time on Friday
is this portfolio due?
when the office closes
I think that should be all for now
I would've asked earlier today
at the tutorial

but I totally forgot

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Marooned

Motorway lights (2009)

Dear Sarah,

I really was intending to come to your party, had psyched myself up for it, steeled my mind for the experience. I had the route all planned, timed to ensure arrival "fashionably late," the labyrinth of streets around your house all sussed out in advance.

And I did actually set out! That was the amazing thing. It was a horrible night, bucketing down with rain, the car all misted up inside and visibility down almost to nothing ...

But then, as I got to the motorway on-ramp, a car which had been crowding me all down the street, screeched up alongside and started to honk its horn. I wound down the window to confront the hoon.

"You don't have any rear lights, mate!" the guy inside shouted across at me.

"Thanks," I sputtered, as the traffic lights turned green.

There was nothing for it but to go on. No u-turns or backing up possible in such a situation!

I tried to go as slowly as possible on the motorway, hugging the left lane, clicking on the interior light so at least I could be seen. The other cars were flashing past, honking and catcalling (or so it seemed - perhaps I was imagining that).

Till finally a turn-off came up on the left, and I was able to get off, park in the nearest service station, take stock of the situation.

What had been a simple party invitation, dreaded more than looked forward to, perhaps, had suddenly morphed into a life-or-death emergency. How was I to get home?

The first traffic cop who saw me would pull me over and impound my car, I felt sure. Was there any way of creeping back which still involved lighted streets and some degree of safety? I had no desire to be rear-ended down some cul-de-sac.

As I write to you, Sarah, I feel myself still there, alone on a concrete forecourt, marooned in an island of light, with the city spread out around me like a storm-tossed sea.

yours

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Not everyone can get an 'A'

How to save the World and Find True Love ... (2006)

I like A’s
she tells me
with a confiding smile
becoming the ‘special student’
in the class
the 'writer'
in a flock of sheep

Ideas for a play
for stories
for an auto-
biography
I never knew my grandmother
my mother
didn’t treat me

like a daughter
but as
one of the people she knew
My father
published a book
at his own expense
then watched it languish

when it could have
saved the world
I’d like to save the world
Me too
I’m not quite sure
how to go about it
though

(esp. on salary)

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