B. A. Kashi

B. A. Kashi, B.E.D., M.S.

English/Reading, Language Arts

Email: bkashi@cypresscollege.edu

Phone: 714-484-7000 Ext : 48478

Office Hours : Varies according to semester

Location: Humanitis 211-B

 
 

Favorite Poet

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15397

To make a prairie (1755) by Emily Dickinson 

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee.
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15391
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (280) by Emily Dickinson 
 
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading -- treading -- till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through --  

And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum -- 
Kept beating -- beating -- till I thought
My Mind was going numb --  

And then I heard them lift a Box
And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space -- began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race
Wrecked, solitary, here -- 

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down --
And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing -- then--
 
 

Why this poet? Why these poems?

I was attending West Georgia College, and my American Literature  teacher introduced Emily Dickinson to me.  Before this class, poetry was something I didn't really "get."  Not the good stuff anyway.  Not the poetry worthy of a university lit class.

I fell in love with this poet, these poems and discovered poetry speaks to the heart.  That words mean something beyond what I'd previously known.

I tell you this, dear student, not because I'm an authority on poetry but because I want you to improve your reading, writing, study, and self-monitoring skills to such an extent that you, too, can fall in love with words, whether in poetry or literature, but certainly with the good stuff worthy of a college/university level English class.