July ends

I received an email from the MFA director at State yesterday. He was notifying all MFA students of a meet and greet on the 21^st, which was latter rescheduled for the 20^th due to conflicts with scheduling. Along with the notice, he included a few files that had reading lists and requirements for students to fulfill before graduation. Most of it is just intimidating, but the book list for the MFA exam in a year and a half is scary. They have 15 books that I have to read, some rather large ones, plus I have to choose another 10. Then one Friday at noon I will pick up the question, take it home, and have to have a 15-20 page essay ready by noon Monday. I do have some of the books already, but I will have to get at least another 8. Here is the required reading list for the poetry section:

M.F.A. REQUIRED READING LIST IN POETRY

1. Helen Gardner, ed. The Metaphysical Poets

2. M.H. Abrams, ed., Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period

3. Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

4. Emily Dickinson, Collected Poems

5. William Butler Yeats, The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

6. T.S. Eliot, Collected Poems

7. Langston Hughes, Selected Poems

8. William Carlos Williams, Collected Earlier & Later Poems

9. Wallace Stevens, The Palm at the End of the Mind

10. W.H. Auden, Selected Poems

11. Robert Lowell, Selected Poems

12. Elizabeth Bishop, Collected Poems

13. Anne Sexton, The Complete Poems

14. Sylvia Plath, Ariel

15. Seamus Heaney, Selected Poems

A limited number of substitutions of other books by the same authors are possible, with the consultation of your advisor. In addition, you must supply a list of ten books of your own choosing in consultation with your advisor, for a total of 25 titles. This list must be given to the graduate secretary no later than the first week of your final semester.

I went down to the library on campus yesterday morning. For the first time I went to the top floor, the ninth floor, to get a book. There are some windows all around the outside of the floor, and I found myself feeling a little displaced again. The trees are so thick through much of the city that the city is hidden. From the library I looked south toward where my home is, and all I could see was a mass of green with a few tall buildings, towers, and power lines sticking out here and there. I have a continuing sense of being at home and not being at home as I walk around Raleigh. And walk I did. I left the library heading north, made a right, and after half an hour when I had not reached Cameron Village (a strip mall with a Harris Teeter), I realized the road must have twisted a bit, and I was still walking north. I had to make two more rights to get to the mall. I learned from this experience to always carry my compass with me. I am becoming quite comfortable with traveling on the buses, and can get to where I want quite easily. Riding the bus always takes a lot longer than going by car does, and even a short trip turns into a half day excursion.

I have 21 days until school starts. The summer was too short. Panic rises, and I considering running away. There must be some warm Caribbean island that would love to have me.