Don't read books

    Don’t read books!
    Don’t chant poems!
    When you read books your eyeballs wither away
    leaving the bare sockets.
    When you chant poems your heart leaks out slowly
    with each word.
    People say reading books is enjoyable.
    People say chanting poems is fun.
    But if your lips constantly make a sound
    like an insect chirping in autumn,
    you will only turn into a haggard old man.
    And even if you don’t turn into a haggard old man,
    it’s annoying for others to have to hear you.

    It’s so much better
    to close your eyes, sit in your study,
    lower the curtains, sweep the floor,
    burn incense.
    It’s beautiful to listen to the wind,
    listen to the rain,
    take a walk when you feel energetic,
    and when you’re tired go to sleep.

12th century zen poem by Yang Wangli

Stuff my students write

In a pop quiz, I asked the students to summarize the plot of the Second Shepherd's Play in no more than two sentences. Here's some corkers:

--Two shepherds have their goat stolen ...

--3 shephards are traveling and one of their sheep is stolen by an evil sheep herder. They go on a quest/journey to find the missing sheep & meet new characters & discover new themes & ideas on their journey.

--Kurt Russell in a Ford White Bronco speeding down the highway towards the Canadian border with the highway patrol from 9 different states on his tail and his love on the line.

--The first shepherd was so bad at his job that a second shepherd was hired to replace him. Then the second shepherd wrote a play recounting his experience as a shepherd in the second degree.

--The second shepherd's play is about religion in a different time.