I slowed down since we arrived in Phoenix. I feel like this when I travel to Spokane. It takes a few days, but eventually I move slower, take time to look around, and smell the proverbial roses.
I read Nicholas Carr‘s The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains and found unexpected inspiration. I chose the book as part of the course and dissertation preparation. Carr used poetry to support some of his ideas. He included Wallace Stevens’ poem about immersing one’s self into reading, the solitude found there, and the world that emerges. The author speaks to me as I find calm and solitude.
People commented on the re-blog, Solitude, about a concern for children and an inability to disconnect from digital technologies. I agree and it is partly what motivates me in my dissertation path. Where I teach and learn, I see readers. It is a pastime supported by many families and embraced by many children. Many families limit technology use and television viewing in their homes. Many students play musical instruments, join choirs, and enjoy the arts. It is a concern, but there are examples of children and families mindfully using technology.
The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The reader became the book; and summer night
Was like the conscious being of the book.
The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The words were spoken as if there was no book,
Except that the reader leaned above the page,
Wanted to lean, wanted much most to be
The scholar to whom his book is true, to whom
The summer night is like a perfection of thought.
The house was quiet because it had to be.
The quiet was part of the meaning, part of the mind:
The access of perfection to the page.
The world was calm. The truth in a calm world,
In which there is no other meaning, itself
Is calm, itself is summer and night, itself
Is the reader leaning late and reading there.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
Lovely, the poem reminds me of many a summer night spent at our cabin in the north woods with my now 21 year old son who read like crazy every summer night in that cabin, and is still a reader so I found, much to my surprise, when he brought home all his worldly possessions before embarking on his semester abroad. Thank you for sharing this poem.
You are welcome. Now that you remind me, I recall the nights we would hide books under covers and read. How times have changed.
Ahh – the quiet enveloped me. Lovely
It is a lovely thought Lesley.
Awesome as ever..it is such a wonderful opportunity to explore the unknown and the un-noticed through your poems.Good job,Ivon !
Thank you Swati.
Thoughtful words. Just this morning I looked at a book I had started but have neglected for the internet for too long. There is a balance.
I agree Eric. I found it hard, but necessary to get back into the reading.
The transformative power of reading, so beautifully described – thank you Ivon.
We do not want our children to lose this power and I find many still want the quiet reading provides.
I hope so – it is the most delicious quiet there is, engrossed in a book and allowing the imagination to be carried along.
It just carries us away word by word.
Ivon, have you seen the film documentary ReGeneration? Follows some of the same threads of thought …
I will take a look for it.