I gave a talk last Thursday. A real, honest to goodness twenty minute speech. I've been a teacher twenty-five years and never done that. I give five minute lectures. I lead discussions. I tutor extensively but never stand at the podium and pontificate. It went well. Thanks to all those speech teachers who were guest teachers in my composition classes I've learned how to organize, outline, gesture, and speak up. Now, if only I could master slow down.

This was for the poetry reading series at the library. So, I talked about ways to be a better poet, and then a bunch of poets and writers read their work. The audience wasn't quite as responsive as I would have liked but then one guy told me he was kind of deaf and had basically missed it all. I gave him a written copy.