Grad School Distress By Robert Vogt

Issue 6

I have a strange idea that it’s all out there already like online in little “this is what I did today in class and it worked really well…” And then taking it and putting it in the ‘flow’ mode or ‘zone’… and I’m praying that you’ll see what I put on paper (or NOT see it until you put your stuff up onto another file …) and then compare them and see which one we can pull the wool over their eyes with.

My horse-sense is that you have read it deeper and have a clearer understanding and could help make the book genuinely interesting…

AND THEN we could sort of put our little study in there as an inside side note and add quotes from students we’ve looked at and interviewed (like I said just ask them in a timed writing who their favorite teacher was and why and how they can best learn languages …) and we just categorize what they say [might want to do this while semester’s still going on …] and then we do like I said in chapter 4 or 5 about how to be a better teacher…some suggestions and as we go into it add Language Teaching 101 shit that we can easily find on some Dave’s ESL Café post.

We could say Fred a medical student from Malaysia when forced to memorize 50 medical terms that were totally foreign to him he would create flashcards and play flashcard games in which he placed them upside down and shuffled them around until he could guess which one. Sounds like a language learning strategy but it’s also a way to convince self to get into flow because you’re metacognitively putting the cognitive stress load of learning the words into a game. When we asked Fred why he’d go to all the trouble to make the cards he said that it made his learning more fun and interesting and he’d pretend he was in Vegas at a fancy casino. “When I took the test, I think I was the only one smiling because I had made it fun for myself and the stress [was] gone…”

 

Source text: A thesis advisor’s email.

Robert Vogt worked as a custodian for a number of years until switching to EFL educator after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts. His work has appeared in Horror, Sleaze and Trash and Fuck Fiction. His chapbook “Stilnox and Stolichnaya” and his novel “Conceived in Iniquity” are available at Lulu.com.

§3.11 …the perceptible sign… By Law Alsobrook

Issue 6

 

Law Alsobrook

 

Source: Ludwig Wittgenstein,Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 10th ed. Project Gutenburg,Print

Law Alsobrook is an Assistant Professor in Graphic Design at VCU in Qatar. His work has been published or is forthcoming in DIAGRAM, The Volta, Petite Hound Press, and elsewhere. He is Co-Editor and Art Director for diode poetry journal & Diode Editions.

Letter to a Future Lover By Zach Linge

Issue 6

Dusty winds may exist.
Dangerous winds.
Dust   storms may exist.

Zero visibility possible.
Do not stop in travel lanes.
Use extreme caution.

Silver City: Think Wilderness.
Slower traffic keep right.
Silver City: Think

Colorful.   Care
For your loved one,
Care for yourself. Use

Extreme caution.
Continental divide
fireworks.   Roadwork

Next 10 miles. Left lane.
Left lane closed.
Pedestrians prohibited.

Dead end. Prison facilities
In this area; Notice:
Please do not   pick up

Hitchhikers. Lonesome Road.
Pedestrians. Missile range
Headquarters.

After you die, you will meet
God. Put your money
where the miracles are.

 

Source: This text, excluding the title, is lifted in exactness from roadside signs off Interstate 10 East, from the Salton Sea to San Antonio. Periods denote the end of each sign, billboard, or post. While countless found texts were excised in this poem’s creation, it remains true to the order of the signs as they occur.

Zach Linge is a graduate student at The University of Texas at San Antonio, and a UT Austin alumnus. Previous poems are published in Nimrod International Journal, Permafrost Magazine, and HotHouse Literary Journal, among others. His critical foci include queer and affect theory, the history of witchcraft, and the contemporary novel.

Grieg’s Slätter Fib By PJ Wren

Issue 6

my
kits
are all
gone mad they
cry for bones, they break
the dam, they bite no bark nor brook
the otter’s hold. Hail them all, the pillars of the church!
Hail the broad march, hail the spring dance, hail the telemark, and make the fairy goblins dance!

 

Source: Song titles from Grieg’s Slätter, as performed by Eva Knardahl

PJ Wren is scientist and writer from Kensington, Maryland. Her poems have appeared in The Lake, After the Pause, and Plum Tree Tavern.