Turns out leaves don’t change color in Texas…

…yeah I was surprised about that one. Oh well, I suppose that I will have to put up with weeks at a time where it is 75 degrees and sunny. Anyway, things here are going well. I haven’t done much exploring yet to speak of, mostly because work and working out keep me busy enough that I don’t bother with just driving in one direction with the hope of getting totally lost (hint: doesn’t work in Omaha because the city is a near-perfect grid). Speaking of Omaha, I will be headed back up at the end of the next week, mostly so that I can go to Vala’s and have an excuse to wear something other than shorts and a t shirt (sorry Erin [actually not sorry because there is a significant possiblity of flannel]). Upcoming big thing: the powers-that-be at work (where I’m at right now, avoiding writing up an executive summary of a Mexican federal pawn statute) have decided that I need to learn Spanish so that I can be one of the point people in analyzing our Latin American interests. Looks like all that time studying German is really paying off! I secretly hope to use that knowledge and my soon-to-be mastery of Spanish to lead a coup in like El Salvador or something and become the kleptocratic Presidente of my own banana republic (I will, of course, wear exclusively Banana Republic clothing). I am also looking into volunteer opportunities around town to work with the large homeless population in Austin–maybe tutoring? I wanna do something besides just hurl spare change and insults at them as I blaze through yellow lights. Also, I will hopefully rediscover my muse and churn out some new poems. We shall see.

Sean out!

Texas forever!

Howdy!

That’s what we Texans like to say; you know, because we are Texan and all. What’s that? I’m not Texan, but a pale Midwesterner? Not anymore! I just took a job down in Austin, so I am a member of the Republic for the forseeable future. It’s really cool down here (figuratively. In reality it feels like the surface of the sun and things just spontaneously combust spontaneously) and I have been enjoying myself so far. I hope to move this blog to general iconoclasting, which is a word, as opposed to poetry and travel. I do work a regular corporate gig now, so there may be weeks where I do actually nothing of note. Corporate zombie! expense reports….uunnhhhhh

Sean out.

Finally! An Update!

Not even gonna apologize…

Naschmarkt

You told me that at the end of the day the market shadows itself with the gleaming white cathedral that sits above it. Strange that something so pristine lords over this permanently temporary village of well-thumbed children’s books and moth-eaten SS uniforms. Amidst the mountains of unidentifiable trinkets and unpaired boots the stall owners haggle amongst themselves. Some sit perfectly still and watch us weave in and out of crowded aisles—judging, pricing. You laugh when I put on a small theatre production with some cat statues.

I am gravitated to a box of ancient postcards, yellowed by age and sunlight and offering up their memories for those interested in buying. A lover in Tripoli wishes I was there; my father in Mainz is tired of visiting cathedrals; a brother in Stockholm thinks that the city and the people are beautiful, but a little cold. If I could find a blank card I would tell you

At night we ride the trains
into the mountains and we only
come down during the day to
find more broken umbrellas.

Delays

In the thick of senior paper writing and before that it was applying and interviewing for Teach for America. I’m allowed to be truant! Hopefully stuff up this coming weekend.

Cheers.

This week

In poetry class we discussed the Ars Poetica, a poem about poetry (someone in class thought it was Arse Poetica, which led to a pretty excellent poem in and of itself). So I wrote this.

VANISHING DEDUCTIBLE

It starts like a car accident. Of course the risk is always there–you bought the car, got on the road, flipped off the occasional cutter-offer. That doesn’t mean you are prepared when, distracted by the radio (or a beautiful pedestrian) a stop light gets ran and then the dull thud, the tinkling of glass, the acrid powder from the airbag.

What was once an isolated incident now follows you. The soreness in your neck, the flush of anxiety whenever a horn blows, when you see broken glass twinkle on the asphalt.

Slowly the soreness becomes familiar; it keeps mornings interesting and provides a nice story to tell strangers. At some point you realize that you’ve stopped calling it an accident, and started wondering whether or not it would be as exhilarating a second time.

-Sean

A letter I wrote

So I just finished applying for Teach for America, so I thought I would share what I wrote as my letter of intent for the program…I hope that they like it!

February 4, 2011
Teach for America Selection Committee
Teach for America, Inc.

To whom it may concern,

I am writing this letter of intent as part of the application for a position as a teacher through Teach for America. I am enthusiastic about the possibility of being involved in such an exceptional organization, and for the the opportunity to change the lives of the students with whom I would interact. I hope that you will decide that both my enthusi-asm for the program and my qualifications will allow me such an opportunity. I am a product of my education, and I believe that these children deserve the same opportuni-ties that I was fortunate enough to have.

While there are a myriad of reasons why I would like to join Teach for America, I would like to focus on two that I see as among the most important. Like you, I am not blind to the terrible nature of the achievement gap in our nation’s education system. My (cur-rent) hometown of Minneapolis is a startling example of just such a situation; the best schools are some of the best in the nation, but underneath that lies a startling division of educational quality that is nearly perfectly split along socioeconomic lines. It can of-ten be difficult to see how one can challenge the injustices they see around them, but I know that the ripple effect of generating a positive experience for just a few classrooms can be immeasurable. I would be, well, more than remiss if I didn’t try to make a change, especially when I know I have the tools and the desire. Second, I believe that one of the biggest challenges facing our education system today is there seems to be very little encouragement for getting students to become passionate about learning. For many of these children, it may not be realistic to get them to a four-year university, but I would like the opportunity to instill in them a passion for the learning process which will lead them to success no matter what their future holds.

Thus, my reasons for wanting to join Teach for America are deeply intertwined with my goals if selected, as well as how I would determine my success. I hope to accomplish what the education system has failed to do: to get these students excited to learn, and to help them find something they are passionate about. If I can get a student to find the connection between what happens in the classroom and what happens in their commu-nity, and give them the tools to work for personal and communal change, then I know I was successful. I am more fearful of a population that never learned to learn than one that does poorly on standardized tests. I know that this potential lies in every student.

I hope that this letter helps to illustrate my motivations for applying, and I hope that you see that I am ready to work for these students.

Sincerely yours,
Sean McClay

I’m so, so sorry for this…

…but I’m a sucker for terrible puns. And for Kanye (seriously, have you heard his new album? I have resolved to only listen to it while exercising, which makes me feel like a hardass while I fatty-grunt my way through some crunches).

Sean.

New poem

Praha

I watch your ankles buckle
on the cobblestone streets

The light emanates yellow
from leaded glass and the whispers
your hear are coming from
the mouths of weathered statues

We walk under arches
you and I
through open markets
and down musky alleyways

Beneath mosque lamps
amid hushed tones and clinking glasses
we linger
losing ourselves in memories
of stone-hewn steeples and dark bedrooms

Outside the stars preside
over the city’s ancient decadence
all the while knowing
it is in the shadows that we find our way.

Sean

Back again.

Hey all,

So I didn’t really blog in the last half of the year…I didn’t have much to say and not much was happening. I find any creative urges dissipate when not much of my life is in tumult.

This semester, however, is quite a doozy. It’s my last one, and thus fears over impeding adulthood are beginning to surface. I’m also taking another poetry writing class, so hopefully I can be productive as well as better than before. I’m sure you are all waiting on bated breath for that. Snort.

Anyway, I decided to repost after chiding a friend (The Alteration in the blogroll over there —>) about her lack of posts; we stopped blogging last year on the same week, so it seemed fitting to begin again in the hopes of guilt-tripping a post out of her. Hopefully I can reignite my urge to post here, especially after looking back on my travel posts and realizing that they weren’t totally useless. If for some reason someone new sees this, I tweet pretty regularly @seanmcclay so that’s always an option if you, ya know, want to join the rest of 21st century society. That’s all for now. SEAN OUT.

P.s. Have you listened to Diamond Messages? You haven’t? Well fix that immediately.

An Thought.

In response to this article:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130996810&f=1014&sc=tw

Ok you caught me, Prager! I’m a leftist! I’m a dirty pseudo-European leftist. I guess when I saw all of the affordable healthcare, conciliatory and rational legislation, superior education systems, and the wealth that comes with lower defense spending. Do you know what I see from the Republicans? Economic confusion and hate. Sure, let’s have the government not spend money when there is 10 % unemployment because there is a history of success in that arena! And sure, John Kyl, I’d love to see our border safe and non-porous as you would, but without alienating and demonizing the people that are already here, making money, paying taxes, and producing human capital (babies) for us. And sure Tancredo, I would also love if we re-instituted Jim Crow era voter controls, because I don’t think people that look different than me should vote either! And you are right, 50% of America, global warming and evolution are just really big scams, because really, what do international legions of highly trained scientists know about this stuff anyway? And you know what, Oklahoma, I don’t think that doctors need to be honest with a pregnant woman about the health of the fetus either, because we wouldn’t want that little heathen to get an abortion, would we? And Boehner, we all know that tan is fake. That’s why I vote…because at least most democrats pretend to care that they aren’t just ignorant, xenophobic shills-for-wall-street who raise spending while complaining about spending. They just raise it because it must be done, and because we really may not be the shining city on a hill much longer (srsly, have you been to Sweden? That place is awesome!), but maybe one day they will decrease it. Okay, screed done. Just vote, whoever it’s for. I don’t care. And if I did, I could always take Sharon Angle’s advice and resort to ‘second-amendment remedies’ and solve the problem myself.

Sean

P.S. Sharon Angle??! Really?? people want to vote for that crazy fascist?