On Thursday, the Governor's Academy community experienced a special treat in the visit of poet Billy Collins to the school. His reading evoked laughter, sighs, nods of agreement and feelings of satisfaction in the audience.
He gave a special piece of advice to students, when discussing a poem in which he quotes from the pencil writing in the margins of Catcher in the Rye words he knows must have been written by a beautiful young girl, and which left him smitten for the summer ("Marginalia," Sailing Alone Around the Room). He suggested that students give up their uncritical and indiscriminate highlighting with bright yellow or, worse, pink lines, and instead return to making comments, criticism and praise in pencil notes which then become an addendum to the content of the book. These can become something for other readers to enjoy!
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