Joe Safdie brings his lifetime of experience with writing poems to a brief history lesson about the muses and how they might still inspire us. Recalling the epic storytellers of the oral tradition, who had to memorize vast stretches of material for their performances, he
explains how memorizing poems – from Shakespeare, William Carlos Williams, Dylan Thomas and William Butler Yeats – can still produce benefits today, countering the immense assaults on memory we experience by depending too much on our current digital technologies.
Joe Safdie has taught English composition, literature and creative writing classes for 24 years at community colleges in Washington and California, and for three years before that in the Czech Republic. He’s published two books of poems – Scholarship from Blaze Vox and Coastal Zone from Spuyten Duyvil – as well as four chapbooks and numerous essays and reviews about contemporary letters. This is his last year teaching at San Diego Mesa College: retirement – and more writing! – beckons. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx