Tony Dow

            On Tuesday, since it wa reading week and I didn’t have to go to class, I spent several hours making notes toward my upcoming essay for my Canadian Poetry course. There are so many things to research in two of the poems I’m looking at, especially in Wayde Compton’s “Declaration of the Halfrican Nation”, that I’ve spent weeks just on the notes. It’s due in one week, so I guess I still have lots of time. I am almost finished with the hand written notes, but then I’ll have to transcribe them, condense them and arrange the whole thing into an academic paper.            
            I watched the first episode of the second season of Leave It To Beaver. Beaver had to write a poem for school and so he asked his father for help. Ward got Beaver to pick his own subject, which was bears, but then the kid couldn’t think of anything to write, so Ward wrote the poem for him. It doesn’t seem to me that it would be difficult to coax a poem out of any kid. The best way to start a poem is just to write down the first thing that you think about the topic, like for instance bears. That would almost always automatically lead to another thought. The first things you write down don’t have to be in verse form. That could come in the second draft.
            I’ve read that Tony Dow, the actor that played Beaver’s brother Wally grew up to be a renowned sculptor and visual effects artist for film and television.