Last poetry!

This week I'm doing "at the cemetery, walnut grove plantation,south carolina,1989." This is the poem I'm doing for poetry presentation! This poem is a dark one (surprise!). It's talking about slaves and how they weren't worth anything back in the day. like they were property and weren't accounted for and didn't have names. It's like you're standing at this cemetery but there aren't any headstones or anything to recognize the people who've passed here. The author is like "tell me your names." He wants to know who these people are. "nobody mentions slaves and yet the curious tools shine with your fingerprints." Back then no one took notice of the slaves no one bothered to write down names or when they were born or died. The only reason we know they even existed is because the tool shave their fingerprints and the fields had been worked. There are two lines italicized "the inventory lists ten slaves but only men were recognized." So finally there's a written record of them being there, but it's only for men. There's no name s of women or even a number of women because they were black AND women which was really two marks against you. The lines are italicized because this is the shift in the poem. The author is no longer walking in the cemetery he's asked to see the list of slaves that worked here, and he sees how miss treated they were. He uses the two lines and the use of repetition to get his point across. "among the rocks at the walnut grove some of these honored dead were dark some of these dark were slaves some of these slaves were women some of them did this honored work. tell me your names, foremothers, brothers, tell me your dishonored names. here lies here lies here lies here lies hear." He wants the reader to see the afterlife of a slave and how mistreated they were. The author also didn't capitalize anything; he did this on purpose to show that he's not going to honor the grammar code just like slaves weren't honored at all for anything they ever did. This is a 5 stanza poem, every stanza varying in length and style. The last one uses repetition while the first serves as a set in scenery.

Last poetry!!

The poem I'm doing this week is "A Poison Tree." I thought it was fitting with our lessons on allusions this week. This poem is alluding to the"Tree of Knowledge" in the bible. It statrs out with someone being mad with his friend but then he talked to him and everything was ok. Then he was angry with a foe and his anger grew into a tree that bore a red apple in his "garden." The foe is the devil in this situation. "And it grew both day and night till it bore an apple bright; and my foe beheld it shine, and he knew that it was mine." The allusion is to God and his garden of Eden with the apple and his "foe." The apple and the grudge however is the first example of sin. He didn't forgive or talk to his enemy and his sin grew and grew until it was an apple; which then alludes to the apple in Genesis which is the first "sin" in the bible that casts out Adam and Eve. This is a 4 stanza poem with each stanza having 4 lines per stanza and an AB rhyme scheme.

Last Poems!!

This week I'm doing "you fit into me." The author wrote it short and sweet but wanted it to be straight to the meaning. It's a similie; a two stanza two line short poem that makes up the entire simile. There's no puncuation and nothing is capitalized either. The other did this to put more meaning behind her poem. "you fit into me like a hook into an eye a fish hook an open eye" is the entire poem. Wheh I read this poem I cringe a fish hook in your eye would probably be one of the worst pains EVER!!!!!! OUCH!!!!! AH!!!!! Ok anyway, the author wants the reader to know that she's hooked on this person that hurts her to an unbelieveable level. She can't hwlp but love this person when all she wants in the entire world is to get rid of this fish hook in her open eye! The reason i believe this is because if you try to get the fish hook out of the eye; you're going to loose your frickin eye. She is pained so much and is going to lose so much from this "hook."

Last poetry!

The poem this week is "The Guitarist Tunes Up." This poem is quick and sweet. It's short but has a cool meaning at the same time. When I read it I imagined the author was at like an open mic night or something and a guitarist went up on stage. Before he started to play he bowed over his guitar because it's allready strapped around him. The author noted this though for a reason he wanted the reader to know that this wasn't a rock concert or "Not as a conqueror who could Command both wood and wire." The author wants the reader to see that this guitarist loved what he does and it's a tender sweet love that he cherishes just like the love betweena man and a woman. That's the next metaphor he uses he compares the guitar to a woman and how the guitarist plays it and loves it is like the sweet and passionate love of a man and woman. This poem is a one stanza poem with 8 lines and an A-B rhyme scheme.

New poem

This week I'm doing "The Cat." I really liked this poem because it says a lot about leaving into the unknown. Which is what all of us are approaching here soon. This one is about someone leavng the author into something they're unsure is the "right" thing to do. That's why the author said "do not go you'll only be trapped and bewitched and will suffer in vain." The decision being made here isn't a good one and there is no turning back once chosen. then later in the poem it tells the outcome of the decision, "she dissolved, a black cat in the black night, she just dissolved and no one saw her again. Not even she herself." The other wants the reader to understand how desolate the choice was. That's why there's repition to show the helplessness and loss. I believe the poem is titled so because black cats are associated with the night and dark or bad luck, so it's a metaphor and the cat is the person making the decision and the window is the choice. But the window is black so it's unknown what goes on in there, so the curious black cat goes and is then lost. The person making the decision loses herself and is lost forever. This is a free verse poem with 6 stanzas all of different length.

Leaving poem

Leaving is a hard thing to do
Putting aside all those things you once knew
Crawlng away from the warmth of our beds
To getting those new school somngs stuck in our heads.

No one said leaving would be easy
Especially when all that junk food is making me quesy
Snow is falling when there should be sun
My new friend and I are going out, What fun.

The sadness I felt is now long gone
Even when I think of new boys- especially shaun
I am no longer naked on the track of despare
Goodbye old life please take care
Leaving my new life will be the hard thing to do

Questions We Have About...Love

Are you real?
Why do you hurt me?
Is cupid real?
Is there someone out there for everyone?
Why are you invisible?
Why do you avoid some people?
What's real love?
How will you know?
Why can some be deeply in love while others can't?

Poetry

The poem this week is "The Hat Lady." Although I found this poem sad and dark I really love this poem! It was eloquently written and compared people to hats and not like typical baseball hats like everyone seems to think of. Hats that a Hat lady makes especially for that person. I believe the hats describe who the people are like the uncle wearing "homburgs" (which I totally looked up because the name gives no hint as to what it looks like) that make him cool and slick for wearing a hat like that or the grandfather wearing a "yarmulke" the Jewish hat men wear. It shows the grandfather is old fashion and religious, but then the author even goes on to describe how the hat was "like the palm of a hand cradling the back of his head..." Shows how he could be caring and loving at the same time. The whole third stanza is the one that describes his mother (whom the poem is about). Describing hats the hat lady had made for her. The hats were beautiful and made his mother beautiful like the actress Myrna Loy. Each hat represents a different aspect of his beloved mother the one that's like a birds nest shows she's a great mother like a bird with a nest of hatching's, the next hat that made her look like the actress shows how beautiful she was, the last hat with cherries shows she loved kids and was a great mother. The hats made up who the mother was. Then the last stanza is the sad one. It's the one that says the mother had cancer and had wrapped her bald head with a towel. Then the Hat lady came back and instead of making a new hat for the mom she had a hat with death. The mom died of cancer and it's representative how in the last "scene" of the poem death is the only one with a hat. He's the only one that has power and the hat represents that making him higher than everyone else that didn't have a hat. The poem is a four stanza poem with no rhyme scheme it was more like a small story with some symbolism.

New poetry semester

This week the poem I'm doing is "Sort of a Song." This poem is suppose to sound like the structure of a song. Like it's quick and quick like the form of staccato in music which I thought was a cool tie in with the title. The poem looks like a one stanza poem but the Dash breaks the poem into two sets of six lines free verse poetry. The author is talking about an idea in writing and he is comparing it to the snake. The author is waiting to expose it just like a snake does it waits and is smooth and quiet but then strikes quick. The second set of lines is this idea in the form of a flower a gentle innocent flower that splits a rock something that's solid and thought of as impenetrable. On a structural note the word "splits" ends the fifth line breaking the sixth line off even though it was only two words. He's using all this imagery to talk about an idea he has invented is like a snake and will strike quickly while at the same time in will penetrate the must sound of believers.

This week I'm doing "it was a dream." The first thing I noticed was the uncapatilized I's in the poem. After reading the poem it shows how she's upset with herself and demeaning all the bad she's done by putting herself down and uncapitilizing the one letter we all use and capitalize that represtens us. The cool structure peice i notcied was she wanted it to look like a two stanza poem when really it's a one stanza free verse poem. The small line with "what" breaks the two different thoughts in the stanza. The whole poem is about how she is unhappy and the "greater self" is ashamed because she will never be like her greater self. Even the second little half is begging to be greater but the beautiful perfect half is angry and won't allow it. "and screamed as long as i could hear her This. This. This" I don't know what "this" is but the author does. She knows what it is she can do but believes she can't do it. She turned away and walked until she couldn't hear the hatred anymore.

New semester poetry

The poem I'm doing this week is "The Book." I thought some of the other things we've read were dark but this one was REALLY dark and gross. It's about how a soldier finds this blank book in a bunker (I'm not sure what war it is either) and keeps it as a diary. Later on in his life after the war he's taken it back to a book binder who told him it was bound in human skin. Someone had killed someone and used their skin to bound a book. an opposing soldier did this to someone. I think this poem is mainly about how gruesome and gross and cruel war truly is. Like I'm not sure if they were desperate for supplies or someone but I don't believe they were driven to the limits and needed to use human skin. someone just plain out used it. This book that had meant so much to the soldier that had found it, probably helped keep his sanity, is now repulsive to him. "I stared at the changing book and a horror grew, I stared a horror grew, which was, which is, how beautiful is was until I knew." This book was a personal journal about what happened to him during a cruel war and now he realizes how he carried someones skin around with him and it could've been a child, a woman, or a fellow soldier.

New poetry paket

This week the poem I'm doing is the untitled one. This one was short and sweet and to the point, well it wasn't actually sweet because it wa talking about eating hearts. I believe it's talking about how someone can be so biter about the feelings and actions in their heart that they come to a kind of accepance of it. They realize they can't change the ways of their hearts so they accept their bitterness now matter how ugly it makes them. When I think of this creature I think of like a strong hunched over naked dirty guy holding something grotesque in his hand, and then as you get closer you see it's a heart and he's eating it. That's not the picture that you would ever think anyone saying "I like it." It represents acceptance as the ugly beasts we all can be.

Hamlet

SO Hamlet is with his two friends and they are going to see a play. The play calls them "players" and it shows they're the actors and he wants to hear a scene about the great fall of Troy and it's beloved king Priam. The player does such a great job, except Polonius doesn't think so he thinks it's too long, Hamlet wants them to do the whole play the following night. Hamlet, who is playing mad, has hatches a scheme that in the play they will play out the scene that happened between the Father and the uncle. Hamlet thinks if the current king sees it he'll feel guilty and Hamlet will finally have the evidence he needs that the Uncle killed his Father. He puts extra lines in the play for the actor to read during the performance. Then he has a very long soliloquy explaining all of this. :-)

New semester Poetry

The Poem I'm doing this week is "Country Mouth Cotton." It's a pretty straight poem, well you have to read into it a little. It's about where she used to live and how she has memories there. she doesn't have very many positive things to say about it either. It's all about death like maybe a part of her had died there. Hatteras is in North Carolina (in case you were wondering, I was). She also makes a reference to a snake and how it rolled on the moss. Snakes aren't usually the picture of happiness and she says "I also left a skin there." Whenever I think of snake skin I can't help but think of Harry Potter. Her snake skin probably isn't that big but it's something she felt she had to shed and leave behind in that place. Death maybe? "Birth, not death, is the hard loss." That's the most powerful line I think because people usually love babies and birth is so magical and she's saying here it's not it's sad if you're born here it's misery.

New semester poetry packet!!

This week the poem I'm doing is "Of mere Being." This poem is rather confusing and I had to read it a couple of times to try to get a real feeling for what it could be and I came up with a few things but the one that's most believeable is it could be about death. Like "The palm at the end of the mind, Beyond the last thought..." rises a bird that, according to greek mythology, is immortal or is reborn from it's ashes, the phoenix. The poem could be talking about limbo even the place between death and heaven (or whatever you believe is after). It's after the last thought where we know that even if something is foriegn to us it won't make us happy or unhappy. Like the last stanza says "the wind moves slowly in the branches." When you see this greek bird it could represent new life like you're being born from your ashes again and your spirit is going to heaven or maybe its just the wind in your new branches. Or I could be super off this poem was kind of hard to understand

New semester poetry!

The poem I'm doing this week is "Song of the Powers." I realized after reading this how often I use the game of rock, paper, scissors. I use it with my dad when I don't want to let my dogs out, or when my friends or I don't want to do soemthing adn the poor loser ends up doing the unwanted thing. I love this poem. It's taking this game of rock paper scissors and relating it to types of power in the world. The rock, the strong hand of war. "I crush the scissors, such is my power." It shows how the rocks only power is to crush the opponent. The paper, the sneaky underhand of the written word. Word can be more powerful than brute force. Langford always said "lose the homefront lose the war." The way to lose that homefront is through the power of words. Lastly the scissors, they cut up the word and leave nothing left. Each power crushing the other leaving us with nothing. "They all end alone"