Turning Pro

"Turning Pro" by Ishmael Reed was a very cool poem! I love sports and after just having my last week of soccer this week I can somewhat relate to this baseball players feelings, with the thought of its all over for me. Like him I realized my love for the game isn't over until I say it's over. :)

When looking at the structure of the poem I noticed that there was a lot of enjambment throughout and it was pretty random, and maybe it goes along with his old, tired tone. Also, the author doesn't use hardly any punctuation, having only who periods throughout the 35 line poem. The periods are only at the the end of the two stanzas. I think the reason for that goes along with the tired, old tone.

When reading this poem it didn't read like a poem, it read like a story or like a speech maybe, and I liked that it did that, it was interesting. If it was to be read as a speech it would be a pretty darn good one though. It starts out with the character playing baseball and realizing that he is the oldest one out there and he is old enough that the shortstop would practically be his son, and that isn't something many athletes really enjoy... After that first stanza it seems like that realization made him realize even more things like that people talk of him being slow, and he's being faked out left and right, etc. It isn't until this line that the tone changes, "But just as the scribes were beginning to write you off as a has-been on his last leg." After reading that line I found that he had a made a new realization and that was that he wasn't about to let all these people determine the rest of his career. He got a second wind and took it all the way home and showed he wasn't just that old guy in the amateur baseball league. By believing in himself and his fans showing their support he finally proved he wasn't just the old guy... he was deserving of the majors. At the end of the day, this poem was fun and I liked that the poet made it their own and did it their own way showing his love for the game. :)

Sindhi Woman

I thought since it was the last poetry blog I would end it on one of my favorite poems in the packet. :) The poem that I really enjoyed in the packet was "Sindhi Woman." It was a sad poem, yet it puts things in perspective and it makes readers grateful.

I liked this poem because it reminded me of The Kite Runner, which is one of my absolute favorite books. Now this Sindhi woman obviously wasn't rich like Amir was and had a large house, but how they were similar is by the things they two did to take care of their family. Amir took care of Hassan's son, and this Sindhi woman either had some sort of food or water in the jar she was carrying that the reader can assume is for her family. Also just the scene reminded me of the middle east and the struggle there that both the Sindhi woman and the Amir faced.

The poem is fairly simple, it is short and has a bit of an unusual rhyme scheme. Take the first stanza for example, the first line ends with "bazaar" and it rhymes with the forth line that ends with "jar". Then the second and third line rhyme and the fifth and sixth lines rhyme. The rhyme scheme continues into the next stanza as well, and it is a bit unusual but I like it and find it interesting the author made it their own.

I also liked how the author made they poem like a scene the reader could picture in their head. Stallworthy used such good detail giving the perfect picture in the readers mind. A perfect example of his attention to detail would be this: "Barefoot through the bazaar, and with the same undulant grace as the cloth blown back from her face, she glides with a stone jar high on her head and not a ripple in her tread." As I read that I pictured this strong, woman walking through a market in the Middle East, barefoot, and without a struggle carrying this huge jar with some sort of food or drink in it. This detail makes the reader appreciate what they have in life and appreciate hard work. In the second stanza the reader finds out of the extreme poverty this woman lives in. The last lines really bring it all together, "I , with my stoop, reflect they stand most straight who learn to walk beneath a weight." I think these lines show the author reflecting that hard work brings good health, and that these woman should be admired for how hard working they are and how committed they are to their family. At the end of the day, I thought that this poem had an interesting structure and was thoughtful, and I personally admire those strong Sindhi woman greatly for all they do for their family. :)

you fit into me

"you fit into me" by Margaret Atwood was a short poem, yet it had a lot of meaning within the few words it had. Just looking at the lack of punctuation it gives off the feeling of not caring or unhappiness. That lack of punctuation contributes to the overall meaning of the poem. There are only two stanzas and the first stanza goes like this: "you fit into me like a hook into an eye." Here the reader would assume that the author is referring to a hook and eye clasp on clothing like dress that clasps together. The hook and eye works together to keep the dress fastened and together. From that stanza the reader would assume the author is saying that its like how a relationship works just like a hook and eye; it is stable, they work together, etc. But then the second stanza goes into a complete different direction. "a fish hook an open eye," clearly this stanza doesn't have the same tone as the the first stanza. The tone shifts to being a bit angry and a bit painful. From those last lines it is clear that the relationship the author is describing wasn't a relationship that the two worked together, but rather one that only brought pain and unhappiness, and that was the only way the two fit together. It is straight forward and to the point. At the end of the day, maybe the reason the author chose so few words for this poem to show that the relationship was painful and is done and over with and that is it, according to the content and the structure of the poem.

What the mirror said

Continuing my liking for Lucille Clifton's poems, this week I chose her poem "What the mirror said." It was a short poem with an interesting structure. Looking at each line they are short and some lines only have one word. I think Clifton did that for a reason, that being that she had the most important or meaningful words by themselves. Clifton chose words like listen, women, girl, etc. as the words that stood alone. The word "listen" was repeated a few times throughout. That contributes to the overall meaning of the poem that Clifton was trying to bring forth, and that was that every woman is somebody, and is an important somebody, and to never let someone tell them otherwise. With the repetition of "listen" she is trying to grab the attention of the readers and say "Listen you are somebody, you are, you are!" This poem is obviously directed towards women, and it is no secret that for centuries women have not been treated the best, or seen as very important, and I think Clifton used this poem to reassure women that they are worthy, and nobody can tell a women otherwise. Clifton starts off the poem by describing a women as a wonder, and continues with relating a women to a map that needs directions because we are complicated. These lines I liked in particular, "listen, women, you not a no place anonymous girl." I liked this because it was telling every women that they will be somebody and that they are not a week little girl, but rather they are strong women. The last lines have a very distinct tone and addresses the anger that comes from abuse on women. "mister with his hands on you he got his hands on some damn body!" I think those lines are pretty powerful, for they bring a clear message that no matter how degrading a man is towards a woman and how ever many times they call a woman a nobody, that is never the case.... he has his hands on some damn body...and it's a women. At the end of the day, it was a short poem that has an interesting structure, but it has a clear message from Clifton.

at the cemetery, walnut grove plantation, south carolina, 1989

The poem I chose this week was “At the Cemetery, Walnut Grove Plantation, South Carolina, 1989” by Lucille Clifton. I have noticed that I have liked a lot of her poems throughout all of these packets, and I think it is because she takes things that people don’t recognize or necessarily want to talk about and she calls people out on them. I think if I met her she would be sassy and I think that would be awesome. :)

In this poem Clifton recognizes the fact that the slaves in South Carolina were never honored for all they did, or received justice for the things that happened to them. The second stanza really is the central idea of the poem, “nobody mentioned slaves and yet the curious tools shine with your fingerprints. nobody mentioned slaves but somebody did this work who had no guide, no stone, who moulders under rock.” That stanza shows that the slaves were such a huge part of the development of this world, only to be dishonored, forgotten, and unrecognized. As the poem continues, it is clear that Clifton’s goal is to give these slaves recognition for all they did, and give them the credit they deserve. “tell me your names, tell me your bashful names and i will testify.”Here, she just wants to show readers that they deserve to be recognized. Clifton’s last stanza was the best out of them all, she begins by saying that sometimes men were honored, but never women. “tell me your dishonored names. here lies here lies here lies here lies hear.” Those final lines were brought together by Clifton to recognize all they did, but also to tell readers to hear what she said because that was her goal all along, to get others to recognize these people and everything they did for our country and they should be honored for it. Overall, I really enjoyed this poem because it is something America is embarrassed about, but I think we need to be held accountable for it and honor them making sure it never happens ever again.

A Poison Tree

The poem A Poison Tree was an interesting way of looking at the idea of forgiving and forgetting and the consequences of holding to bad feelings and grudges. First, I want to look at the structure though. I noticed that the word at the end of each line rhymes with the last word of the line before it. Each word that rhymes is a word that contributes to the overall meaning of the poem and shows its importance. The first stanza brings forth another interesting idea, that idea being that it is harder to let go of bad feelings a person has towards a person they already dislike, compared to having bad feelings towards a friend. “I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow.” It is easier to bring forth those bad feelings when it is a person's friend, but when it is not a friend, it is a lot harder to bring up those bad feelings and get over them. I believe that the tree is all the bad feelings and anger that a person has and the more it is built up, the more it helps the tree grow.“And I watered it in fears, night and morning with my tears; and I sunned it with smiles, and with soft, deceitful wiles.” So, as all these bad feelings towards this foe eats away at this person these bad feelings turn into fears and tears and create a bad person hung-up on hate. The hate is just going to grow until it bares something that will look like it will fix it all; something a foe would want because it came from that person. The last two lines really sum it all up, “In the morning glad I see my foe outstretched beneath the tree.” These last two lines represent the consequences of holding on to hate and bad feelings because in the end, they will just end up full of hate and no longer the person they once were. As a consequence, they let hate take them over and change who they really were, and they changed into someone who might be looked at as that foe that the person hated to begin with. So, in the end, it is better to forgive and forget rather than get caught-up in the bad feelings and become like the foe.

Goodbye To The Old Life...

Goodbye To The Old Life...

Goodbye to 13 teammates that I might as well have called my sisters.

To the team that was the closest out of them all.

To the girls that never let me fall.

To the team that had a perfect season.

To our silly inside jokes and crazy laughter.

To our crazy British accents and car noises.

To the sweat stained, stenched filled bags that we vowed we would never wash.

To the drive and determination during every game.

To the cold feeling of the green grass between our toes.

To the biggest smiles after every goal.

Goodbye to the team I will never get back again, but will always be remember as the girls who gave me the perfect season...

Goodbye to the best soccer team, that I am so proud to say I was on...

Questions about Unity...

Questions about Unity...

Where does unity start?

How does unity really feel?

Why does unity make people feel whole and wanted?

Where is unity when I need it?

Why is unity so important, but the world can't unite?

What is something we can all unite against? Or for?

Why can't we get past the wall in order to unite?

Why does unity end but never really start?

When is unity most important in the world?

Cottonmouth Country

The poem “Cottonmouth Country” was kind of weird… When reading it I got this weird sense from it. I didn’t know where Hatteras was and I also wondered why the poet chose that place to put in the poem. I found that Hatteras is a place on the east coast of North Carolina and it is called the “Graveyard of the Atlantic” because of such dangerous shipping conditions there. Then the next thing I didn’t know was what a cottonmouth was? I knew that it definitely not that nasty dry feeling like a cotton ball is in a persons mouth, so I looked it up and it is actually a snake, and a kind of dangerous one at that. The cottonmouth is not the typical snake, this snake lives on the east coast, and it goes in water and even the Atlantic Ocean. From that, this place Hatteras sounds like a not very fun place at all. All the description such as fish bones, death, cottonmouth, and pollution, etc. that makes the reader feel like this isn’t a happy place. The author obviously doesn’t like it there. The last two lines bring things together a bit more, “Birth, not death, is the hard loss. I know. I also left a skin there.” From the build up of the description of Hatteras and what it is like there, with the death of many in the ocean, the snakes, the fish bones, and the pollution, this place sounds horrible and I think that is where the “birth, not death, is the hard loss” comes in. I think the author was trying to say there that being born in a crappy place is harder than dying in a crappy place. When a person is born in a place like that they usually stay there all throughout there childhood without a choice and have to kind of suffer there. Then death on the other hand, if they are dying in a place like this they must have made the decision to stay there. I kind of look at it the opposite from the poem. I look at being born there a person has no control and they just deal with it a leave when they get older, but then I look at dying there and I would think it would be harder to look back with regret that I didn’t leave a place like that? The last line reveals that the author lived there and left there… leaving only skin behind like a snake; they shed their skin as a symbol that the place is no longer a part of them, and that they are starting fresh somewhere new. Looking at the poem as a whole, I noticed that it is only one stanza and it only has eight lines, and think that it contributes to the meaning, showing that the author doesn’t see the place as something important to them and just dreary and boring. In the end, I thought the poem was kind of interesting and I liked how the author described the place where they were born in such a different way than many would have expected.

The Book

I think we did the poem “The Book” by Miller Williams last class, and since then I have thought about it quite a bit. One of the ideas I liked quite a bit was the thought that it was a person living in someone else skin rather than his own, or that he had become a different person. I felt the poem came from a war because the book was found in a fallen bunker. The part that revealed that he used it as a diary and a sketchbook means a lot. When a person uses something like that, they let their guard down and show who they really are. Finding out what that book really was―a book bound by human skin, and knowing what it held I think maybe made the soldier question himself and who he had become. The last lines describe it perfectly,“I stared at the changing book and a horror grew, I stared and a horror grew, which was, which is, how beautiful it was until I knew.” From that, there is that sense that the soldier is now lost, and he is questioning all that he thought he was and what he knew. Maybe that book allowed him to change and become a different person after the war, and then to find out that the place that his new self was, was not what he thought it was, it made him question his new self altogether. So, then the question comes would it have been better to have not found out at all? There is no clear answer, but I am not sure even what I would want? Find out my changed life is based on a something else from what I thought, I don’t know if I could overcome that? The book alone was not the only horror, the thought of where does he go from here only added even more to the overall horror…and that what was once beautiful and good was not anymore...

Alone

The poem Alone, by Edgar Allan Poe, is exactly what we all expect from Poe― sad. One of the first things I noticed when reading the poem was the rhyme of the last word in every two lines. It is a pretty interesting structure to the poem, and it is kind of strange but it makes the poem seem a bit matter-of-fact? So, obviously the poem is about being alone. The reason for him being alone is said in the first line, “Form childhood’s hour I have not been as others were.” So, he was always a different from the other kids when he was a kid. Next he said, “I have not seen as others saw,” and that makes me think that he had unusual things happen as a child that a normal child would not have seen, and for that he was maybe more mature than the other kids, making him be alone. It seems that no matter what he did he could not find joy in others, “I could not awaken my heart to joy at the same tone― And all i lov’d―I loved alone―” The last two lines really sum everything up, “(When the rest of Heaven was blue) of a demon in my view―” From that it makes me think that it doesn’t bother him that he is alone, and that it is something he has learned to deal with. When everyone had happy images like heaven he always had those different and unhappy dark images like demons. At the end of the day, the poem is seen sad to someone like me, but to someone like him it seems like something he has just learned to deal with and it doesn’t faze him anymore which is even more sad.

Personal Helicon

“Personal Helicon” by Seamus Heaney can be seen as a pretty straight forward poem, but looking into the poem a bit more I found a bit of a deeper meaning. The very first thing I asked myself after reading the poem was what is a Helicon? I found that in Greece it is a mountain, and it is believed to be a source of poetic inspiration and the home of the muses. So, after finding out what a Helicon was, I began to look at the poem and pick out what his muse was; what was his source of inspiration? As a child it began that his muse was a well, and all the buckets, moss, and all the childhood memories that came along with it. There was a name that I didn’t know, and I felt there must have some importance to it because it looked like it was possibly a Greek name. The name was Narcissus, and I found that it was a Greek name, and he was a man in a myth that fell in love with his reflection in a pool and pined away, and he became the flower which bears his name now. This allusion to the myth of Narcissus really brings the whole poem together. “Now I pry into roots, to finger slime, to star, big-eyed Narcissus, into spring is beneath all adult dignity. I rhyme to see myself, to set the darkness echoing,” with that first line it becomes a bit more clear that the well was his muse in to poem, and maybe that well represented his childhood and likeNarcissus, he fell in love with that child that he was. The parts, “Now I pry into roots” and “darkness echoing” I believe represents him in adulthood and him looking back through the memories of his childhood that he loved, his muse, and how it is fading… The sadness of his fading memories is represented perfectly by the tone with his use of dark words like “dark drop” and “trapped sky” and “dank moss,”ect. The sad tone also makes me think that maybe he is a little lost in adulthood because he uses dark words a lot, and I look at dark like being lost because nothing is clear in the dark. In the end, the poem was a cool, yet it was sad because of fading memories and him being a little lost in adulthood.

It was a dream

“It was a dream” was a simple poem by Lucille Clifton. Clifton describes her dream, taking an outside view looking at herself and what she has done with her life. There is a sense of anger with her self throughout the whole poem. Clifton starts the poem like this, “in which my greater self rose up before me accusing me of my life with her extra finger whirling in a gyre of rage at what my days had to come to.” From the start, it is revealed that obviously she hasn’t become exactly what she wanted, and her “greater self,” the one who knows she could have reached her dreams if she would have tried harder confronts her defeated self. I picture the same girl but one is business like, looks better off, and then I picture one who looks sloppy and a little lost, and the better off of the two is pointing a finger with rage not understanding why it was so hard to try harder. The second part of the poem is basically her reaction to what her greater self had said to her. “what, i pleaded with her, could i do, oh what could I have done? and she twisted her wild hair and sparkled her wild eyes and screamed as long as i could hear her This. This. This.” For this second part the angry tone is heightened, and the frustration from the greater self has become even greater. Thegreater self is showing that she isn’t going to accept the excuses and that there were so many things she could have done to better her self... there is always something. This poem has that angry tone, but I also think it has that fear in it too because of the word “pleaded,” and the lack of capitalization of “i,” and at the beginning of sentences gives off that sense of being fearful, belittled, or very unsure. If I were to interpret this dream I would think that this just represents the fear in a person of not realizing their dream when there were so many things that can be done to reach those dreams in life. In a couple of ways it reminds me of us seniors and going off to college, it scares a lot of us and the fear of failure and not reaching our dreams is scary and what can we say if we don’t succeed… what could have we done… who wants to admit that theydidn’t try hard enough? At the end of the day, this sounds less like a dream and more like a nightmare, for the realization of the possibility of failure can scare anyone and bring out a lot of anger within oneself.

Introduction to Poetry

“Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins is the perfect description of how I was with poetry in the beginning of the year. Collins describes how he wants people to read a poem and talks about how a poem should be understood. “I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out,” meaning he asks readers to really get a sense for the poem, discover what it is about, and search for the meaning. “Or walk inside the poem’s room and feel the walls for a light switch.” By that I believe Collins is describing how a reader should feel the poem, touch the poem, and be able to feel the feelings the poet wanted to portray. “I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the author’s name on the shore.” Basically, the poet wants the reader to have fun with the poem, enjoy it like they would waterskiing, and not whine at the sight of a poem. Collins describes what I did at the beginning of the year so perfectly, “But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with a rope and torture a confession out of it.” This is crazy how true this statement is because it is like from a young age we have been taught that there is always one meaning to a poem and only one. But when you get older and the poems get more complicated one will find that there are many of ways any given poem can be interpreted. Some still don’t get that, and they are in constant search for the overall meaning, and then that is when poetry becomes no fun and groans fill the room at the sight of it. My Dad put it like this, “A poet is like a man who makes a very nice sports car. He wants you to feel the engine and it’s power, he wants you to enjoy it, and he wants you to discover what the car has to offer. But he doesn’twant you to buy it only to take it home and tear it apart because then you have missed the fun and have missed out on why he really made that car.” A poet does have meaning behind every poem, but it is their own meaning, and when they think of the readers they hope that they can come up with their own meaning and enjoy it rather than suffer through it… beating it with a hose to find out what it really means…

The Hat Lady

“The Hat Lady,” by Linda Pastan, was a sad poem that took the reader through the death of a cancer patient with the use of hats. The “hat lady” possibly represents a doctor or a care giver for this lady who has cancer. She comes and “measures” for the mother’s hat, and it represents the docter measuring her health and how long the patient has left. “Last year when the chemicals took my mother’s hair, she wrapped a towel around her head. And the Hat Lady came, a bracelet of needles on each arm, and led her to a place where my father and grandfather waited, (…)” This is the part where the doctor or care giver takes the “needles and pins,” and gives the patient the drugs to help her slip peacfully into a different place and pass a way. When it says, “led her to a place,” I ultimatly think that references the care giver helping the cancer patient pass over to heaven. This poem takes hats and I don’t really know how else to describe it, but it makes them show death in a way? The first stanza helps describe my thinking, “In a childhoodof hats— my uncles in homburgs and derbies, Fred Astaire in high black silk, the yarmulke my grandfather wore like the palm of a hand cradling the back of his head— only my father went hatless, even in winter.” In this stanza I believe the hats represent the many that the poet knows who have had cancer and it has taken their life. She says that her father went hatless… so I can only conclude that he didn’t ever have cancer, but still is no longer with her because her mother meets her father again in heaven in the last stanza. At the end of the day, this poem was sad, yet it was very interesting; it really makes the reader think about cancer and how it affects many people in the world.

Song of the Powers

“Song of the Powers” by David Mason was an interesting poem that left a the reader with a simple moral or lesson. Mason’s poem is basically a simple description if rock paper sissors. He uses rock, paper, and scissors to represent those who hold power. Mason puts it like this, “As stone crushes scissors, as paper snuffs stone and scissors cut paper, all end alone.” This basically shows how those with power are in a fight against each other for more power, but in the end, however powerful one may be, they are now all alone. I think one of the strongest messages this leaves, is that power isn’t a very good thing and it should be shared, and maybe the best power is the power of unity and the power to refrain from greed and the need for all power. Mason makes it clear that there is that fight for power by the use of “mine” to begin the first three stanzas. Each stanza changes to the different object (rock, paper, scissors), but always starts with mine and then continues by describing the destruction of the other objects. An example of the greed and need for power looks like this, “Mine, said the stone, mine is the hour. I crush the scissors, such is my power. Stronger than wishes, my power, alone.” With any kind of power that is obtained there is always that want for more, and like the poem, “they all end alone.” At the end of the day, it is easier to share power than fight for only one to hold that power, for they will just end up alone and probably powerless when it is all said and done…