Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Response to "How Poems Arrive"

This poem reflects how poems were born. I totally agree with her because poems are our unspoken emotions. It's like a nature pond at the edge of waterfall that collects random thoughts into a piece of art. It could be right or wrong, but it's not our duty to judge them. Because writing a poem is not a sin.

How Poems Arrive

Anne Stevenson's "How Poems Arrive", the meaning behind this poem is that the poet is expressing her emotions through in depth verses.

Response to How Poems Arrive

After reading this poem, I think it is trying to say that poems are not descriptive writings which is why it says “ The ways of words are tight and selfish ways” on stanza 6 and “ otherwise, write prose.” In stanza 7. It describes how many of us read poems and never really inderstand the meaning behind It in the first reading, but actually take time find the intentions, the message, and meaning of a poem when we have felt like almost worn- our our brain to figure it out. It speaks in the idea that a poem is more of a personalized peace and are compared to love.

How Poems Arrive

The poem entitled “How Poems Arrive” seems like speaks on poems and how they come to be, I’d say. It talks about vowels and the feelings a person may feel while reading a poem. The effect the words may have on them and so on.

Response; How Poems Arrive

I interpret this poem as basically how the process goes of writing a poem. By experience I say words and make up thoughts and the picture forms in my head of what I have said. This poem is saying that when you write a poem the best ones come from when you write them "blind" because you create an image and it helps the reader creat an image of what you are speaking about. I agree with this because you try your best to describe what you are trying to show. "But poems, butch or feminiane, are vain" I feel like this is saying it could be either from a female or male and that has no meaning because the poem means something within itself. Lastly poems arent meant to tell you everything they are suppose to gve you an opinion of your own.

The best American poetry page 122

Hope poems arrive
I feel like Anna Stevenson is trying to explain what a Relationship is or what it feels like for example she says “then let them knock your upper mind until the shape of what they mean appears. Like love “etc I feel she is trying to tell us that love can either be a good thing or a bad thing .

How poems arrive

I believe that the author wanted to give the reader an idea of what a poem is like. It’s a piece of writing where an individual can express themselves. The definition of a poem isn’t always exact or completely obvious. There can be many different meanings that a reader can come up with for one poem. The poem is basically about how a poem comes to the mind of someone . It’s usually something emotional where the author can speak about something emotional.
How Poems Arrive


The poem speaks of how it is truly composed. It tells of how a poem is perceived  by different individuals and how poets create their own poems. It also tells of how a poem is unique and why it invokes emotion. It states “Like love they’re strongest when admitted blind, judging by feel, feeling with sharpened sense while yet their need is to be undefined” This is speaking about how a poem is an uncensored sort of writing. That is why I think that poems truly make the greatest impact in how a person reads the poem and what the reader gets out of it.

How Poems Arrive

When the author of the poem describes inaccurate emotion I think he is talking about the emotion and passion  people put in to write poems. He also describes how words and sentences have a deeper meaning in a poem.

How Poems Arrive



This poem I believe is describing what a poem does, how it can be emotional or intense. I think the author is basically describing the style of poetry, how it can be very different and cause readers to feel different things. I noticed there is also quite a bit of rhyming throughout each stanza. After reading this poem I also think the author is trying to describe her interpretation of a poem overall.

Monday, February 25, 2019

Library visit

I found our library visit last Friday very educational.  The Professor took her time, and made sure we were all on the same page before moving on the the next subject. I think what we learned on the best way to find information for our collection, such as: Where to find the most reliable sources will be very helpful. The technique we learned for writing the annotated bibliography will make things a little easier.

Poem Tilia Cordata

Tilia Cordata, by Jacqueline Osherow, is it a poem? When I frist seen it, I thought this is too long to be considered a poem; it seemed more like an essay. Yet, it is a poem. A poem about, I think, a young girls memories of being around her parents and always being reminded of the Holocaust. It seems that everything including food and certain smells remind her of a time and event she was not a part of. I believe, this is why she named the poem "Tilia Cordata," which is a tree that grows Europe.

The poem talks about a place, the place is Germany many years after he Holocaust.  My favorite couplets from the poem are: With which they abolish time and distance. He could find, behind the most straight forward utterance." "An implicit labyrinthine universe and another behind that," in section 79. From reading my section of the poem, I learned that the author knows nothing about Germany, except "ein cappuchino, and danke shon. And how even uttering those words made her feel as though she was committing treason.

Finishing Up w/ Poetry

As we finish the anthology, I would like you to think about some of the following questions:

  • These are, according to Gioia and Lehman the "best" poems of 2018. Can you generalize about what it takes to write a "best" poem? What did you learn about poetry over the last few weeks? How did these readings confirm, or challenge, your previous feelings about poetry?
  • Which poem was your favorite? Which poem did you struggle w/ the most? 
  • Kay Ryan's poem, "Some Transcendent Addiction to the Useless" quotes from critic George Steiner's The Poetry of Thought in her title. It's my understanding that Steiner argues that truly great art is bound up with "useless" skills (like writing poetry). This brings us back to our discussion on the first day: How useful is it to read poetry? To write it? Why are you required to do it in 102? Are you glad that you had to read a book of poetry? Or was it annoying? Or both? 
  • What questions do you still have about poetry, or about any of the poems in the anthology? 

Sunday, February 24, 2019

Shooting Wild Poem

The poem entitled "Shooting Wild" by Poet Lore on pg 126 seems to be talking about the point of view from an adult that is reflecting on a childhood memory. This person goes on to talk of a movie term, "shooting wild", which is shooting a movie without sound. He/she compares his mother to the movie term. He/she hints that his/her mother and stepfather had strained relationship. Stanzas 1 and 2 state, "And I think of being a child watching my mother, how quiet she'd been, soundless in our house made silent by fear. At first her gestures were hard to understand, and her hush when my stepfather was near." This sheds light on the fact that their relationship wasn't healthy due to a keyword said: fear. According to stanzas 2 and 3, "Then one morning, the imprint of his hand dark on her face". This means the persons mother was in an abusive relationship. The poem goes on to hint in a way that his/her mother is dead from either being in the abusive relationship or just not standing up for herself.

Library Visit On Friday

During our visit to the library on Friday I learned a lot. I found it to be useful in a sense and easy. We learned how to narrow down searching up our topics. We also learned an easier way to cite websites that we'll be using for our collection. In addition, we just learned how to mainly look for scholarly and non scholarly sources. Not to mention the differences between the two.

Saturday, February 23, 2019

Response to “Some Transcendent Addiction to the Useless”

After reading “Some transcendent Addiction to the Useless”( pg 108) , I have came to my interpretation of it.  Beginning with the title and connecting it with the poem, I believe it is saying that it almost seems like we are addicted to what doesn’t help us. Lines 4-9 says “ You’re supposed to unthread the needle. It will be a lifetime task.” These lines indicate to me that when we are in a specifically difficult situation to get out of, that is when we have trouble disconnecting ourselves from it. Connecting it with an addiction of any sort, you almost feel like that addiction has become part of who you are regardless of how helpless it is, it is also what feels like it will take forever to completely leave alone. I feel like I have an idea of what the poem is interpreting but I still have some questions about it,
 1. There are many poems in the book that are left justified, why did the poet decide to center this? 
2. Why does It say/ mention the name Penelope? “ it’s going to take fake sewing worthy of Penelope”. 
The last 4 lines really made me question my understanding of the poem. 

The Quiet Boy by Stephen Kampa

Another favorite poem from this week reading section is "The Quiet Boy". It is basically about a game played by author's students who wants which superpowers but in the poem, a group of teens is daydreaming about superpowers except one, a quiet one. For me, I can relate to the author's friendly relationship with his students. While I was reading this poem, I travelled back to the time where I was working as an assistant teacher in a private primary school in my homeland. My students were mostly 5 to 7 years old, and they were  hyper active and playful. It was hard to keep them quiet or make them do class work without fights, sometimes, things became out of order. So, I used to play "Freeze" game, just to calm them down. The game is simple, when I say "Freeze", they would stop whatever they were doing  and freeze, some might try silly pose, just to amuse me. I left them in that position a few seconds, then unfroze them and repeated all over again. It was one of their favorite games. It was more than game to us, it was an invisible bridge that makes our teacher-student relationship stronger and deeper.

Library visit

The class visit to the library was a great resource. I found it very helpful to be able to feel reassured that we are able to go step by step on how to find so many articles and journals that help with our topic. I think the exercise we did on writing our topic down and specific aspects we would like to address in our genres helped me personally realize I was being a little too broad with my topic and made me read my work over and make adjustments and revisions to my draft to make it more focused and purposeful.

Silver spoon ode

 I found the poem Silver Spoom Ode to be funny . I like the opening of the pork  “ I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth and a silver knife,and a silver fork. To me it meant that this person was very wealthy and  they knew it to . I think miss Lucille made sacrifices for her daughter to have her life style .

Response to “Hands”

A poem that I very much enjoyed reading was Hands ( pg. 73). I believe this poem is using hands to express how other people do things for eachother Over time. The poem speaks in the idea that cracks overcrowd the skin, references to time passing, getting older and aging. As well as refer to her mother’s hands as fearless, and her father hands scarred. I portray this as a way of describing the mother and father and what they have done, in a way your hands show what you’ve been through. One line that really stands out to me is “ there is a map in the seat of my palm” because it is believed that the lines/ cracks in you’re palm are your fortune, kind of like when you go to a palm reading and tell you your destiny.
The poem Sad Math was very interesting and eye opening to me . on television prison is displayed as every man for themselves and shows nothing but violence.  How ever reading this poem shows me that there are good people in prison.When I read the poem Sad Math and see the compassion and empathy he had for his cell mate I wondered  if it’s because Larry reminds him oh his sister Dee Dee or is it because they bonded over time . The title of the poem was  also catchy to me. he associated Math with his cell mate Larry who was always asking him questions about math and he felt sorry for him. The tittle goes perfect with the poem.

Sono by Suji Kwock KIm

Sono is a poem about an unborn fetus traveling towards their birth. The imagery invoked by the poet is that of a sea creature traversing in a far away ocean displayed on a sonogram machine. The poet goes out of their way to include multiple adjectives in her descriptions. Examples like seahorse-skeleton, water-lunged and fish-rigged are used to associate fetus with water creatures. I think the poem is well thought out but a bit confusing with descriptive she gets. There were lines like "the world without the shadow of your death" that contrasts with earlier lines because of how broad it is. I definitely feel that there is something else the poet is hinting at but I am not able to grasp at it fully.

Friday, February 22, 2019

"Sad Math" by Mike Owens

Through page 47~92, "Sad Math"(85) drew my attention. This poem is a beautiful combination of humors, sympathy, love and friendship, even in the worst place on the world. The poet was in a prison when he wrote this, and he said writing poems got him through violence around him. Honestly, I am surprised by his transformation from ex-con to renowned poet. People change from time to time. We are not always bad but not always good, there's always something new inside of us. We just have to explore and shine it.

Thursday, February 21, 2019

Tilila cordata

Tilila cordata was a very hard text to understand. To me this story was about a child growing up during the holocaust. I like the way she makes a lot of connections from the tree that she sees. It helps transition to her life growing up and it gives the reader a vivid image of what her life was like growing up. Her obsession with that tree showed when she wrote it in different parts of the world. You can tell that she did not like the Germans because she said that when she spoke in their language, it felt like treason.

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Response to Tilia cordata

Tilia Cordata is a story poem that is more specific than a typical poem would be. The story revolves around the poet travel to places that reignite memories from her past. The memories of her traumatic past are excited by most smell but also by architecture. For the author is a holocaust survivor and in the poem she recounts the memories she experienced during her childhood. It is in Germany that the author is hit with the most complex feelings because the smell of new Germany takes her back to the past. The smell of Tilia Cordatas during her visit there bring up conflicts between what she is feeling and how she wants to feel. In the author's notes she specifically points out how she still struggles to comes to terms with her experiences and how it has created a bias within her. The poem her journey to come to terms with what has occurred but also serves as a reminder of her experience.  

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Response to "Tilia cordata"

"Tilia cordata" is a complicated and touching poem. I like the way she lead the readers from her favorite tree to her life story. The opening is almost like a picture that she was sitting outside of her house, breathing the aroma of "linden". She said "I could spend its all too brief duration just sitting on my porch, breathing it in." (76) On the second page, she showed her obsession about that particular tree that she even wrote its names and usages in different parts of the world. Then, she jumped to her trip to Europe to find "art nouveau"(Jugendstil). In this section on page 77, I love the line says " a broken razor blade inside my mouth." because she compared her pain to an act of having a sharp metal piece in the most sensitive part of the body. Next, she talked about her fear of death during showers when she was young because her mom used to tell her the story of gas coming out of shower. Here, I doubted her dislike towards Germans and I was right after reading her comment about this poem.(169-170) After all those years, she still felt guilty of going to Germany and speaking German where the line says " ... and even uttering those sounds felt like treason." Later, on the way to Worms, she recalled Rashi, a scholar who had studied there in 11th century whom she learnt in her 4th grade Hebrew lessons. As she traveled around rural Germany, she bumped into her father's favorite park and she questioned herself why did he like it, why did a German park make her miss her father even though he was Jew. While reading this section, I looked back a scene from award-winning movie "The pianist" where the main character Szpilman was taking his girlfriend to a restaurant for a date but they couldn't go in because he was Jew, then she suggested him to go for a walk in a park but he told her Jews were not allowed in the park too. I can clearly see how wars and hate tear us apart brutally and I had no doubt that the author's family would have felt the same way at that time.

Tilia Cordata

Tilia Cordata The Poem is about a tree where it’s flowers are used for tea and it’s smell is like lime  . ( I used to drink in Italy ) and also about the holocaust and the Author family , how it brings guilt , disaster , horror . Its conversation it’s always brought up and the author feels safe at home with her tree blossoming but not outside where she used the word ( Nazi ) The author basically talks about her past as a child and how her children hate it
The poem tilia Cordata  was mainly about a child growing up after the holocaust. The poem describes the horrors of the holocaust and what happened during this time period . At first it was a little hard to understand what the topic of the poem was but when the word nazi was mentioned I have a feeling that most people knew what the topic would be now. At first the author didn’t really go into full detail about what she was talking about. Towards the middle of the poem you can sort of figure out a story that the author is depicting.

Tilia Cordata

The author is very traumatized by her experience in the holocaust that is why she can not stop talking about the holocaust to other people. In the poem she says “I badgered my mother after hearing snatches of unassimilable whispered conversation and wouldn’t take a shower until I was seven, worried gas might come out.” This quote proves that the author was traumatized after being in the holocaust.

Tilia Cordata Response

My first reaction to this poem is that it is very wordy. It is a long poem so it takes more time to actually sit through it and analyze it. I am not a fan about long poetry because with a lot of information it just starts to bore me. Also this poem could be a little confusing with its french words and just the back and fourth. However this poem contains a lot of information and its a personal opinion in which the author speaks heavily on thr Holocoust and her opinion. I like how she mentions her daughters and how she accepts there diss approval . You can tell the author is aware that many people can have different opinions on the holocoust. She also focuses on the linden tree which could be a symbol to her and a reminder of what happened. I may be wrong but that is what I have interpreted.

Tilia Cordata


      To me this poem had a lot of emotion. The author felt strongly about what she was talking about. After reading this poem I came to the conclusion that the author was writing about her experience growing up during the holocaust, or maybe her parents experience during the holocaust. She seems to feel so deeply about that time in her life or her parents life. I am still quite confused about how she is trying to incorporate Tilia Cordata, and Linden throughout her poem.

Tilia cordata

My initial reaction to this poem was that it was a long poem. What I understood from this poem is that it took my place in Germany because it had a lot of german words the authors mentions. The author also talks about the holocaust. The author of this poem had two daughters. He also keeps talking about a fragrance.

Tilia Cordata

My reaction to the poem, " Tilia Cordata", is that I was kind of concerned with the obsession the poet had with the Nazis and Germany. The woman in the poem would constantly bring up something about Germany.
The poem was a about a women who grew up during the holocaust . The women stated that she’s weirdly proud of her kids disapproval of her .

Monday, February 18, 2019

Group Critique / Visit to the library

On Friday both group critique and the visit to the library helped me liked my topic. At first I was unsure if I was gonna continue with what I chose to write about because its so broad, there so much  information and opinion to choose from.  The feed back I got from my classmate in the group I am and the professor in the writing center enjoyed my reading they related to it .

Group Critiques



       Group critiques have been so very helpful to me so far! It’s really good to have others opinions or comments on my writing. Simply because it’ll turn me into a better writer. As far as my collection, i’m having some trouble coming up with different genres to write about and how to go about writing them. I chose memoir, poetry and fantasy.

Poetry Reading on Thurs.

I recommend this event on this Thursday at 2:10 pm in LB14. (I hear there will be pizza!) If you attend and submit a 1-p reflection to me, I'll give you extra credit.

Poetry, pp. 47-92

In Sharon Olds' "Silver Spoon Ode," she writes a clever poem about her own wealthy upbringing and her consequent feelings of guilt. She invents a character near the end, Miss Lucille, who tells her, "And now / enough, Shar [Sharon], now a little decent silence" (75).  This new character, for me as a reader, created a bit of ambiguity. However, after reading the autobiographical statement in the back, I felt like I got a better hang on the poem.

This week, I'd like you to read one or two of the poems that I assigned you along with the autobiographical statement in the back. How does this writing about the poem help you understand the poem better? How is it similar to the author's notes I'm asking you to write each week?

Friday, February 15, 2019

Library Visit

In preparation for next Friday's library visit, please follow the following link and answer the four questions:

https://goo.gl/forms/rlFWCVnVFNmPxwlu1


A visit to Writing Center

Today's Writing Center Visit was fun. We had a pretty good talk and our assigned tutor was helpful. Not only we talked about assignment but also we exchanged ideas and comments over each other's chosen theme. For today's draft, I wrote three poems, each related to my topic "Languages". So far, I feel like I still need to work on my first genre, which is a Si-Fi. For today's activity,  I would like to thank our Professor, my classmates and Tutor Paul.

Thursday, February 14, 2019

Question

In regards to the blog, besides making our own post when we answer to a blog you have posted (Professor) it is counted as one of the blogs of the week right? 

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

This Week

As you've probably noticed, we have no readings due for this week. As that is the case, you are not required to post on the blog this week. If you didn't post last week (or if you didn't publish twice, or don't feel like you published enough) then I will accept it this week.

Reminder: For this Friday, you only need to bring one copy of your draft (either something new or your draft from last week heavily revised). We will be going to the Writing Center for the second half of class so try to be on time.

Sunday, February 10, 2019

Group Critique

On Friday, we broke up into groups so we can evaluate each other's draft for the collection.
I found that everyone in my group had very interesting topics.  everyone had positive critique on how to improve our drafts, and make our own works stronger. I am looking forward to working with my group next week, and see what new ideas everyone comes up with to better our collections.
One of the poems that has stuck out to me from our readings of pages 1-46, is "Into the Mystery," by Tony Hoagland.  The meaning of the poem, to me, is that in life sometimes one has to leave the things they are accustomed to, and all of a sudden venture into unfamiliar territory. The stanza's: "Never to be pushed down onto a bed again, laughing, and have your clothes unbuttoned." And "Never to stand up in the rear of the pickup truck and scream, while blasting out of town."  I believe these two stanzas symbolize the fact that the person is leaving his home, or town.  Yet, instead of being afraid of the unknown, they embrace it;  "Now you sit on the brick wall in the cloudy afternoon, and swing your legs."  "Happy because there has never been a word for this."

Saturday, February 9, 2019

when reading pages, 1- 46, the poem that stood out to me the most was "Pied Beauty" (pg. 29). To me this poem was about a bad relationship. starting with the title, to me it meant that there is a different form of beauty In everything whether its bad or good, theres always those bad time within the good times. My interpretation of the first stanza would be that she is comparing herself to a rose, at first everything looks great and is going well, then things go bad and now she has a bruise and she is swelled up, the way everything is supposed to be, is now not. For example, "the rose is now varicose...and now a purple bruise". In the second stanza the author is saying all the years spent are now shaded over all the bad events and what was promised between them. Possibly meaning marriage vows that have not been met in the relationship, for example the author writes " what had been promised but never meant; the youth and years that now seem badly spent- accept it."

birds punctuate: thoughts

After reading the poem "Birds Punctuate the Days", I noticed there every stanza begins with a different punctuation. This poem allows us to visualize the different kinds of birds and their actions. As well as what they might look like when they are being  described. The author describes, and compares the punctuation marks to different types of birds. I believe it was very interesting to actually see how every poem is interpreted differently, because the writer might write it and view it one way but the reader will visualize it and possibly read it in a different context, relating it to something else.

group critique

I thought the group critique went very well. it was very helpful, reading, giving, as well as receiving feedback on our work. we were able to read aloud and see how our stories unfold and how we could improve them, or what we could possibly add to extend it. I believed it also gave me a better a clearer understanding on the assignment. Not that it wasn't clear before, but I was feeling a bit stuck when writing and what to choose to write about. Being able to discuss and see the work of others definitely makes me feel a bit more confident going forward with this creative assignment. I also believe it went very well because it gave us a chance to get to know one another.
The poem American Dreams kind of reminded me of the movie Charlie And The Chocolate factory with all the talk about candy. When I read the Title American Dreams I expected to hear a poem about some one trying to accomplish their dreams but instead it was about candy . One line I really liked in the poem was when he describes the owner watching him. I He says ( his pale eyes like ice mints behind his foggy glasses, lingering at my chest, as if the swelling buds under my uniform’s white blouse were Candy Buttons .

Group Critique

I felt as if the group was very helpful. I got an idea from my group members about what my draft lacks and needs. We all got to know each other and gave each other positive feedback on the drafts. I found it to be very beneficial. 
I found the poem "The Opposites Game" to be very interesting and weird in the way it is structured. The poem is in Gioia page 17. What i understood from this poem is that a teacher is playing a game with her students, i began to understand the game she was playing with her student until the first page of the poem. The second page of the poem (page 18) had nothing to do with the first page.  I felt like i was reading a poem within a poem. If anyone has any ideas of what the poem could be about please let me know in the comments.

Group Critique

On Friday we had our first group discussion regarding our collection work. My group had a range of diverse topic and I found the discussion to be interesting. Most of the work present was essays with the exception of one poem. I found the poem to be well written. Hopefully, I can write a poem as well structured as the one presented by my group member. We won't be having class on Tuesday but I hope to get a more completed draft of my essay by next Friday.

Group critique

I found our group critique session to be very successful. My group helped me see my flaws and helped to Improve my draft in the future.

Friday, February 8, 2019

Thoughts for today's group critique

I found group critique very useful and effective. Not only we had chance to get to know each other but also we had a good conversation.Thanks to my group members, I have received better ideas to rewrite my short story.

Group Critique

I found the group critique really useful. The different advice from other student's really gave me a perspective of different type of readers. We all analyze literature differently and it helps to know how you are doing and in what you should work on. Personally I don't like writing poems but I will try it out because its a change and getting out of my comfort zone. The personal time we have to speak to each other and motivate each other with different ideas and approaches is really appreciated. Thank you to those who helped me out and thank you Professor as well for that time. 
Toast to My Dead Parents is an interesting poem , it showed me what society portrays as the perfect marriage or what society says  true love is supposed to look like.marriage can be different for everyone. In the second stanza of the poem it states They say good morning in myriad phrases--the eggs are dry, you burnt the English muffin again. To me it seems like after 60 years of marriage they had their own way of communicating with each other. I think the son understand his parents love and that it was one of a kind.
  The poem Miscarriage really stood out to me its a topic that most women do not discuss and most men cant relate to. In the fifth stanza  the sentence  says Something had already laid its eggs in a place I couldn't reach. That sentence in itself is so powerful to me. to me it meant the women had no control over what happen to her body. after her miscarriage she probably felt like she did something wrong. The reason why I say this is because she said We'd lost our first to moths--what could we do? Its a know fact that most women miscarry their fist pregnancy and majority never know why but as women we hold some kind of guilt, maybe I should of done this or that. I liked the poem and the choice of words.

Thursday, February 7, 2019

" Birds Punctuate "

" Birds Punctuate "

At first while reading the poem I was totally confused I didn't know what was the message to the reader then when I read it twice I understood that the author was using literature elements to compare the birds. For example in the poem she used ( comma , semicolon , exclamation points and the poem was a really short poem made-up of 10 stanza.

IMAGES by Yerlina Gomez , Jonathan Chimborazo , Robin Martinez , Cristian Andrade



Summer in the garden
The wind whispers in my sleep
His head screams repulsively

Love poem: What is love



Adonis Mateo



                                                                    

                                                            Love Poem: What is Love

To say I love you to say I care
How melodic, how pleasant to hear
A bird flying high above, nowhere to go
The sound of the wind flying through space

Can you touch love, can you taste love
Does love have a price, does love change
A child hungers for food, his mother gives
him her last piece of bread with jam

I can hear you knocking, I can hear you
sing
Can I let you in, do I know your song
Where have you been, I can't see you
I hear your voice, it calms my worries

Can you stay with me forever
or will you be gone with the dawn
I wonder who you are, I dream of you
Will you stay with me, or fade like smoke in the wind

Birds punctuate 

The poem birds punctuate was rather interesting. After reading it the first time I didn’t really understand what the author was trying to do, it seemed strange to me. After reading it a few more times I soon came to realize that the author is trying to compare each punctuation mark to different birds and their actions. I’d still like to find out a deeper meaning behind the poem but I’m glad I understood the comparison she made throughout the poem. 

Recall 

Recall 



A gorgeous goddess with red dress 

Felt bitter about death and visions 

Of black and white

But skin luscious like honey 

Pink rose petals sing to “dream always” 

Picture a man under water fall

Arm, feet, and leg 



Jarybel Correa 

Adonis Mateo 

Breannah kimbrough 

Alejandro Ramírez 

MILK By Ebony Alleyne,Jwayne Fowler,Shania Ramsamooj,Nacy Loja ENGL102





     Our friend cried less frantic after the acheing moment when mothers breast milk delicately drooled out beneath the winter lake.Chanting a light diamond gift as two boys together shine like the powerful sun.
The poem Birds Punctuate was strange but it had a direct structure. Each stanza starts off with a different form of punctuation. Following each form of punctuation he mentions a a different kind of bird each time. Each bird is described as doing something.

NY Times Subscription

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Response to BAP 2018 page 1 to 46



I have enjoyed reading all these poems but some particularly caught my attention. Poems like "Toast to My Dead Parents", "The Opposites Game", "American Dreams" and "The Wives of the Poets". In my opinion, all of them have one in common, which poems themselves are like creative short stories. As I devoured each poem, I can relate the respective poet's story. For example, in "Toast to My Dead Parents" by Robert Cording, I love the way he recalls his parents' unusual ways of saying "Good Morning" to each other such as "the eggs are dry, you burnt the English muffin again, where did you put my pills?". In those words, I can feel the unconditional love between his parents not by showing passionate hugs or sweet talks but by shooting unnecessary and annoying questions. As for me, those are the most touching and the most understandable poems so far. Among others, these stand out to read twice, even third times. All in all, it was a good reading and I have earned a little confidence of myself to write my own collection for this class.

Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Collective

For those of you who might be interested in publishing your work in a literary journal, the English Department's Collective will be taking submissions of fiction, essays, and poetry up through March 18th. The theme is "growth." See details below:

Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Group 4 Poem

Nostalgic

Warming drive cools sordid urges
 Trip never stop
Y so sad
Watch life as TV

Made by:
Dylan Beswick
Erika Medina
Jocelyn Llaguaima
Montana Young

In class poem

An Ugly Ship

We are beauty
Those who love want eternity
She fiddles a symphony
So sweet & easy
Must she soar deliriously
& manipulate time through play
Producing an enormous storm
Singing and swimming
What music is gone

By
Lucero Reyes, David xia, Sarvinder Singh and Khine Win

Monday, February 4, 2019

Difficult and Easy Poems

Which is the "easiest" poem in the collection so far? For me, "Walking Home" (44) is the least challenging of the poems in this early part of the reading. Do you agree or would you suggest a different one? What makes a poem easy to read? If this poem--or a different one--is easy to understand, does that make it superior or inferior to more difficult ones? Speaking of difficulty, which poem so far have you struggled with the most?

Also, what makes these poems? (As opposed to prose.) What stylistic qualities have you noticed in addition to line breaks? Rhyme? Metaphor? Rhythm?

What questions do you have so far?

Saturday, February 2, 2019

Response to Introduction BAP 2018

Before I start with the introduction, I have noticed the different writing style between David Lehman and Dana Gioia. When the first prefers complicated sentences where the latter uses simple and clear sentences. Anyway, Dana Gioia divides his introduction in two parts. In the first one, he talks about where poetry stands in society nowadays and how the media is reviving poetry by reciting verses in  the best hit TV shows. Then in the second part, he mentions how he had been collecting poems every available media and resources. He also shares his two main goals; one that he wants the collection "the broadest variety of poems possible" and two, he desires "to include only poems that evoked a deep personal response". He concludes his introduction with questions for readers to think about and suggests to enjoy rare poetry collection.

Response to Poems

While I am reading these three poems, "Yonder, a rental", "Love Poem: Chimera" and "An Old Story", I am completely lost. I mean those are really brilliant poems but it is hard for me finding what do they mean. I want to start with "Love Poem: Chimera", I believe the poem is about how the poet sees herself a hybrid creature. As she has both characteristics of serpent and lion, she is as strong and independent as a lion, but as flexible and venomous as a serpent. Here, my interpretation of two distinct animals is that lion may be her father and the serpent could be her mother. She was born because of their unusual fusion of love. She also sounds like she is proud of being "Chimera" in these lines "What strong neck, what bright eye. What menagerie are we. What we've made of ourselves."
As for "Yonder, a rental" by Anna Maria Hong, I do not understand the poem at all. Though I thought it is about war in Sultan, after my second attempt, I am not sure about it. For the third poem "An Old Story" by Tracy K. Smith, I guess she is talking about how human careless reactions bring up harmful consequences to earth and its wild life. "We were made to understand it would be Terrible." line wants to point out that we are knowingly tearing apart biodiversity on earth for our own good. Here these lines "Livid, the land, and ravaged, like a rageful Dream. The worst in us having taken over And broken the rest utterly down." indicates bad temptation has taken over good one. This is as far as I can decipher these poem. 

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Poem foreword

After reading the foreword, I saw that the editor of the poems was giving some context before the reader reads. The editor says that poetry is no longer as popular as it once was. This makes the reader appreciate the poem collection more.

Friday, February 1, 2019

Love Poem

Love Poem: Mountain and Sea

I came to this world, when the tide was high.
While my mama was by the sea, but my papa was up on the hills.
Grandpa whispered "you are jewel", even I couldn't understand.
He kept me close, so close, no storm could not invade me.

I flew to this place, when the rain was pouring.
While my love was by the mountain, but my darling was in the ocean.
She said "Let's swim", even she did not know how to.
I laughed out loud, so loud, no thunder could not over me.

I left that place, when the sun was burning.
While my pride was high above, but my mind was low below.
I said "That's enough", even I knew it was not all about it.
I cried quietly, so quiet, no one could not tell how desperate I was.

I came to this world, when the tide might be high.
While my dream was high uphill, but my faith was under water.
I said "It's impossible", even I doubted there may be hope.
I prepared well, so well, no obstacle could not stop me.



KW


Foreword to BAP 2018 Response.

The opening of the story gives us an overview of some writers and editors of poetry and overall writing companies. It allows the reader to ease into the topic of poetry while still getting background on it. the foreword has to relate to what come after because it is like a preview to a movie. It gives you some history about the writers of the poetry before we get into reading their published work.