Acquainted with the Night

Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost is kind of a depressing poem. With this poem came incredible visual imagery, however. As I read this poem, I could see the man walking with his head held low walking slowly through a dimly lit city at night. I think that this poem is a metaphor, I don't think that Frost walks around at night and sulks. I feel like Frost has had bad times in his life where things felt dark and he dropped his head.

In this poem, he mentions a far off cry that isn't summoning or talking to him, but I feel like that scream does have to do with him or he would not have put it in the poem. By the scream, I think that Frost is referring to the feeling that life was going on all around him but he did not notice during those dark times. Not only did he not pay much attention to life around him, but life wasn't really paying him much attention either. When Frost was depressed this way, he probably felt like no one cared about him. No one bothered to see what was wrong (not to call me back) or even even acknowledge the fact that he was changing or did exist (or say good-by).

I really enjoyed this poem, because it is really well written even though it is kind of dark. It almost makes one feel sorry for Frost, or whoever this poem is about. Bravo Frost, you brought some emotion out of me while I read this poem.

Curiosity

Curiosity by Alastair Reid is a really cool poem. I don't really know how to describe this poem, it's just kind of incredible. Even though Reid wrote about a cat, this poem isn't humerus it ponders life. People do say that curiosity is a bad thing, but Reid gave a very good argument as to why it isn't a bad thing at all.

Personally, I agree with Reid. In this poem, he talks about how if you're not curious then life would be rather dull. What would life be without questions. People need to question and find things out because if not, then there would never be any growth or change. If Martin Luther King and Malcolm X hadn't questioned then blacks would still be slaves and they wouldn't be free today. Another way that I look at it is that if you are always under the rule of certain people, who's to say that those rulers are right? Sometimes, you just have to find out things for yourself. That's the beauty of being individuals: each persons questions, struggles, and accomplishments are what make them who they are.

My favorite line of this poem is:

Dying is what, to live, each has to do.

In order to truly live your life, you cant be afraid of death and when you do die hopefully you were happy with what you did while you were alive.

Pie Makes You Fat

Pie is good
Pie is great
So much pie upon my plate
Chocolate pecan pumpkin and more
Eating pie is never a bore

When its all gone
And my belly is full
I sit
Glued to my couch
And think to myself

That pie was good
That pie was great
That was so much pie that I ate

The Possibility

The possibility by James Fenton is an incredible poem, and my favorite out of this packet. To me, this poem is beautiful and so vivid. I can feel what Fenton is saying, it is very easy to connect to. When I finished reading this poem in class, I just sat there staring at it for a minute. For some reason, I just felt that it was really well worded and it just gave me chills.

I connected to this poem, which was cool because usually it's hard to explain how I am feeling but this poem explained perfectly. I am the oldest of three girls and because I am, I have to take a lot of responsibility for a lot of things. I have to do things for myself as I get older. My two younger siblings need a lot more attention than me so I have kind of became more quiet in a lot of ways. I usually keep to myself and do what I can to help when I can. The lines that I connected to and saw myself in were:

I know this flower is beautiful,
And yesterday it seemed to be.
It opened like a crimson hand.
It was not beautiful to me.
...
The flower closes like a fist.
The possibility recedes.

I'm a pretty reserved person because usually, when I try to say something or open up I feel like I get shut down. The other day, my friends were talking about politics and I threw in a comment about my views. Immediately after I said it, my friend told me (in a round about way) that I was wrong. I just felt like what I had to say wasn't even valid. Like I had no idea what I was talking about. Needless to say, I kept my mouth shut for the rest of that conversation. Who knows, I could have actually made a really valid point but I didn't push anything. I closed right up.

I'm not quiet because I like being silent and have nothing to say, i'm quiet because I know if I say something someone will tell me that i'm wrong in some way. It's kind of difficult to explain why I like this poem so much. I tried to talk to my friend about it after we read it and they looked at me like 'okay...sure it's a great poem?' But I like it, I connect to it.

The Snow Man

The Snow Man by Wallace Steven was a cool poem. Honestly, the only reason I did this poem was because it made me think of winters. Winters up North, and I miss those winters. I love mass amounts of snow and up there, I was never disappointed in the amount of snow delivered in a winter.  I have made so many snowmen in my life, that this poem just makes me think of all of them and all of the time and care that went into making them.

The end of the poem is definitely my favorite part of this poem because it just makes me think of the peaceful and silent snowmen that weren't just inanimate objects, but they were listening and observing.

For the listener, who listens in the snow.

I just really like that line because it just feels peaceful and makes me think of a calm winter day. In the morning when the sun is glistening off of the snow and everything is so quiet and peaceful. I like this poem because it has such great imagery, I feel like i'm looking out a window at a freshly created snowman.

On Reading a Poem to a Senior Class At South High

On Reading a Poem to a Senior Class At South High by D.C. Berry was a really cool poem. I had to read it a few times though, before I fully understood it. It helps because I am a senior in high school so I know exactly how crazy senior classes can be. When there is a room full of kids that don't want to be there and are loud and obnoxious, it is extremely difficult to teach anything to. I liked how Berry made it into a humerus thing, comparing it to an aquarium.

After I read this poem, I did some research on D.C. Berry and found that he grew up with a humerus father, which is probably where he got his humor from. Also, he started writing poems out of boredom in church and went on to become a really famous author, which is pretty nifty. Also, I feel like he went to South High School in Mississippi, but after I made that connection I couldn't go check. We recently switched internet services and the new one is terribly slow and it's rather irritating. It took ten minutes just for this page to load to let me blog right now. I hate computers. My point is, that Berry grew up around humor, was a great student, and this poem makes perfect sense considering he probably went to South High.

When I read this poem, I felt like Berry was a big loser. Who names their cat Queen Elizabeth? Only a loser. When I pictured Berry, I just pictured a timid, nerdy guy who went to read to a high school class and no one really paid attention to him as it usually is and then he returned home to be a lonely recluse once again. It could be that I read way too far into this poem and that's the main reason I liked it, but in any case I really enjoyed this poem. Good work Berry.

Anti Blog

This week i'm going to use my free pass, so Happy Halloween!

The Coming of Wisdom with Time

The Coming of Wisdom with Time by William Butler Yeats is a very easy poem to connect to. The way I looked at this poem was that when you are young everything is simple but because you are not told certain things. You are "lied to" as a child because some problems are just not for little kids to know or have to deal with.

The lies aren't like the sky is red but more of a subtle lie. For instance, if a child has parents who are not happy together and fight all of the time when they are not around their child the child could believe that they have a happy family. In truth, however, the family is falling apart and nothing is what it seems. As soon as that child grows up and learns the "truth" their whole childhood would just appear to be a big lie.

I don't think that this poem is necessarily about something as drastic as that, but I do think that it is about finding out lies from your past and then dwelling on them. It is especially about lies that were told during ones youth because those were a lot of people's happiest years and anyone would be sad to find out that, even a part of, what they believed to be reality was a lie.

This poem is so easy to connect to because everyone has been told hurtful lies in their life. This was a really short poem but it was oh so clever.

Those Winter Sundays

Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden is such a deep poem.This poem really spoke to me because it is cool how the narrator talks about his father this way.  This father just sounded like a great man, but in reading this poem I sensed a hint of regret coming from the narrator. I think that the narrator regrets treating his father the way that he did. I think that the narrator wishes that he would have paid more attention to all of the things that their father did.

I am really close to my father so i don't really see how the narrator just took his father for granted like this. It makes me sad for his hard working father because it sounds like he was a great man who tried very hard to be good and do good but never really got recognition. It is really cool to look at how other people view their fathers though because fathers are supposed to be such dominant figures in peoples lives.

Everyone looks at their relationship with their father differently, and it makes me sad when people take hard working people especially their parents for granted.

Wallflowers

Wallflowers by Donna Vorrey is such a cool poem! I really liked this poem because I never really thought too deeply about vocabulary. I usually just skip words that I don't know and pretend they don't exist, but this poem changes my perspective a little. It was really nifty how Vorrey personifies words so that you almost feel bad for all of the words that one usually pays no mind to. Another thing about this poem is that as I finished reading it, I was curious to read some of her other poems to see if she actually uses higher vocabulary like she says she wants to in the poem.

Except, someone has to use almost all of the words because someone came up with them didn't they? Still, this poem makes me want to pick up a dictionary because there are some cool words out there i'm sure. I probably won't think of the words the same way that Vorrey does, but it would still be cool to learn some new words. Vorrey can't use all of the words that exist.

I also kind of found it funny that Vorrey wrote a poem about words, because you write a poem using words and she wrote it about how she wanted to use more words. In reading this poem, I found it strange that she wrote about how she felt bad for all of the words that no one uses but she only drops a few "orphan" words in the actual poem.

This poem had a couple of layers and struck up a couple of random thoughts in my mind as I read it. It's all okay though because isn't that the point of poetry? To make you think?

The Heart of Darkness

The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad was a difficult read for me for sure. It took me like a month to finish this book because I would read about ten pages and realize that I didn't remember a single thing that I had just read. For me, this book was hard to comprehend and grasp because the vocabulary was so high level and Conrad used so much description that it didn't even feel like a story to me. It is extremely difficult to read a book when you can't get a mental picture of what is going on because it's boring and frustrating. I got bored really easily while I was reading this book and that frustrated me because usually I love to read and I usually don't have a problem forming mental pictures. I had a really difficult time understanding the whole story part and how Marlow felt about Africa because I was so frustrated about how I couldn't even really read it and understand. The most frustrating part about reading Heart of Darkness was that while I read it I couldn't understand, and I got mad at myself for not understanding it. As I read it, i just kept thinking to myself:

"Everyone else can read and understand it, why can't I?!"

Personally I dont like reading books that have the style that Conrad used with his high level vocabulary and such because it just feels really pointless to me. Why read a book that doesn't even feel like a story?

Doing the MWD really helped me gather my thoughts about the Heart of Darkness, and as I was filling it out I realized that I really did grasp parts of it. For instance, I knew that the Congo river was a symbol for Marlow's journey to finding himself. Conrad used a lot of symbols and metaphors which I thought was pretty clever because it also made it a story within a story. Speaking of story inside of a story, I thought that it was really weird how the book was about a story being told by Marlow who was a character in the story. I also was curious as to who the narrator was the whole time. It didn't consume my thinking while I was reading, but it did kind of sit in the back of my mind.

As I read the book, I tried to summarize after every ten pages and it was kind of difficult because I usually had no idea what I was summarizing, but it helped a little bit. I usually went back and read the ten pages again after I finished summarizing and then I could pick up on things that I had missed when I summarized it the first time. I really like this annotating style because it helped me reflect and kind of forced me to at least some what comprehend what I was reading.

I really thought it was cool how the whole book was kind of Marlow's journey to finding himself because I think that it is really important for everyone to do this. it was cool to see it done in a different way that wasn't the "norm". Marlow had to go into the heart of Africa in order to find out who he really was and how true his integrity really was. So although this was a difficult read for me, I have to admit that the message of the story was pretty good and i'm glad that I read it.

Little Apocalypse

Little Apocalypse by Charles Wright is such a cool and powerful poem! When I first read this poem, I didn't really understand it very well and it was kind of confusing but after we discussed it in class I really liked it. I had no idea what the four horses was referring to, but in class I found out that it was referring to the four horsemen of the apocalypse which made it that much cooler. I also liked how in the poem, Wright makes all of these small things like butterflies and ants seem bigger and more important.

"The ground shudders beneath the ant's hoof."

That is really cool because when we think of ants, we think of little annoying bugs and we don't really think about the different parts. We especially don't think of ants feet as hooves, because that just makes me think of horses and those are rather big. Wright did a really good job of telling how there are all of these little things in the world that seem insignificant but they're really not. I liked how the poem started off with these litttle things and it seemed kind of cheery but then it built up to the apocalypse, which is not a cheery or small thing.

I really enjoyed this poem and I think that it is really interesting and unique which makes it stand out from the other poems that we have read so far.

Evening Concert, Saint-Chappelle

Evening Concert, Saint-Chapelle written by John Updike is a very cool mental imagery poem. When I first read this poem I imagined a painting being painted. The way that Updike matched the sounds to colors and the way that he described them was so cool that I could see each movement of the paintbrush. Updike didn't only reference colors while describing the magnificent orchestra, but he also used tastes to compare the sounds too. It's not everyday that you read a poem that appeals to three of your five senses just by you reading it.

Another thing that i really liked about this poem was that it was written so that as you read it, you can feel the crescendos, slow moments, and grand finale. This was one of my favorite poems just because it had so many dynamics and it really was fun to read.

I really liked to just close my eyes while other people read the poem and just imagine everything. I saw the big church and orchestra. I heard the musical dynamics. I saw a beautiful painting being created. I tasted "passionate sweetness", and I loved it!

Lost Brother

Lost Brother by Stanley Moss is such a touching poem. I really liked this poem because I think it is really cool how Moss compared himself to a tree. He didn't make it obvious that he was comparing himself to a tree, so you really had to look to find that but it was really cool. To me, it almost felt like Moss was identifying with the tree in the fact that both himself and the tree were connected because they were both kids of mother nature.

I think that in this poem Moss was making a statement about nature and the cutting down of trees all around the world and how bad it really is. It was cool because so many trees get cut down everyday, but no one really pays any attention and it really doesn't effect them like it did Moss. I think that it was really cool that Moss wrote this poem the way that he did because it really makes you think about nature. I know that when I read the poem, I felt bad for the tree in the story even though it was an inanimate object. I felt a connection to the tree as well because Moss personified the tree by calling it his brother. My favorite part of the poem was at the end when Moss said:

Sooner or later, some bag of wind will cut me down.

I thought this part was funny because he distances himself from humans and refers to them as bags of wind. I think that this poem is very creative and really makes you think about nature. Also, I felt that this poem was very well written and one of my favorites so far. Two thumbs up Moss!

Mr. Fear

The poem Mr. Fear by Lawrence Raab is a very interesting piece of writing. In this poem Raab turns fear into a living thing, something that you can talk to and ask questions; Mr. Fear he calls it. I think that it is cool how Raab addresses fear in this way because it almost makes fear less scary. It's almost as if he is saying that fear is just a part of life, especially when he says:

"Mr. Fear, we say in our dreams,
what do you have for me tonight?"

Even though in this poem Raab makes fear feel like just a part of life, he also doesn't avoid the fact that we still don't like fear and wish not to have it. When reflecting on our fears we hope that they are small and manageable, and don't take control of our lives.

Throughout the poem Raab brings up dreams and sleeping a lot and to me this is pointing out that, as humans, we think about our fears the most while we sleep. When we sleep, we can't lock our fears out with everyday distractions and they come rushing back to the front of our minds. I really like this poem because it really makes you think about fear in a different way than usual.

The Kite Runner

I just got finished with the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini in the car on the way to South Dakota. The last hundred pages or so had me on a roller coaster of emotions. My family gave me several 'it's just a book, calm down' looks as I either yelled in horror at Amir's encounter with Assef or clapped as Sohrab and Amir flew the kite together.This book was one of the most incredible books that I have read, and I loved it. I thought that though there were some dry parts, for the most part it was well written. I annotated it by summarizing every chapter as I finished with it. This was perfect for me because some of the chapters flew right over my head and I needed to reflected upon them. This book took me a while to finish because I started reading on the first day of school and, well, let's just say that I haven't had very much free time. Summarizing all of the chapters was also a big help because if I didn't get a chance to read it for a couple of days, I could look back and quickly catch myself up on the story.

I didn't feel like the fact that Hassan was a Hazara and Amir was a Pashtun really made much of a difference in the story. Yes, Hassan was a slave while Amir was not but I think that their relationship was deeper. I think that Amir used the fact that Hassan was just a Hazara and slave as an excuse to treat him the way he did. Amir and Hassan were very close because they were best friends but like any friends they did have their fights. When they didn't get along and Amir treated Hassan like dirt it wasn't because he was a Hazara, but instead because he was jealous of him. I completely understand why Amir was jealous of Hassan, I would be too. I would not be as jealous as him or do the things that he did because of jealousy, but I would still feel jealous. Baba was Amir's father and Amir just wanted him to be proud of just him. He wanted to be the one to get a new kite without Hassan getting one as well. I bet it was confusing for Amir because, to him, Baba was HIS father not Hassan's and yet he did the same things for Hassan that he did for Amir. Shouldn't a father treat their son better than any other kid? When I say this, i'm talking about before Amir found out that he and Hassan were brothers. I'm not justifying any of the things that Amir did or saying that Hassan should have just been ignored, but after I finished the book I could see where Amir was coming from. I also love to make my parents proud, and I usually strive to make them proud. 

One of my favorite things about this book was that it was not super predictable. I never had any idea what tragedy would strike next. This was by far the saddest a book has ever made me feel. I have never been much of a crier, so even when the book tugged on my heart strings I didn't shed a tear. I did come close though, especially after Sohrab came into the story. To me, that little boy was the bread and butter of the book, and he wasn't even the main character. Sohrab symbolized forgiveness and redemption for Amir. Poor Amir carried so much guilt for so much of his life and when Rahim Khan told Amir the news about Hassan, it was devastating. Sohrab was a second chance for Amir because after the loss of Hassan, his only chance at righting his wrong was through Sohrab, Hassan's son.

 In the end, I feel like Amir did finally break free of his guilt and whatever else had been holding him back throughout his life. I found myself feeling happy for him because he had made it through a lot. I was so proud of him when he decided to take Sohrab home because I knew that that was what Amir needed, and i was right. It was very sad when their blossoming relationship came to a sudden halt just as Sohrab got to go back to America with Amir. They did start to make a little progress when they flew the kite together, but I just wish that I could keep reading to find out just how much Sohrab and Amir's relationship really got to become.

Still Memory

Still Memory by Mary Karr is a very touching piece.The memory is a crazy thing, and sometimes it is unreal how vivid it can be. This poem is a description of how Karr remembers her childhood. A reflection on how she remembers life to be when she was ten and before her mother and father passed away. At the same time, however, this poem also brings up her passion for writing and how it blossomed at that time in her life.

My ten-year-old hand reaches
for a pen to record it all
as would become long habit.

When I read this poem and especially that last stanza, I get the feeling that when she wrote it she was thinking about how much everything has changed since this time. I feel like Karr was almost expressing how naive she was at that time and how small her world felt but as she grew she found out how big it really was. The bulk of this piece is small details about her childhood which, to me, shows that when she was then her world was pretty concentrated. It is natural to miss what was and think often about childhood and how easy everything was, but it is also easy to think about how far you have come and how much has changed. That is what I think this poem is about.

Poetry says what others cannot

The Halo That Would Not Light, written by Lucie Brock-Broido is an exceptionally phenomenal poem.  The poem highlights the wonder and fear of growing up.  There are so many people in the world and everyone lives completely different lives. However, they all experience a childhood.  Be it a terrible experience or an amazing one, everyone experiences their own. This poem really spoke to me because childhood really is reflected on quite frequently and is missed once it is gone. I know that I miss being young. When I think back on my childhood, it just feels like a reel of many memories. Some of the memories good, and others not so good, but either way I miss it.

"As certain and indivisble as
Red scarves silking endlessly
From a magician's hollow hat
and the spectacular catastrophe
of your endless childhood
is done."

This is my favorite part of the poem because it expresses the longing and sadness that catches up to you and chokes the excitement to grow up right out of you.

Saying goodbye to your childhood may be a part of life, but it's not always easy.

The Great Gatsby

I actually found The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald to be a pretty good book.  At first, it was pretty boring and a little confusing for me, but I really started to enjoy it after the majority of the characters had been introduced. It's not that I thought that it was incredibly written, I more liked the whole plot line because it was so drama filled and soap opera like. It was pretty clever how Fitzgerald slowly unfolded pieces of the puzzle as the book went on. For instance how at first all that was known was that Jay Gatsby liked to throw extravagant parties, but as it turned out he didn't even like parties; He was just hoping that one day Daisy Buchanan would show up at one of his parties. Though Fitzgerald filled in some of the pieces and blanks, he also kept somethings unknown, leaving them a mystery. Perfect.

This book almost makes me wish that I lived during 1920's. Wouldn't it be great to go to these seemingly amazing parties whenever you wanted? Or to just be able to run over anyone with a car and completely escape any punishment? It would be something. The cool thing about The Great Gatsby is that you got to see life in the 1920's from basically every perspective possible. Fitzgerald painted a vivid picture of life as a rich bootlegger (Jay Gatsby), a man of "old money" (Tom Buchanan), a pathetic "old money" house wife (Daisy Buchanan), an average man (Nick Carraway), a poor couple (The Wilsons), and an independent, self made woman (Jordan Baker). Beause Fitzgerald has such a wide variety in his characters, it is really cool to see the diversity in personalities and ways of life.

The Great Gatsby was a nice glimpse at what life was like back in the 1920's with plenty of funny and serious twists, but not lacking it's fair share of predictability. Then again, what good drama doesn't?