For my second response of the quarter I chose the poem “Unveiling” by Linda Pastan.  The very first thing I noticed about this poem was how it was written.  Not only the words and emotional for of it, but the physical view on the paper.  There were no stanzas or special sentence structure.  It was written straight down, in sentences, and regular capitalization.  I found this style incredibly easier to follow for some weird reason.  Then, I also noticed how the poem simply describes a personal experience.  I felt a persoal connection to this poem too.  It described a family member walking through a cemetary looking at all of his/her family members laying side by side just like they did at family dinners.  This specific part made me feel sad because I don’t want to imagine doing that with my family members one day.  However, the character says that they don’t feel sad; more like left out.  I didn’t understand this because when I get left out, I feel very sad..kind of like a big baby.  I really got emotional thinking about being alone and how one day this will happen because it is life.  The ending line says, “…as if they kept from me the kind of grown-up secret they used to share back then, something I’m not quite ready yet to learn.”  I had to ponder on this quote for a couple minutes because I didn’t understand quite what the character was saying.  I feel like even though this poem is so simple, it has a secret meaning that the reader is supposed to interpret themselves.  I feel that the author of this poem wanted us all to take a look at life and how it works no matter how sad or unfortunate it may be.  I feel she wanted us to learn from the hidden lessons of the elderly and dying and already deceased.  I liked this poem

For the new quarter, I decided to start off with reading “The Coming of Wisdom with Time” by William Butler Yeats.  First off, let me tell you how thankful I am to have a new set of poems..the other packet was getting old. But this poem interested me because it was fairly short (4 sentences) but the meaning was so powerful.  It starts out with a reference to how there are many leaves all coming from one root.  This opens the readers mind to what comes next; the disscussion of someones youth.  I feel these two sentences relate to the fact that when we begin to grow as people, many leaves begin to form.  We change things about ourselves and personalities form.  I guess you can think of it as many things forming who you become in the long run.  This whole concept represents the leaves stemming from one root.  Then the poem goes on to talk about how you sway your leaves and flowers int he sun.  I feel that this means how you live your life.  You wave your personality and traits all your life.  Sometimes, however, you become someone you might not really be and you live part of your life as a fake.  The ending of the poem discusses how you eventually wither into truth.  The truth of it all is the “root” or your original being.  This poem surprised me in the way that it showed how we live our entire lives and the changes we go through in an entire 4 sentences.  The author was very knowelgable about life and the way he represented it as a flower was creative.  I enjoyed this poem and decided it was a very good way to start off the new quarter!  

For my 7th response I chose to read and review “A Gray Haze Over the Rice Fields” by Jayanta Mahapatra.  To start off, I just took a look at the title and kind of brainstormed what the title could possibly say about the poem as a whole.  What I came up with was fairly relatable to the actual poem.  I figured “a gray haze” was reffering to a shadow on someones life.  Perhaps something was missing or hurting the way they live their life and maybe even kept them searching for a certain component.  “The rice fields” was a bit harder to figure out because I thought it might have something to do with how rice grows or maybe just the simple fact that rice is so small and so maybe the character was feeling quite small.  As I began to read the poem, I noticed my predictions were actually close to the real plot of the poem.  The beginning starts out with describing a rice field by the highway and cows walking around in it.  The character is searching for something…a memory and he/she starts to remember little things like kisses from his/her grandmother and the feel of tears on her cheeks when her mother didn’t notice her.  Then the poem jumps to say there is a thread dangling just out of her reach.  I analyze this part to mean that there is indeed something missing from this persons life and it always seems to be just out of reach.  Then a shadow is used as a symbol to represent being freed from the past and some of the future.  I thought this was an excellent symbol because most of the time shadows represent something evil or bad but this uses it as a representation of being freed.  The very last line I couldn’t quite figure out…”I can only think of squirrels slipping in and out of the mango trees.”  The most I could get out of this is that the statement is a mere memory of this person.  Maybe its one happy thing they remember from their childhood.  I found this poem interesting and very original.  It made me feel kind of sad for the character…but overall it was another successful poem I enjoyed reading.

My sixth response was a response to the poem entitled “Beginning Again” by Franz Wright.  I found the opening to this poem the most catchy of anything because it showed some sort of commentary between two people.  I really liked how the author made you feel like you had just walked in on a very interesting and unusual discussion.  However, the words that are being spoken send out a sad and hopeless vibe.  The author used some phrases such as “performing brain surgery on himself” that made me think someone went off to think to himself about something serious.  I get the feeling that this person is disorganized by the way Wright says “a room whose floor ceiling and walls are all mirrors, what a mess.”  It gives the reader the insight that this specific person is doing so what of a reflection on his/her life perhaps.  The the format of the poem takes a different direction when the word “Why” is left to have a whole stanza to itself.  This certain format opens the readers mind to dig further and ask themselves why this question is such a big deal.  I began to feel like the unknown character had run off without no announcement and wanted to be alone to think to himself which left the people who surround him asking why.  Towards the end of the poem, you see the name Li Po used as if he were the main character and he had been telling the story the whole time.  This brought on a sense of confusion for me while reading.  As I began to walk through the possiblities of this narration, I started to wonder if maybe the author wanted the reader to visualize an outer body expierence by someone who is trying to sort out their life.  I really liked the ending phrase “until only the mountain reamains.”  I can’t help but to wonder if this character feels his life would be better lived if he was to just sit until he departed the world.  This author was very good at getting me to think outside the box, and it was kind of a fun poem to anaylize

For my fifth entry of our poetry responses I read “Wallflowers” by Donna Vorreyer.  This poem started out very clear and easy to follow.  Some of it was actually quite easy to read and understand.  I was able to grasp the concept that the author was describing how there are words never used and once someone uses them they become yours so to speak.  I found that concept very interesting because we usually don’t think about using words a certain amout of time before they become ours…come to think of it, I didn’t know a word could belong to someone as it is.  However, once you get to thinking about it you begin to think like the author.  I thought to myself, “What words have a made mine?”  It was actually kind of fun.  Then you read further and discover similies and comparisons.  I love how Vorreyer decribes unused words as “shy shadows at the high school dance” and how she talks about them one day being given the chance to “bloom.”  Towards the end of the poem there were two interesting words used; “gegenshein” and “zoanthropy.”  I could tell the author was using this technique to prove her point of unused words.  Overall this poem really brought out a different technique of writing and proving a point.  I enjoyed being able to stop and think about something such as how many times I use certain words and which one I can use.  Maybe I can start using some unusual and crazy words at least three times each so that i’m guarenteed their mine. Ha! One thing I noticed about Donna Vorreyer is that she chooses a specific technique and finds the most original way to portray it in a poem.  That way the reader is enjoying the poem but also picking up new writing techniques.  It was awesome!

For my fourth response I chose to read “1943″ by Donald Hall. This poem struck me first as a descriptive poem about a specific event, but then as I read my perspective changed.  The beginning of the poem starts out talking about teenage boys getting trained for war and being prepared to be tough.  Then it goes on to describe how milk is delivered to the soldiers and how in the winter it comes half frozen.  The line that caught my attention while reading this specific section is the line; “frozen cream lifted the cardboard lids of glass bottles, Grade A or Grade B, while marines bled to death in the surf.”  I don’t quite understand why the author chose to add the line about marines bled to death in the surf.  I personally think it was added to first keep the theme of them being soldiers and keep the image of the war atmoshpere, but then also to help the reader understand what the soldiers are constantly thinking.  The last line made me want to hold my breath because it ties in the brief theme of milk by saying, “with frostbitten feet as white as milk.”  This line to me draws together the poem as a whole.  The reader has this picture the whole time of milk and soldiers and then it uses the milk image to describe a quite disturbing image.  Hall’s writing shows that he is a very clever and original author by connecting every bit of information in his poem and tying it up in the end.  I don’t think I have ever read a poem that had everything connected so well and it was organized in a manor that was east to follow and understand.  The image the poem submitted was amazing.  This is actually the first poem I’ve read that didn’t spark a personal connection, but that’s what drew me to this piece.  I really enjoyed this poem and I would really love to read more that keep me from constantly making personal connections. HA! I feel I get a better understanding of them this way.

“Evening Concert, Saint-Chapelle” was an amazing piece of work by John Updike. If I can remember right, I think Updike was in our book of essays we read this summer. This specific piece is one of my all time favorites because I can truely relate and see what the author is trying to get the reader to picture. The poem is about musicians getting ready for a concert, a symphony in particular. I play the violin and so I knew about everything mentioned in the poem. In the begining, there were composers listed such as Vivaldi and Brahms and I thought it was interesting that I have actually played many pieces by these composers. Having this expierience, I was able to hear what was being described about the work of these composers. I could hear Vivaldi’s “strident strength” and Brahm’s “passionate sweetness.” As I was reading, I began to remember my very first time playing in an orchestra. My nerves could be described much like what Updike mentioned. This was a very short poem, but within the lines present, there was tons of description. I feel that John Updike described something that is often looked over because not many people can relate to playing in an orchestra. The word choice was also very catchy. Words like “ebbed”, “vigor”, “fantasy”, all add so much to the picture. I couldn’t help but to wonder why the author would choose to write about something such as a concert. Did he possibly have concert expirence, or play in an orchestra? Perhaps it was always a dream of his to be a part of such a unique and exquisite group of people. The art of music is such a rare and beautiful thing and I feel that Updike did an excellent job describing it. The poem was easy for me to relate to, kept my interest, and was very easy to get into.

This poem, “To Myself”, I found myself reading more than once. The first time I read it, i thought about a special friend I had lost about two years ago. I connected majorly with this poem because sometimes I have moments where I feel as though that person is still here or around me sometimes. Then it went on to talk about how this certain thing was time, but then again not time. I was a bit confused about the contreversy that was continuously brought up. The style was original and kept making the reader second guess what the poem was suggesting. Then I read it a second time. This time I began to think, “what if the figure being talked about in the poem is simply youself?” I mean there are times that we feel as though we are not being oursevles, or we do something that goes against our character completly. I know in my life I’ve been through a time period when I look back now and feel as though that person I was comes back and I have to shake that out of my mind. I’m not at all saying that when we “revisit” ourselves it’s always bad but I made another huge connection with that. Overall, I feel this poem could go many ways and that people of all sorts could find a way to connect and interpret it. The ending was interesting. The line “you are not time and who speak in words but you are not what they say and you who are not lost when I do not find you.” What does that mean? I feel like there’s a deep meaning to this closing and believe me, I picked my brain forever about it. What I came up with was that this figure is imaginary to the mind and soul, meaning it’s not lost, but sometimes we still cannot find it. Another great poem!

Hello everyone! Hope your summers were fun and relaxing…anyways…i chose to read “My Fear” by Lawrence Raab because the title appealed to me. As I read, i noticed that the author wrote to give a sense of fear and awkwardness in the reader. I felt a little sad and emotional because the poem is true for some people like me. Every night i have my own fears of what the next day will bring, will it be a good day, or will it turn out like many others and be hard and long and unbearable. I love the line that says “tell me, Mr. Fear, what must I carry.” In life, you come accross things that do not go your way and you might feel that it is impossible to get over something, but you learn to deal and carry those troubles. I feel that this poem brings to life the realization of troubles and that they truly are things in a black bag. Raab ends the poem with a happy memory talking about what the person in the poem thought about before he went to bed and came to realize his misfortunes. I love the way this author wrote because I was able to connect, and pick out many lines I thought were very interesting and original. Raab has a unique style and I absolutley loved this poem! It is truely an eye opener and a relatable poem.