Original Poems III

20.  HISTORENGA

FORMAT/ASSIGNMENT:  A historenga is a ten-line poem.  Line three introduces a historical event or period.  Line six cites a nation or location involved with the event/period, and line nine cites a person or figure significant to that nation/location.

Roaring 20's

novel inventions and makes a footprint

in the history of the U.S.

starting up a new era of the 20's 

speakeasies sweep the streets

and flappers slip on their Burgundy lipstick

bankers saturate wall street

and stocks are the next big thing

alcohol became a hidden secret

and Al Capone conquered the collapse of order

marking the 1920's

     

ROAD SIGN POETRY

thank you for telling me the obvious

i didnt know this world needed a sign that warns of the sign

we complain about cutting budgets 

cutting funds

cutting sports

however, this world needed this sign put up

like my mother always said, read the fine print

squint and directs your eyes to the bottom

slow down and stop the car if you need

use a magnifying glass if you need

now that you got the message

pull out and find another pathway, 

this bridge is closed. 

ALTERNATIVE SELF 

FORMAT/ASSIGNMENT:  Make a poem of six stanzas, four lines each.  The second and fourth line of each stanza must rhyme, and the poem must be about a person who is the exact opposite of you.


The New Neighbor


i met a girl last week
blue eyes, fair skin, bleach blonde locks
she listens to country music like no tomorrow
eyes piercing like a hawk


plays almost every sport under the sun
stands of a height about 5 ft one
has pin straight hair
and an allergy to gluten


loves cats with all her heart
she can play instruments but cannot draw
worries about having the best brand names
has pale skin without a flaw


she never wears flashy jewelry
very quiet and shy 
worries about what people might think
wears mac makeup every morning and reapplies


has a dozen pairs of ugg boots
her fingers fly over the screen of her iphone
she is very terse with her responses
her hand never leaving the smartphone


her blood is a purebred
her family consists of about four
they never go out
and just simply quite a bore

ORIGINAL POEMS I

Where I am From:

I am from comforters, from johnson and johnson and elmers.

I am from the shoes piled by the door, leather glistening from the melted snow.
I am from the cherry blosson tree, fresh cut roses, water, the maple tree, dandelion who would burst into a thousand floating seeds.
I am from christmas eve at grandmas and deep brunette hair, from Michael and Renata and Relyea.
I am from the loud presence in the room and everyone sticking together.
From told that monsters are not under your bed and only brush the teeth you want to keep.
I am from a baptized religion and Christmas mass goer.
I'm from new york and family ties all the way to europe, ice cream and pasta sauce.
From the loss of hearing in my dads one ear, the missing tip of my great uncles finger, and the tattooes lining my uncles arms.
I am from the plastic boxes in the basement, never knowing the weight of photos could come together so heavy. spending hours flipping through all the pictures and having a hearty laugh.

.  “This Is Just To Say”

i am sorry to say that
i took the car keys last night
i know you wouldnt notice
but it was just a quick run.

my license may have a cerfew
but i wasnt seen or caught.
i didnt cause any harm
and i promise that was the last time

it was after you fell asleep
after your breathing became even
i grabbed my jacket and boots
and slipped out the door.

Rainbow Poem

red is a beach ball
orange the kite
yellow the sunrays
green the towel
blue the swallowing sky
indigo the lapping waves
violet the horizon line

soaking up the sun
spending hours at the beach
with hot sand between the toes
the bright colors of towels and bathing suits
shells lining the edge of the waves
sun tan lotion glistens on your skin
time just melts away

Vocabulary on my mind

 Use as many of our vocabulary words in one coherent response as you can

my novel neighbors that moved in a couple weeks ago seemed very affable. They have a plethora of people living at the house. The oldest son gets the mail every morning with swagger going to the mailbox. He speaks with brevity so i dont talk to him very much. However you can only have succinct conversations going to the mailbox. His personalty is cryptic to me. The next child is a girl who is very egotistical and aesthetic because she is never seen without makeup on. The first day they moved in a transient rainbow appeared right over their new home. I like the way they decorated the house. Along the peripheral of the house, bright flowers are planted. The next child is a boy who seems to be very ponderous and must convalesce because he broke his arm last week. I always see them clipping coupons, they are very frugal and thirfty. The second youngest child is very exuberant. I akways see her swinging on the swings outside. She is very garrulous and pattles on to me whenever im outside. She will be a very good raconteur when she is older. She is not ostentatious like her older sister. The youngest boy is very intractable and is always running outside and always getting into trouble.He needs to be more chary when he goes outside by himself. The parents must have a langour trying to take care of these kids. Its better then having banal neighbors though!

“What I Need to Know about WRITING AND WRITERS to Become a Better Writer”

My question I've been thinking about how does poetry connect with song writing? For the first speaker I could focus on the way so talked about sound design. Sound design is a big part of song writing because you must create a song that people want to listen to and hear the message in the song. Also to find the right words that fit with the rhythm of the music. And since poetry is the lyrics to a song, I could add a lot of pieces from her q and a. the second speaker I couldn't get a lot out of her interview but I could add what inspires her to write and her writing techniques. The third speaker connects to a bunch of the interview questions I came up with. For example, how do your surroundings affect the writing you create? He was also a poet so I could take some information that he said during the q and a.  I could add aspects of his style of writing which makes every artist unique to their songs. The last interview I could add parts of the video when she was talking about adding style to the writing which also makes every song unique to the artist.

I chose this topic because one: my first question was already taken and two: that song writing is very creative and I think it would make a great documentary. But I think it is hard to create a document by following a rubric with interviews. It is hard to answer the rubric questions when you don't know what the interviewers may or may not say. I think this project should have a little more freedom. However, once this project is over I will know all the problems that come up and all the details that can be fixed.

1/17 Speaker = 2.5

round four : Robyn Ringler

Dissection: within the first paragraph, I like how she discussed her family and her situation she was in. it really helped the reader connect with her life and the story she was telling. The process of the "an arteriogram" sounded almost barbaric with the treading and the "stabbing" it made me realize that one: I will never have a job in the medical field and two: that life is short and anything can take that away from you in any moment. I was shocked when it stated " Over three months, the noise in my head gradually disappeared, but I was left with frequent intense headaches" I could never imagine that much pain for so long. Be it seemed to be worth all the pain just to stay alive and be with her family. I liked how she added little details like her husband holding her in his arms. At the end of the article I'm still wondering, what pieces were missing?

Letting go: it is really hard being involved with the medical field and seeing so much pain throughout the day. It always seems that you’re surrounded by bad news, pain and loss. And the only thing a person could do is " to provide comfort and support." when there’s nothing to do. This story helps me connect with the writer because she developed a connection with her patient and that is describing something that was part of her life. I liked how she developed the connection throughout the article. The one quote that really stood out to me was "terminally ill people tend to die during those rare moments when loved ones leave the room.  The patient hangs on in the presence of family and friends, but, when alone, can finally let go" that is a really strong message and anyone could connect and understand the loss of a loved one even more then before. 

The high dive: I really like the story building up to the moment. I loved the first time she was on the high diving board and was looking at everything. She states, "I admired its tall brick structure and ceiling paintings of saints and angels, but I hated its hard, skinny pews. Our little blue clapboard church on the west side, Holy Family, had cozy seats that fit us kids as well as our parents." I could imagine a little girl standing up at the top looking out at the town. It made it seem that she was so high up and was looking down on the town and everyone below her. I liked how she called it "her dads story" because to me, it really was. This story was a moment she wouldn’t forget and of all the time she spent with her dad at the pool. Everybody has that special thing that you can only do with a certain person. For her it was going to the pool with her dad, if it were with anybody else, it wouldn’t be the same. This helped me connect with her to an even deeper level because I understand her family and how she grew up. 

1/12 Speaker = 3.5 stars

Round three= Stephen Leslie

The first poem I read was "her voice" which I thought was very creative. I love a twist on a poem about a very random object. The form of a Haibun is very new to me and the style is very different. In the line where it states "sometimes I wish she was more cordial, but our relationship is all business" it brings me to a new thought about a GPS and what a relationship is between a driver and the GPS. Drivers do depend on GPS's, probably more then they think and this poem really shows the connection between the two. I like the style of a Haibun; it explains the topic or thought more then just a haiku. It gets deeper then three lines in a poem. I can understand and expand on the topic. 

In the next poem "Joe" at the end where it states "cold black granite walls, the Vietnam Memorial, I touch Joe's name" I would have never known the background information about Joe or what Joe means to the writer. I like Haibuns better then regular Haikus because it expands on the topic and also leads up to what the Haiku is about. If the poem didn’t have the prose in the beginning, I would have never understood what led up to going to the Memorial wall. 

In the poem "red-tailed hawk" I have learned that Haibuns can go from an electronic to something in nature and anything in between. I really wonder what made him pull over to have a formal funeral for the hawk? If I just read the Haiku at the end, I would have no idea what was going on at the time. There are a million possibilities that the poem could have been connected to. But with the beginning part, I then begin to understand what led up to this moment. Haibuns seem to have a better connection and a deeper level of understanding to the topic then a regular Haiku. 

In the last poem "elevator music” where it states, "Called to the hospital, no family present, I was alone with the dying patient, a women in her eighties." I was wondering who is this woman? The writer didn’t seem to have a deeper connection with the woman besides being an acquaintance. Why was he called to the hospital? This last poem didn’t seem to explain the topic on a deeper level then the other three poems. However, if I just read the Haiku, I wouldn’t have a clue to what the story was behind this. 

my attempt at a Haibun:

as the blank paper stares back at me, my pencil rolls over my fingers. my mind debating where the inception is. the chipped yellow paint of the pencil reflects the warm glow from the dining room chandelier. the tip perfectly pointed to reveal the soft, gray lead. the eraser slightly grayed from the aggressive rubbing against the paper. draw and redraw, sketch and resketch, line after line, shadow after shadow. shifting my position in the chair to keep the creative juices flowing. music saturates the air with different genres, bringing out different emotions that reflect in the piece. eyes darting back and forth to every corner of the paper. 

lines connect together

revealing the image as one

drawing and painting

when did you first hear about the style of Haibun?

when your writing, do you try to have a certain rhythm?

what made you pull over to see the red-tailed hawk?

 1/10 Speaker = 4 stars

Round two: Deb Smith – Travel Writer

"Tales of the beach"

 In the first few paragraphs, it already makes you feel like you are sitting on the bus with her looking at all the different views. Where it states "As the bus rolled southwest, the steep, ochre-hued Sierra Nevada Mountains gave way to the whitewashed coastal villages above an azure Mediterranean" it helps you pin-point where she is and what she is seeing. She also states a reason for being there in the first place which helps the reader connect with her and connect on how the article is related with the country. In the article where it says "Like many European beaches its pebbles instead of sand" this statement helps readers learn about the culture. She has connected the article and the country by describing the sights she experienced and every aspect of the 5 senses. 

"Revenge of the Tooth fairy" with listening to the essay, you can hear the tone of voice change and it really makes it personalized to the writer. You can really understand her style of writing and it is reflected in the way she pronounces certain words or emphasizes on what she is feeling. At the point in the essay where she is talking about if she ever broke a tooth in Prague, it really shows her opinion and the tone in her voice changes that gives you a sense of her emotion.  

   

1/6 Speaker = (2.5 stars) 

What was the most memorable part at the Costa del Sol?

Is there a certain rhythm that you write to or more just to get your thoughts down?

How do you prepare for an audio essay?

Round One= Therese Broderick

(1) read a brief biography/interview about her from the documents above or the link(s) below;

 (2) read through THREE poems by her; 

(3) write a summary of what you learned about the poet based on her biography and poems, citing specific examples in the form of FOUR direct quotes.  It should be 250-300 words.  Also, think in terms of TWO questions you would like to ask that might help you better understand poetry in general (these are not included in the word count).

Aprils End: so far throughout the poems it strongly reflects how much her daughter, Elizabeth Robinson, means to her and how much she has touched her life. I can almost see through her eyes and understand what she is thinking. I love how these poems were written on different points in her daughter’s life. Some were big turning points in her life like 9/11 and some were soccer games and just little aspects during her life.

 In the poem "that Tuesday" it is describing her fear and thoughts within the day of 9/11. "In Mrs. White’s classroom And I was miles away At the State Street bank making my deposits." gives a feeling of being a mother and the thought process of a mother’s point of view. Personally, I have never had this experience but it seemed like I was right there with her throughout the day and I could understand what was going on. 

Moving to the point of her daughter’s teenage years, it is shown in the poem "I love you." in the poem where it states "while on her cell phone

With the teenage boy she meets at school" it almost reminds me of my parents because they love to tease about boyfriends and just do what they do best; embarrass teenagers.

         In the poem “home game” the part where it says “our daughters’ soccer team has finally won a home game. Now the players huddle quietly with the coach, their jerseys as yellow as the dandelions still applauding from the grass.” You can really visualize the team together and as if you were at the game too. You can almost feel the pride that the parents have because they won their game. I can just imagine the parents and players faces light up as they scored the goal or made a great play.

 Lastly in the poem "Learners Permit" where it says "from behind the wheel, quizzing The yellow traffic light ahead Or chiding the tailgater Caught in her rearview mirror." it almost feels like I’m in the car with them and this really stood out to me because I'm almost 16 too and I will be in the same position as her daughter. 

where is your daughter now?

which of these poems seem to stand out the most for you?