Revised Poem due 12/13/2012

Original

A Second Family

We all show up together, to the cool, loud and

compact studio rink, for a harmless game.

We chirp each other, with no hard feelings.

Our heartless jokes are our form of heartfull compliments.

We all cram in the small, smelly locker room together,

When a parent brings us all refreshing Gatorades and energizing

Sandwiches. We sit there for hours, we let the game we all

commonly love bring us together, and spend

 the wonderful thanksgiving together.

Revised

A Second Family

We all show up together, to the cool, loud, and

Compact studio rink, and lace up for a harmless game.

Our heartless chirps are hurtful compliments

With no hard feelings.

We all get together and just play.

We all cram in the small, smelly locker room together,

Tired and exhausted, but we still stay there together for hours.

The game we commonly love bring us all together, and we have

A wonderful Thanksgiving together.

Poem to Submit to IBID

Jack Reich

The Goose

On a cool, damp, cloudy

Day, the golden sun peaks

Out of the grey sky,

Spreading warmth along

The Earth’s surface,

Lighting the lifeless world.

Leaves swirl in the wind, as

Tree branches sway back and

Forth, and the soft, warm breeze

Blows ripples across the

Pond, as an acorn drops

Down from a tall oak tree.

A squirrel darts across the

Lawn, to grab the acorn,

And takes it back to his

Nest. And a bumble bee

Bounces from flower to

Flower, feeding on their nectar.

Birds chirp, while two students

Laugh as they peacefully

Walk to class. Small ducklings

Tail their mother across

The wet marsh by the pond,

While a frog hops around.

All until a goose let

Out a loud ugly honk,

Ruining the harmony

The sun delivered.

Thanksgiving Journal

Digging deeper into the roots of past struggles, experiences, and connections.

1.       Most of my newer poems seem to look deeper into what the topic is. I try to talk about something, and show the topics significance and/or meaning to me. I attempt to show why a topic is significant to me through explaining an experience, struggle, or connection.

2.       Earlier in the year, my poems would be a lot blander, and I would not put much significance or connection to my life. For example if I were to write this poem earlier in the year, I would have just written about what we did together, I would not have attempted to show how I see my teammates as a second family.

A Second Family

We all show up together, to the cool, loud and

compact studio rink, for a harmless game.

We chirp each other, with no hard feelings.

Our heartless jokes are our form of heartfull compliments.

We all cram in the small, smelly locker room together,

When a parent brings us all refreshing Gatorades and energizing

Sandwiches. We sit there for hours, we let the game we all

commonly love bring us together, and spend

 the wonderful thanksgiving together.

Final Project Proposal

I had the Idea of writing a short, illustrated book for the final project. My inspiration for this comes from Dr. Seuss. I would write a medium to long length poem, that would have a playful, happy tone to it, and one that tells an ingesting story. I would have a line or two on each page, along with illustrations. I could then put it all together into a book.

Poetry Blog

The poetry blog that I found is called  denvergabriel, run by Denver Gabriel (http://denvergabriel.wordpress.com/). One of the reasons that I chose this blog is because it is only poetry. Most of the other blogs had many comments, journals, and whatnot that aren't poetry.  But the main reason I chose this blog stood out to me not because of something in particular that it has, but what it does not have. Nearly every single other poetry blog that I found consisted of poems talking about issues the world faces or ones that they have struggled with in their life. Many poets use their blogs to preach to you about what is right or wrong, as where this blog consists of poems about normal, ordinary things and experiences. Other blogs preach to you about a racist man they encountered, and how wrong and ignorant he is. Or a woman preaches to you about how she is a victim of sexual harassment, and explains how traumatizing the life event was. One blog I read, talked about how ignorant people are who don't celebrate national human rights day. He said that white and straight people are ruining the day by not paying attention to its important, and that if you practice a religion that says "love thy neighbor" it is apart of your religion to support the holiday, and obligated to pay attention to it. I don't mean to come off as a scumbag by tearing apart these peoples poetry blogs, I could not agree more with them that racism is wrong, sexual harassment is not a joke, and national human rights day is important. But I believe that their way of supporting their cause is not the right way to do so. Telling white, straight, christian, men that they are obligated to support a holiday will drive them away from it. Talking about how racists are ignorant, will just fuel more racism, and talking about how it is wrong to make sexual harassment a joke will just make it even more funny than those who already do. Even more than that, I believe that those attitudes and topics are ruining poetry. Some people do not want to listen to people preach about what they think is wrong with the world, and would rather be more entertained by poetry about simple, everyday things like Denver Gabriel does.

Video Poem Proposal

Poem- ADD

Proposal-  With the poem about ADD, I will take a photo of one to three words at a time on a white board, and combine them together in a montage. Words or phraes that are more important will be in the video for longer. I will also have illustrations that show the difficulty of focusing for me.

Logistics-   Plan your work & work your plan!

Tech tools and skills needed: Just a camera and computer

Materials needed-  tripod, whiteboard and marker

Other people needed- N/A

Audio element(s)- Music will be played in the background, song and song type is unknown

Found visual/footage needed- None

Filming time/date/venue- It will take a while, I will need a photo for nearly every word I have, along with the time it will take to put them all together.

Video Poem of the Day: I'm Taking my Ball, and Going Home

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBJoZKe_lLw
I chose this poem because I really relate to it well. Pick up football, soccer, hockey, and baseball games were started up about every other day with the other neighborhood kids. When I first started watching this, I thought to myself, I though about how common the situation he discusses occurs; There was always the one kid for nearly every pick up game who threw a tantrum, and ruined the game. But as he goes on in the poem, he talks about how Scott, the kid throwing the tantrum, never got his way, and that was the only time he had any leverage whatsoever, the only time he had a chance to be taken seriously. Maybe that kid growing up wasn't a "cry baby"? maybe he had a really bad day? Maybe he was tired of nobody taking him seriously? Maybe we were the ones who made his day even worse, rather than him ruining ours? Maybe we should have let him have a voice.

Reaction to Chris Martins Poems from "American Music"

The one thing that stood out about Chris Martin's poetry is that it's very unconventional. In most of his poems, he uses lines of different lengths, and breaks the lines in awkward, unexpected places. In the second to last stanza of his poem surviving desire, he says "Topple, transubstantiation/ fails, we fall into knowing before/ we know that". The style of his poetry gives the reader the desire to pause at the line breaks, but then, throws in punctuation, such as a comma, telling  the reader to pause. Something about the style of his poetry makes me want to pause at the line breaks as well as the commas (even when I try not to), and this makes it hard for for his poetry to flow as I read it. Although his poetry is more of a challenge for me to read, I do admire how he challenges the way poetry is normally written. He does something different, and writes in a way that no other poets do, which makes his poetry much more interesting and entertaining to read.

Mariana Ranch

Mariana Ranch

Houses spread far apart,
with big backyards. Large fields,
home to adolescent
trees, are scattered around
the forest with miles
of intertwined trails.
Mariana Ranch is
the neighborhood of
adventure, with so much
room for young boys to be
boys. So much to keep a
young child entertained.

Our options for the days
activities were endless.
riding dirt bikes through
the trails, hunting for birds
and other pests. We shot
arrows straight up
in the air and run away,
In hope of not getting hit.
we made Molotov cocktails,
and watch them light up everything
around us as they exploded.
when the July fourth came around,
loud bangs would irritate
everyone as we stormed
around with fireworks.
We would spend hours
riding off of the dirt jump
with our bikes in the lot
next door. In the winter,
We built some of the most
amazing snow forts.

At the end of the day,
we would go back into
our own houses, and look
forward for another day
of adventures

Tractors

            One of the topics or settings of Sutphen’s poems involves life on a farm. Tractors frequently come up in these poems that involve farms. In Tornado Warning, she writes, “…a red/ tractor pushed through the oat field, cutting/ down gold straw and beating a stream/ of grain into the wagon trailing behind/ in the stubble.” Sutphen simply describes one way that a tractor is used on a farm, shooting a stream of straw with just one plow through a field. And In Snow at the Farm she says I watch the red tractor moving/ back and forth through the blue/ and white / world, my father's/ hands at the wheel.” The way Sutphen describes a tractor plowing through snow, and what a huge difference a person tractor can make on a tractor. She says that as the tractor plows through the snow, a whole new world emerges, all at the hands of her father. And finally, in Girl on a Tractor “I/ learned to drive a tractor at just the right/ speed, so that two/ men, walking/ on either side of the moving wagon/ could each lift a bale, walk towards/ the/ steadily arriving platform and/ simultaneously hoist the hay onto/ the rack, … /my hand on the throttle,/carefully measuring out the pace.” In this poem, Sutphen describes what it’s like when she drives a tractor, how she controls it, and what it does. The way that Sutphen describes the use of a tractor, the difference it can make, and what its like for her to drive one in her poetry tells the reader how important and ordinary their role was when she grew up on a farm. 

Poem of the Day

The Day the Towers Fell

A sad day for America
As rejoicing rang from hell,
Awakening a mighty giant
On the day the towers fell.

Our hearts were saddened
As we watched this vicious act unfold,
As innocence met a fiery death
And seeds of war were sowed.

Shouts rang out from the middle east
That Allah has done his good
But no god joys in faultless deaths
Through certain cowards could.

America just sort of glides along,
But don't step on her toes ...
For her belief in right and justice
Will stomp out freedom's foes.


~ Author Unknown ~

Ungreatful

He goes to a school,
to get educated for
a brighter future.
But he does not pay
attention in class as his
teachers attempt to
share their knowledge,
letting it pass through
his head.

He has a computer,
for research, writing,
notes and studying.
But he procrastinates,
by playing games,
listening to music,
and watching videos,
for his entertainment.

He has opportunities
he uses as a break.
And a tool that
he uses as a toy.
How can one take
such things for granted?