Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful
thankful for family and friends
Thanksgiving is a time to fulfill
fulfill all promises and thanks
It is a time to catch up
catch up with old memories and past events
Yet during this time of family and friends
all that I find is filling my head
are dodging family hugs
shaking off grandmas kisses
and getting to the pie to receive the first slices.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
The Coming of Wisdom With Time
The Coming of Wisdom With Time
Though leaves are many, the root is one;
Through all the lying days of my youth
I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun;
Now I may wither into the truth.
My initial thought was of meditation. Through time spent meditating, true wisdom and understanding will be found.
The poem was first titled "Youth and Age" once again expressing the wisdom sought through time.
Line one: Evey lie, exaggeration, and truth fiddled with is based on a "root." There are millions of leaves on a tree but they are all surviving through the root, a root, an initial life source. All the rumors spread about a certain subject or matter of life have one truth.
Line two: In childhood the rumors are believed, the leaves are taken from the trees. A child has a partially clean slate and will believe whatever rumor is passed their way.
Line three: During the time of youth a child is yearning for knowledge and soaks up every bit of it. The part about the sun also made me think of how care free a child is. The truth or importance of the knowledge learned is not important, only that they have attained it. Playing in the sun is more important.
Line four: Adulthood is different. If the attained knowledge is false it is useless. The truth is what matters the most, weather it be positive or negative, weather they bask or wither in it.
The definition of knowledge changes throughout time and can only be discovered through time and adulthood.
Though leaves are many, the root is one;
Through all the lying days of my youth
I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun;
Now I may wither into the truth.
My initial thought was of meditation. Through time spent meditating, true wisdom and understanding will be found.
The poem was first titled "Youth and Age" once again expressing the wisdom sought through time.
Line one: Evey lie, exaggeration, and truth fiddled with is based on a "root." There are millions of leaves on a tree but they are all surviving through the root, a root, an initial life source. All the rumors spread about a certain subject or matter of life have one truth.
Line two: In childhood the rumors are believed, the leaves are taken from the trees. A child has a partially clean slate and will believe whatever rumor is passed their way.
Line three: During the time of youth a child is yearning for knowledge and soaks up every bit of it. The part about the sun also made me think of how care free a child is. The truth or importance of the knowledge learned is not important, only that they have attained it. Playing in the sun is more important.
Line four: Adulthood is different. If the attained knowledge is false it is useless. The truth is what matters the most, weather it be positive or negative, weather they bask or wither in it.
The definition of knowledge changes throughout time and can only be discovered through time and adulthood.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
The Secret
Two girls discover
the secret of life
in a sudden line of
poetry.
(It is human nature too look for the "true meaning of life" in practically everything. I believe that it happens subconsciously to humans when analyzing anything. Poetry is constantly assumed to have deeper meanings behind the words, which is ironic because this poem is extremely straight forward.)
I who don't know the
secret wrote
the line. They
told me
(through a third person)
they had found it
but not what it was
not even
(When I read the following two stanza's I can't help but to think of what Mrs. White said to my AP Lit. and Comp. class. "Don't beat poems with a hose to find the meaning." The author herself, Levetrov, claims she didn't know the secret the girls discovered behind the lines she wrote. Poems can be written just to be pretty, poems do not have to be metaphorical or philosophical. Try reading a poem without looking for a hidden meaning, without analyzing every word, sentence, and/or stanza, just read the poem for enjoyment!)
what line it was. No doubt
by now, more than a week
later, they have forgotten
the secret,
the line, the name of
the poem. I love them
for finding what
I can't find,
(For me, I want every reader of my writing to find something to connect too. I know this contradicts what I said before about reading just to read but the reasoning behind my writing is to influence and change lives. I want people to beat my writing until it's withering in the corner spewing forth hidden meanings that only the one individual reader can connect too. " I love them for finding what I can't find . . ." When I receive comment about a piece of my writing that did not even occur to myself I get ecstatic.)
and for loving me
for the line I wrote,
and for forgetting it
so that
a thousand times, till death
finds them, they may
discover it again, in other
lines
in other
happenings. And for
wanting to know it,
for
assuming there is
such a secret, yes,
for that
most of all.
-Denise Levertov
(This is a brilliant poem. There is no inner meanings or metaphors, it is straight forward and beautiful. A piece of writing is explicit when a reader can re-read the poetry a week later and have it renew all of the satisfaction it had given them only a few days before. It is a writers dream to have their art enjoyed a thousand times over. The last stanza hit home. Having a piece of work that readers assume to have such significance and meaning is a gift itself. For her piece of writing to be appreciated and noticed and beaten is assuring.)
Two girls discover
the secret of life
in a sudden line of
poetry.
(It is human nature too look for the "true meaning of life" in practically everything. I believe that it happens subconsciously to humans when analyzing anything. Poetry is constantly assumed to have deeper meanings behind the words, which is ironic because this poem is extremely straight forward.)
I who don't know the
secret wrote
the line. They
told me
(through a third person)
they had found it
but not what it was
not even
(When I read the following two stanza's I can't help but to think of what Mrs. White said to my AP Lit. and Comp. class. "Don't beat poems with a hose to find the meaning." The author herself, Levetrov, claims she didn't know the secret the girls discovered behind the lines she wrote. Poems can be written just to be pretty, poems do not have to be metaphorical or philosophical. Try reading a poem without looking for a hidden meaning, without analyzing every word, sentence, and/or stanza, just read the poem for enjoyment!)
what line it was. No doubt
by now, more than a week
later, they have forgotten
the secret,
the line, the name of
the poem. I love them
for finding what
I can't find,
(For me, I want every reader of my writing to find something to connect too. I know this contradicts what I said before about reading just to read but the reasoning behind my writing is to influence and change lives. I want people to beat my writing until it's withering in the corner spewing forth hidden meanings that only the one individual reader can connect too. " I love them for finding what I can't find . . ." When I receive comment about a piece of my writing that did not even occur to myself I get ecstatic.)
and for loving me
for the line I wrote,
and for forgetting it
so that
a thousand times, till death
finds them, they may
discover it again, in other
lines
in other
happenings. And for
wanting to know it,
for
assuming there is
such a secret, yes,
for that
most of all.
-Denise Levertov
(This is a brilliant poem. There is no inner meanings or metaphors, it is straight forward and beautiful. A piece of writing is explicit when a reader can re-read the poetry a week later and have it renew all of the satisfaction it had given them only a few days before. It is a writers dream to have their art enjoyed a thousand times over. The last stanza hit home. Having a piece of work that readers assume to have such significance and meaning is a gift itself. For her piece of writing to be appreciated and noticed and beaten is assuring.)
Sunday, November 7, 2010
"Unveiling" Poetry Response
Unveiling
In the cemetery
a mile away
from where we used to live
my aunts and mother,
my father and uncles lie
in two long rows almost the way
they used to sit around
the long planked table
at family dinners.
And walked beside
the graves today, down
one straight path
and up the next,
I don't feel sad
for them, just left out a bit
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.
-Linda Pastan
The vocabulary within this poem is simple and understandable, giving the idea that the message behind it is what's important. As a child, I can remember sitting at the dinner table with all of my adult family members. Every once in a while they would lower their voices to each other, whispering things that were not for my ears. I felt left out when this happened. I wanted to desperately know what was passing between their lips that I, with all my straining, could not hear. The urge to understand was so strong.
Ironically, now that I am older and am allowed the chance to hear the once hushed sentences, I don't want too. They are often negative and cause stress, adult things.
" . . . just left out a bit as if they kept from me the kind of grown-up secret they used to share back then . . ." (Back then referring to the dining room table.) Pastan compares these feeling with her family's death. As she is walking past their graves she does not feel said but left out. " . . . I don't feel sad for them, just left out a bit . . . " Death is something that is truly and utterly unknown until it happens. The moment you die you must understand the meaning behind it and what happens after it, hopefully. Pastan expresses how she is not ready to learn it yet because of her younger age and I think I can say, how the secrets learned that where once hushed at the dinner table where not as great as I expected, death will also be.
The structure of the poem is different. The poem consists of one long stanza's with odd breaks and commas in between. The poem can be read as one long thought, one long memory. To much structure, I believe, would ruin the "memory" of the poem, if that makes any sense. The commas were places so to add to the "run-on" feeling and emphasize on the strong thought.
P.S. Let me know, Mrs. White, if my responses are getting to short! :)
In the cemetery
a mile away
from where we used to live
my aunts and mother,
my father and uncles lie
in two long rows almost the way
they used to sit around
the long planked table
at family dinners.
And walked beside
the graves today, down
one straight path
and up the next,
I don't feel sad
for them, just left out a bit
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.
-Linda Pastan
The vocabulary within this poem is simple and understandable, giving the idea that the message behind it is what's important. As a child, I can remember sitting at the dinner table with all of my adult family members. Every once in a while they would lower their voices to each other, whispering things that were not for my ears. I felt left out when this happened. I wanted to desperately know what was passing between their lips that I, with all my straining, could not hear. The urge to understand was so strong.
Ironically, now that I am older and am allowed the chance to hear the once hushed sentences, I don't want too. They are often negative and cause stress, adult things.
" . . . just left out a bit as if they kept from me the kind of grown-up secret they used to share back then . . ." (Back then referring to the dining room table.) Pastan compares these feeling with her family's death. As she is walking past their graves she does not feel said but left out. " . . . I don't feel sad for them, just left out a bit . . . " Death is something that is truly and utterly unknown until it happens. The moment you die you must understand the meaning behind it and what happens after it, hopefully. Pastan expresses how she is not ready to learn it yet because of her younger age and I think I can say, how the secrets learned that where once hushed at the dinner table where not as great as I expected, death will also be.
The structure of the poem is different. The poem consists of one long stanza's with odd breaks and commas in between. The poem can be read as one long thought, one long memory. To much structure, I believe, would ruin the "memory" of the poem, if that makes any sense. The commas were places so to add to the "run-on" feeling and emphasize on the strong thought.
P.S. Let me know, Mrs. White, if my responses are getting to short! :)
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