The moon is full tonight.
Wolves dance playfully
in the white shadow of the evening.
They prance and pounce
and roll down the green feathered hills,
unconcerned with the passing minutes.
Their smaller friends,
the rabbits and squirrels, and raccoons,
live in meek anticipation,
waiting for a fate
that will hopefully not come
but still might...
Maybe in the shadow of a tree,
or beside the stream,
but always in that brief second
between existence and mortality.
That second, it seems,
is what some must fear, but
others, like the wolves,
continue to prance playfully
beneath the glittering moon.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Poetry Reader Response
Mary Oliver’s American Primitive and Billy Collin’s Picnic, Lightening are both great collections of poems. While one focuses more on nature and the other on more day-to-day things, they both caused me to look at ordinary things in a different way.
One of the most interesting poems that I came across was “Paradelle for Susan” in the Billy Collins collection. It was written in a form that I have never seen before. At the bottom was a note explaining that it is a demanding French fixed form. It is structured so that the first sets of two lines are identical and the following are jumbled lines using the words from the proceeding ones. This is a very refreshing way to look at poetry since all of the other poems have basically the same structure.
American Primitive seemed to have main topics and themes throughout the collection. For example, I noticed that many of the poems were about either ponds (water), honey, and dreams. As a whole, it is concentrated in nature poetry. She seems to enjoy summertime as many things such as blackberries and honey are related to happiness itself. For example, in the poem, “The Plum Trees,” Oliver writes, “the only way to tempt happiness into your mind is by taking it into the body first, like small, wild plums” (84). It almost seems that the plums are a metaphor for happiness. In the poem titles, “Cold Poem,” it seems that the poet is trying to say that winter exists so that we can better appreciate summer. This seems evident to me in the part that reads, “Maybe what cold is, is the time we measure the love we have always had…” (31). As for the subject of ponds, two of the titles include the word, pond, in them, and many other poems involve ponds or water. “White Night” begins with “All night I float in the shallow ponds…” (54) and “A Poem for the Blue Heron” has the line, “Now the Blue Heron wades the cold ponds of November.”
A question I had specifically about a particular poem in the American Primitive collection is that I want to know what Mary Oliver is trying to say about time in the poem, “Blossom,” where it is written, “…into the night where time lays shattered, into the body of another” (50). I cannot fully grasp the meaning here.
I thought it is very interesting how Billy Collins writes about the most random topics. It makes the poetry relatively interesting to read when there are titles such as, “Taking off Emily Dickenson’s clothes,” and “I Chop Some Parsley While Listening to Art Blakey’s Version of “Three Blind Mice”.” I found some of them to be comical because of the subject matter and how they were written. Overall, I think that Billy Collins is my favorite of the two poets.
Since all poetry uses a lot of creative language devices, I think it is important to comment on some of the ones that I found in the collections of poetry. A personification that I really liked was in American Primitive: “The rain rubs its shining hands all over me” (45). In “Taking off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes,” there are a few metaphors at the end: “Hope has feathers, that reason is a plank, that life is a loaded gun that looks right at you with a yellow eye” (75).
Overall, these collections caused me to have a greater appreciation for poetry than I did before. Billy Collins and Mary Oliver both create an interesting atmosphere with their writing and I enjoyed that the poems were relatively easy to follow and obtain their meanings.
One of the most interesting poems that I came across was “Paradelle for Susan” in the Billy Collins collection. It was written in a form that I have never seen before. At the bottom was a note explaining that it is a demanding French fixed form. It is structured so that the first sets of two lines are identical and the following are jumbled lines using the words from the proceeding ones. This is a very refreshing way to look at poetry since all of the other poems have basically the same structure.
American Primitive seemed to have main topics and themes throughout the collection. For example, I noticed that many of the poems were about either ponds (water), honey, and dreams. As a whole, it is concentrated in nature poetry. She seems to enjoy summertime as many things such as blackberries and honey are related to happiness itself. For example, in the poem, “The Plum Trees,” Oliver writes, “the only way to tempt happiness into your mind is by taking it into the body first, like small, wild plums” (84). It almost seems that the plums are a metaphor for happiness. In the poem titles, “Cold Poem,” it seems that the poet is trying to say that winter exists so that we can better appreciate summer. This seems evident to me in the part that reads, “Maybe what cold is, is the time we measure the love we have always had…” (31). As for the subject of ponds, two of the titles include the word, pond, in them, and many other poems involve ponds or water. “White Night” begins with “All night I float in the shallow ponds…” (54) and “A Poem for the Blue Heron” has the line, “Now the Blue Heron wades the cold ponds of November.”
A question I had specifically about a particular poem in the American Primitive collection is that I want to know what Mary Oliver is trying to say about time in the poem, “Blossom,” where it is written, “…into the night where time lays shattered, into the body of another” (50). I cannot fully grasp the meaning here.
I thought it is very interesting how Billy Collins writes about the most random topics. It makes the poetry relatively interesting to read when there are titles such as, “Taking off Emily Dickenson’s clothes,” and “I Chop Some Parsley While Listening to Art Blakey’s Version of “Three Blind Mice”.” I found some of them to be comical because of the subject matter and how they were written. Overall, I think that Billy Collins is my favorite of the two poets.
Since all poetry uses a lot of creative language devices, I think it is important to comment on some of the ones that I found in the collections of poetry. A personification that I really liked was in American Primitive: “The rain rubs its shining hands all over me” (45). In “Taking off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes,” there are a few metaphors at the end: “Hope has feathers, that reason is a plank, that life is a loaded gun that looks right at you with a yellow eye” (75).
Overall, these collections caused me to have a greater appreciation for poetry than I did before. Billy Collins and Mary Oliver both create an interesting atmosphere with their writing and I enjoyed that the poems were relatively easy to follow and obtain their meanings.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Japanese Face-White Face
The mask that sheilds him from others
presents his purpose to be a killer.
How could someone of this descent
not be our suspected blood spiller?
All thanks to his guilty Japanese face.
The other man's identity fits in with the rest,
except for the one that he wants to embrace.
How could a minority woman love a man
that is not of her same race?
All thanks to his forbidden white face.
His distinguishment prevents him
from obtaining his one true desire.
How could someone sell their land
to a man with his facial attire?
All thanks to his unworthy Japanese face.
Our Caucasian will never succeed
in the marriage to his secret amenity.
How could society ever accept a couple
that doesn't share the same ethnic identity?
All thanks to his unfortunate white face.
Both men have downfalls
because of the way that they look.
If only they could have somehow switched,
and grasped what the other took.
All thanks to his Japanese face...
All thanks to his white face...
I decided to write a poem about the two main characters of Snow Falling on Cedars for my extended journal. Kabuo (Japanese face) and Ishmael (white face) both experience many problems because of their race. Kabuo is on trial for murder, and also loses the acres of land his family had worked towards obtaining. Ishmael is turned down by the Japanese Hatsue, and he is bothered by it throughout the entire novel. I just wanted to show how each of them had different problems because of their ethnicity, and how if they had switched, they would have received what they wanted. If Kabuo was white he would not have likley been put on trial for murder and would have been granted the land. If Ishmael was Japanese, his love with Hatsue would never have been forbidden.
presents his purpose to be a killer.
How could someone of this descent
not be our suspected blood spiller?
All thanks to his guilty Japanese face.
The other man's identity fits in with the rest,
except for the one that he wants to embrace.
How could a minority woman love a man
that is not of her same race?
All thanks to his forbidden white face.
His distinguishment prevents him
from obtaining his one true desire.
How could someone sell their land
to a man with his facial attire?
All thanks to his unworthy Japanese face.
Our Caucasian will never succeed
in the marriage to his secret amenity.
How could society ever accept a couple
that doesn't share the same ethnic identity?
All thanks to his unfortunate white face.
Both men have downfalls
because of the way that they look.
If only they could have somehow switched,
and grasped what the other took.
All thanks to his Japanese face...
All thanks to his white face...
I decided to write a poem about the two main characters of Snow Falling on Cedars for my extended journal. Kabuo (Japanese face) and Ishmael (white face) both experience many problems because of their race. Kabuo is on trial for murder, and also loses the acres of land his family had worked towards obtaining. Ishmael is turned down by the Japanese Hatsue, and he is bothered by it throughout the entire novel. I just wanted to show how each of them had different problems because of their ethnicity, and how if they had switched, they would have received what they wanted. If Kabuo was white he would not have likley been put on trial for murder and would have been granted the land. If Ishmael was Japanese, his love with Hatsue would never have been forbidden.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)