Poetry Out Loud: My Poem

Keeping Things Whole by: Mark Strand

When picking this poem I just saw that it was short and would be easy to memorize, but now after going over it several times a day the point of this poem is getting clearer. It comes off as a poem about the air and a field but when you look closer you see that its about you the reader. Its explaining that everyone has a spot on this earth no matter how long or short, their here for a reason. May it be to help people or to save someone from dying or just to fill the empty air you are here for a reason.

To show all this emotion I plan on being dramatic not with me body but with my words. Such as stopping before and after important words. Although I plan on doing this the odds are it will not turn out this way. I get nervous in front of people and freeze up but at the same time I am excited to get it done with. We all have reasons for moving, I move to keep things whole.

Poetry Out Loud

Part One-
       1. A Birthday
       2. Life
       3. Battlefield
       4. Keeping Things Whole, Romance


Part Two-
       1. I enjoyed Battlefield the most because the title sounds boring but you read it and you get a image
 of war.
       2. I didn't like Romance because it was a typical poem.
       3. I am most interested in Battlefield because not many people would pick this poem.
       4. Battlefield connected with me because I have a lot of family who were, are planning or are in the military so I understand war and the effects on life it can cause.

Part Three-
       1. Dramatic Appropriateness and Evidence of Understanding because I am not a big presenter so I will not want to act anything out but just to read the poem and get out of the spot light. Also because I feel I understand Battlefield.
       2. Level of Difficulty and Voice and Articulation because I am bad at reading poems so I am not going for the really hard ones and I get really nervous in front of people.
       3.  Makes sure each poem you choose is one that speaks to you, whatever the level of difficulty. If you are able to connect with with a poem, that internalization will ripple positively throughout all your scores.
   
Part Four-
       1. Danse Russe by William Carlos Williams and performed by William Farley
             Farley is successful of tone for this poem. His eye contact and body language but at times intense and direct, softened and playful reveals his clear grasp on the point of this poem.

Part Five-
       I think the competition will be funny, sad, serious and happy but mostly fun because we get to show people our favorite poem that really meant something to us. I think once I am done I will have more fun then before I go because I will be too nervous. I think i am going to memorize Battlefield because its a great poem and I really feel I understand it.

Something Interesting

       During the discussion on the poem "Lobsters" interesting ideas were brought up like the fire under the pot meaning death or even life. The most common idea brought up was how the lobster and us the  inlanders were some how the same. We are both locked up in a cage hoping not to get picked next.

       We don't understand the lobsters as more then just food, but I think that's the authors point. The author wants us to look deep into the poem and start to look at the lobster as more then dinner but as a living creature just like us. I don't think the author meant stop eating lobster but when you see them at the store just try to understand them.

So Many Paragraphs, So Many Skills

       These past few weeks we have been reading our five part paragraphs in front of the class while they critique our paragraphs.This is no problem for those people who are fine with talking in front of the class but for the rest like my self it's not a happy experience. Common negative critiques on the class are little things like spelling or the order of the quotes even not having any page numbers. Some common positive critiques that came up were having lots of detailed CM, and having well chosen vocabulary.

       For my paragraph to get better I need to work on embedding my quotes. I didn't even focus on embedding my quotes so I think if I actually focus on it then it will be an easy fix. Another thing I could fix would be to proof read my paper before turning it in. So if I embed my quotes and proof read my paragraph I believe my five part paragraph will really improve.

Informal vs. Formal

       So this week was very long and and borin' but on Wednesday I was lucky enough to be late for science because my friend Kristina forgot her retainer on her lunch tray. Which was dumped in the trash with her food. Anyway about 5 mins before lunch ended she remembered her retainer which was in the trash. We found the custodian and asked her if we could take the trash back and search through it.

       Kristina and I are clean people not creepy clean but normal clean meaning that searchn' through the trash was not high on our to do list. But with gloves on and some tongs we were ready to go trash diving. After a good 7-10mins later we were screamin' with delight that our time sreachin' through the schools garbage was done! We got our passes for class but now as I look back on it I would have rather gone to science instead.

My Outside Reading Book

My outside reading book is The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan and so far I am really enjoying it. My favorite part so far is Lindo Jong: The Red Candle when she is just about to get married and just takes a minute to look at herself in the mirror. She reminds herself of who she is and that she must not disgrace her family's name. The setting in this book takes place in San Francisco and China. In this particular book the settings make the characters because its like they have two homes with two families. Another book that I have read with a similar setting is Mao's Last Dancer which also takes place in different parts of China. At this point I think for my creative project I am going to focus on the setting and family because in this book those are very important.

Extending the Theme

       While reading the book I was never really thinking about how it compared to my life but now after thinking about it there are several things in this book that I can compare to. One is that when Scout goes to school she realizes its not anything like she expected. She thought that she was ahead of the class because she could read but ended up being told it was a bad thing that she could read. My story is the opposite, going into kindergarten I was a year younger and behind everyone,well at least in my mind I was behind.
     
      A lesson I learn ended up being something I knew but in a different way. I already knew about rasicm and racial disgrace but this book showed me a new way to look at it. Before reading the book I knew the definition of racism and what it was but it was never really a problem around when I was growing up or I just didn't notice it. But after reading the book it showed me a new way of seeing and thinking about racism and racial disgrace. Also I realize that its not gone, racial disgrace is still going on throughout the world as well as racism. 

      


       

My Boo Radley

      My Boo Radley is not scary, not mean and not weird, but my loving Grandpa. I thought of him when reading the assignment because he taught me about the waves. But its not what you think he and my grandma used to live in a house on an island out past Shelton and he taught me how the waves work. He showed me how there is a high tide and a low tide, I always thought that the waves just came back and forth up and down the beach. But besides that I thought the waves stayed in the same place. He taught me that everything moves the waves, the trees, the whole world moves.

      I thought Boo Radley and Grandpa were similar because Boo taught Scout about how other people and what its like to walk in another's skin. My Grandpa taught me that the world is an interesting place and that the waves move in and out each day at the same time.

My Introduction

I am not a very interesting writer but I like to think I am good reader.While following my blog you will learn that I am very loud and love to talk!! I hope to enlighten the online world by giving another point of view about the literature we are reading in english class. My definition of why we have english class is to learn and read about famous and meaningful books, then write and learn what everyone got from the story line.

I believe we have english class required for all four years because there are too many books to read in one year and too much to learn in one year so the school district spreads out into all four years. Excelling in english class will both help me or anyone personally and academically because if you pass this year you will go to another honors class and then AP classes which will help you when finding and getting into a collage. It would help personally because when ever you get good grades it makes you feel good.