Video

On Thursday, we watched a series of videos that involved poetry. I found these to be very different and almost mind-boggling. Some of them were eerie, some of them I found to be interesting and caught my attention, and some of them could barely hold my attention. I thought the one about "Sasquatch" was interesting, and then we took a dramatic turn and watched creative writing "videos" that were depressing.

The piece about the chair and the wood floor being messed up was painfully terrible to me because of the tone of her voice, but I found some humor in it. I especially liked the last piece, where one woman spoke throughout the video, but a number of different people appeared, speaking in her voice. That was very creative and refreshing to me, I believe that one is my favorite. I appreciate the pieces for what they are, and the meanings behind them, but some of them could not hold my attention whatsoever.

NOTES TOWARDS THE MAKING OF A WHOLE HUMAN BEING:

I love the way this essay begins by describing the school and giving multiple examples of how this school is different from other schools. In the first paragraph, the school is being described as "a small desert college in the American West" in then goes into detail about the students of this school's students: "for which young men at eighteen are plucked from the East and delivered to a campus surrounded by mountains, the size of Manhattan, closed off from the world by a series of cliffs, honor, dehydration cattle guards, mountain lions, community censure, nearly fifty-three miles to the next human outpost, and the lure, at eighteen, of a world behind walls where boys can be boys,".

As I read D'Agata's essay, it made me think of a piece of literature entitled Lord Of The Flies because of the setting. The description throughout this essay is very vivid and I could definitely compare the essay to what it said college was like. The essay talked about meetings, Student Council and Greek life. John D'Agata did a phenomenal job at expressing the details of college in this essay.

Bernard Cooper

The second half of Bernard Cooper's "Maps To Anywhere" was my favorite portion of the book. I felt more drawn to the stories written in that half. As different as Bernard Cooper's stories are, I really enjoy them. My favorite piece of his would have to be his story entitled "Que Será Será" which is Spanish for "What will be will be" and I have always lived by this quote since I was a young girl. Multiple things play into my enjoyment of this piece. I love how Cooper uses the world ending as an event that could change the world. This story embraces my desire to not just want to wait, but also to accept things as is. Fate is fate, there's a bigger plan. Don't be like Cinderella, don't wait. If everybody waited around for something to happen things would be boring. I like a little mystery. In the story it says, "Do you ever say, "I wish it was now"? No. You wish it was an hour from now, or years ago" I agree with this a hundred percent. Nobody ever wants to just know about "Now", they want to wish for something to happen so in the long run they benefit, or wish that what they wanted to happen actually happened before so that they would not be in the situation they are. This is by far, my favorite story that Bernard Cooper has wrote. I think he did a phenomenal job and I loved reading it.

I enjoyed reading a number of other stories. "The Hurricane Ride" was full of detail and imagery. The way Cooper wrote this made me feel like I was there, witnessing the events, seeing all of the action. I don't know if I particularly appreciated that, because I became a little dizzy, but I credit him to being a great writer and using imagery to capture my attention. My second favorite story in the second half of this book is "Say "Cheese"" because it reminds me of my mother and the hobby kicks she goes on, one of her latest being photography. Cooper writes about things that are diverse in how you can relate to them. Everyone has that one relative that takes tons of pictures, which is why Cooper is a genius. He can take simple events and suck his audience in because he knows that at one point or another they will relate and be amazed.

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I really enjoyed reading Dino Buzzati's "The Falling Girl". His descriptions were so easy to picture, everything he described appeared in my head. I loved the language he used, the language the characters used was realistic, but he also used more professional language. I think he did a very good job at setting the scene and making it feel like you were actually there, watching it all happen. I really enjoyed reading this story!

Poetry Packet #3 Response

In class we were asked to read the third poetry packet. This packet is very thick, and is filled with multiple interesting pieces. I was blown away with the stories in this packet, and my mind was filled with so much confusion after reading some of it, but some of the stories made me recollect my childhood, and that made me very happy. These stories are so powerful that I had quite a bit of imagery going through my head as I read them.

What I liked most about this packet is the variation of language, no two stories are written the same, and the mystery that overcame me when I read these stories. My favorite story would have to be The Singing Fish because when I read it I thought of all my cousins from the south. I can imagine the dialect being used in this story. I also really like the line that contains "...us brothers..." because it showed the relationship in the story and my sister is my best friend, and we used to play in the mud together all the time growing up just like the boys did in this story.

These stories did an amazing job at filling my thoughts with pictures and scenes, or memories from my childhood. I really enjoyed reading these stories. The Singing Fish is definitely my most favorite of them all! It was executed very nicely and tastefully and I loved being able to pick up the different kind of setting that it held.

warm and cozy
piled high with softness
smells so sweet, like home
springs squeak from
underneath my weight
pillows and blankets
stuffed animals too,
all atop this coveted
place-- taken for granted
eight hours does not
seem like enough
time with you
tearing myself away
as the brutal sun
rises. so comfortable
forgotten items shoved
underneath, monsters
dwell, snoring takes
place. why would
i ever want to
leave you?
sprawled out
don't care
when i get up--
crazy scary
makeup smudged
hair a mess
bittersweet happiness
with you and
only you
leaving every day
but you accept
me back with
no judgment,
no jealousy,
no hate--
just love
only place
that's my own
never ending
our relationship
together
feel so soft
smell like home
ranging in all sizes
from baby to king
you are my favorite
place to be
all the time
you are my strength
you are my weakness
there for me when
i have a bad day
never want to share
you, because i am
so selfish about you
you know my every wish
you hear my every snore
each night i love you so much
always in my comfy bed

The poetry that we discussed in class (January 17, 2013), was very interesting to me. I especially enjoyed reading Shakespeare's and Ted Berrigan's sonnets. I definitely enjoyed reading Ted Berrigan's XV sonnet because it made just about everyone confused, but when we understood how to read it, you could see all the light bulbs go off in everyone's head and we were all filled with amazement. Shakespeare has always been my favorite poet. I enjoy the rhyme scheme and the use of language in his poetry, even if the idea is crude, it is not made to seem so with the type of language he uses. I like how Shakespeare's sonnets consist of exactly fourteen lines and have a couplet at the end of each. Overall, I really enjoyed reading these pieces and I have a new appreciation for Ted Berrigan because his poems and how he writes challenges people and I admire that.