Week 4 #2 ( free entry)

I wanted to do a spotlight on one of my favorite poets

Dr. Maya Angelou

Dr. Maya Angelou was born April 4th 1928, in Saint Louis , Missouri. She was always a fan of the arts. At 14 she won a scholarship for dance and drama at San Francisco's Labor school. She dropped out and became a female car cable. She later

went back and finished high school after having her first son Guy. Maya kept Dancing, and toured with Alvin Ailey Dance troupe. She performed on television and varies stages plays. Maya Angelou Traveled the world, and from that she learned how to speak various languages. She was an activist in the civil Rights Movement and she has written and directed many movies.

I believe people love her poetry so much because it is so heart felt and came from a real place. She has gone through so many experiences, from being sexually abused as a child, to being a single mother. To even participating in the struggle for civil rights. Her poems come from a real place and are so eloquently put together that people have no choice but to fall in love with them.

Of course I had to look up her poetry style, according to Lyman B. Hagen " "Most lines of her three stanza poems are trimeter; others, particularly those in unstructured poems, are from two to four syllables long" (119). He also says that her rhythmical awareness comes from the the influences of the King James Bible, Edgar Allan poe, William Shakespere, and Langston Hughes.

http://www.biography.com/articles/Maya-Angelou-9185388 website links

http://mayaangelou.com/bio/

http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/canam/angelou.htm

Week 4 #1 Critical

No matter how many times I try I can't stop my father
from walking into my sister's room

and I can't see any better, leaning from here to look
in his eyes. It's dark in the hall

and everyone's sleeping. This is the past
where everything is perfect already and nothing changes,

where the water glass falls to the bathroom floor
and bounces once before breaking.

Nothing. Not the small sound my sister makes, turning
over, not the thump of the dog's tail

when he opens one eye to see him stumbling back to bed
still drunk, a little bewildered.

This is exactly as I knew it would be.
And if I whisper her name, hissing a warning,

I've been doing that for years now, and still the dog
startles and growls until he sees

it's our father, and still the door opens, and she
makes that small oh turning over.

Maire Howe.

I really enjoyed reading this poem. It carries the weight felt when someone is sexually abused. The scene is painted when the poem begins. The first line " no matter how hard I try I cant stop my father from coming into my sister's room." This sets the whole tone for the poem. Howe does a great job with sitting up the setting wit her words. Stanza "and everyone 's sleeping. This is past where everything is perfect already and nothing changes," It shows the peacefulness before the father enters the house. that peacefulness is destroyed and filled with the a troublesome feeling. The dog is also confused, he is trained to protect the family from harm, yet the father is part of the family. My favorite line was "where the water glass falls to the bathroom floor and bounces once before breaking" It was so cinematic... I saw the scene playing out, the glass was falling in slow motion to the ground slowly breaking. With all these feeling going through the poem it simply ends with how her sister said oh. And the reader is left to imagine how she feels.

# 3 (week 3) Five line stanza

So I decided to do more research on the five line stanza. I remeber saying that this form was the easiest, but site corrected me and let me know that because people think it is so easy they often misuse it. There were eight different types (forms) of Five line stanzas.

Cinquain which has 5 lines progressing, 2 syl's, 4 syl's, 6 syl's, 8 syl's then bach to two syl's
rhyme or meter not required. This is a common form of the Five line stanza. Adelaide Crpasey is credited to discovering the form.

English Quintain which has rhyme scheme a. b. a. b. b. This has no set measure or foot

Envelope Quintet which has Rhyme Scheme a. b. b. b. a. or

a, b, c, b, a

Limerick which has rhyme scheme a. a. b. b. a. Limericks are suppose o have some humor to them. But these can be kind of hard to write. usually the first and the last line end in the the same word.

Monchielle Stanza which has rhyme scheme A. x. b. x. b.

Pentastich which is a free verse. This form comes from Jim T Henriksen a Norwegain poet.

Sicilian Quintain Rhyme Scheme a. b. a. b. a. The original form had no set meter

Spanish Quintain which has rhyme scheme a. a. b. b. a.

or.. a. b. b. a.a.

Information sites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinquain

http://thepoetsgarret.com/quintet/qintel.html

Week Three #2 ( free entry)

In a deep deep slumber

I often wonder

Were there noises was in the air?

Then one night

I new I was right

When my bed talked back to me.

Scared and Confused,

But I could not refuse,

an opportunity for this discussion.

The Bed asked me,

Why was I lonely,

For didn’t I have a husband?

My heart got heavy

And the tears were ready

to flow down my face.

We No longer together

He left me for Heather

The neighbor across the street

Susprisely so

My Bed didn’t know

And she got more mad than me.

I think I know why

He left us high and dry

She must have had a Sealy Posturepedic.

I wanted this poem to be funny. I felt that if we can personify a human then we need to give him all the characteristics that human have. Feelings and emotions Jealousy. I tried to you a three line stanza and have a rhyme scheme of a a b. So i hope it Kept a consistent pattern.