week 8 #2 critical

The joy of writing a Sestina!

I just wanted to spend time talking about the joy of writing a sestina...(not). These are difficult to do because it requires us to incorporate six endings of the same words into a poem. But you have to do so in a way where the poem still makes sense and appeals to the reader. Talking to my other classmates I learned that sestinas are not our favorite types of poem to write. Yes listening to the poems we had in class, I feel that we did a better job at writing it than we had thought. I have a lot of respect for the people that have mastered this form. It's not easy. Poets like Elizabeth Bishop, can write this poem in way where you forget about the reputation. Like Professor Park's say in class, don't let the form of the poem take control of what you want to say. Her sentences don't feel forced. They fit in the right place. This was my problem. In the beginning it was easy to have powerful sentences. But towards the end it became more difficult to not force the sentences. My words were Queen, quotes, fruits, friends, earth, and tiger. Fruits and quotes were the hardest to work with. Queen was easy though. So many things can work with queen. My favorite line in the poem was "A real queen is 'and I quote'" I felt I that used quote in a clever way because it was an actually quote. As far as me writing another sestina.... If i don't have to I probably won't. A sestina is one of those things that you can cross off your bucket list and and be grateful that you tried it.

Week #8 free #1

Growing up I dreamed of being a queen.

Being able to call my wild untamed pet a tiger

Having every word I state being quoted.

Everyone around me wanting to be my friend

They bring me special gifts straight from the Earth,

Never Reluctantly giving me their first fruits.

What a bittersweet obligation just like a Grapefruit

The task is never ending for a Queen.

She must be quick and Fierce just like a Tiger

For she is responsible and the keeper of the earth.

Her best interest are for her people, they are her friends.

Her word must be powerful to go down in history as quotes

But a real queen is, And I quote

“ A Virtuous Women”. She bring her dreams to fruition.

She is admired by her family and friends.

A crown is not needed for her to know that she is a queen.

The cream of the fight, just like the eye of the tiger.

She is strong as the roots that grow underneath the earth

A true queen learns from previous ancestors that walked the earth

She spreads knowledge and wisdom of studied quotes

Protective over her young, just as a female Tiger.

The beauty of her soul is a refreshing as freshly squeezed fruit.

Her husband replaces her name with queen

Her royalty is views by all of her friends

So being a queen is not as easy as I thought my friend,

It’s critical that you be intoned with yourself and the earth,

For the earth will leak little secrets of how to walk as a queen.

Your like will be like one big quotation.

An essential part of everyone’s diet like fruit.

Your courage stripes you like Tiger.

The pride and strength in you could challenge a tiger’s.

Learning to love your enemies as friends,

Learning savor the meat of life fruits,

Appreciating the Gifts of the earth,

And saying words of wisdom create for quotes.

All are what make up the true essence of a queen

I am queen, with the slyness of tiger. I am the foundation for my friends. And we al reap the benefits from the earth.

Week #7 Entry #3 critical

Genus Narcissus

Faire daffadills, we weep to see / You haste away so soone.
—Herrick

The road I walked home from school
was dense with trees and shadow, creek-side,
and lit by yellow daffodils, early blossoms

bright against winter’s last gray days.
I must have known they grew wild, thought
no harm in taking them. So I did—

gathering up as many as I could hold,
then presenting them, in a jar, to my mother.
She put them on the sill, and I sat nearby,

watching light bend through the glass,
day easing into evening, proud of myself
for giving my mother some small thing.

Childish vanity. I must have seen in them
some measure of myself—the slender
stems, each blossom a head lifted up

toward praise, or bowed to meet its reflection.
Walking home those years ago, I knew nothing
of Narcissus or the daffodils’ short spring—

how they’d dry like graveside flowers, rustling
when the wind blew—a whisper, treacherous,
from the sill. Be taken with yourself,

they said to me; Die early, to my mother.

I read this poem in my 1102 class, I really enjoyed it. If your know about Greek mythology, then you know how daffodils came about. Narcissus was so intrigued with himself that he looked at himself in a pond and stayed in that one spot forever. when he died a flower grew in his spot. in this poem the little girl pick these flowers because she see herself in it. "must have seen in them some measure of myself—the slender

stems, each blossom a head lifted up." The same goes for the mother. She views herself in these flowers, but just Daffodils are also short lived plants, so she sees her death quickly approaching. I like this poem because it ties in so nicely with the rest of the collection. The next poem in the book is called graveyard where her mother has died and we see the narrator in the first stage of grief.