week 10 free #2

I was looking at some videos for our upcoming project and these are two videos of poetry that caught my attention. These videos are taken from def poetry Jam. This form of poetry is where Hip Hop stems from. Now hip hop has turned into rapping. The difference being, rap artist dont talk about anything in depth. Hip Hop is slowly dying. Anyway I hope you enjoy the video.

week 10 critical #1

In class this week I learned how people can interpret poems in their own ways. I was the guardian for Cydney. After reading her poem I automatically thought it was a metaphor for a 3G phone and a man. This was so cool because I like how she linked the characteristics of a I phone to the characteristics you experience in a relationship. But the meaning I got from her poem was slightly different form what she wrote about. She was writing her poem in relation to I pod. Knowing this made her poem make more sense in certain places. For instance when she says "you make me think releasing me from the world around me" That doesn't connect to a phone, but it makes sense with a I pod. Class got even more interesting when one of my classmates spoke about what she thought the poem was about. She thought it was a "woman's toy" LOL I thought that was completely hilarious. The whole class re read the poem and at that moment we agreed that it could represent a "woman's toy". It actually fit better that way. I guess that is why workshops are so important. The title of a poem is important. The title can change the complete meaning of the poem. I will love to see the revision of the this poem.

Week 9 critical #3

I focused more so in found poems but I didn't really think about listing poems. I wanted to learn more about them so started to see if I could find some examples. While researching I found a website that allowed you to create a listing poem just by filling in the boxes. It was kind of fun, you just randomly writing stuff in the blanks and seeing how it would play out in the end. Here is the results of my poem

What’s in the pockets of my old coat
Half eaten piece bubble gum
Fat peace a of lent...
10 dollar bill my dad gave me for the store
two rusted pennies
ticket stubs from the movies
A rolled up piece of snot tissue
lip gloss that has no more luster
and a old note from and ex boyfriend

It was pretty cool. But of course I would like to work on making the poem more complex. Listing poems are not just random sentences put together but they have a purpose and work together for a greater meaning. These are some others poems I looked that were listing poems. According to "The excerpt from conversations with a Poet" List poems contain, repetition, it doesn't matter if it contains rhyming or not, and the ending is and strong and funny.

The are some other examples of listing poems

This morning I got up
on the wrong side of the bed
turned the shower water too hot
and scalded my head
mom yelled at me
dad ignored me
my puppy bit me
big brother hit me
could not find the lotion
nor the shampoo
wish I could go back to bed
...........and snooze.

Also

I went to the store
to pick up some bread
when I arrived
I got rolls instead
strolled through the veggies
and picked up fruits
got custard pudding
and brunswick stew
hit the dairy and
went for the eggs
then felt a pain in my legs
the load was heavy
and boy, was I sluggy
do you know why?
did not get a buggy.

I got these examples from Aspirennies.com

Sites I visited

http://www.rcowen.com/PDFs/Franco%20Ch%2020%20for%20web.pdf

http://www.aspirennies.com/private/SiteBody/Romance/Poetry/Styles/poemStyle11.shtml

http://www.aspirennies.com/private/SiteBody/Romance/Poetry/Styles/poemStyle11.shtml

To write you own listing poem http://ettcweb.lr.k12.nj.us/forms/listpoem.htm

week #9 free #2

Poetry best when come from real life experiences. I have a great inspiration for my next found poem. This weekend I lost my keys. That is the worse feeling in the world. Especially when you don't know who may have picked them up. Your keys are like life to you. It has access to your car, house, your mama's house, your mail box. So when you lose them its understandable that you go into panic mood. Eventually I found them (YEA!) and now life is back to normal. There is a sigh of relief. I feel this will make a great found poem, there are so many metaphors that you can use for keys. I feel like we all have lost ours keys once in our lives. So this poem can relate to anybody. I still have to sit down and explore what really want to say, but if I write this poem right it can really be a good one. I can't wait to play around with and introduce it to the class!

Week #9 critical 1

• This was my found poem that I wrote in class.

I wrote it based on a facebook chat me and friend had

8:21am

Terence

?

first 
how did the paegent go?

8:22am

Rita

great! I won!

I wish you can have been there !

8:22am

Terence

i knew you would!!
sweet

congrats!!

i wish i could have too

8:22am

Rita

thanks!

8:22am

Terence

maybe when u win next year too i'll be there

lol

so what is this project?

8:23am

Rita

No.... i can only do it once

and Idk... I gotta keep the ball rolling now uuh

I guess i need to go ahead and write a movie

8:27am

Terence

yup

i'll help

u just gotta take the first step

8:28am

Rita

what that

So from this I wrote a poem called c=Conversation with God. The encouragement my friend gave me in this chat sounded like something God would say to me. I just changed some sentences around to fit better.

Conversation with God

So you won! I just wanted to say congrats sweetie!

Thanks! I wish you could have see me.

Now you know I didn't miss it. And when you win next year I'll be there too.

No.... I can only do it once.

Says who, don't you know I will make a winner over many things.

Well I guess I have to keep the ball rolling now huh?

Yup, so what is your next project,

Idk, I guess ill write the rest of my life story

Ill help you just have to take the next step.

And what is that....?

Week #8 critical #3

Black Arts Movement!

While looking up research for our class project. I came across some good information about the Black Arts Movement. It was started in harlem by a writer by the writer Amira Baraka ( later changed his name to Le roi Jones.) He started this movement shortly after the death of Malcom X. This era was crucial to African American literature because it encourage blacks to start their own publishing house, art institutes, magazines, and journals. It encouraged blacks to write. It displayed a different type of literature, giving the minority people a voice.

Poetry was an important part of this movement. Most poems were written during this era to inform people of the issues within the community. It was a way for African Americans to spread knowledge with one another. The poems during the (BAM) were powerful. They had to be. This was a period of the civil right movement and the black panthers, poets wanted to engage their audience into political issues.

The Black arts Movement lasted about a decade but it can be said hat some of the most exciting poems came from this movement. I continue to research information from this era I continue to get excited. This era produced art this was feel with passion, desire, and strength. It had a fire to it, and that fire inspired other minorities to express themselves as well. Below is a poem from Nikki Giovvani. She was a major poet during this time

Nikki-Rosa

Childhood rememberances are
always a drag if you're Black
you always remember things like
living in Woodlawn with no inside toilet
and if you become famous or something

They never talk about how happy
you were to have your mother
all to yourself and how good the
water felt when you got your bath
from one of those

Big tubs that folk in chicago barbeque
in and somehow when you talk
about home
it never gets across how much you
understood their feelings as the
whole family attended meetings

About Hollydale and even though you
remember your biographers never
understand your father's pain as he
sells his stock and another
dream goes

And though your're poor it isn't
poverty that concerns you and
though they fought a lot
it isn't your father's drinking that
makes any difference but only that

Everybody is together and you
and your sister have happy birthdays
and very good Christmasses and I
really hope no white person ever has
cause to write about me
because they never understand

Black love is Black wealth and they'll
probably talk about my hard childhood
and never understand that
all the while I was quite happy

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.