Found Poem

"On Hard Terrazo"

A voice called Retta
Looked up to see her riding a big escalator
Beyond a sun, behind a floor
On hard terrazo

The point of this is to make you think about what life would be like in such a weird place. This can be connected to cultures, disabilities, whatever you like, just be sure to give me credit if you cite it. (No one will notice I didn't intend for the poem to have a point.)

The theme of this poem is "weird places" as the entire poem takes place behind a floor, which is scientifically illogical and weird. However, the inhabitants there seem to have mastered it, as shown by the big escalator, thus showing a message about culture:What seems weird to you is normal to others.

Book Spine Poem

"Tangerine Wrestling"

An Abundance of Katherines
Tangerine
I, Q: Independence Hall
Wrestling Sturbridge
Pictures of Hollis Woods

The main point of this poem is to, in essence, be a gigantic mind bender. It's about pictures of independent tangerines wrestling. Does that make sense? It's not supposed to, and yet, it is also supposed to. It's a coherent sentence about a nonsensical topic. If you haven't somehow discovered the secret of antimatter or something stemming from nonsensical poems, you should have.

The theme of my poem is "complete nonsense making sense." It's a trope used, as I said earlier, to bend minds and discover secrets, and it is also a staple of low-quality children's books. If what I'm saying makes no sense, go stare at a hypnotizing image for about ten minutes and call me in the morning.
See you on Open Mike Friday! 

"Where I'm From" Poem

I was told to post this to Blogger. Enjoy!

Link

2-16 Blog:Bronx Masquerade-Viewpoint Contrasts

      As assigned, I have to compare and contrast the viewpoints of several different characters from Bronx Masquerade. There are a lot of contrasts here, so this shouldn't take long. Since introductions would waste some time here, let's get this ball rolling!
      The first pair I'm going to contrast is Lupe and Gloria. Lupe is very similar to Gloria, but they have their contrasts. She feels unloved by her family and wants someone she can love and who will love her in return, and for that exact reason she is envious of Gloria and her baby, as having a baby may (in her mind) fix her feelings of unlovedness. Gloria is on the other side of that; she had a baby, and that did not fix the similar problem Gloria had. I mean, she loves the baby, but it did not fix the underlying issues. In a sense, Lupe is like Gloria from the past: about to make decisions that will make her end up with a baby (possibly).
    The next pair I'm going to contrast is Devon and Diondra, who are, once again, very similar to each other. They're both tall people who are continually pressured about sports due to being tall; however, they each prefer different things to sports, and confront the pressurers in different ways via their poems. Diondra prefers art, and stands up to her accusers by literally accosting them with her poem;by contrast, Devon prefers literature and poetry, and, as more of a scholar is less like "Would you mess with me now? and more like "Look at the real me." They really defy stereotypes, which makes for an interesting read.
  I would ramble on about contrasts for a while, but I need to wrap this up. Have a lovely short week, everyone!

 

Poetry Response

      The poem I'm going to be responding to is "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll. The plot goes like this: First, the father warns the son to be careful of the Jabberwock, as well as some other beasts. Then the son takes a "vorpal sword," sits by a tree and gets surprised by the aforementioned Jabberwock. The son subsequently kills the Jabberwock, which leads to a happy ending!
      I think the author wrote it so he could try using Shakespeare's method of "insert random made up words into piece: become famous!" In order to do that, however, he needed people to notice it. Cleverly, he thought, "Why not have a man's son take a sword and slay a vicious beast? Everyone loves those stories!" We did love it, once we figured out how to pronounce the first and last stanzas.

       This image here is a reference to the Sisters Grimm series, which has the mentally unhinged Little Red Riding Hood imagining the Jabberwocky as a dog, which is itself a reference to the poem. The stuff in the Jabberwocky's mouth is fire.  Red is seeing this in first person, hence why she's not in the picture. To end this slightly lengthy post, have a nice day everybody!

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Second Quarter Reflection

      Well, we've nearly reached the other half of the year, so that means another reflection blog! I think I really improved this quarter, but that's just my opinion. Some of you may say otherwise, and I respect that. Now then, on to my actual improvements and accomplishments.
      First, the area I've most improved on (at least in ELA): my argumentative writing, as I have now completed an essay with it (and the essay is good quality).  Relating to that, the most challenging part of this quarter was me cutting slightly opinionated and satirical bits from that essay (which hurt me on the inside a bit, but don't worry). However, I managed to do that without making it sound like a fill-in-the-blanks kind of essay.
      Something I've accomplished since the New Year that I'm proud of is acing all of those vocab quizzes, which sometimes can get a little complex. Fortunately, I've been staying atop those, and the accompanying homework. However, we have no more space on the fridge for the quizzes, which is kind of sad.

Happy 3rd Quarter everyone!

This is an antler mirror. Just wanted to point that out.

Book Talk 1/21:Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos

Transcript

The book my book talk is going to be on is Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos, a realistic fiction novel. Dark Dude is set in modern day New York City, but transitions to the modern day countryside in Wisconsin. The main character is Rico, a part Irish Cuban who, because of his more Irish appearance, takes a lot of flak at school. He's an aspiring comic book writer and guitar player. He had to hitchhike to Wisconsin, and thus experiences a sort of cultural shift, thus creating the conflict. The mood shifted frequently, but it was kind of depressing for the New York chapters, and happier for the rest of the book. A theme of Dark Dude is family. Rico's family, whether physically present or not, affects him in almost every chapter.

(pause)

Now then, onto the review. I found this book interesting because it gave me more of a glimpse into a life somewhat less fortunate then my own. The thing I remember most is the concept of Dark Dude, the made-up hero that lends the book its title. It's an African American twin who gets fused with his white counterpart when they get struck by lightning, giving them the power to shift between light and dark, and I'm assuming some more form-specific powers here too. I would recommend this book to lovers of more cultural books, as this has that in spades. You should get it because, even if you're not into cultural identity type books, Rico's view of Midwestern style is...interesting, to say the least. That's all for now.

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