Poetry Out Loud: My Poem

As my finger lightly tapped on the mouse, I scrolled down the seemingly endless page filled with poems of all sorts. Some poems were randomly chosen, and others by their titles; but none struck me with meaning. As I read numerous poems I found one that had a unique but almost simple title it read, A Dream Within a Dream. The words flowed and the rhythm took me away; the poem was sweet yet dark and spoke of life and death as if they were one. After recently losing a loved one to cancer, it was easy for me to relate to the author. Edger Allan Poe spoke of losing a life but wanting it back to stay, to live again. I thought of how I had wished to spend more time with her, I wished there was some way I could've save her from the pain and sorrow.

I am not one to paint my emotions across my face, I much rather hide behind a smile to mask my thoughts and my emotions. Reciting this poem will leave me with flowing memories of sadness and joy. I will think of the sadness her death left me with, but I will always remember the joy she brought to everyone around her.  I don't know what is to come of my performance, but I plan to keep my voice strong and full of intent. It is not death that frightens me, but its thought of leaving loved ones behind. No matter how hard we try to hold on to someone, life seems to be slipping through our fingers like grains of sand falling into endless roaring waves. Life itself just seems to be a dream. 

Poetry Out Loud

Part One: 

1.Keeping Things Whole
2.Late Echo
3.A Dream Within a Dream

4.The Star

5.The White City

Part Two:

Out of those five poems I seemed to fall hardest for The Star. I loved the flowing rhythm that came with it, and the slight whimsical tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Though there weren't many creative words, the message with what it brought forth and the innocence with in it, is what I seemed to love.

All the five poems were very well written, but The White City was not provoking to me. I found myself getting confused with the message I was to extract from within it. As I read it, I couldn't pick up on a flowing rhythm, leaving it to seem chopping and making it harder to understand. The poem was very dark and cynical, which wasn't very pleasing.

I would chose A Dream Within a Dream because I loved how simple, yet elegant it was. The tone was gracious and dark at the same time, which kept me thinking.

Part Three:
Physical Presence and Voice and Articulation will be the two easiest criterias for me because I never find myself fidgeting when I speak, nor do I do unnecessary hand motions. I always find eye contact with the audience when I am speaking because I know how important it is to find a connection with the audience. Voice and Articulation are easy for me because when I read aloud, I naturally speak at a slower and more understanding pace; not just for the audience, but for me as well to prevent from missing a word or messing up.

When it comes to speaking with feeling and showing dramatic gestures, that is defiantly something I am not good at. Being in a play at 5th grade I more of recited my lines then acted them out. Thats how I know this will be a one of my harder struggles. Another difficult criteria for me will be Level of Difficulty, because I am more drawn to simple poems with a rather childlike tone; rather than poems with complexing words and a deeper understanding.

Part Four:
 While watching William Farley recite Danse Russe by William Carlos Williams, I could tell this was a strong performance because of the emotion he put into each individual word, while saying it in a way as if he were talking to every single person the crowd. He followed the criteria as if he knew it like the back of his hand. As I watched Shawntay A. Henry recite the poem Frederick Douglass, I saw all her emotions put into the poem. Her tone was soft and meaningful, and I could easily tell she fully understood what she was talking about. Saying each word slowly, added drama to the performance; however, she did not make it overdramatic. Overall both performers seemed to put all their emotions into what they were saying, and were able to spread the emotion throughout the audience.

Part Five:
After watching and learning from all the different performances, I think that a lot of people will realize that this isn't just memorizing a poem and reciting it in front of a crowd, but we are to show are understanding and feelings threw our performance through our physical presence, knowledge of the poem, and emotions we send out. I know for me this will be a challenge, but I also know it is nothing I cant overcome. 

Most Important Skill

I've learned a lot over the course of the school year so far. Not always being such a great writer and not being able to understand pieces of literature affected me in a lot of ways before. Poems were like trying to sing like Beyonce. Both challenging and nearly impossible. Poetry to me were rhyming words scribbled on to an seemly endless page. I would only read what was spread across the paper, not the thoughts within the ink filled letters sunken into the page. So when Mrs. Gilman introduced us to our assignment, it was like the Nightmare Before Thanksgiving. I wasn't very thrilled. At all.

After spending time on dissecting poems, finding satire, irony, symbolism, and theme, I finally started to understand what the authors message was. I might have miss interpreted the poems completely; but even from that I was able to learn valuable lessons. Our very first poem we started on was "The Knife." My first thoughts after reading it were, "Okay, so he cuts people with a knife." As the class began to explore the authors symbolism, my mind started to explode with provoking ideas. I had never thought of poetry in such a wondrous way. I may not be able to write beautiful poems or even rhyme for that matter, but I can finally pick up a piece of poetry and extract a meaning, a story,  a lesson.

The Flame Beneath the Pot

In piece full of passion, life, and lobsters we were asked to find the true meaning behind what was written. During the discussion many ideas were brought up, but one struck me the hardest. Someone had said that the "flame beneath the pot" could symbolize our deaths. But what many people seemed to look pass was the part about the flame the boils the water.

With such a simple comment, my mind began to burst with new ideas. I began to think of how we wait for the water to boil and in the same way it is like us waiting for something cruel underneath us, that eventually over time with bring us to our deaths.  I from then on understood that it wasn't just the flame that had the meaning behind it, but it was what the flame put into action that portrayed the true meaning of the poem.

Critiquing is Critical

With shaking hands and quivering lips, you stand there in front of all your peers hoping that you'll be able to please them with your written piece. No one really knows how much meticulous work you did, or didn't, put into it. The compliments are nice, but then comes the critiquing. It's hard to know what is to be expected; but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. After reading my paper everyone gave me a lot of fresh and sparkling ideas that could help improve my unique writing style. To have a good paper, you need to have the skill of making your paper different from the others. It is critical that you follow the format for your writing piece, and relate to the topic in a way that is understandable but still different from others.

As a writer I tend to throw in words that can ripple the flow of my paper. I have also learned to be more creative in my writing, and still have the reader be able to relate to it. When I write a piece that is important to me, I want the reader to feel what I felt when writing it; have the same thoughts running through their mind as I did. I'm hoping that as this year progresses, my writing will strengthen and grow to the best of my abilities.

dic·tion [dik-shuhn]

Every evening I sat in the splendor of my melancholy emotions. My dull lack-luster evening plundered into a new depth of boredom. My pen sunk into the frail pages of my notebook. I scrawled words across the pages. Each word more profound than the last. I began to lose myself in the midst of the staggered blue lines. My thoughts soon had swallowed up my every minoute essence of learning. Soon my thoughts enchanted me with the splendor of mystical creatures and sugar-cane candy lands. Despite the contrary 14 year old girl thoughts, mine are not about cat-fights, hair, and "do these dark-wash-indigo-denim jeans make me look fat?!" 

The deeper I began to fall hopelessly into my imagination, the more I drifted away from reality. Little did I fathom that my humdrum homework was hardly even complete. I soon awoke from Kady Land, to finish the hodgepodge of an assignment I had left strewn across my desk. Shuffling through the vast amounts of pages, I still had an unfathomable amount of homework. These assignments could not be consummate without a special treat. I scrambled down the abrupt stairs, furiously swung open the pantry to find one bag of deliciously popped and graciously buttered popcorn. As thrilled as I was to be hand in hand with this bag of wondrous joy, I had forgotten about what awaited me at the top of the mountain of stairs. But with a little combination of sweet popped pop corn, and sourly boring homework, I was able to fix the mess I had thrown upon my self. Ending the night with the feeling of accomplishing something great; if I only I knew what was to come of the next night. 

Writing about Writing

To me there is nothing more thrilling and exciting then writing about un-used holiday creatures, sour-candy crystal waterfalls, and long sugary grass and tall liquorish trees. My imagination goes wild when I write about mythical things. So when my teacher told me to write a folk tale, I was thrilled. She wanted them to be silly and fun so that our buddies could enjoy them as well. My first thought was to write about an animal that everyone loves, but is also very unique. Well once you narrow it down enough, there can only be one certain creature left. Unicorns! The best creature to write about, they could be snobby know-it-alls who think they're all that; or even a mind-blowing heros, fighting off villains with their powerful horn. My ideas were soon put into words, and I was ready for action.

When I had finally finished my piece, I began reading over it; it was pretty amazing. I had combined the fun and exciting ways of Candy Land with the schemingly evil plans of the un-wanted holiday creatures towards the powderpuff ponies, which each hip was marked by their crystal tattoo. So how did unicorns get their horns? My folk tale could easily prove that. Well, with the un-wanted holiday creatures each having a "special" talent they were able to bring their evil plan into action. "The leprechauns began to melt down their gold coins into long beams that could stretch an entire roadway. The evil Easter bunnies began to sharpen their teeth, and Santa's old reindeers began to freeze the roadway. No longer would they live to be trampled in the paths of the ponies." When the plan had finally been put into action, the ponies weren't left with not just a mark, but an ice-cream cone, melted to the tops of their heads. Therefore, they were renamed Unicorns, "mostly because of the fact that the only one able to write was a leprechaun an his spelling has always been awful." 

 With this piece I was able to explore my imaginative side, and finally put some humor into my writing. I have always loved writing about bizarre creatures finding themselves odd predicaments. That explains why I chose this as my favorite writing piece.

Sappy Ain't So Savvy

In a dialog-clogging-complexing tale, Jane Austen looses me throughout the sum-what charming tale. Jane Austen chops the dialog into incomprehensible bits, losing me along its path. At first I thought I understood the the tone of a deep and passionate writer, but slowly her diction and word choice clashed into an in-harmonial and sappy love song.

Just as Elizabeth falls for Mr. Darcy, the rebellious Ronnie finds herself falling for the heartthrob, Will, in The Last Song. Before for they fall into a cheesy romance, they find themselves pushing each other away causing the reader to float between a dazed dream and a frightful nightmare.

By expanding my imagination, I plan to recreate the cheesy love story through a movie. With my lovely partner-in-crime, we will put our inspired ideas into one magical movie. Hoping our audience will experience excitement, laughter, and passion. I'm looking forward to making this a memorable film.

In To Kill a Mockingbird Scout is seen as a girl with mismatched clothes under her dirty overalls. No one saw her as a lady, therefore she was never taken seriously. As Lee went on describing Scout, I came to my attention that I was a lot like her. You would never find me in a dress with matching shoes; but rather my overalls and my cowgirl boots, I even had the hair to match her...after cutting it off myself by the age six.

Scout and I don't only relate appearance wise, but also by our personalities. Scout didn't have many girl friends, or many friends at all because of her sassy and independent personality. I remember going into to pre-school having no friends and trying to fit in with the girls, but they just sat around and played with dolls. I wanted to be outside climbing on things and running around, or at least playing with dinosaurs instead of dolls. When in the book did you ever hear of Scout playing with dolls?

Not wanting to be like the other girls made me an outsider, which throughout the novel Scout is also seen as. As I continued reading the story, I began to enjoy Scout's character more and more. The more I learned about Scout and how she deals with certain situations, the more I began to relate to her. A simple punch was all that was needed to resolve a problem, I think we could both agree on that. However, as the book continued, our "characters" seemed to grow apart. She began to understand adults better, and I learned how to make friends. In the end, Scout learns to never judge a book by its cover; I believe I am still learning my lesson as my life goes on. A simple punch won't be able to resolve this problem.

Killer Gnomes

When riding down a dark path on your bike people tend to fear the dark, the eerie creaks and cracks, the sound of footsteps following you, or the simple but spine-chilling sway of the trees. However in my predicament, it was gnomes. I know you will laugh and think I'm slightly crazy, and maybe I am, but gnomes are to blame for the mysterious cuts that appear on your legs. (No joke.)

As I was peddling my bike furiously down the winding roads of my neighborhood, I couldn't help but focus on how fast I was really going! Within seconds I had already crashed. My hands stung and my knees ached; I looked down to see a shattered gnome's face starring back at me with his horrendous smile and those piercing beady eyes. Then, I glanced at my knees and saw the cuts that he had given me. The once-seeming-sweet-gnome was now my frightful enemy. I finally understood why people put gnomes in their yards.

Over the years, my fear of flesh cutting gnomes began to fade. I soon realized that gnomes do nothing but stand there in yards looking out upon the same thing everyday. I have learned to live with gnomes. Now I can ride peacefully by my neighbors yard and smile happily at her gnome; and sleep under my friends starring gnome lights without fear.  My knees may have a few scares, but no gnome can scare me now.

Introductery

To me there is nothing more intriguing then holding a thrilling book. I love the feeling as the chills run up my arms, and within each page there is a new twist. There arent many books I read for pleasure, unless they consist of thrilling contex and suspenful settings. Most likely you wont find me with a book sitting in my lap, but rahter writing the story myself. I love writing children's books! When I am writing a children's story it feels like there are no limits to my imagination; weither its from talking toast to a magnificent mermaid, give me a bizarre topic and I can write a children's story on it!

As much as I love composing children's stories, I know that I need to improve on my more mature literary writing. Evaluating myself as a student, I would say that I am very attentive in class, studious, and open to the opinions of others. I do all of this so that I can be more successful in my studies. Everyone uses English and Grammar throughout their life, and if I want to pursue my goals in being a successful academically I cannot be found having poor grammar. Personally, I'm hoping this class will help me be more confident and passionate in my writing skills. I want my writing to stand out from the pack; so in these next four years of highschool, I hope that I will be able to pursue my goals!
Thanks for reading!