Writer's Block

Reading through a few blog posts Imani's really stood out because she said this class has "humbled her" and that is a huge lesson beyond the text of the Bedford book. When discussing anything as a group we come across different opinions from our own. As we age we learn, that that is okay. Not everyone sees eye to eye and that doesn't make the world any less perfect. Kourtney also mentions "looking at things from a different perspective" and that goes hand in hand with respecting others opinions. That is huge when reading poetry as a class, and in everyday life.

I have learned a lot from this class. Professor Hamon at first I wasn't sure how much I would like you at first, but you grew on me. You had a different way of teaching and expected a lot from your students. You pushed us harder to get the grades you knew we could produce by giving us a 2, when you knew we could do better. I know that got my ass in gear for sure, I wanted to hate you for giving one of my documents a 2 as i'm sure many others did too. I can see why now, taking a second, third and fourth look back threw my own work I saw things I didn't at first, and as the class progressed I learned more of how to fix those things to make it right. You didn't expect anything that wasn't possible but you gave us that push and I am thankful for that. The actual content of the course, I don't know that what I took from poetry was a part of the lesson but I relate poetry to life, in a way that not everyone takes the same road to find the meaning, but at some point we...

Zack, Jordan and I, all seem to agree that things have definitely changed over the years as to how woman are looked at in modern days. Zack says, "woman do not have to give up what they want to do" I think this is really important, in the fact that woman more than ever are working towards their own career goals, not leaving them to solely rely on the man of the house. Jordan mentioned in her post that she "thinks there are still men that believe women should be seen not heard" and I would agree with that, having a different culture (coming from out of state and up north), I see some things that are different down here and I think that some old fashioned southerners still have that mentality down here. Not all of course, but you can see how some people act in public and it gives off that impression.

The role of woman has changed drastically, from back in the day. Women were looked at before as the house keepers, as in the maids, the chefs, the keeper of the kids. While the men were the financial holders of the house, holding the status of the bread winners. Nowadays, women are not the soul care givers of the children, because women hold jobs now as well in order for the household to make it. Also the divorce rate is higher, so there are more single parents out there than there used to be. My mom kept our house in the divorce from my dad, and worked full-time to support my sister and I. My dad paid child support and still had part time custody. This split family style is more common than it used to be. Many married young, and began families young, while the fathers worked and supported them. The woman had strict routines involving all of the cleaning and cooking, as well as watching and teaching their children. Now it is more common for children to be left in daycare's while bo...

Harry potter movies have a great plot, I love watching them. The first one I remember the best (probably because I've read the book a few times as well). Of course the movie is based off of Harry finding out that he is a wizard and going to school to learn his abilities. This grabbed my attention from the beginning because although we know wizards aren't real, it had a nice story line and graphic animations to make you believe every spell was real, flying on the brooms was real, and all of the different things preformed were really happening before your eyes in the movie. With Harry being 11 and more movies to come, you get pulled in my the mystery of what being a wizard consists of. Although I was younger when they first started coming out with those movies, they still are very much a part of my life because they are so good to watch. He grows older through the movies along with everyone else like Ron, and Harmione. Harry starts out as a kid who lived with these terrible peopl...

The Office, is the greatest show ever, in my opinion. If you have not seen it yet, you should! I binged watched all of the seasons on Netflix as much as I could until I was finished every episode. The setting of The Office takes place in a small paper company called Dunder Mifflin. It consist of groupings of desk, a receptionist desk, two office rooms and a break room. Majority of the show is played out through this building. I think that is important in making The Office the way it was because being in those tight knit quarters, the people who worked there were like one big dysfunctional family and this showed in many ways through out the show. 

why talk of beauty what could be more beaut- iful than these heroic happy dead This is an example of irony, because it says "what could be more beautiful than these heroic happy dead", and to me that sounds like its generalizing all that are dead are happy. Followed by the next line saying " who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter", how could anyone rushing to their own slaughter be a happy death, heroic yes. Happy, no. No one wants to die, but I guess it is assumed to be for good reason.

In the poem "Poetry Should Ride the Bus" the symbol of the whole poem is that poetry is comforting and a relaxing thing that is always there. "poetry should hopscotch in a polka dot dress wheel cartwheels n hold you hand when you walk past the yellow crackhouse.... poetry should whisper electric blue magic all the years of your life never forgotten to look you in the soul every once in a while n smile" poetry should hopscotch in a polka dot dress wheel cartwheels n hold your hand when you walk past the yellow crackhouse  In "Car radio" by Twenty One Pilots, they sing about how the radio was "stolen" and now they just sit in silence. Sometimes quiet is violent I find it hard to hide it My pride is no longer inside It's on my sleeve My skin will scream reminding me of Who I killed inside my dream I hate this car that I'm driving There's no hiding for me I'm forced to deal with what I feel There is no distraction to...

Poetry is full of lessons, emotions and choices. As well as wandering thoughts. My metaphor for poetry is "Poetry is a never ending book, full of advice and wisdom" It just depends on how willing you are to take it and learn from it. 

Life is like an elevator, On your way up sometimes you have to stop and let some people off. I really like this metaphor, because it is true. Over time there are so many people that come and go in our lives. Things happen, people grow and drift apart, while new come together. But, you cannot hold on to the ones that you have drifted apart from, or that are holding you back. Letting go is how you grow!

The same image can mean so many different things for many people. People analyze imagery from their own perspective, perception and life experiences. For some an image may trigger emotions that it may not for someone else. People reflect on images and try to relate. The song lyrics that mean so much to a person may be because they went through a similar experience or remember exactly what they were doing the first time that song played, etc. A quote from an assigned poem: Poetry Should Ride the Bus (pg.847) "poetry should hopscotch in a polka dot dress wheel cartwheels n hold your hand when you walk past the yellow crackhouse..." This image described in this poem here makes me feel like the author, Ruth Forman, is describing poetry as a comfort blanket. That poetry should be written in a way that is smooth and easy to read. As well as soothing for those harder times in you life, or scary times. Quote from a song: 'Car Radio by twenty one pilots: Sometimes quie...

This image is one that represents my life in many aspects. My life is made up of my choices, decisions, and directions I take. Also this image is not looking ahead, and that to me was important in picking this image because as much as we all want to plan ahead for the future, sometimes life just takes a turn in a different direction. As much as we try to keep everything in our control, life is full of surprises, good and bad, that make us who we are.

The Titanic by David R. Slavitt has many mythological elements throughout. The opening sentence of his poem is "Who does not love the titanic?", asking a question in a way that makes it seem there is only one answer, but yet there are many reasons as to why someone would not love the titanic. Piggy backing with his next line of "If they sold passage tomorrow for that same crossing, who would not buy?". Again, making the titanic some luxury that we all know how that ended. When you continue to read the rest of the poem that sentence begins to make more sense, he uses a tone that makes it sound like dying on the Titanic is the way to do it, "To go down... We all go down, mostly alone. But with crowds of people, friends, servants, well fed, with music, with lights! Ah!" surrounded by people and not alone, to be remembered by future generations, brings comfort than dying alone. He also mentions that the world should mourn, "as it ought to do, and almost n...

Mythology is in our everyday lives, the entire story of our own lives is our myth. That doesn't necessarily mean that myths pertain to the literal part of our lives, but more so in how we experience events, such as our emotional reactions, and perceptions. Every time someone has asked me "what happened?", I construct a story in response around the event that has taken place, all of my memories are stories, that can be told to not only portray an event but to find meaning in what happened. I also have "heroes" in my life, my dad being the biggest one. I've always looked up to him and I am so thankful for everything he does and continues to do for me every single day. He instilled in my many things that have stayed with me, he passed on his own mythological elements in my upbringing. As mentioned in previous blog post, I moved down to GA from MD, and that was a huge part in writing my own story, my own myth, and has shaped me even more. That was an emotion...

https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-2471/John-Lennon-on-Happiness.html I am not to sure if this post is supposed to be a piggy back onto or last one or if we were supposed to pick an all new one, but here's a quote that I have always really loved. I remember reading this years ago, and it has stuck with me. I have come across it many times since the first, and each time I read it I get a deeper meaning out of it. Happiness is the key to life, but it's all about your prospective on life. Now, let's be real, that does not mean that because you are always happy bad things won't happen to you, or that life can't get you down. It means that with the right mindset all things are possible and when you succeed you bring happiness among yourself.  I can relate to this quote because there will always be someone trying to get you down, or wants you to be as miserable as there are but if you keep that positive outlook, your happiness is controlled by you, and no one can take th...

This isn't my only favorite poem, but I hope by now everyone is familiar with Shel Silverstein. I remember reading "Where the sidewalks ends" many times when I was younger and his other books. When I had first read this post I was really excited, because I love poets, but it made it super hard to choose, so I figured anything by Shel, was a solid choice. The theme of "Hinges", in my opinion is a simplistic way to say that life would be easier if there was a way to remove all the bad experiences and events that happen, but we can't. And so we have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and keep  on keepin' on! It could also have a theme interpreted as, if we could remove all the bad there would be no sin, like stated in the second line, but that would mean people could do things with no consequence. If you can preform an action, and just erase the consequence nothing is learned.

The theme of my life... it's probably more than one, and it will probably continue to change over time as I learn more, and experience things over time. I know that it has already changed multiple times over the course of the years I've spent thus far. If I had to broadly choose one I would say, that it is "Nothing goes as planned, but everything happens for a reason." I say this because through out life I have envisioned it to go a certain way and the path to get there and I will admit that 9/10 it does not go as planned or how I want it but when I look back I realize, that I learned from how things played out and it has made me who I am today. As I have learned from not getting my way, struggling to get by, and hitting a rock bottom point in my life. The schedule I had planned for myself, at what age I would do what, etc, has never been accurate. I should be graduating with a B.S. degree in about a year, but instead I have transferred schools (mga being my third) th...

When asked what the theme of the United States is, the first thought that comes to mind is diversity. The United States is known for being a big melting pot of all kinds of people. Diversity is something that we see everyday in the U.S. We pride ourselves in having that title, well I guess from recent events I should say most of us pride ourselves for that. But, let's not get political here... Anyway, being such a diverse nation, ties into the freedom that we have here. We are so accustom to following our daily routines and making our life choices ourselves that we sometimes forget that it is not always like that everywhere else. As one of the more advanced technology areas in the world, we have such an opportunity to make life what we want it to be. There is so much at our finger tips and its available to all, no matter what the religion, ethnicity, culture, etc. Of course, environment and financial status may take a toll on these options for everyone, but there are things that he...

Jordan's post about her tattoo on her wrist really caught my attention, it says "freed". She says, " It just reminds me that I am under no obligation to be the person I once was, and I don't have to carry the weight of that anymore." I can tell that she has gone through a situation in life or multiples that she has overcome and concord. I think that is a beautiful meaning for a tattoo to have as a constant reminder of how strong she is.  I have a few tattoos myself, and they each hold a meaning to me that is near and dear to my heart.  Bailee's post about the ring her step dad gave her, was similar to mine about the ring my mother gave to me. She says, "...I   still wear the ring he has given me because it symbolizes that he loves and cares about me and ill always have a part of him with me." This line I can absolutely relate too, and said something along the same lines in my own Post 9 post.  I think it is really interesting to read about ...

Something that I carry with me/ wear daily is a ring that my mother gave to be about 8 years ago. It is a white gold band with a pink sapphire heart. She gave it to me for Christmas, and I tried it on immediately, and have never taken it off since. Funny thing is, I have always hated pink. I was never a girly girl and pink just was not my color of choice. She knew that and some how still ended up getting me this ring, but when I opened it, that did not matter to me. I loved it, I never said anything about how much I hate pink, because we all knew, but it was from her. To her it may have been her just getting me a really nice piece of jewelry. But to me, it meant more, it is something that I can always have with me and have ever since. Especially now that I have moved over 700 miles away from home, and I cannot see her everyday it means even more, because when I look down the ring is always there. It symbolizes to me the comfort of my mother, the love that I have for her, and her for me...