2/28/19

Today's reading circle really helped me with settling on my collection topic because my other two group mates had similar ideas as mine but different story line. this allowed me to feel more creative because after reading there works it was really interesting and also encouraged me to continue my collection. I also managed to understand what a forward was after reading one of my group members forward. I am however still not understanding what an afterward is. I'm looking forward to finishing my collection. I am also glad we're done with the poetry book.

How Poems Arrive

“How Poems Arrive” does a good job of describing what a poem is. This poem includes personification. It also explains what a poem does and how it afects people’s emotions when they read them.

Class Discussion on “How Poems Arrive”

I believe this poem is discussing the pros and cons of writing poems and delivering them to a reader so it satisfies their expectations. One of the pros I believe the author found about writing poetry was in the second stanza where she said, “Like love, they’re strongest when admitted blind, Judging by feel, feeling with sharpened sense.” I’m interpreting that she meant that she was generated most of her ideas when she wasn’t thinking too hard directly about what she should create her poem around. She generated her poems around feeling, whatever mood or what she felt in that moment inspired her to create such poems. A con would be when she said in stanza 4,”But poems, butch or feminine, are vain.” In this line she is personifying poems as a whole by saying whatever a poem is masculine or feminine they are still gain meaning that not all poems regardless of its theme or style they can be difficult to understand and interpret or in her sense create. Creating poems can be difficult or “vain” because as a poet you need to use different use of words, styles and think of what you need to write about. Or if you’re a reader of a poem, interpreting a poem can be hard as you need to use a dictionary to define certain words used by the poem or reread the poem itself at least ten times to get the bigger picture making it “vain,” while “sporting with vowels” or showing off that they’re so complex and unique that they don’t care that it’s hard for the reader to understand or for the poet to create.

How Poems Arrive

I thinks this poem is about how a poem seem ti people as they read.how you think about and the way it is written.the choice of words use and the meaning of poems.

The poem is talking about how you say a poem and interprete it ..... so basically she's saying however you say a poem determines what ppl with think about it I guess .... I'm not so sure 🤷🏼‍♀️

How Poems Arrive by Anne Stevenson

The poem begins to talk about before saying intense words think about them and make of what you mean by them. Then it continues talking how like love words are stronger when you don’t think about them and just talk from emotion. Overall the poem has this similar theme of relating emotions and words.

How poems arrive

This poem describes how poems are created and the emotional impact they have on the mind. “Like love, they’re strongest when admitted blind, judging by feel....”  this quote states that as consumers we must not judge with a bias rather just let the emotions you feel tell if it’s good or not. The best poems seem to write theirselves when emotion takes control and I feel like that is the main idea of this poem.

How poems arrive

To me, this poem is specifically interesting becasue the author decides to write about the very thing that he is doing. Most of the poems in the book have a specific topic such as love or pain. The author decided to write about a topic that is not commonly talked about. After reading the poem we can see that the author desceibes thought processes and techniques used to write a poem while including them in his own.

Response to pg.122

My take on “How Poems Arrive” by Anne Stevenson describes the way a poem is said, in depth and with imagery. This poem’s purpose is to decode how a poem is verbally said by a person and then decrypted. The last line “till it arrives and tells you it intention” possibly speaks about the hidden meaning or meanings that the poem has. The meaning can be deciphered by the reader or by another person, namely the author. There is also an ABA CDC etc rhyme scheme. The author perhaps wrote this poem to speak about poems in general, which is interesting as he listed some reasons why poems are created (in stanza 2, he mentions love or emotions).

Finishing Up w/ Poetry

As we finish the anthology, I would like you to think about some of the following questions:

• These are, according to Gioia and Lehman the "best" poems of 2018. Can you generalize about what it takes to write a "best" poem? What did you learn about poetry over the last few weeks? How did these readings confirm, or challenge, your previous feelings about poetry?
• Which poem was your favorite? Which poem did you struggle w/ the most? 
• Kay Ryan's poem, "Some Transcendent Addiction to the Useless" quotes from critic George Steiner's The Poetry of Thought in her title. It's my understanding that Steiner argues that truly great art is bound up with "useless" skills (like writing poetry). This brings us back to our discussion on the first day: How useful is it to read poetry? To write it? Why are you required to do it in 102? Are you glad that you had to read a book of poetry? Or was it annoying? Or both? 
• What questions do you still have about poetry, or about any of the poems in the anthology? 

Library Visit 2/21

Visiting the Library was very useful. The one thing I struggled with was trying to figure out how exactly I was going to use 10 sources in my collection even though it is fiction. The library session helped me to understand that I can use databases to find books that I can reference in my collection. As well as finding a background article of my topic. The library session gave me a wide range of resources I can use for all of my classes, not just for my collection.

This week poem was intersting as it was a very long peom but nice and the library visit was very informative that was good information.

Isaiah Meade, Moses Bassoo,Naquan Butler

1) What makes this a poem? If the line break were taken away and this were written in prose, would it cease to be a poem?

What makes this a poem is it’s obvious use of rhymes and it’s use of imagery to create a scene for us readers. If the line break were to be taken away I still feel like this could be a poem due to it’s rhymes.

2)What is something you learned from reading your section of the poem?

I learned that the author used the trees “Tilia Cordata” as a metaphor for her safe haven. It was her way of sheltering herself from the horrors of the world and the last couplets made this very evident.

3) What is this poem about? Why is it titled “Tilia Cordata”?

This poem is about a girl who finds peace in a special tree. This tree reminds her of home and by being home she is safe. This poem goes from peaceful imagery to dark imagery when it references the holocaust. The holocaust effected the author a lot. To the point where she stopped taking showers until she was 7. She then brings back the peaceful imagery when describing her linden tree that blooming in the very end and how she wishes to stay there longer. She wants to stay at peace for as long as possible. This peaceful place of hers still got affected by the holocaust and the experiences of her people now linger in her mind.

4) Among other things,this is a poem of place. What makes it so?

What makes this a poem of place is it’s use of imagery. We go from a safe haven (her home/tree references) to a dark time in history known as the holocaust. Then we are brought back to the linden tree. Imagery played a key role in this poem.

5) To acknowledge the holy temple’s destruction?

In a world this damaged, this out of proportion”
This couplet speaks of the damages in this world which are very revelavnt today. Which is retalable in today’s society because of the constant struggle of living.

6) What question(s) do you still have about your section?

No, we understood the poem for the most part.

After working with my partner I understand a lot more now ...... Jacqueline seems to have some kinda love for Jew or seem to be a very religious person base on the information I gathered from page four .... The question I still have is why did she write this ? Was she a Jew ? ..... the title had a lot to do with the poem it spoke about where was the origin of the tree and so on....

This poem as very complex and there were things that I didn’t understand.It was talking about plants in the beginning, how they smell and wat your can combine it with. The next thing you know they mention the holocaust. It transitions from a sweet poem to a dark poem with the mention of a razor blade in their mouth, and fatal illness.

My response to Tilia Cordata

“Tilia Cordata”

Initially I was caught off guard when reading this poem. What started out as something so peaceful referencing flowers, trees and tea soon changed to something completely different. “Tilia Cordata” did a great job of creating two different sets of imagery. rather than focusing on its peaceful setting I found myself thinking about the holocaust and how haunting that event was for the author. The tea and flowers represented home/safety. Those things represented peace and time away from chaos. The author ends the poem saying “what remains untouched? Nothing at all. still, who can blame me if I stay awhile? It can’t last too much longer, this perfume, but here, just now, my linden tree’s in bloom”. Nobody can escape sad times in life, it happens to all of us. However we all have something that keeps us at peace for the time being.

This was a very complex reading ..... Even after reading her notes in the back I'm still a little confuse of what exactly she was talking about ....... I hope after discussing this poem in class I'll understand a lot more

The poem brings up a lot her childhood and anytime she goes back the memories also come. Aswell as a little of dajavu because it mentions a fragrance during the times she is there. Also, the word "Linden" pops up and makes it confusing.

tilia cordata

This poem is already titled after the name of a tree. Tilia cordata is also called the linden tree which is why the writer mentions the linden tree quite often throughout the poem. I did a quick search on google and found out that the linden tree is use often by poets as a symbolism or metaphor for nature. Throughout the poem it also seems they brought up the frangrance of the tree. The poet makes the fragrance seem calming but at the same time describe the fragrance as unique and different. This poem was a little easier for me to understand after I googled what tilia cordata was.

About Tilia Cordata

The poem seemed to sort of rhyme, but there were certain stanzas that didn’t. The time period of the poem seemed to be after WWII because it mentions of the talks of nazis and how she/he was born at a time where his/her earliest memory was about nazis. It also seems to mention the word linden, so I’m guessing that there’s some sort of symbolism behind it.

Tilia cordata

 As we’ve read this poem in class, the one thing I got from it was that the author Jacqueline Osherow may be Jewish. This is shown when she continually mentions things oriented towards the Holocaust. At one part, she was speaking with a little bit of hatred when she talked about the plight of Germans and how her family would count how many times she’d mention Germany. She may be a survivor or maybe a relative was a survivor or something of that nature.

Blog

I’m not allowed to blog about places to eat so I guess I’ll start talking about poetry like everyone else.  My experience with poetry has been the worst. I’ve never been able to understand and  interpret it. I really hope at least our collection project will be more fun and creative than blogging about poetry. One reason I feel like I dislike poetry is because it’s written in a style where you have to figure out what the writer is trying to say. I like reading works that can be understood just reading instead of having to spend time to figure out what the author is really trying to say.

Poetry Event on Thursday

I recommend this event on this Thursday at 2:10 pm in LB14. (I hear there will be pizza!) If you attend and submit a 1-p reflection to me, I'll give you extra credit.

Poetry, pp. 47-92

In Sharon Olds' "Silver Spoon Ode," she writes a clever poem about her own wealthy upbringing and her consequent feelings of guilt. She invents a character near the end, Miss Lucille, who tells her, "And now / enough, Shar [Sharon], now a little decent silence" (75).  This new character, for me as a reader, created a bit of ambiguity. However, after reading the autobiographical statement in the back, I felt like I got a better hang on the poem.

This week, I'd like you to read one or two of the poems that I assigned you along with the autobiographical statement in the back. How does this writing about the poem help you understand the poem better? How is it similar to the author's notes I'm asking you to write each week?

During the course of the week I have really been able to see the importance of my topic. As a few of my classmates have read my work they have mentioned how they feel that child abuse is a topic that is not frequently talked about. I feel that after reading these comments I will we sticking to the topic to help bring a bit of awareness. I feel that the group critiques are extremely helpful becuase other than the fact that you are getting feedback on your work, you get to help somebody else make corrections and give tips.

Personally, the library visit was extremely helpful to me. I feel its always a good idea to get someone else's input on your work especially if they have spent. significant amount of time in the subject and have already been through the courses that I am currently taking. with the tutor, as a group we were able to look at strengths and weaknesses and look at structural and grammatical issues in our writing.

Library Visit

In preparation for next Thursday's library visit, please follow the following link and answer the four questions:

https://goo.gl/forms/rlFWCVnVFNmPxwlu1

Places to eat 2

Turntable Chicken Jazz(33rd st: I wonderful location for people who like jazz and chicken of course. The decor inside is really amazing. The walls are decorated with records while jazz music is playing when your eating away. They serve simple Korean dishes and obviously the infamous Korean fried chicken where you can decide your flavors. You can decide between spicy or garlic or both if you can’t decide. They also serve potato twister on a stick that taste amazing!!!it is a very unique location close to Ktown that definitely deserves a visit. They also have a bar if you can order drinks.

Places to eat

I plan to blog about different places to each from now on so if anyone likes to explore different places to eat. 

Burger and lobster (43rd st): just from the name the place serves burgers and lobster although they have different appetizers on there menu as well. There lobster is fresh and tasty. You can choose the way it’s cooked such as boiled or grilled. If you can’t decide whether you wanr a burgers or lobster they have combo menus. Each combo is served with a salad. It’s a wonderful location  to take pictures. As well because of the cool decor inside and out. Really nice place to drop by for a bite with friends and family. Less to no wait time if you make reservations ahead of time even if it’s just for two people.

I really enjoyed "American Dreams" I felt like I was literally in the store with her that's really how they sit at the counter and stare endlessly.... hahaha

Poetic Forms

We haven't really talked about form yet because we've only read free verse poems. But there are many other different kinds of forms which follow rules such as rhyme schemes or fixed syllables or line lengths. One such form is the haiku, invented in Japan in the late 19th century, but popularized in the West in the early 20th century. Check out Joyce Clement's "Birds Punctuate the Days" (15) which was originally published in Modern Haiku. How has Clement adapted the haiku to this poetic situation?

Check out the pictures on the Course Outline page of Blackboard (you'll have to sign in). How many of these birds did you know in Clement's poem before you saw their pix? Why do you think so few people know the names of birds in the modern world? Does it matter?

Remember the magnet activity last week? Fixed forms are another manner of creative constraints in writing. Feel free to experiment with haiku or other forms over the next few weeks as we discuss poetry.

Easy and Difficult Poems

Which is the "easiest" poem in the collection so far? For me, "Walking Home" (44) is the least challenging of the poems in this early part of the reading. Do you agree or would you suggest a different one? What makes a poem easy to read? If this poem--or a different one--is easy to understand, does that make it superior or inferior to more difficult ones? Speaking of difficulty, which poem so far have you struggled with the most?

Also, what makes these poems? (As opposed to prose.) What stylistic qualities have you noticed in addition to line breaks? Rhyme? Metaphor? Rhythm?

What questions do you have so far?

Also, a reminder: We will be meeting in class tomorrow (Th. 2/14, Happy Valentines Day) for our group critique. You only need to bring one copy of your draft b/c we'll be heading over to the Writing Center for the second half of class.

QCC's Fitness Center

Yesterday, I had a three hour break in between my classes. I used an hour to work on my homework for some of my classes and then I met up with one of my friends. We talked and then I said I wanted to check out the Fitness Center but he was busy with homework so I went alone. The QCC Fitness Center is very small but it has a lot of equipment. It is open at 10 am-6 pm on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and it's also open on 9 am-6 pm on Tuesday and Thursdays. All you need in order to use the facility is a QCC ID and gym clothes (sweatpants/shorts, t-shirt, sneakers). They have two collections of regular dumbbells and bulky (80+ lbs) dumbbells on the right of the regular ones. They have treadmills, ellipticals, the bike machines, a stretch area, and a variety of other weight-controlled machines. In my opinion, the general vibe of the place is very cool because all I saw were people working out and moving forward, it is also very clean for the most part. I recommend using it in case anyone wants to work out but they do not have the money or time to start using an outside gym. I attached a video in case anyone would like to see the general look of the facility.

https://media.giphy.com/media/1fiGeiYaWf5dShrT2P/giphy.gif

I was able to make changes to my poem for my collection. I feel like I was able to change the direction of my poem for the better and make more sense of what my topic is about. Group critics will also take my writing to another level using suggestions from my group.

I enjoyed Thursday's group critique because for one, I was able to see what my peers are writing about. It was also helpful because other individuals had the chance to read my work and tell me my strengths and what needs improvement. I also had the chance to give my peers feedback on their work.

Group critic

I found the group critic very helpful because it let's us see what we are missing and actually to make it better than before.

collection

I was really confused when I was introduced to the creating a collection at first. After multiple discussions about it, I understand that its actually a really creative and unique type of project. In class while hearing other peoples ideas for there collective I began to feel as if my idea was a bit off topic. I wanted to write a zombie virus fiction narrative story. I thought my idea was really creative and fun compared to my other classmates. I am still going to continue with my idea because it does meet the requirements and I already have three pages typed. I really hope I do well on this Collection.

This Class

Reading all these poems in class has helped me depict the authors main idea and has helped me enjoy poems a little bit more.
                                                       

Last Week's Group Critique

Last week, we had a group critique on Thursday. It was very interesting because I was exposed to a topic that I am very familiar with. The paper I was critiquing was very interesting and it had lots of good points to it. In my opinion, the second draft of my classmate's paper will have a high grade.

Afterwards, we had to get in groups of 4 and critique each other's papers and stuff. My group had a very fun discussion where we related to the topics in some way or knew about them to a certain extent. Our group's general nature was very fun to be in because we just laughed and joked around while getting work done so that was a good experience.

The moment I decided to write a lot more about non fiction was the best thing I could ever do ... Everything flows naturally not having to overthinking, I cant wait to see my finishing product.

The poems can be a bit challenging to understand but our discussions in class are beyond helpful.

This week

This week was a good one because now i can start puting my collection together and the class peoms were good very enjoyable.

NY Times

All CUNY students can get free digital access to the New York Times. Just follow the link on the CUNY Grad Center website and then follow the directions.

Collective

For those of you who might be interested in publishing your work in a literary journal, the English Department's Collective will be taking submissions of fiction, essays, and poetry up through March 18th. The theme is "growth." See details below:

Creative Constraints

Luscious white man
Never lived
Crushed behind the storm
Raw language elaborate giftness
No chains
Two peachy chocolate lies
Smear-like thinking
Hit by the blue car
Thousand shots
Who did it?

By Gabriela Bynoe, Cruz Encinas, Andrea Frederick, Sherene Smith

By: Moses, Sydney, Mery, Veronica

       

             Laura Lin
             Marckide Barrett
             Suresh Ramnandan
             Brian Jimenez

By: Ean, Maria ,Isaiah & Suzette

Foreword

I think it's instructive for us to read and think about David Lehman's foreword to Best American Poetry 2018, esp. since you all will have to write your own forewords. Some questions to consider:

• How does this foreword work in relation to the anthology of poetry that we're about to read? 
• What does the opening (introduction) do? How does it relate to what comes after?
• He's got three sections in the foreword which he divides with asterisks (***). What purpose does ea. section serve?
• What questions did you have after reading the foreword? Do you feel better qualified to write your own?

Poems

The three poems I asked you to read this week are pretty different from each other. So there are several ways you might approach responding to them on the blog.

• You might do a close reading of one of the poems (like we did w/ David Mason's poem last week)
• You might compare the poems. What similarities do they have? What differences do you notice?
• You might write about difficulties you have with a poem. Feel free to use the blog to ask questions. I value good open questions. (Open questions are subjective, they lead to exploration. Closed questions are purely factual ("What color is the sky?") or yes/no.) And yes, you get credit for asking good questions.
• Try to answer one of my open questions.
• Try to answer one of you peers' very good open questions. And yes, again, you get credit for responding to classmates' comments and questions. 
• Make connections between a poem and other texts you've read (or seen or heard).
• Make connections between a poem and your life experience. 

It helps to quote from the text if you're making a specific comment or claim about a poem.

Poet John Ciardi had these three rules for reading poetry:

1)  The poem is not to be confused w/ a paraphrase.

2)  Avoid speed-reading. Discover the natural rhythm of the work.

3)  Read it aloud.

 

Or we might consider what poet Richard Wilbur wrote about poetry (quoted in BAP 2018, p. xix): "A poem should not be like a Double-Crostic; it should not be the sort of puzzle in which you get nothing until you get it all." In other words, although a poem may puzzle you, it's not for you to solve. A truly rich poem should offer you something different every time you return to it. Shakespeare wrote his plays over four hundred years ago and people are still publishing books and articles about them. That shows you how rich some texts can be.

First Week

The poem that we read in class had a weird tone but it was okay. Also the flash essay was fun to read but it wasn't a finished work so that was a little disappointing. The other interesting part about class was discussing the Collection and our thoughts with my partner.

The poem and the flash essay was very intersting to read.

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