Book Review =]

So, I only had a couple of poetry books at home and most of them are collections of poems by many authors or they are written mostly by teens. The only book of poem I have available is Maya Angelou’s selection called Poems. This book is more than 120 pages, but is divided into sections or parts. Because the book is separated by four books….Just give me a cool drink of water ‘fore I diie, Shaker, why don’t you sing, Oh pray my wings are gonna fit me well and And Still I rise, I decided to just read one of these parts. And still I rise is book in itself with three different parts…”Travling,” “Touch me, life, not softly” and “And still I rise”. The travel’s part is about women and relationships…or at least this is how it seems like to me. Phenomenal Woman is a famous poem by Maya and shows the beauty of the female body and sexuality. In this poem, there’s a reframe that shows up at the end of the stanzas. There is a kind of rhyme within the poem, but its lose and changes. At some parts every other line rhymes, but there are those parts that break completely free of this. The section called Traveling, seemed to be about different places, but I don’t know if it was through the poem or just through the titles of the poems. You go from my Arkansas to the woman work. It’s as if you travel through different lives and lifestyles, not just to different places. I thought this part would be predictable in the fact that it only moved through different towns/ places, but I was wrong. I think my favorite part of the section was the one entitled, And still I rise. When I was in highscool, I remember reading the poem with the same name and loving it for its repetitiveness and strength. I found this section more appealing because the poems were really powerful and meant so much then I was looking to find within them. My favorite poem in this section was On aging. I loved the meaning behind the poem and felt there was this universal experience of growing older and the things that go along with it. The rhyme pattern is again distorted but it really flows well the way it is. I think the overall themes are about life in general, but with a really strong tone or voice. I don’t know if younger people could really get into this poetry, but I definitely think an older age group would. I think I would like to emulate her voice, because it is very strong, but I don’t know if it is possible because she was such an amazing poet.

Late Book Review One: 'Imagine being more Afraid of Freedom than Slavery'

The book looked cool. . . A thin, tall, and bald woman on the cover and spray paint cursive over head: Imagine being more Afraid of Freedom than Slavery. I'm not one to write about racism, but I like reading about it. I'm not one of those people who walk up and down exclaiming, "Racism doesn't exist anymore" or "We have an African American president so we can't be racist" types. I'm not the type to think EVERY god damn thing said or done to me IS racist. I say shit like that jokingly to REAL CLOSE friends (friends who know WHEN AND WHERE). I also talk about racism to make people feel awkward, so if I randomly said, "You're racist" or something to that degree I probably didn't want to talk to you. The point of this digression is it resembles the movement racism, sexism, and homophobia has undergone. Our perception about racism and the face behind the current masks' of racism, and all the other 'isms' have altered into subtleties and humor, so I believe that this is the message of Pamela Sneed's 'Imagine being more Afraid of Freedom than Slavery.'

I couldn't put my finger on it before, but after seeing SaltLines I figured out why this book review was hard for me to write. Pamela Sneed's book does not progress. She's in this constant state of anger, which is understandable considering she's:

A. A woman
B. African American
C. A Lesbian

so the odds are against her. But, especially when you're writing lyrically the book almost becomes a very poetic, very short memoir, she continues from angry to angry. . . maybe her anger simmers. In her one poem about "Daddy" (daddy can be interrupted in two ways from my gathering AMERICA or her actual father) the poem should have been a series of curses. It's funny I stopped thinking about the book review until I saw SaltLines because there was a poem about a Daddy and the poet was a lesbian. . . But you see instead of rambling in undertoned curse words as Pamela Sneed did. . . The SaltLines' girl said, "Yes I am angry at you. . . I even hate you at times, but you know what the past is the past and I forgive you." Maybe it's bad for me to compare, but I can't help it.

Face attached to Constraints

I suppose, since I wasn’t as impressed with our visitor as most were, that it takes some real stunts to hold my interest. He was great! , but forgettable. I can’t even remember his name, I just remember the lesson he was attached to, and the Rolodex of songs he played. I don’t remember the lyrics, but I remember they made me giggle. So he did spread good vibes about constraints, which was notable, but I guess his approach on constraints just wasn’t my thing.

He seems to be a natural when it comes to placing limitations on his work, in fact he must be the type of person who need deadlines in order to achieve a goal. Naturals aren't good at explaining the how to's in life. And this is what I was looking for a PROCESS (sit at computer, face computer screen, eat some chocolate . . .); however I do understand it is hard to go into great detail when things come natural to a person. It's automatic. So no real thought goes intothe automatic as Shklovsky points out in his theory of Defamiliarization. I couldn't explain English to this Japanese guy I kept saying, "Because that's how it is." Japanese people did the same to me when I asked about particles; they'd say, "Nihongo kara" (Because it is Japanese).

We don't think in a constrained formats, so I would have liked to have seen some free verse etched out on the board (which has it's own set of rules) and then cut down into traditional, maybe that would have helped me (I'm not sure). I've tried it ! and it's always muck. My sonnet was high shit.

Splatter...Poem?

I have only recently begun experimenting with the placement of words on the page, and, to my surprise, I’m really getting into it. I took a lot of Creative Writing classes in high-school, so I learned early on that someone makes every line break intentional; all these separations add tension and emotion to a poem in different ways, and they all aim to affect the reader emotionally. Even so, I never realized the same can be true for the specific ways in which writers place their words on the page. Ever since I took Introduction to Poetry last semester, I have started experimenting with the idea here and there, but never have I been quite as radical with my arrangement as I was while writing my poem for this week’s workshop. The folks that were in my workshop group the week before last know that the spacing arrangement of my poem entitled “Cassandra” was a freak accident of Microsoft Word, and yet, before they realized this, the spacing was what they all seemed to be most impressed with. That incident has really inspired me to go to the next step with word arrangement, and take it to a whole new level of creativity. My poem for this week is called “Adolescence,” and I am absolutely thrilled with how it worked out visually. The piece has words sprawled out everywhere, some based on the same natural breaks I would have applied otherwise, and a few separations that only sprinkling words here and there on a page can really inspire. Such experimentation made “Adolescence” more interactive in that it is visually engaging in addition to its literary strengths. I do have to say, though, that I’m also pretty happy with the literary quality of my poem, but we’ll see what you all think of that Tuesday, I suppose!

Writer's Block and Printing Presses

So I had a lot of trouble writing my poem for last week. It was the first time this semester that I really felt like I had nothing to write about. I tried experimenting with some constraints, like we did in class when Andrew Huang came in, but I don't know why, I just wasn't really satisfied with anything I came up with. I think one of my problems was that I was not developing specific or creative enough constraints. None of the constraints I thought of really helped me to narrow down my subject matter or to come up with anything I found to be too creative. I ended up writing a poem that was supposed to be like a letter, but looking back I wish I had done more with it, and pushed the constraints a little bit more...maybe I will edit again later on in the semester.
On the other hand I am very excited for the printing project today. I think it should be really interesting, and I am excited to see what my group comes up with for a final product!

Poster Printing

Today my group is going to head over to ODY and start our printing of our poetry poster with Mark and Theo. I'm really excited about this project, my group has been brainstorming some ideas that I think are going to look great on the posters. I think I'm more excited about hanging them up around campus and seeing people's reactions to them. I hope my group members and I can achieve to make a poster that has some sort of impact or powerful effect on those who see it. I've been researching some quotes and sayings for some background info and I'm really amazed at how words can influence and change people's lives. I guess this is just my mental overload of English courses flooding my consciousness, but it's really unbelievable how many famous quotes there are in the world, and how we remember the past and sometimes change the future through the voices of others. “I had a dream….” or “Be the change you want to see in the world” are the types of words, quotes, lectures that have shaped my view of the world and my life. I’m not trying to sound all cliché and philosophical, but I find it so refreshing that I’ve discovered the influence of the written or spoken word. The power of language and in some cases one individual is quite extraordinary if you think about it.