Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem ______________ because _____________.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem “The Four Food Groups in Grandma’s Summer Lunches” because of the way the author structures her lines. The visual image of the food pyramid gives the reader insight into how contrasting her grandmother’s idea of a good lunch is with the publicized, cookie cutter notion of a balanced lunch, based on the food pyramid.
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014, and I like the poem The Blues Is a Verb by Spillway because of the way the author their play on imagery. I can picture everything the author is saying and relate to it when it comes to the one place you make your own. It gives all the darkness surrounding a new meaning through the imagery that is presented with it.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem Wanda Why Aren't You Dead by Wanda Coleman because repetition, and the use of second person structures the poem in a very powerful way that tugs on your emotions. The author of the poem, Wanda Coleman, puts you in the shoes of Wanda, the main character of the poem, and also gives a lot of insight to Wanda's situation without literally saying what is going on.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Make a Poem" by Harry E. Northup because the repetition like every line started the same but you know the ending is going to be a suggestion on what to make a poem about. I really liked this it was like basically telling you to write about anything and everything, every feeling, every experience.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angels and Beyond, and I really like the poem Thumb in the Door by Hilda Weiss because I like the visual imagery she used. The way the poem started got me really hooked on how she was describing a thumb. When she mentioned Yosemite I remembered to when I went. It just felt like I was there again. Also the way she used like objects, people, and expressions to describe what a thumb does.
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "I've Always Enjoyed Her Sense of Humor," by Gerald Locklin because the play on humor to a typically tragic family situation is enlightening and refreshing. It plays on an angry ex-wife who has an uncanny timeliness of barging in on her ex-husbands dates to ask for a child support check. What I love is that it is from the man's point of view, and the title, which allows the reader to believe that once upon a time they actually got along really well.
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and I really like the poem "Conspiracy (to Breath Together)" by Camille Dungy because even though there are obvious differences between the speaker and myself as the reader, I can still relate to the feelings of self consciousness that she expresses. "I walk every day with my daughter and wonder / what is happening in other people's minds. Half the time / I am filled with terror. Half the time I am full of myself." I get the feeling that the speaker is of mixed races, possibly African-American and Caucasian and so she doesn't fit into either category specifically and always feels like she's being judged based on that. I, on the other hand, just have terrible anxiety. But that one line in particular just resonates with me because I always wonder what people think (particularly of me) when I pass them as I walk to class or when I go to the grocery store and pass them in the aisles. I fear what they think but I also wonder if I'm even significant in such situations to even cross their minds? And that's what I think the speaker means in that line "I am filled with terror. Half the time I am full of myself."
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Big Band Slow Dance" by William Mohr because I can relate to what is being portrayed. I was adopted at the age of 10, and in the process I was separated from my big brother Jon (he's 5 years older than me). I'm still not used to waking up without my brother in the top bunk of our bed.
Jon and I were inseparable - kind of like how Yin can't exist without Yang - we were extremely close. When we were in foster care, we were together. But one day this family walking in and said "We want to adopt her," but they refused to take my brother. That's when we were separated.
The poem says, "Further apart two men could never meet." Replace "men" with "siblings" and that's my story.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Confessions of a Pseudo-Chicana" because it reminds me of my childhood. I grew up in a biracial home and never really felt like I belonged to the Hispanic side despite its influence being ever present growing up. The imagery from the poem may not have been very vivid, but the narrative was very easy for me to relate to.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Dear Professor" written by David Hernandez because it is such a light hearted, funny poem. It is a lot different, tone wise, to most of the poems we have read in class. I also like it because it is relatable because we are all in college, and at some point we have all sent our professors an email trying to explain why we have been absent so much or why they should accept our late assignment that is full of bull. I think it is just a funny straightforward poem which I really appreciate because I do not really like sad depressing poems with a hidden meaning. My favorite lines from the poem were" but first I need to pass your class. No pressure. Honestly. No pressure"
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Dark" by Eloise Klein Healy because of the personification of darkness. I really like the tone, too. I can feel the anxiety the speaker has about darkness and where his or her imaginations takes them.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Hope" by Majid Naficy because I can relate to it the most. To me her use of flower is so symbolic of herself, her growth and the cricket is a symbol of her passed self, her success.
I also really liked the poem "How to Get to Heaven" by Bill Hickok. This poem really stood out to me because if you've been on any of these freeways during the weekday from 6:30am-10am or 11:30am-2pm or 4pm-8pm its a very slow, steady, eye straining drive. I love how the poet gives an allusion that its just that easy to get to heaven like a actual roadmap but also by taking these freeways its a long but worth it drive if you make it. I also love the imagery of the house you are looking for, this bright and colorful house, emphasizing that God is light.
Woodman, I've been reading through Wide Awake, and I've found a few poems that I've enjoyed, in particular "The Outsider" by Sholeh Wolpe. With so few lines, it speaks volumes. I found it to be heavily based on the idea of relativity, but ends with the idea of individuality. To be done in such a direct and concise way really made this poem stand out for me.
Woodman, I've been reading poems on Poets.org, and I really like the poem "somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond" by E.E. Cummings because he writes about an idyllic love through the visuals of nature. Cummings uses words, such as gardens and flowers to represent symbols of his lover. I like it because the tone of the poem is lovely. It's also relatable because when you love someone, sometimes that's what you see - a flower. For myself, at the least, when I love someone, no matter how flawed they are, I see everything but good. My favorite line is "i do not know what it is about you that closes and opens; only something in me understands the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands" because he does not understand what welcomes him. The "small hands" refer to his lovers ability to reach into the smallest part of his human being, the inner chambers of his heart, to touch him as nothing else can. I like to believe that's a part of the exploration of love.
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014, and I really like the poem “Bird, Singing” because of the speaker’s use of visual imagery depicting objects that come from the sea, as well as the references to birds, which I always find particularly intriguing in works of poetry. The speaker’s references to death as they are tied to things of the sea also stand out to me in this poem, as do the lines “Until you sever the thing, from self, it feels. / Thereafter it belongs to none,” which is ultimately set apart from the poem itself, offering a greater message within the poem. I also enjoyed the final line of the poem, where the speaker asks a question, whether it is directed to the reader or the birds, whose song she has just interpreted.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem “Thumb in the Door” because it shows the thumbs history. We as people normally take everyday things for granted especially those things we are born with. We use them over and over again and we just seen them as a part of ourselves and see it as one big picture rather than focus on a single detail in the picture. The thumb is a small, single piece of our body but it is also very important and used often in our everyday actions. We may not realize just how often we use our thumb or as to what extent we use it, but this poem shows just how one small part of something can represent the big picture. It uses the thumb to describe the person who uses it by saying things such as the thumb being working class and a Yosemite climb thumb. In the end the person realizes how important the thumb is to her once she hurts it and is unable to fully use it until it heals. Sometimes we do not realize how important something is until it is gone. This relates to me because no matter how much I want to appreciate every little thing I have in life, I always somehow end up taking of it for granted in the end.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Money" by Wallace Stevens because I love money and the way the poem had a flow like it was a rap. The poem talks the truth about how money is really perceived by most of the people around the world. Money is really powerful like the poem says, it does not need to be a human to be powerful. The writer makes it sound like money is an actual person controlling lives with using personification. -Armando Contreras
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Script Poem" by Rosemary Griggs because it is not your average poem. All poems typically give off the same message, look pretty similar, or just scare students away. However, "Script Poem", does not do any of these things. In fact, it does not even look like a poem because it doesn't have any stanzas. It is formatted as if it is a script to a movie. There are also no enjammed lines. All of the lines are end stop lines because that helps make the poem look more like a script than a poem itself. The "Script Poem" also acts as a narrative, it provides a story to the reader. Honestly, I do not really know what would make this a poem, other than the fact that it uses a ton of imagery. - Jeff Ice
I've been reading countless poems on poets.org for hours. I wanted to find one that spoke to me. I finally came across a poem called "Rooms Remembered" by Laure-Anne Bosselaar. The poem is about trying to remember someone you've lost. It starts off with the lines, "I needed, for months after he died, to remember our rooms." After my older brother died, I hung on to everything that was his because I was so afraid to forget him. I'd drive to Springville, California and sit in his room for hours and try to remember our conversations, advice, and stories he'd tell me. But like Bosselaar says, "But tonight—as I stand in the doorway to his room/& stare at dusk settled there—/what I remember best is how, to throw my arms around his neck,/I needed to stand on the tip of my toes," sometimes remembering the insignificant details of someone is the only way to keep the memory of them alive.
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "I've Always Enjoyed Her Sense of Humor" by Gerald Locklin because it's simple but says a lot. He states "she's an old friend," so they have history that we don't know, and then proceeds by saying he doesn't see her much, implying that they both went separate ways. Then my favorite part happens. He explains how he's talking to some girl, and how his friend does some great acting and yells "Where is the child support," but instead of getting mad or upset about it, he enjoyed the performance. That little piece gives us a taste of the kind of relationship they have. It didn't matter if he didn't see her often, and it didn't matter however she presented herself. He enjoyed "her sense of humor" and seems to always will.
Woodman, I’ve been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem “Kickball” by Amy Uyematsu because of the way she perceives ignorance in life. Her inability to perceive threats and then comparing these mature situations with being hit in the face with a ball as a kid is humorous if not somewhat sad. Many of us have flaws or aspects of ourselves that we similarly will never be able to change. Her perspective is interesting, though, as the comparison to kickball in childhood makes me think she’s demeaning herself in some way. It’s a sad irony that we can recognize our faults without changing them.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake, and I really like the poem "Sonnet for Austin" because of the visual imagery used. It might not have been very long but it was very well written. The poem clearly stating how much the author loves the person they wrote it for whether it was her first love or her husband.
The poem I read was from the book The best American Poetry 2014. I chose the poem, It is to have or nothing by Olena davis. It reads, "o creamy cloud, indecision, I love you. I love you. I love you." I think that the repeation of I love really helps express the passion that the poet was feeling.
I’ve been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond and the poem I really like is Confessions of a Pseudo-Chicana by Liz Gonzalez. I really liked this poem because it was from a Mexican American woman just like me, and the identity crisis she was going through is something I’ve gone through several times in my life. Constantly wondering if I’m “American” enough for my white friends, but also at the same time constantly critiqued by family members for being some kind of traitor to my culture and upbringing, a gringa. It’s a struggle coming from one background yet growing up and being surrounded by the culture of another. Like Gonzalez I know very little about my heritage and while I’m adequate at Spanish I’m not fluent. It feels nice knowing I’m not alone in that feeling. I especially liked the line “help me from turning into a vendida with blue contacts.” A vendida by the way is someone who has “sold out” or given up their Mexican culture for the Anglo American one, which is something that always worry me. I don’t want to forget who I am. I want to embrace it. I just found that this poem really hit home for me on a lot of different feelings and worries I’ve had growing up as a Mexican American.
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Rape Joke" because the use of repetition of the rape joke. Lockwood was telling a story about herself that she was raped by a goatee inside the poem. I liked how she alternated between first person and third person throughout the poem. As i continued to read, I began to replace "the rape joke" with a name and it started to become more clearly that she was telling the story about the man with the goatee.
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014, and I really like the poem “In My Last Past Life” because of the interesting visual imagery that is used to describe where the writer lived in her past life. I also like how the poem involves nature such as a forest and river and how the writer gives it an important significance or feeling to them. There are also some objects used that are linked to an emotion such as a lantern as a meaning of hope. These connections with the objects that the writer used really stood out to me as it gave me a better understanding of the feelings the writer is trying to convey.
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Blue Vase" by Cynthia Zarin because it reminded me of the nuances that couples share with one another in preference to certain rituals, and it made me feel that the two beings interacting could have been the future and past reconciling with one another in a dream state while the vase transforming into the crystal ball may represent the metamorphosis of the experience through the day shape a person at night.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "The Four Food Groups in Grandma's Summer Lunches" because it made me laugh. The poem reminds me of my own grandma. I really liked how she formatted the words into a pyramid like a food pyramid. She also ends it with how children are starving in China which could possibly lead to thinking the poem has a deeper meaning on a socioeconomic level.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Pitch This" by Molly Bendall because of how she brings the poem to life with her use of visual imagery. My favorite line from the poem was "I'd make an easy do-it-yourself video/if only I had a camera". I liked it because it had a twist of humor to it that Bendall used throughout the whole poem making it an entertaining poem to read.
I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Sycamore" by Mitchell Untch because the first two stanzas of the poem were very deep and beautiful to me. I also enjoyed that accompanied by his first poem, this poem really makes me feel like I know the poet, or at least know who he was in high school. I also liked how there was no real clear angle coming from the poem "Sycamore", but I was still able to take so much from it.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Wanda why aren't you dead" by Wanda Coleman because I could just feel the nagging from the narrator to Wanda. Being nagged is a relatable situation and the 2nd person narration makes this poem that much better because every nag the narrator was grilling Wanda with, the narrator says Wanda's name making it that much more personal. The poem started off sort of comedic but then when the question arose of "why aren't you dead yet"; it just seemed like the narrator just came off as bully. This poem spoke to me because I could just feel and relate to the nagging Wanda was receiving. Just annoyed and done with the conversation.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond and I really like the poem "Make a Poem" by Harry E. Northup. I liked this poem because it was a poem, about how to write poems. It talks about how poems can be written from an experience, a memory, a fear, and more. One of the lines talks about how poems are made from other poems. This reminded me of the Ted talk we watched when the guy said that nothing is completely original. It's all beginning to make sense now.
Woodman, I've been reading "Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond", and I really like the poem "Please?" by Robert Mezey because the end of every line rhymes. It creates a constant repetition of that same sound. Also, I liked that it was just one stanza of 14 lines. Which makes me wonder if that is a reference to Valentine's Day.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond and I really like the poem "My Love Wants to Park" by Eloise Klein Healy because I enjoy the way the author kind of "personifies" the speaker's love as a car. It's a funny poem and it kind of seems like the speaker is blaming the car for their kind of obsessive behavior. I like the lines "Try to stay away from the back seat" and "I had to pull the wires after it learned to 'a-uugah' at the sight of your address." The last line is kind of mysterious and the 'a-uugah brings me back to old timey cartoons.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem Extraction by Kim Dower because I can relate to the poem's narrative. Given that I have had recently removed my wisdom teeth and also had a root canal, I can relate to the literal imagery conveyed throughout the poem as Dower details her experience with the dentist. Foremost, the poem has an inspirational theme about overcoming both emotional and physical pain. Her poem's ending I find beautiful as Dower uses the story of enduring routine dental work to teach an important life lesson.
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem The Outsider by Sholeh Wolpe because it touches on people who feel different from everyone else around them while h is what make the world a very unique place especially living in America. The poems mention how the person knows how it feels like not to be an American and you can feel her stumbles but now has overcome that guilt and happy to call herself an American. One line in the poem caught my eye and was quite funny because it was an Arabic word written in English. The word was Ingleesee which is how Arabs pronounce the word English.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Kickball" by Amy Uyematsu because of how humorous the writing is and it made me laugh a little; however, it also made me feel bad for the girl and that's mainly from the way she's being portrayed here. Pretty oblivious and blind to reality even though, in the end, she's slowly starting to see the world around her in a new light.
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "The Four Food Groups in Grandma's Summer Lunches" because of its interesting pyramid structure (no doubt to relate to the food pyramid), and because it reminded me of the frugality of my upbringing & my love for re-boiled spinach with a knob of butter.
Woodman, I have been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really enjoyed the poem "Some Scars"" by Wendy C. Ortiz. The poem talks about romance and a couples struggle to maintain a healthy long distance relationship while his/her partner is out of the country. The language that is used in the poem such as the phrase "...so I took a shower by candlelight, my friend watching, blowing out the flame" adds a sense of intimacy and also rebellion. Who is the "friend" they speak about? The speaker is implying that she/he is cheating on their significant other by stating "I led my friend to bed, and the room glowed with the undoing" which leads the reader to assume that for reasons of loneliness or a need to be loved during the time being, cheating was acceptable. The poem questions the core foundation of a relationship and the concept of infidelity. Reading on, "The instant I met his eyes at the airport, he knew" implies that once the speaker met up with their partner, the secret was out. The rest of the poem evokes feelings of sympathy towards the man who was cheated on and creates a biased opinion about the speaker. "I came home to a room of confetti: my love notes turned on me" highlights the anger and hostility the man felt towards his lover-whom I assumed he loved and trusted but no longer could move forward with someone who did not reciprocate the same emotions. I enjoyed the poem because of its structure and feelings of sympathy and frustration it evoked from reading.
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "I've Always Enjoyed Her Sense of Humor" because I didn't read the title until I was done with the poem. The tone of the poem is completely different with the title. I also like how the poem is open ended. Is the "old friend" a memory of a girl thats has "a way of showing up" by popping into up into head every now and then, or is Gerald Locklin talking literally about her? Does/did the girl ask about the child support only to be funny, or also because she wanted to be with the persona of the poem and was jealous of the girls the persona was speaking to. The poem leaves me wondering about the dynamic of the relationship and why they are no longer friends. Is she an old friend because she died? Because she is no longer a friend but now a lover? -Alexandra Darling
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and I really like the poem "Emerald Spider Between Rose Thorns" because the poem well first uses so many imagery words. I can really see explicitly the words and images that the author is trying to create in each line. I also like it because the author is telling a story, giving a meaning to every line that is someway we could translate and relate to our own lives.
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem, "The Four Food Groups in Grandmas Summer lunches." The food pyramid visual adds to the poems reflection on grandmothers and how they feed their grandchildren. Grandmothers value frugality and efficiency whereas the food group necessitates variety. The contrash makes the poem relatable.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Thumb in the Door" by Hilda Weiss. I like it because it reminds me of time I was being completely chaotic and stupid: I was 7 years old, and I was arguing with my mom. I don't even remember about what, but I remember I was so mad that I stuck my middle finger in the door, slammed it shut... and screamed as if the end times had come! I look back and this moment and laugh at my naive idiocy, and now that I've read this poem, I have about 8 different ways to describe my finger when the door was re-opened: "A what-were-you-thinking thumb" to name one of them. If you're ever curious about the damage done to my finger, I'll show you the scar (which is still quite prominent).
P.S. feel free to laugh if need be... I'm laughing as I type this so no hard feelings :)
The poem ive enjoyed while reading Poets of Los Angeles is Azusa Boulevard by Toni Barstone. Being a person who grew up in the stgreets of LA, the imagery of this story was so capturing to me. My favorite line was " The lots of polished marked-down cars below the freeway". This was so lasting to me because there was a particular car lot that we always passed and i knew that when i turned 18, i would buy my car there. I never did buy that car but i definitely do smirk every time i pass it. Alicia Martin
I was searching for one of my poem's online and came across this page. I'm delighted to see that people enjoyed my poem, "The Four Food Groups of Grandma's Summer Lunches," and to read the insightful responses. I'm glad you read Wide Awake. It's a magnificent collection of poetry, even if my work wasn't included.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem “The Four Food Groups in Grandma’s Summer Lunches” because of the way the author structures her lines. The visual image of the food pyramid gives the reader insight into how contrasting her grandmother’s idea of a good lunch is with the publicized, cookie cutter notion of a balanced lunch, based on the food pyramid.
ReplyDelete- Sarana McDaniel
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014, and I like the poem The Blues Is a Verb by Spillway because of the way the author their play on imagery. I can picture everything the author is saying and relate to it when it comes to the one place you make your own. It gives all the darkness surrounding a new meaning through the imagery that is presented with it.
ReplyDelete~Marqualla Thomas
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem Wanda Why Aren't You Dead by Wanda Coleman because repetition, and the use of second person structures the poem in a very powerful way that tugs on your emotions. The author of the poem, Wanda Coleman, puts you in the shoes of Wanda, the main character of the poem, and also gives a lot of insight to Wanda's situation without literally saying what is going on.
ReplyDeleteWoodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Make a Poem" by Harry E. Northup because the repetition like every line started the same but you know the ending is going to be a suggestion on what to make a poem about. I really liked this it was like basically telling you to write about anything and everything, every feeling, every experience.
ReplyDelete--Ranay Knight
Thank you, Ranay.
DeleteHarry E. Northup
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angels and Beyond, and I really like the poem Thumb in the Door by Hilda Weiss because I like the visual imagery she used. The way the poem started got me really hooked on how she was describing a thumb. When she mentioned Yosemite I remembered to when I went. It just felt like I was there again. Also the way she used like objects, people, and expressions to describe what a thumb does.
ReplyDeleteWoodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "I've Always Enjoyed Her Sense of Humor," by Gerald Locklin because the play on humor to a typically tragic family situation is enlightening and refreshing. It plays on an angry ex-wife who has an uncanny timeliness of barging in on her ex-husbands dates to ask for a child support check. What I love is that it is from the man's point of view, and the title, which allows the reader to believe that once upon a time they actually got along really well.
ReplyDeleteWoodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and I really like the poem "Conspiracy (to Breath Together)" by Camille Dungy because even though there are obvious differences between the speaker and myself as the reader, I can still relate to the feelings of self consciousness that she expresses. "I walk every day with my daughter and wonder / what is happening in other people's minds. Half the time / I am filled with terror. Half the time I am full of myself." I get the feeling that the speaker is of mixed races, possibly African-American and Caucasian and so she doesn't fit into either category specifically and always feels like she's being judged based on that. I, on the other hand, just have terrible anxiety. But that one line in particular just resonates with me because I always wonder what people think (particularly of me) when I pass them as I walk to class or when I go to the grocery store and pass them in the aisles. I fear what they think but I also wonder if I'm even significant in such situations to even cross their minds? And that's what I think the speaker means in that line "I am filled with terror. Half the time I am full of myself."
ReplyDeleteKristin Galetano
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Big Band Slow Dance" by William Mohr because I can relate to what is being portrayed. I was adopted at the age of 10, and in the process I was separated from my big brother Jon (he's 5 years older than me). I'm still not used to waking up without my brother in the top bunk of our bed.
ReplyDeleteJon and I were inseparable - kind of like how Yin can't exist without Yang - we were extremely close. When we were in foster care, we were together. But one day this family walking in and said "We want to adopt her," but they refused to take my brother. That's when we were separated.
The poem says, "Further apart two men could never meet." Replace "men" with "siblings" and that's my story.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Confessions of a Pseudo-Chicana" because it reminds me of my childhood. I grew up in a biracial home and never really felt like I belonged to the Hispanic side despite its influence being ever present growing up. The imagery from the poem may not have been very vivid, but the narrative was very easy for me to relate to.
ReplyDelete--Steven Dessenberger
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Dear Professor" written by David Hernandez because it is such a light hearted, funny poem. It is a lot different, tone wise, to most of the poems we have read in class. I also like it because it is relatable because we are all in college, and at some point we have all sent our professors an email trying to explain why we have been absent so much or why they should accept our late assignment that is full of bull. I think it is just a funny straightforward poem which I really appreciate because I do not really like sad depressing poems with a hidden meaning. My favorite lines from the poem were" but first I need to pass your class. No pressure. Honestly. No pressure"
ReplyDelete-Sandra Torres
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Dark" by Eloise Klein Healy because of the personification of darkness. I really like the tone, too. I can feel the anxiety the speaker has about darkness and where his or her imaginations takes them.
ReplyDeleteWoodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Hope" by Majid Naficy because I can relate to it the most. To me her use of flower is so symbolic of herself, her growth and the cricket is a symbol of her passed self, her success.
ReplyDeleteI also really liked the poem "How to Get to Heaven" by Bill Hickok. This poem really stood out to me because if you've been on any of these freeways during the weekday from 6:30am-10am or 11:30am-2pm or 4pm-8pm its a very slow, steady, eye straining drive. I love how the poet gives an allusion that its just that easy to get to heaven like a actual roadmap but also by taking these freeways its a long but worth it drive if you make it. I also love the imagery of the house you are looking for, this bright and colorful house, emphasizing that God is light.
Woodman, I've been reading through Wide Awake, and I've found a few poems that I've enjoyed, in particular "The Outsider" by Sholeh Wolpe. With so few lines, it speaks volumes. I found it to be heavily based on the idea of relativity, but ends with the idea of individuality. To be done in such a direct and concise way really made this poem stand out for me.
ReplyDeleteWoodman, I've been reading poems on Poets.org, and I really like the poem "somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond" by E.E. Cummings because he writes about an idyllic love through the visuals of nature. Cummings uses words, such as gardens and flowers to represent symbols of his lover. I like it because the tone of the poem is lovely. It's also relatable because when you love someone, sometimes that's what you see - a flower. For myself, at the least, when I love someone, no matter how flawed they are, I see everything but good. My favorite line is "i do not know what it is about you that closes
ReplyDeleteand opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands" because he does not understand what welcomes him. The "small hands" refer to his lovers ability to reach into the smallest part of his human being, the inner chambers of his heart, to touch him as nothing else can. I like to believe that's a part of the exploration of love.
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014, and I really like the poem “Bird, Singing” because of the speaker’s use of visual imagery depicting objects that come from the sea, as well as the references to birds, which I always find particularly intriguing in works of poetry. The speaker’s references to death as they are tied to things of the sea also stand out to me in this poem, as do the lines “Until you sever the thing, from self, it feels. / Thereafter it belongs to none,” which is ultimately set apart from the poem itself, offering a greater message within the poem. I also enjoyed the final line of the poem, where the speaker asks a question, whether it is directed to the reader or the birds, whose song she has just interpreted.
ReplyDeleteWoodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem “Thumb in the Door” because it shows the thumbs history. We as people normally take everyday things for granted especially those things we are born with. We use them over and over again and we just seen them as a part of ourselves and see it as one big picture rather than focus on a single detail in the picture. The thumb is a small, single piece of our body but it is also very important and used often in our everyday actions. We may not realize just how often we use our thumb or as to what extent we use it, but this poem shows just how one small part of something can represent the big picture. It uses the thumb to describe the person who uses it by saying things such as the thumb being working class and a Yosemite climb thumb. In the end the person realizes how important the thumb is to her once she hurts it and is unable to fully use it until it heals. Sometimes we do not realize how important something is until it is gone. This relates to me because no matter how much I want to appreciate every little thing I have in life, I always somehow end up taking of it for granted in the end.
ReplyDelete-James Dy
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Money" by Wallace Stevens because I love money and the way the poem had a flow like it was a rap. The poem talks the truth about how money is really perceived by most of the people around the world. Money is really powerful like the poem says, it does not need to be a human to be powerful. The writer makes it sound like money is an actual person controlling lives with using personification.
ReplyDelete-Armando Contreras
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Script Poem" by Rosemary Griggs because it is not your average poem. All poems typically give off the same message, look pretty similar, or just scare students away. However, "Script Poem", does not do any of these things. In fact, it does not even look like a poem because it doesn't have any stanzas. It is formatted as if it is a script to a movie. There are also no enjammed lines. All of the lines are end stop lines because that helps make the poem look more like a script than a poem itself. The "Script Poem" also acts as a narrative, it provides a story to the reader. Honestly, I do not really know what would make this a poem, other than the fact that it uses a ton of imagery.
ReplyDelete- Jeff Ice
I've been reading countless poems on poets.org for hours. I wanted to find one that spoke to me. I finally came across a poem called "Rooms Remembered" by Laure-Anne Bosselaar. The poem is about trying to remember someone you've lost. It starts off with the lines, "I needed, for months after he died, to remember our rooms." After my older brother died, I hung on to everything that was his because I was so afraid to forget him. I'd drive to Springville, California and sit in his room for hours and try to remember our conversations, advice, and stories he'd tell me. But like Bosselaar says, "But tonight—as I stand in the doorway to his room/& stare at dusk settled there—/what I remember best is how, to throw my arms around his neck,/I needed to stand on the tip of my toes," sometimes remembering the insignificant details of someone is the only way to keep the memory of them alive.
ReplyDeleteWoodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "I've Always Enjoyed Her Sense of Humor" by Gerald Locklin because it's simple but says a lot. He states "she's an old friend," so they have history that we don't know, and then proceeds by saying he doesn't see her much, implying that they both went separate ways. Then my favorite part happens. He explains how he's talking to some girl, and how his friend does some great acting and yells "Where is the child support," but instead of getting mad or upset about it, he enjoyed the performance. That little piece gives us a taste of the kind of relationship they have. It didn't matter if he didn't see her often, and it didn't matter however she presented herself. He enjoyed "her sense of humor" and seems to always will.
ReplyDelete- Hugo Hernandez
Woodman, I’ve been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem “Kickball” by Amy Uyematsu because of the way she perceives ignorance in life. Her inability to perceive threats and then comparing these mature situations with being hit in the face with a ball as a kid is humorous if not somewhat sad. Many of us have flaws or aspects of ourselves that we similarly will never be able to change. Her perspective is interesting, though, as the comparison to kickball in childhood makes me think she’s demeaning herself in some way. It’s a sad irony that we can recognize our faults without changing them.
ReplyDelete-Michael Harp
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake, and I really like the poem "Sonnet for Austin" because of the visual imagery used. It might not have been very long but it was very well written. The poem clearly stating how much the author loves the person they wrote it for whether it was her first love or her husband.
ReplyDelete-Crystal Magana
The poem I read was from the book The best American Poetry 2014. I chose the poem, It is to have or nothing by Olena davis. It reads, "o creamy cloud, indecision, I love you. I love you. I love you." I think that the repeation of I love really helps express the passion that the poet was feeling.
ReplyDelete-Ivori Holson
I’ve been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond and the poem I really like is Confessions of a Pseudo-Chicana by Liz Gonzalez. I really liked this poem because it was from a Mexican American woman just like me, and the identity crisis she was going through is something I’ve gone through several times in my life. Constantly wondering if I’m “American” enough for my white friends, but also at the same time constantly critiqued by family members for being some kind of traitor to my culture and upbringing, a gringa. It’s a struggle coming from one background yet growing up and being surrounded by the culture of another. Like Gonzalez I know very little about my heritage and while I’m adequate at Spanish I’m not fluent. It feels nice knowing I’m not alone in that feeling. I especially liked the line “help me from turning into a vendida with blue contacts.” A vendida by the way is someone who has “sold out” or given up their Mexican culture for the Anglo American one, which is something that always worry me. I don’t want to forget who I am. I want to embrace it. I just found that this poem really hit home for me on a lot of different feelings and worries I’ve had growing up as a Mexican American.
ReplyDelete- Stephanie Borges
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Rape Joke" because the use of repetition of the rape joke. Lockwood was telling a story about herself that she was raped by a goatee inside the poem. I liked how she alternated between first person and third person throughout the poem. As i continued to read, I began to replace "the rape joke" with a name and it started to become more clearly that she was telling the story about the man with the goatee.
ReplyDelete- Gerson Bello
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014, and I really like the poem “In My Last Past Life” because of the interesting visual imagery that is used to describe where the writer lived in her past life. I also like how the poem involves nature such as a forest and river and how the writer gives it an important significance or feeling to them. There are also some objects used that are linked to an emotion such as a lantern as a meaning of hope. These connections with the objects that the writer used really stood out to me as it gave me a better understanding of the feelings the writer is trying to convey.
ReplyDelete- Mariela Andrade
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Blue Vase" by Cynthia Zarin because it reminded me of the nuances that couples share with one another in preference to certain rituals, and it made me feel that the two beings interacting could have been the future and past reconciling with one another in a dream state while the vase transforming into the crystal ball may represent the metamorphosis of the experience through the day shape a person at night.
ReplyDeleteBrenda Yimm
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "The Four Food Groups in Grandma's Summer Lunches" because it made me laugh. The poem reminds me of my own grandma. I really liked how she formatted the words into a pyramid like a food pyramid. She also ends it with how children are starving in China which could possibly lead to thinking the poem has a deeper meaning on a socioeconomic level.
ReplyDeleteWoodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Pitch This" by Molly Bendall because of how she brings the poem to life with her use of visual imagery. My favorite line from the poem was "I'd make an easy do-it-yourself video/if only I had a camera". I liked it because it had a twist of humor to it that Bendall used throughout the whole poem making it an entertaining poem to read.
ReplyDelete-Arcely Ramos
I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Sycamore" by Mitchell Untch because the first two stanzas of the poem were very deep and beautiful to me. I also enjoyed that accompanied by his first poem, this poem really makes me feel like I know the poet, or at least know who he was in high school. I also liked how there was no real clear angle coming from the poem "Sycamore", but I was still able to take so much from it.
ReplyDeleteWoodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Wanda why aren't you dead" by Wanda Coleman because I could just feel the nagging from the narrator to Wanda. Being nagged is a relatable situation and the 2nd person narration makes this poem that much better because every nag the narrator was grilling Wanda with, the narrator says Wanda's name making it that much more personal. The poem started off sort of comedic but then when the question arose of "why aren't you dead yet"; it just seemed like the narrator just came off as bully. This poem spoke to me because I could just feel and relate to the nagging Wanda was receiving. Just annoyed and done with the conversation.
ReplyDelete-Pablo Casas
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond and I really like the poem "Make a Poem" by Harry E. Northup. I liked this poem because it was a poem, about how to write poems. It talks about how poems can be written from an experience, a memory, a fear, and more. One of the lines talks about how poems are made from other poems. This reminded me of the Ted talk we watched when the guy said that nothing is completely original. It's all beginning to make sense now.
ReplyDelete-Teo Chiesa
Woodman, I've been reading "Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond", and I really like the poem "Please?" by Robert Mezey because the end of every line rhymes. It creates a constant repetition of that same sound. Also, I liked that it was just one stanza of 14 lines. Which makes me wonder if that is a reference to Valentine's Day.
ReplyDelete-Jasmin Leon
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond and I really like the poem "My Love Wants to Park" by Eloise Klein Healy because I enjoy the way the author kind of "personifies" the speaker's love as a car. It's a funny poem and it kind of seems like the speaker is blaming the car for their kind of obsessive behavior. I like the lines "Try to stay away from the back seat" and "I had to pull the wires after it learned to 'a-uugah' at the sight of your address." The last line is kind of mysterious and the 'a-uugah brings me back to old timey cartoons.
ReplyDelete-Iesha Clouden
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem Extraction by Kim Dower because I can relate to the poem's narrative. Given that I have had recently removed my wisdom teeth and also had a root canal, I can relate to the literal imagery conveyed throughout the poem as Dower details her experience with the dentist. Foremost, the poem has an inspirational theme about overcoming both emotional and physical pain. Her poem's ending I find beautiful as Dower uses the story of enduring routine dental work to teach an important life lesson.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteMONDAY, JANUARY 11, 2016
Poem that Speaks to Me
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem The Outsider by Sholeh Wolpe because it touches on people who feel different from everyone else around them while h is what make the world a very unique place especially living in America. The poems mention how the person knows how it feels like not to be an American and you can feel her stumbles but now has overcome that guilt and happy to call herself an American. One line in the poem caught my eye and was quite funny because it was an Arabic word written in English. The word was Ingleesee which is how Arabs pronounce the word English.
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Kickball" by Amy Uyematsu because of how humorous the writing is and it made me laugh a little; however, it also made me feel bad for the girl and that's mainly from the way she's being portrayed here. Pretty oblivious and blind to reality even though, in the end, she's slowly starting to see the world around her in a new light.
ReplyDelete-Ashley Green
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "The Four Food Groups in Grandma's Summer Lunches" because of its interesting pyramid structure (no doubt to relate to the food pyramid), and because it reminded me of the frugality of my upbringing & my love for re-boiled spinach with a knob of butter.
ReplyDelete-Andrew Van Bindsbergen ~
Woodman, I have been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really enjoyed the poem "Some Scars"" by Wendy C. Ortiz. The poem talks about romance and a couples struggle to maintain a healthy long distance relationship while his/her partner is out of the country. The language that is used in the poem such as the phrase "...so I took a shower by candlelight, my friend watching, blowing out the flame" adds a sense of intimacy and also rebellion. Who is the "friend" they speak about? The speaker is implying that she/he is cheating on their significant other by stating "I led my friend to bed, and the room glowed with the undoing" which leads the reader to assume that for reasons of loneliness or a need to be loved during the time being, cheating was acceptable. The poem questions the core foundation of a relationship and the concept of infidelity. Reading on, "The instant I met his eyes at the airport, he knew" implies that once the speaker met up with their partner, the secret was out. The rest of the poem evokes feelings of sympathy towards the man who was cheated on and creates a biased opinion about the speaker. "I came home to a room of confetti: my love notes turned on me" highlights the anger and hostility the man felt towards his lover-whom I assumed he loved and trusted but no longer could move forward with someone who did not reciprocate the same emotions. I enjoyed the poem because of its structure and feelings of sympathy and frustration it evoked from reading.
ReplyDeleteWoodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "I've Always Enjoyed Her Sense of Humor" because I didn't read the title until I was done with the poem. The tone of the poem is completely different with the title. I also like how the poem is open ended. Is the "old friend" a memory of a girl thats has "a way of showing up" by popping into up into head every now and then, or is Gerald Locklin talking literally about her? Does/did the girl ask about the child support only to be funny, or also because she wanted to be with the persona of the poem and was jealous of the girls the persona was speaking to. The poem leaves me wondering about the dynamic of the relationship and why they are no longer friends. Is she an old friend because she died? Because she is no longer a friend but now a lover?
ReplyDelete-Alexandra Darling
Woodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and I really like the poem "Emerald Spider Between Rose Thorns" because the poem well first uses so many imagery words. I can really see explicitly the words and images that the author is trying to create in each line. I also like it because the author is telling a story, giving a meaning to every line that is someway we could translate and relate to our own lives.
ReplyDeleteWoodman, I've been reading The Best American Poetry 2014 and/or Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem, "The Four Food Groups in Grandmas Summer lunches." The food pyramid visual adds to the poems reflection on grandmothers and how they feed their grandchildren. Grandmothers value frugality and efficiency whereas the food group necessitates variety. The contrash makes the poem relatable.
ReplyDelete-Alee Gonzalez
Woodman, I've been reading Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and I really like the poem "Thumb in the Door" by Hilda Weiss. I like it because it reminds me of time I was being completely chaotic and stupid: I was 7 years old, and I was arguing with my mom. I don't even remember about what, but I remember I was so mad that I stuck my middle finger in the door, slammed it shut... and screamed as if the end times had come! I look back and this moment and laugh at my naive idiocy, and now that I've read this poem, I have about 8 different ways to describe my finger when the door was re-opened: "A what-were-you-thinking thumb" to name one of them. If you're ever curious about the damage done to my finger, I'll show you the scar (which is still quite prominent).
ReplyDeleteP.S. feel free to laugh if need be... I'm laughing as I type this so no hard feelings :)
The poem ive enjoyed while reading Poets of Los Angeles is Azusa Boulevard by Toni Barstone. Being a person who grew up in the stgreets of LA, the imagery of this story was so capturing to me. My favorite line was " The lots of polished marked-down cars below the freeway". This was so lasting to me because there was a particular car lot that we always passed and i knew that when i turned 18, i would buy my car there. I never did buy that car but i definitely do smirk every time i pass it.
ReplyDeleteAlicia Martin
I was searching for one of my poem's online and came across this page. I'm delighted to see that people enjoyed my poem, "The Four Food Groups of Grandma's Summer Lunches," and to read the insightful responses. I'm glad you read Wide Awake. It's a magnificent collection of poetry, even if my work wasn't included.
ReplyDelete