Reflection

When we first started the poetry unit, I was nervous about writing. I've never felt that poetry was my strongest point, although I enjoy to read it. After this project, however, I am more confident in my poetry skills. They helped me to express myself. One of my favorites was my Borrowed poem. I've never been one to cry and my best friend asks me all the time why I'm not, and this poem helped me to explain to myself and to her why I don't. It was also fun to write about swimming in my Double Trio. I also like it because it doesn't just apply to me, but could apply to many others as well. My most favorite was probably my Emotional Animal. I love to read poems that use metaphors because I like to see the comparisons between the two objects and I'm proud that I could make one up myself. In this unit, I not only learned how to strengthen my writing, but I also learned about myself. My blog expresses me: it shares what I love and what annoys me, my wants, flaws, and my feelings about the world and my feelings toward myself. I am glad that I was able to blog about poetry: a simple form of writing that can say a lot.

Analysis

Song of Powers by David Mason

Mine, said the stone,
mine is the hour.
I crush the scissors,
such is my power.
Stronger than wishes
my power, alone.

Mine, said the paper,
mine are the words
that smother the stone
with imagined birds,
reams of them, flown
from the mind of the shaper.

Mine, said the scissors
mine all the knives
gashing through paper's
ethereal lives;
nothing's so proper
as tattering wishes

As stone crushes scissors,
as paper snuffs stone
and scissors cut paper,
all end alone.
So heap up your paper
and scissor your wishes
and uproot the stone
from the top of the hill.
They all end alone
as you will, you will.

When I read this poem, one word I needed to know was ethereal which means extremely delicate. In context, ethereal helps to describe paper's lives. The literal interpretation of this poem is the speaker tell the story of stone, paper and scissors and describes their power. Then he warns about the danger they put themselves in by having this power. The idea of power flows throughout the poem and gives the poem it's title, Song of Powers. David Mason creates layers of meaning by using personification of the stone, paper, and scissors when they talk and he also uses all three as metaphors for power. The author also uses rhyme with using words like hour and power, paper and shaper, hill and will. Although there is a lot of end rhyme, it is not consistent, so the poem is free verse. The speaker of this poem is a man talking about the dangers of power. The speaker could be the author, but the poem doesn't have any specifics about the author. The shift occurs after the third stanza. I know this because the author stops telling the story of stone, paper, and scissors to sharing his own opinions and warnings about their power. This leads to the tone: warning. The speaker is warning about the outcome of too much power: loneliness. He also gives advice about what to do with this power, "... heap up your paper and scissor your wishes...". From the tone, I developed the theme of the poem which is power is powerful and dangerous. Although it is nice to have you could end up alone because of the selfish desire to be on top. The symbols of rock, paper, and scissors helped with the theme as well. The game of rock, paper, scissors is a very strict game; there are no if's, and's, or but's. If you apply the rules of the game to power, power becomes the most dangerous kind.

Emotional Animal

Anger. It's a cat looking out a window.
No purpose. Indifferent.
A cat bored with the world
Intent with making everything in it miserable.
Suddenly, he jumps from his perch
Then he is gone.

Tanka

Snow covers the ground

Sweet scents fill up the house

Rosey cheeks appear

Bright lights come up all around

Ah, Christmas has come to town

ABC

Amazing!
But can't do.
Eat frog? Gee, how?
I jump knowing last.
Maybe newt
or possibly quail, rare.
Seriously, toad?
Unique.
Very wacky
Xtremely yucky.
Zoinks.

In Charge of the World

If I were in charge of the world
Hot water wouldn't run cold,
snooze buttons would freeze time,
and zits would disappear in an hour.

If I were in charge of the world
"Huggle" would be a word,
a mirror would be fun to look in,
and clothes would just be something we put on.

If I were in charge of the world
Laughter would be the only drug,
respect would be the norm,
and knives never placed in a back.

If I were in charge of the world
Emotion would be acceptable
a spoon full of sugar would make everything better,
and the world would be colorful.

Only if I were in charge of the world.

Borrowed

Borrowed from Faith by David Baker

It was midday before we noticed it was morning

We were talking of nails, near fails, and life going by

Then she wondered, "Why don't you cry?"

I looked at her, said "I do."

She looked back and answered "A few."

"Why? Why should I?

Crying is weakness, is pain, is suffering." I sigh.
"Everyone cries," said my dear little friend
I crossed my arms in attempt to defend

"Like fathers and leaders,

boyfriends and teachers.
Crying is not weakness, that is untrue.
Even elephants cry, too."

Now I realize there needs to be mourning.