State of The Planet By Robert Hass...

The first time I read this poem I did not understand it very well at all. This poem is a great of example of why it is important to reread some things and also look up things that may not be understood. I used the links that Professor Corrigan gave us, to look up what some of the things meant. These were very helpful. But even after rereading it, reading it slowly through, and reading about some of the terms I was not familiar with I still did not understand the whole poem. And even though this poem may be complicated for some reason I still seem to like it. I definitely liked reading it while I was outside. I much rather sit outside and read something then sit indoors.

In the poem State of the Planet Hass starts out his poem with what is at hand… “Rain lashing the windshield” and a schoolgirl who “Negotiates a crosswalk in the wind, her hair flying.” Then from that image he pans out; “One of the six billion of her hungry and curious kind. Inside the backpack, dog-eared, full of illustrations, A book with a title like Getting to Know Your Planet.” Hass has masterfully set the scene for a discussion of the Earth; which he then continues with in the rest of the poem…

I also did a little bit of research and read

to learn more about Robert Hass.

Robert Hass, an American poet, born in San Francisco in 1941 was well known for his West Coast subject and attitude.  His mother was an alcoholic, which was a major topic in his 1996 collection, Sun Under Wood. It was his older brother who encouraged him to dedicate himself to his writings. He received his MA and Ph.D in English from Stanford University. 

Lectio Divina

I have heard of the lectio divina reading before. But I had only heard of doing it in reference to scripture. So doing this with a piece of literature was a different experience for me. But it does strike me how you can read something one time and read it again and get a new meaning out of the text.

Francis X. McAloon talks about his experience in Reeading for Transformation through the Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. He first encountered Gerard Manley Hopkins, a English Jesuit poet, in his English Literature class. In his first encounter with this author he struggled to comprehend Hopkins writings. Francis then encounters the same author later in his life when he is doing his doctoral studies. He then to began practicing Lectio Divina, focusing upon a sonnet or stanza from Hopkins’ corpus.  Francis developed a new appreciation for poetry and his practice of lectio with his poetry. It became a spiritual practice for him.   

I am still sometimes amazed how I can read something one time and then read it again and it mean something completely different or I get a whole new meaning out of it. Like sometimes when I read scripture I may read a verse or passage one time and then read it again later and it have a meaning to me that I didn’t comprehend before.

Although I don’t think I would personally practice lectio divino very often I do think it can be useful to do sometimes. I think it is hard for me to just sit down and read for transformation rather than read just to get the reading done with. I feel that sometimes my life does not allow time to do so. But I am beginning to realize the importance of taking time to read for more than just accomplishing a to do list.

“When a poem touches us deeply, in whatever way and for whatever reason, our existential horizon of understanding expands in some way” (Fracis X. McAloon). 

A "Sonny's Blues" scene

For class on Thursday we were asked to re-read a select scene fro James Baldwin “Sonny’s Blues”. I chose the scene on page 393.

            “...He hopes that there will never come a time when the old folks wont be sitting around the living room, talking about where they’ve come from, and what they’ve seen, and what’s happened to them and their kinfolk.

            But something deep and watchful in the child knows that this is bound to end, is already ending. In a moment someone will get up and turn on the light. Then the old folks will remember the children and they wont talk any more that day. And when light fills the room, the child is filled with darkness. He knows that every time this happens he’s moved just a little closer to that darkness outside. The darkness outside is what the old folks have been talking about. Its what they’ve come from. Its what they endure. The child knows that they won’t talk any more because if he knows too much about what’s happened to them, he’ll know too much too soon, about what’s going to happen to him….”

A child has a sense of innocence to him. They have not yet been exposed to the darkness of the world. But at some point the reality of the world will hit them/ they will experience it. The darkness is unavoidable, each person will uniquely experience/ learn of it at some point at some time in their life.  As each day goes by that child gets older and is closer to enduring what his parents have endured. But you don’t tell a child that he will experience pain and suffering at some point in his life. You don’t tell the child of the darkness that the world is filled with and the evil that people  are capable of.  But Parents try to shield their children from the darkness for as long as possible. Trying not to expose to much too soon about what’s going to happen to him…..

Sonny's Blues

Sonny’s Blues is a story about two brothers. The story is told from the view point of the older brother. Sonny  was seven years younger than his older brother. Their mother dies when Sonny was still in high school. Sonny seemed to have a very free spirit about him. The story starts off by him finding out that his brother has been busted for using heroin. At this time  Sonny and his brother have not talking for quite some time because of past arguments. The story then goes back in time, to him describing/ remembering past conversations/ events with his mother and Sonny.  It then describes when and how Sonny and him began to drift apart. Sonny loved to play the piano. But his brother did not truly think it was a credible way to make a living. Later on when the older brother goes through a tragic time in is life, as he lost his daughter, he decides to write Sonny. He loved his younger brother despite their differences. The story then begins to tell about the reunification of the brothers and how they begin to mend their relationship.

Sonny’s Blues  uses different instances of rhythm. Rhyme is a powerful means of achieving balance , contrast, or echo. Even though Rhymes  can effect the whole work it still  may function in very subtle ways. Different type of rhymes consist of the following: Full, perfect, masculine, feminine, assonance, consonance, slant, off, alliteration, internal, and end rhymes. “Sound and rhythm can have importance even when they have no apparent meaning” (379).

Examples of each are as follows:

Full or perfect rhymes- consists of the similarity of sounds in accented vowels and any consonants that follow-  Date, Fate

Masculine rhyme- the stress is on the final syllable of the words- clown, renown

 Feminine hyme- is one in which the final two syllables rhyme, the first rhyming syllable is stressed, and the final syllable is unstressed -

 Assonance rhyme- consists of a similarity in vowel sounds, but the consonants that follow differ-  diate, lake

 Consonance rhyme- strikes a similarity in the sounds of the final stressed consonant preceding  vowel differs- date, rite

 Slant or off rhymes- words that echo sounds in these ways

Alliteration rhymes- refers to the repetition of intial sounds in words-  date, dud

Internal rhymes- in the middle of a line

end rhymes- in the end of a line

Character based short story

Finding Love

By Erica Welch

The sun was shinning bright and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was a beautiful day out, not to hot and not to cold. I was waiting for a long time friend to meet me for our normal morning coffee at Starbucks. We had been friends for a little over ten years. We went to the same middle school and high school. We played varsity sports together through high school. She graduated a year ahead of me and we lost touch for a few years. We ended up going to the same college. First year we still didn’t get to hang out a lot because of our drastically different schedules. But we were the type of friends that months could go by with out us talking and when we talked again it was like we had just talked yesterday. We just picked up where we left off. During Shaza’s last semester of college we decided to get an apartment together. We lived together the next two years. She graduated from college the previous year and now had a full time job. Her job transferred her to the Southside of town. Because of the transfer she moved into an apartment on the other side to be closer and I stayed on the North side since it was close to my college and job. We were both sad to not share a place anymore. To ensure that we would still keep in contact even with our busy schedules we vowed to meet for coffee once a week. I was still finishing school and waitressing at night. Amidst both our busy schedules we managed to meet once a week. This was great because it gave us time to catch up with one another.

I was sitting outside at the Starbucks table sipping on my Caramel Macchiato. I saw Shaza walking from a distance. I waved to get her attention. She was running late as usual. She always seemed to be running late. Shaza had a very strong personality. Her presence was known in a room. Very loud and outgoing, she was not afraid to express what was on her mind to anyone. She was also very expressive with her emotions.

“Hi, good morning. How are you doing?” I said.

“Great, running late as usual.” She said with a laugh. “I’m going to order me a coffee.”

She put her stuff down and went to get in line. I sat there, looked around and observed the people around me. There was an elderly couple sitting together sipping on their hot coffee they would glance at each other and just smile. She would occasionally reach over and caress his hand. They are still in love I said to myself you could tell just by their expressions. Over to my left looked to be a middle-aged woman who had out her computer and was working diligently.

Shaza came back and sat down “Oh I’m never going to get married.” I knew her to be dramatic. But I asked, “What makes you say that?” “I’m going on 25 and I don’t even have a serious boyfriend” she replies.

“Your still young, you have plenty of time for marriage” I replied.

“Yes but I want a husband now! Ohh…I just want to find love. Do you think love just happens or do you have to find love?”

Before I could even give an answer or express a thought. She continued with “I want someone to be able to do the handy work around the house, you know do all that stuff a guy is suppose to do and I want to be a mom! So do you think you have to go out and find love and make it happen or does it just happen?”

I paused for a minute waiting to see if she was going to continue with questions. She was a very talkative person and known to just continue talking before anyone could answer a question. She didn’t say anything more. I thought about it. I realized I haven’t given much thought to “finding love” or even consider trying to pursue marriage. I was still in school, and would soon be moving to another location for graduate school. I was very career focused and did not leave much time for socializing and definitely didn’t leave any open possibilities for a relationship. I always thought a relationship would get me sidetracked from pursing my education. Finding Love definitely wasn’t my subject of expertise.

“Well…” I began to answer then I looked around at the different characteristics of couples around us. I glanced over at the elderly couple her were obviously still crazy in love with each other. Then there was the middle-aged couple that didn’t look happy. He was sitting there reading his paper and she was on her computer. They had seemed to be arguing about something when they walked in and since they sat down they hadn’t said a word to each other. Then there was the woman who seemed to be in her younger thirties. She was thin with long blond hair and pretty bright blue eyes. She didn’t have a wedding ring on. She sat there typing away on her computer with her brief case opened besides her. She had two cell phones sitting out on the table that hadn’t stopped going off since she sat down. Then there was the young couple, in their mid twenties, sitting behind us who couldn’t seem to get close enough to each other. They hadn’t taken their eyes off each other since they got there.

“I think when the time is right Love will happen.” I replied.

“Well I’m ready, so I’m ready to find love” Shaza replied with a smile. “I’m just ready to start my family. I know I’m picky, but why can’t my perfect guy just come across my path? Maybe I’m to picky…”

Shaza was a beautiful young woman. She had dark brown hair, dark brown eyes and a tan complexion. One thing she did know is what she wanted in a husband. But she wasn’t a very patient person.

“Don’t worry about ‘finding love’ it will happen when the time is right. You could always just focus on your career for now“ I replied.

“No I don’t want to be 30 and still unmarried and all I would have is my career” as she looks over at the woman with the two phones, computer, and briefcase out full of papers.

In that moment I wondered if that was going to be me in 8 years.

I Look at that old couple they are so in love. I know that’s how I want to be when I’m old, I though to myself.

“Do you think that young couple behind us has hope are they going to end up like that old couple or like that middle aged couple who still hadn’t spoken to each other.” I asked Shaza.

“Ohh they look so in love to. Of course they are going to stay that way forever.”

Sometimes I felt she always had such an unrealistic perspective on things. But she had such an optimistic perspective.

“Oh my gosh look at the time. I better be on my way.”

“Yes, me to!” I replied looking at the time.

“It was great talking. We will have to continue next time.” Shaza gathered her things. “I will see you next week. Same time and place?”

“Of course” I said with a smile.

“Great! You have a great day.” She said as she is walking off to her car.

“Bye”

On my way out, I couldn’t help but wonder was I going to be like that single woman engrossed in her career and single at 35. Or was love going to come find me and sweep me away. I always figured when the time was right love would just find me and it would happen, I didn’t need to take time to slow down and pursue love.

I went back to school, work, and my busy schedule. Another week went quickly by. It was already Monday again and I pulled up to Starbucks to meet Shaza for our weekly coffee. I was expecting to go find a table and wait for Shaza to arrive as normal. But as I got closer I saw her waving. She already had a seat. I was surprised she was normally late.

“Hey! Good morning. How are you?” She asked eagerly. ‘”Oh I already got you a coffee. A caramel macchiato.”

“Perfect, my favorite. Thank you” I replied.

“Oh I know” she said with a smile.

“So how was your week?” I asked.

“Oh it was great! I met somebody!”

“Wow really! So tell me about him…”

She began to tell me all about him and how they met. We then both realized the time and said our goodbyes and said until next week. Each week she would proceed in telling me all about her new relationship and how it was developing. It wasn’t to long after that they proceeded to a serious relationship. Then by the fifth week she said she thought they were getting serious. And she would tell me about how so in love they were. No more than four months had went by and she was talking about him possibly being “the one”. I was excited for her but also personally thought it was to soon to know something like that. By six months she was engaged. I knew she was happy and he made her happy. I had graduated and was now preparing for graduate school. In seeing one of my closest friends “find love” I couldn’t help but think about my personal love life.

I couldn’t help but think about that conversation we had at Starbucks six months prior. Does love just happen or does it have to be an effort? Did love just come across her path or because she wanted to find it did she subconsciously make the effort and pursue to find love?

"The Blessed House"

The Blessed House had two main characters in it, Sanjeev and Twinkle. They are a fairly newly wed  couple and just moved into a new house.  As they begin to unpack their household items twinkle begins to find Christian paraphernalia. It kind of becomes a game for Twinkle. She goes on a search to see what else she can find. Sanjeev is not to happy about the artifacts that she has found. He thinks they are tacky and wants to get rid of them all. He is frustrated by the fact that Twinkle wants to keep them and display them in their new house. He also stresses that they are not Christian that they are Hindu.

Sanjeev and Twinkle seemed to have very different personalities. Twinkle seemed to be more laid back and free spirited. She did not really care what other people thought of her. Sanjeev seemed to be more serious and care greatly what his coworkers and what others perception of them was. This was very apparent when they hosted the housewarming party.

It was obvious Sanjeev cared about what his co-workers and community though of him. That was one of the mane reasons that he did not want to leave the Christian stuff in the house because he thought it was tacky and questioned what people would think of them being Hindus and having Christian paraphernalia around their house and in their front yard.  Twinkle seemed to care less as she took the guest on a artifact hunt in her attic. And she proudly displayed the so called “tacky” items.  In the end Sanjeev and Twinkle came to a compromise.

I did find it interesting that Twinkle found so much Christian paraphernalia. It made me ask myself  “why did the previous owners leave so much stuff behind? And why was it in such random places? Was there a purpose behind it? Did they expect the new owners to find it?