Reader's Response "Love in Place"

"Love in Place" by Nikki Giovanni is a poem about the effects of love. I really like Nikki Giovanni's poem because it is simple and honest. She talks about how she knew she was in love by silly indicators such as refraining from biting her cuticles. I liked this part a lot because although it seems superficial, I can certainly relate!

When I have an active romantic interest in my life, I find that I take better care of myself, wanting to look and feel my best. This is partly because I know that someone else is counting on me. This concept applies to family love as well. When I am on good terms with my father, I am more likely to wear my seat belt, for I know that he is counting on me to be safe. When I am dating a man a care about, I am more likely to wash off all my makeup at night and eat more balanced meals. As ridiculous as this may seem, when others take an interest in me, I am more likely to take an interest in myself. This applies to both my appearance, my health, and my overall well-being.

The ultimate goal of love is to achieve happiness. When we are happy, small tasks tasks that would ordinarily seem mundane may become more exciting. Nikki Giovanni speaks of how this applied to her for when she was in love she baked corn bread.

Moreover, a healthy sort of love makes us eager to broaden our horizons, expecting more from both ourselves and our lovers. We begin to gain a greater appreciation for things, such as Giovanni's interest in Billie Holiday and Billy Strayhorn.

She speaks of old photographs where she sees her happiness reflected in both the eyes of her and her lover. I often mourn past loves by looking at old pictures. Although they are sometimes saddening, I know that I am bettered for having such meaningful relationships. When I reflect upon endless batches of cookies and thousands of letters that I sent to my love in the Marine Corps, I think not of ingredients and paper wasted, but of purpose and joy that I received in return.

Reader's Response "A Cat in the Rain"

For this assignment, I read "A Cat in the Rain" by Ernest Hemingway. I this story, a young American wife is immersed in a town of strangers alongside her husband. On a rainy day, the wife feels extremely lonely and neglected by her husband. To ease her pain, the woman turns all of her attention to rescuing a little kitten from the rain. Her mission is unsuccessful at first, but ultimately the kitten is found and the woman joyously gains a new companion.

The text maintained by attention because I felt so deeply for the young American wife. I can only imagine how hard it must have been for her to be submerged in a foreign country and to feel so alone without the comfort of her husband. In addition, I was saddened by the thought of an abandoned kitten! Both the woman and kitten seemed like such a perfect match for each other that I anxiously read this story in hopes of seeing them through to their union.

I have seen one of my friends live through a similar experience. She felt lonely and wanted companionship so she decided to purchase a pet rabbit. I have mixed views on this matter for I believe that it is of utmost importance for one to find company within themselves. In terms of both my friend and her bunny and Hemingway's woman and her kitten, if both felt comfortable with themselves, neither would have had such a desperate need for a pet. When we have achieved such a glorious state of self-content, a new companion or pet may become a bright-spot in our lives, but until that point, we are simply covering our pain with temporary distraction.

Specialty Post # 4

In order to create appropriate answers for Walt Whitman's interview, I collaborated information from three websites: Poets.org (http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/126), Bartleby.com (http://www.bartleby.com/142/index1.html), and Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman). Poets.org shared personal information about Walt Whitman that helped me to understand his journey to become a successful writer, Wikipedia gave me an overview of his accomplishments, and Bartleby.com allowed me to view excerpts from his collection of controversial poems titled "Leaves of Grass".

After learning that Walt Whitman was a humanist, I tried to gear his interview answers away from cynicism and toward acceptance. Another factor that contributed to the content of my interview was the fact that he was a very generous and giving person. Admirabely, one of Whitman's passions was nursing wounded soldiers in a hospital. To me, his nursing career demonstrated selflessness and dedication, causing me to believe that he was a fair individual who invested a lot into relationships of all sorts. Further proof of this theory is that throughout adulthood, he continuously sent money to help his widowed mother and invalid brother. In addition, Whitman donated money to help the hospitalized patients that he took care of. Even though he struggled to support himself through most of his life, Walt Whitman was dedicated to those whom he cared about and made sacrifices to ensure their well being.

Specialty Post # 3: An interview with Walt Whitman

1. What does the term "love" mean to you?
-To me, love is when you are willing and able to sacrifice your own happiness for someone else's.

2. What are some of the positive things about being in love?
-If you demonstrate and receive love in healthy ways, it can be extraordinarily fulfilling and gratifying. Having someone or something to love will supplement life with joy and an additional sense of purpose.

3. What are some of the negative things about being in love?
-When we exhibit love to its fullest extent, we reach a state of vulnerability. Due to the fact that we make investments into relationships with our lovers, we become dependent on them to reciprocate by meeting our various needs. If they fall short of such expectations, there is little to buffer us from torturous anguish.

4. How do you know when you are in love?
-To know if you are in love, you must experience both happiness and sheer pain with your partner. Together, if two people can survive challenging times and support each other throughout, they will know that their love is completely genuine.

5. How important to live is love?
-Love is a vastly important part of life, for it adds meaning to our daily routines. In addition, love demands responsibility and forces us to be accountable.

6. Is there a right or wrong way to love?
-No! One of the reasons being in love is such a difficult task is because there is no official rule book to mark right from wrong. We are guided solely but the instincts of ourselves and our trusted advisers.

7. Is love for one's family more important than his or her romantic partner?
-No, for blood relation is not a required family characteristic and we may choose to build our own families.

8. Do you believe in soul mates?
-Yes, but I believe that we are all soul mates for each other. Whether teachers, friends, or people with whom you have random interactions, everyone enters our lives for a reason. Although this does not mean that we are destined to love each other, we are in fact mates who's souls were meant to meet!

"Changes" by Tupac

The song that I have chosen is called "Changes" by Tupac. "Changes" is about being trapped in a dangerous cycles of exhibiting illegal and harmful behaviors. More specifically, Tupac raps about blacks, their inequalities, stereotypes, and people lacking the compassion to help each other and partake in pro-active self betterment.

My favorite part of the song (in terms of lyrical content versus snazzy rhymes) is about how we should care for each other instead of fighting and killing. In this exerpt, Tupac stresses how positive relationships and bonding help to prevent violence. However, he wisely recognizes that as we grow older our problems increase with the decrease of our naivete. This example is as followed:

"We gotta start makin' changes
learn to see me as a brother instead of 2 distant strangers
and that's how it's supposed to be
How can I ever take a brother if he's close to me?
I'd love to go back to when we played as kids
but things changed, and that's the way it is"

I chose this song because it is unlike the majority of rap songs. Although I enjoy rap music, most of it romanticizes uncooth actions such as using and dealing drugs, solving problems through violence, and mysogynism. Unlike other rappers, Tupac distinguishes these issues as problems in our society and pushes for the necessary act of change through unity and practice.

"Changes" represents the blues genre due to the fact that it addresses problems that disrupt our lives and challenge us daily. Tupac expresses remorse and pain, creating a desperate but creative plee for help. In addition, despite our respective denominations, he makes this song appeal to everyone by suggesting solutions that we can all be a part of.

Thanks to Max (and his secret desire to be a super-model), I was able to take a picture that loosely represents a theme from this song. Although this photograph is only a "rough draft" I am hoping that it symbolizes troubled youth and a corrupted society. I created this image by asking Max (really nicely) to put on a "pouty face" and kneel by a barred barrier surrounding tables outside of Starbucks. YES!

The picture is supposed to represent a young man in jail, his once promising life in shambles due to poor decision making and the absence of positive influences and helpful resources. My ultimate goal for my final image is to play on the pathos appeal by showing what happens to our youth when we fail to take pro-active approaches to the problems that we conveniently ignore.

In my brainstorming process, I have decided to elaborate more on the negative actions that Tupac speaks of, in addition to the horrific results of such behaviors. For example, something that I have not previously mentioned in this blog but would like to touch on in my paper is how children from rough backgrounds are more likely to become troublesome and how this seemingly inevitable outcome can be prevented.

A new point that I would like to make about my topic that neither of these texts present is hopefulness. Although Tupac's song offers advice on how to solve some of the problems he mentioned, I believe that his tone remains depressing and some may even interperate this song as discouraging. In conclusion, I would like to put a positive spin on my topic by stressing change that is attainable instead of distant.

"Writing Arguments about Emily Dickinson"

For this reading assignment from pages 580-586, I learned about Emily Dickinson, facts about her life, and a small collection of her poems. The piece was titled "Writing Arguments about Poems: Three Case Studies- Writing Aruguments about Emily Dickinson".

This text kept me engaged because I was thoroughly fascinated with Dickinson's lifestyle. She lived in voluntary self-isolation, purposely removing herself from outside socialization, politics, and human interaction. Being a "people-person", this lifestyle is one that does not completely apeal to me, but I am still impressed with her extremely dedicated choice to keep to herself.

The only one of Dickinson's acts of isolation that made me uneasy was her minimalistic interaction with doctors. I was perturbed by this fact about Dickinson because I believe medical attention to be extremely important and cannot imagine not inlisting the help of a doctor when falling ill. However, there are some parts of Emily Dickinson's story that I can relate to. Although this is not something that I am proud of, like Dickinson, I refrain from engaging in political news and most current events. This could be considered an act of ignorant isolation and may appear to some people as careless and lazy.

One of the poems that I liked of Dickinsons was the one titled "Papa above!" I found this poem extremely endearing. It seems to be a plee to "Papa" or a sort of "higher power" asking for a mouse to be protected from a cat. I liked this poem because it shows passion for even the smallest of animals, and asks "Papa" or "God" to "Reserve within thy Kingdom" or protect "His" creations.

I believe that this text is anthologized in our text book because Dickinson was a very talented writer. It would be a shame for others to not be able to enjoy her work, for it is very individualistic and unique.

"The Great Figure"

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I do not have access to my blog assignment sheet at this point in time (AKA mere hours before class) but I am going to do the best I can to complete this assignment because I don’t want to get in the habit of missing deadlines!

Based on the poetry reading assignment, the poem that I have chosen to write about is “The Great Figure” by William Carlos Williams. The poem is very short but yet extremely detailed. Williams’s simple words describing a fire truck mesh together in what I believe to be a very blunt and “choppy” form. However, I think that the uneven flow makes the poem even better! Due to the fact that the short poem was written in immediate response to the fire truck “flashing” by, the poem’s blunt structure is honest and satisfying.

I believe that many people can relate to this poem. Whether you regularly see fire trucks in the city or wish you had more of them in the country, anyone can be Williams’s audience. One of the things that I like about this poem is that the author shows no bias on whether or not the sight and sound of the truck pleases or hinders him. Consequently, this poem can evoke a response from all readers. “The Great Figure” may either cause feelings of comfort, or annoyance, depending on the reader’s feelings and experiences.

Personally, the sound of sirens and the sight of fire trucks never ceases to have a deep effect on me. I am both comforted and disturbed by the flashing lights, for I know that they are a sign of trouble. However, I am comforted by the fact that the flashing lights and sirens also represent the quick assistance of professional help in response to a desperate call. Therefore, I would categorize myself as part of the audience who appreciates fire trucks and the brave people who operate them!