"The Sound" by Kim Addonizio

“The Sound” by Kim Addonizio is a very short poem, but I thought it had a lot of meaning to it. He talks about how every way of suffering has a sound, even if we do not see it. I have never noticed it until I read this poem that this statement is true. When people hear suffering, their minds go to gory pain and loud screams. But as mentioned in the poem,  there is more ways to suffer. When Kim talks about how the mother sighs when the daughter leaves for a date, she is explaining that even though the mother might feel happy, she is still in pain knowing that her daughter is growing up and will soon be out of the house away from her. Just because the mother can be happy that she is growing up, does not mean that she is ready for her daughter to leave her side. Therefore she is unhappy and has as a “resigned sigh.” Everything suffers in a way, weather it is over a small problem or big problem, and it all has its own way of making sound.

"Mother's Mother" by Kiniko Hahn

In the poem , “Mother’s Mother”, Kimiko Hahn tells her readers that we learn all the important things from our mothers. In her poem, she explains how she has been learning her language from her mother, and how her mother knows many different languages that she learned from her own mother. She also explains how when her grandmother dies, and her mother dies, there would not have been enough time to learn everything they knew, and she wouldn’t be able to pass their knowledge down to her own kids,  making it even more depressing when they die.  I love how she uses the Japanese language to show some of her points, and how she compares the syllabic Japanese scripts with everyday modern objects. For example, she says “she can write her name in the kana that resembles tv antennae. She also explains how she can feel that she is a part of her mother and that her children are a part of her. I really enjoyed this poem because I can relate to the feeling of having part of my mother in me, and how I do many things the exact same way as my mother does. This poem is true for any gender, or culture, or even society. The older generation makes a huge compact to the younger generation, and the elder teach the younger. When the elder die, the younger have to take control and then be in charge. She uses the Japanese symbols to say “it is endless” and I think that correlates well with the rest of the poem because it is a never ending process to teach each and every younger generation.

"The Gift" by Li-Young Lee

In the poem “The Gift”, by Li-Young Lee, he tells us how the things we learn from our superiors at a young age stay with us for us to use when we are older. He also explains when we are young, little things tend to seem gigantic to us. He tells us of an experience he had with a splinter and how he felt like he would have died from it, until his dad was so gracious as to take it out, and to tell him a soothing story as he worked. Also, another point I got from this poem was that he did not mind when he didn’t remember the story that his dad told him, but he did remember the sound of his voice and that it calmed him down so he wasn’t worried about the sliver. From his memories of that, he could then take the sliver out of his wife’s hand gently and without pain.

Entry to Poetry

Coming into poetry, I was not very excited. I love reading poetry, but I do not enjoy writing poetry. Over the past few days, I have learned that there are many differnet methods of poetry, and differnt ways to present it. I was very facinated by the poetry slam because the writer is showing the emotion that they want the poem to describe. One reason I dont like poetry is because I dont like looking for the meaning that the author tries to present. I like to see it off the bat. I like to enjoy poetry after reading it, and I dont like reading and pounding into poetry just to find the meaning. Poetry slam is like writing poetry to me as well. I am not a writer, especailly when it comes to poetry, and I am not an actor. I could not stand up and act infront of people and show my meaning of a poem. But I love to watch people in the poetry slam, and I love to read other peoples poems. One thing I have learned from the past few days, is that the reader has their own meaning to their poem, and it is not up to the reader to make his own meaning. I like knowing that there is a meaning purposly put into poetry, but I almost do not like that because then I have to spend time on most poems trying to figure out the meaning, and hoping the meaning that I come up with is the meaning that was meant to be there.

How to Read a Poem

In the passage, "How To Read A Poem", the author describes that poetry will be more effective if the reader knows how to read poems. The author explains that poetry needs to be read with open thoughts. Not every poem can be perceived the way the reader wants to perceive it. Each poem has its own meaning(s), and own intention(s). While reading a poem, you want to be drawn to conversation and become engaged into the reading. Also the author suggests that the reader comes up with meaningful questions that have more than one answer. Rhythm and sound relate to the meanings of most poems and it is up to the reader to find out the meanings related to sound and rhythm of each poem. The author also gives suggestions to read the poem out loud, read it more than once, ask general questions, and breathe while reading the poems. This way it will let you grasp, connect, and understand more clearly. Out of reading "The Red Wheelbarrow", and discussing it in class, I heard other thoughts and ideas that lead me to the thought of maybe the meaning of the poem is patriotic, and makes people think about the small things that make a difference in their lives, but ones that are not thought about on a daily basis. I got the patriotic feeling from the RED wheelbarrow, the glazed rain (makes me think of BLUE) and the WHITE chicken. Red, White and Blue. Our nation’s national colors. Plus the very begining of the poem makes you think at first that whatever is depended upon is something great and almost powerful. Not just some wheelbarrow. But this gives us the impression there are many small things and without them, our lives would be a lot harder, even though we don’t think about how important these objects may be.

Where I lived, and What I Lived For

In this narrative from Walden, I have to say I was very confused throughout the whole piece. I did enjoy how he used the metephors and similies, however, I think he used to many and it was too busy to really understand. When I was trying to picture the event taking place, there was too much description that I could not understand where he was going with it. I do not like how he explains more of his piont untill over half way through the story. I wanted to know what he was talking about at the beginning so I had a better chance of enjoying Waldens adventure. It was way to busy for me to understand any of it, other than a few parts.