Response to Black Ice

He curses alot.  Woah. I don't really understand his poem because maybe I don't relate to what he's talking about.  I caught some interesting quotes from his poem though.

Response to Sarah Kay

I thought Sarah Kay was pretty basic to me. She didn't really perform, she more or less just spoke, which could be a good thing I guess.  In the poem we were shown, she kind've drifted off the topic of "If I should have a daughter" for majority of the poem.  However, the concept was nice.  Although sometimes I didn't understand what she wanted to get across.

Response to Taylor Maly

I think Taylor Maly is a good spoken word poet because his poems are equal in the performance aspect and also in the poetry aspect.  Some poets just lean more towards performance and their poem doesn't really make sense on paper.  As for the poem, I really liked it.  His poem was about something that goes on in our world today, which makes it easy for the audience to relate to.  And in the world of poetry audience means everything.  I respect the way he performs because he's not afraid to hurt feelings and he talks about real life situations.

Response to Poetry Slam

I have two totally different opinions on this movie.  First off, I find it pretty awesome for the people who participate in this activity. Good for them.  But on the other hand, I can't find it in myself to relate or find interest in this.  I feel like with spoken word you have to get into it and have a passion for it (in which I do not have).  I don't really find interest in poetry or spoken word.

After the Movie by Marie Howe

My friend Michael and I are walking home arguing about the movie.
He says that he believes a person can love someone
and still be able to murder that person.

I say, No, that's not love. That's attachment.
Michael says, No, that's love. You can love someone, then come to a day

when you're forced to think "it's him or me"
think "me" and kill him.

I say, Then it's not love anymore.
Michael says, It was love up to then though.

I say, Maybe we mean different things by the same word.
Michael says, Humans are complicated: love can exist even in the murderous heart.

I say that what he might mean by love is desire.
Love is not a feeling, I say. And Michael says, Then what is it?

We're walking along West 16th Street—a clear unclouded night—and I hear my voice
repeating what I used to say to my husband: Love is action, I used to say to him.

Simone Weil says that when you really love you are able to look at someone you want to eat and not eat them.

Janis Joplin says, take another little piece of my heart now baby.

Meister Eckhardt says that as long as we love images we are doomed to live in purgatory.

Michael and I stand on the corner of 6th Avenue saying goodnight.
I can't drink enough of the tangerine spritzer I've just bought—

again and again I bring the cold can to my mouth and suck the stuff from
the hole the flip top made.

What are you doing tomorrow? Michael says.
But what I think he's saying is "You are too strict. You are a nun."

Then I think, Do I love Michael enough to allow him to think these things of me even if he's not thinking them?

Above Manhattan, the moon wanes, and the sky turns clearer and colder.
Although the days, after the solstice, have started to lengthen,

we both know the winter has only begun.

Sadie and Maud

Maud went to college.
Sadie stayed home.
Sadie scraped life
With a fine toothed comb.

She didn't leave a tangle in
Her comb found every strand.
Sadie was one of the livingest chicks
In all the land.

Sadie bore two babies
Under her maiden name.
Maud and Ma and Papa
Nearly died of shame.

When Sadie said her last so-long
Her girls struck out from home.
(Sadie left as heritage
Her fine-toothed comb.)

Maud, who went to college,
Is a thin brown mouse.
She is living all alone
In this old house.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Picture Poem

All a baby really needs is their parents.
To teach them, to feed them, to watch them grow.
But what happens when one becomes independent?

"You're not a baby anymore, you can do that on your own."
It went from walkers, to walking alone.
Picking me up, to putting me down.

Daddys little girl? Eh not so much.
18 years later:
Living in the same house,
surrounded by different people.

But some things never change.
I will forever remain the same.
Because you sculpted me.

Reflection

"How have you changed since the beginning of the year?"  When I first started answering this I thought I havent changed until I really started to think about it. My personality overall hasn't really changed except for a few things.  I learned what it's like to be 100% independent.  Since I got a job in February, my mom decided it would be a grand idea to stop supporting me financially.  I used to go to her for money for whatever I needed but now her response is always "you got paid, so go get what you need." I guess that formed a small "chip on my shoulder" and now I feel some sort of resentment towards her because of that.  It hurts.  However, I noticed I became more determined.  I've always had ambition, but now it just got greater.  I'm doubted alot by my mom but that doesn't discourage me.  I love that about my personality because I know others let that get to them.  I'm also very motivated now, where as in september I wasnt.  Before writing this I thought I didnt change, but now I realized I have, for the better.

The Life.

Turquoise waters,
waves on swim...
Hot, steamy sand,
tanning with Jeremy Lin.


Shimmering sunshines,
driving down the parkway.
Summer is here,
time to get away from Madre.

Favorite Lines Poem

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged

Missing me one place, search another

I stop somewhere waiting for you

As if one by one the memories you used to harbor

decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain

to a little fishing village where there are no phones

But all they want to do is tie the poem

To a chair with a rope

And torture a confession out of it.

My Favorite Poem

Things That Make Hearts Break
By: Tupac Shakur

Pretty Smiles
Deceiving laughs
and people who dream with their eyes open
lonely children
unanswered cries
and souls who have given up hoping
The other things that break hearts
Are fairy tales that dont come true
And selfish people who lie to me
selfish people just like you!!