extra credit

              Before this year began poetry was a distant idea, an ancient art form filled with hidden meanings and secret themes. Yet as the year has commenced I have come to observe poetry under a different light. It is not one specific THING, you can't pin it down and describe it, instead it is something abstract. Poetry is opposites, tangible and intangible, big and small, silent and loud, yet similar as well. Through the in depth characterizing of The Knife, Shoulders, and Lobsters I have gained a new respect and understanding of poetry. It presents life meanings and invisible morals. It also presents a challenge, unlike math and science there is no one solution instead there are many answers depending on your point of view.  

                     I like the fact that you can connect to a poem. The fact that poetry is all about you. You can see what you want to see. In English, this has been demonstrated by the fishbowl discussions, every person has a slightly different perspective and each person adds their own little twist. One aspect of the poem will really jump out at someone and that same thought will never cross another persons mind. I think the phrase, "2 heads are better than 1," sums up poetry nicely because you will always find something that someone hasn't seen.

                     Poetry has been the most important element we have learned about in English so far for two reasons. One, because it is fun and I believe that the best learning is done when a student is having fun; and two, because poetry is a way to freely write down any emotions or feelings that you have in a creative way. By creative I mean in a way that makes sense to you but doesn't have to make sense to others. It is away to let go, to teach without telling, and for me it is a way to achieve clarity of the mind. Writing down your feelings is like a huge downpour; you let out what you need to and then the grass is greener and the world comes alive again.

Lobsters or Humans?

When I first read this poem not one single theme or meaning jumped at me. Nothing spoke to me, and I hated the poem yet after having read it again, I started to notice the complex and deep symbolism this poem has to offer. No longer do I see it as a boring story about lobsters but as an insightful grasp on the concepts of lobsters being a lot like humans. I don't think we talked about the ideas of lobsters and humans in our fishbowl discussion, but some comments made me later think deeper into the comparison of an invertebrate and a human being.

The author talks about the lobsters dream like state, I personally think that most humans travel through the day in a dream like state as well. As I looked around in English today I noticed many people staring off into space, or fidgeting; in fact I saw no one who looked completely absorbed in what we were doing. Why is this so? It seems as though we go through life in a dull, stolid rhythm; school, friends, homework, sleep, school. What do we live for? And the lobsters "tentative gestures" how is that not like us? What are we doing that makes us stand out? How many times have we heard the phrase "be yourself" but instead you keep hiding away? We muddle around not realizing that we are never truly awake. Another way that I think describes tentative gestures is being average, or moderate and the following quote from "Way of the Warrior" sums moderation up perfectly, "Moderation's? It's mediocrity, fear, and confusion in disguise. It's the devils dilemma. It's neither doing nor not doing. It's the wobbling compromise that makes no one happy. Moderation is for the bland, the apologetic, for the fence sitters of the world afraid to take a stand. It's for those afraid to laugh or cry, those afraid to live or die!" The author includes the beauty of the lobsters to show how in our narrow minded way of thinking we have categorized everything, something is beautiful or ugly. He showed us our warped point of view by describing something that we normally categorize as ugly in a beautiful way. I think the poem was a message to us humans that we need to wake up and come to terms that everything is beautiful and ugly, that life will always go on and it is up to us to realize we are in the pot underneath the fire - in other words we will die - and live.

paragraph analysis

I feel the biggest problem in our class with 5 part paragraphs was the flow, when I say flow I am referring to the idea that transitions, commentary and word choice all go together into an easy to read essay. Words are an extremely complicated puzzle to put together, there is always another way of saying something, I think most people, like myself, struggled at getting the paper balanced, you know when something doesn't sound right but you often don't know how to fix it.

My biggest problem is also flow. You want everything to sound right and to fit yet some things are just awkward and do not roll off the tongue. At first my paper was very simple, it was of a neutral tone, in my thoughts, it was boring. So I spiced it up and added a plethora of words that were outside my vocabulary range, coming back to my support group the next day, I was informed that "I sounded like a dictionary!" I went home took out half of the words and immediately sensed a greater balance in my paper. I think in my next piece of writing I will be focusing on using big words with a sense of confidence while still maintaining a flow and an easy to understand layout. I will also try to make my transitions stronger and really fit into place.