Poems

The six poems I read are:

Game Day (Nothing To Loose Everything To Prove) by JDBison

Deicide Government by: Unknown Author

Poverty Police by: Unknown Author

Basketball by: Rachael Kerney

My Son by: Ada Tyrrell

The Marine and the Terrorist by: Richard Macwilliam

The poem “My Son” is written by a mother who is concerned about her son in the military. All she asks is that he returns home safe. She knows the danger that lie ahead and she is hoping for the best. It’s a situation that many families can relate. Seeing their love ones leave, especially when they may be in danger. They hope for the best, but fear the worst.

“The Marine and The Terrorist” gives an interesting comparison of the two. It is one poem written twice with different titles. On the surface you would look at a Marine and a Terrorist and think one is good and one is evil. But if you think from their perspective, which is what the author does, you see that they have the opposite views of one another. I found this poem and tactic interesting and insightful.

Marks

I found this poem interesting both from an enjoyment standpoint and also by looking at how it was written. The woman in the poem, a mother/wife, seems frustrated with the "marks" she is given by those around her. The author uses marks or grades to indicate how those around her see her and her actions. She is constantly graded on her performance, as if she were a student. As the poem moves along her marks lower and her anger and frustration builds. I'm not quite sure what the others motivation for writing this poem is, but it’s possible that she has experienced judgmental people in her time. In the end she says, "I'm dropping out" which signals the end of her dealing with the marks others give her. She will no longer be judged by others and is moving on with her life. I found the idea interesting and unique when I read the poem. It was different than the others and stood out to me.

Morning

Morning by Billy Collins is a simple yet effective poem. The author describes top the reader why he loves the morning so much. There are many lines in the poem that reflect the wonders of the morning. One part states:

“This is the best-
Throwing off the light covers
Feet on the cold floor,
And buzzing around the house on espresso-“

This passage describes when one first wakes up in the morning. You come out from under the sheets and blankets and touch the floor, often times feeling the cold chill of the morning on the floor. He also mentions espresso for the first time in the poem. Another passage states:

“maybe a splash of water on the face,
a palmful of vitamins-
but mostly buzzing around the house on espresso”

Here the author describes some action one does when they first wake up in the morning. He also one again mention espresso, which is popular to many in the morning. Coffee is important to many in the morning and he is no exception.

I found this poem to be much easier to understand than some of the others we read for today. It was simple, which also made it more enjoyable after reading some of the other poems for class. Sometimes simple is better.

A Love Poem

They met at 17
It was love at first sight.
They spent time together
In the day and the night.
They began to date
It was a perfect match
They were inseparable
When you saw one you saw the other
They were like one
Nothing could come between them
No problem was too big
No argument too heated
They were met for one another
They went to different colleges
But their relationship never strayed
Temptation was never too strong
Their relationship would never fade
They would talk every night or every other
Their love was too strong to be broken
No other person would do
They were meant to be together
They were the only each had ever knew
They married at 25
It was the beginning of their lives
Together for forever and a day
Nothing would come between them
They would never stray

Lucky Response

It is apparent that Alice has different relationships with the different people in her life. The way she handles and deals with her rape around them is also very different. When she is first raped her immediate reaction is to not tell her mother. She tries to think of ways to hide it from her, but in the end she does tell her over he phone. Later on in the story a conversation over lunch she takes a different tone with her father. He asks if she would like something to eat and she responds by saying “That would be nice.” “considering the only thing I’ve had in my mouth in the last twenty-four hours is a cracker and a cock.” I can’t imagine that someone would react like this, but as the author states this is normal for her. To her and her family it shows that she is still the person she has always been even after the trauma and hardship of being raped. Later she sees a boy named Tom. Alice thinks that no boy will ever love her because she has been raped. Her family tries to tell her otherwise, but she does not agree with them. When she sits down with the boy at first he is very nice and understanding. She does not know that he knows anything her happened to her until they begin talking. It is then that she finds out that he has been told a lie. He thinks that she was beaten and robbed in the park. She then tells him the truth, that she had been raped. Their conversation turned awkward, as he did not know what to say. He began to move away every so slightly as to not make it obvious. He was at a loss for words and her feelings about how men will think of her were at least for now, confirmed.

Lucky

The first chapters of Lucky are chilling, yet compelling to the reader. The author gives a first hand account of the night she was raped near the campus where she went to college at the time. Some of the details were hard to read. I would guess that someone who has been through a similar experience would find these description all the more chilling and difficult to read. She describes in detail what the man made her do and what was going through her mind at the time. It was hard to read and I found myself stopping at points because of the sad details of what had happened to this woman. While it was hard to read, it was also very compelling. I felt for her and could not imagine going through what she had gone through. I wonder why she chose to begin with the rape, and then backtrack to her childhood in the third chapter? I think it was effective, but also could have been done differently if she had provided some background about herself before she details being raped. I think that as I read on, this reasoning will be clearer to me.

Non-fiction

I think that non-fiction is something based on a real life event, person, thing, etc. It can range from an autobiography to a true tale of a team or the retelling of an event in history. It must be based on facts and real life occurances, and not have fictonal charecters, events, etc. Basically any story that is told with facts and real events that have happened can be considered non-fiction.