"The Antique Blacks" page 131-132.

"There's the upward inflection of it- the honeyed smile of space front & center in our heads-

Voyager winking like a gold incisor on its way out of this solar system".

"Then there's the because & I-told-you-so of it- slicking its promissory goatee with a ringed thumb & ringed forefinger

right before a bugged-out hustle of piano & grin". "Almost & might be there again,

the rounded parts of Saturn waiting to go green like the cheap metal

under a Jesus piece's already sketchy plating".

"The myth of space, though".

 " It's like this wide".

  This reading talks about traveling to space, the myth of space and how wide it is, a voyager leaving the solar system, & Saturn's round circle around it going green like cheap metal under a Jesus plating.
The only part that I don't understand very well is the 2nd stanza into the 3rd stanza; not sure what the writer really means by that.

                                                       CHILD ABUSE

Yesterday, I read a news about child abuse on yahoo, when a eight year old boy Dante faced severe attack on saving his younger sister from a child molester who is his mother’s  ex- boy friend. Finally he is dead after struggling for breathe and donate his heart to a five years old California boy. After reading this news I felt stress and tense due to the horrific situations of child abuse in the US and around the world. This crime is not a part of one family but the entire nation who should demand to incarcerate child molester. This abuse shows the uneducated and uncivilized society which remarkable as sex wolves. Young kids are not able to save themselves on sexual attacks but they should be aware of this abuse, attack and harassment. In the twenty first century we should learn how to protect our kids from sexual criminals. We should work on our relationships and connections. We should communicate them in a healthy and strong environment where they feel protection against maltreatment. Although we know how the monsters work on their ways but usually we ignore it and they take advantage from our relationships. This story not shows only a sexual attack but it is also connect the physical and psychological behavior of parents who cannot interacts with child response results in potential harm.

                                          This maltreatment can lead the society at risk which isolates our kid’s future. They need love, attention and dignity to prove themselves as the best but lower middle class do not show an appropriate behavior to their kids and mostly they work as labors where they face raped and harass. This humiliations and abuse cause invisible future and rights of them. They may face personality disorders, traumatic stress disorders, anxiety, depression and aggression leads to homelessness in adulthood. In Asia, this child abuse is work as an industry where uneducated and labor class behave as monsters to pay their evil behavior with innocent kids. This attitude help them in trafficking where the kids are enslave for their terrorist activities, smuggling and drug supply. Their harmful behavior cause bad impact on kids psychology. Mostly, the kids belong to a poor family and their parents are unable to support their education, health, facilities and previliges. They want money to support their struggle of poverty. Therefore they  engage their kids in labor for meal in early ages. This behavior leads their kids to exploitation, sex abuse and trafficking. These emotional imbalance leads the kids in a povert experiences,  create violence and engage in sexual activities. Due to the government’s lack of attention ,criminal activists and suicide bombers are working  which break up the stoic nation and security. This issue needs attention, awareness and social values which secure our next generation and their future.

Author’s Note:

                              I want to share the Dante’s bravery whose faith to his sister leads him to death but his heart donation left a lesson for all of us. I also want to take serious steps on Asian kids trafficking and enslave to minimize the maltreatment for a healthy and peaceful society.

1.       Do you think that the rate of sexual abuse is high in US?

2.       What will your next step if your love one face sexual abuse?

3.       Do you want to control this risk factor in appropriate manner?

Last week of poetry...

As we finish up w/ poetry and move toward creative nonfiction, I'd like us to think about some of these questions:

• What does poetry do that no other genre can? What is your opinion about poetry? How are the poems that we've read so far different than poems you've read in the past?
• How do you read "The Antique Blacks"? What do the asterisks do? How do the different sections speak to ea. other?
• How does sense of place work in this poem? How about slang? What does Matejka mean when he writes "Be cool & try to grin it off. / Be cool & try to lean it off." (138)
• How about slang in Sea Sharp's poem? (p. 187) How do you read the violence of the poem? 
• What is "Cleaning the Ghost Room" about?

Week of 9/17

Since we've got a short week and there's no reading assigned, there will be no required blog entries. I will accept posts for last week's blog up until the end of this week. For this week, concentrate on the writing for your collection.

Poems week of 9/12

Some questions I have about the poems in no particular order:

• In "More than This" (270), David Kirby juxtaposes a story of a woman at the grave of her college friend with a fairy tale about an old cowboy and heaven and hell. Why does he do this? Also, why does Kirby write this as a conversation between the speaker and someone he refers to as "you"? Or, put another way, why is it written in 2nd person, why not just tell the two stories w/out complicating it like this?
• "Elk" (44): I think this is an incredible poem. It's horrifying and beautiful. I really see this poor elk, imagine him suffering unbelievably as he's being eaten alive. How about you? Why do you think the speaker decides not to take "the rack" (his antlers)? 
• "The Revolt of the Turtles" (114): This is a playful poem, but is it also serious? Why or why not? When the oldest sea turtle claims that "whoever was in control of the stories / controlled all the shoulds and should-nots" what is he arguing? Why do the turtles chant "Only fairness, only decency"? 
• "Hurricane Song": Do recent current events regarding Hurricanes Harvey and Irma affect your reading of this poem (which was written and published before either event)?
• All of these are what I would call nature poems (maybe not "More than This," but definitely the other three). Can you make other connections between these poems? What do they say about living and death? What do they say about nature? 

Group 4's poem

I see a light
behind the shadow
in the club
purple hair luscious
feet shining
singing rock
two shots will only mean
a stare in warm sun
but these dreams go
thousand trips with her
my crush

Zainab Sano
Aman Maharjan
Damir White
Hyunbin Woo

Group 1 poem

whispers from the sky

coolness leaves

swims to there and up

screams why would death lie

shake away my drunk urge

recalls the most delicate woman

together we are diamonds

By:

Eddy Ramos

Isaac Franco

Kayley L.

Abree A.

Group Three's poem

Thinking about life
As he watched her beauty sleep
Who always lives sweats and love
Lust is the essential language
Skin as gorgeous as a chocolate honey moon
Beneath the bitter winter rain
But mother please
Our love is not easy
The boy was weak
Through eternity


(Note: I don't remember the names of my group members. If they could make themselves know I would appreciate it)

Group 2 - Poem

Still will put those in and we can take some here

man warshiply ask goddess to manipulate spring rose

she may lie under black enormous power

and picture how to play his symphony near water

she show girls friend tongue moan over sweet pink sausages

then ask to flood ship next time with delirious storm

they sing like a white dress vision and it

felt like a knife hit my arm sea

Group 2

Members: Jaspreet Kaur, Elvis Caban, Lalita Nimnuan, Natalia Perez

Poetry!

A great start to the blog! Now let's dig into poetry. Generally, my students struggle w/ poetry more than any other genre so I think it's a good way to open the class. As we discussed last week, if you can read difficult texts, then you can read simpler texts better (newspapers, advertisements, etc.). I think students often struggle w/ poetry b/c they think they have to COMPLETELY understand a poem. But a poem, maybe, should be listened to and mulled over. It should be picked apart and then put back together. Maybe the secret to a good poem (or a good anything) is that we discover something new each time we read it. Here are some questions about this week's readings:

• What do these poems have in common? In what different ways do they approach the difficult subject of race in America?
• "Still When I picture it...": What about the weird spacing in this poem? Why did the author write the poem that way? What does it do? What does that long title do? (The title has more words than the first two lines do.)
• "Daddy Dozens": You can read about the dozens here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dozens How do these "insults" work in the poem? This is a prose poem. How is it different than the others?
• "I Dream of Horses Eating Cops": What do you make of this title? The author is a transgender woman. How does that information affect your reading of the poem? What do you make of that last line? What is its tone? 
• "The Tradition": Who are these names mentioned in the last line? What connections can you make between those last lines and the other italicized words in the poem? Why does the poet write "our dirt"? That's an interesting word choice, to possess the dirt. Why "our"? 

It is not necessary that you answer ALL of these questions. Pick and choose the ones that are most compelling to you. Feel free to ask your own questions. And answer each others questions while you're at it. The more good entries you make, the better your blog grade will be.

Syllabus

I think syllabus is really clear  and there is no confusion about it. I think everything is clear. I idea about writing 15 page about your interesting topic.

The Spring Forecast

I thought you all might be interested in this blog post about "The Spring Forecast." The author does an interpretation, links to another blogger who has his own interpretation, and then the author of the poem, Shelley Wong, writes to the two bloggers about what she was trying to do in the poem (you can scroll down to see their "conversation"). Check it out:

https://sloopie72.wordpress.com/2017/01/24/pushcart-xli-shelley-wong-the-spring-forecast-poetry-from-crazyhorse-88/