Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Notes from the board and homework

1. Frewrite related to film short: "Procrastination." Freestyle a response to the video. It is cautionary and intentional.

2. The Spoken Word Revolution selections:
"Regie Gibson" pp. 133-138
"Taylor Mali" pp. 174-177
"Beau Sia" pp. 178-183
"Patricia Smith" pp. 184-193
"Roger Bonair-Sgard" pp. 194-197

3. Essays Comments

4. Homework, Next presentations, Announcements

Homework is to chose a poet from our textbook and reflect on the poet's style, themes, lines you like (and why), the writer's poetic devices like form, rhyme skeem--internal, end rhythms. Write a 250 word, minimally response to the author's work.

You should have minimally 3 poems to compare and contrast. Sherman Alexie is another poet whose work is phenomenal, you might want to compare his response to Howl by Allen Ginsberg to that of Beau Sia's response and his poem, Howl. I'd suggest that you read Ginsberg's poem also if you choose to read either or both of these poets.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

itzel Diaz
english 1B

The poem in the year I loved your mother by Regie Gibson is a beautifully worded poem that explains to his daughter, Safiya how was daddy’s love toward her mother. Gibson talks about the beginning of the relationship and how strong it became; he talks about the struggle and the good things that Safiya’s mother made him feels. I loved the last sentence when he says, “in her skin I was cryptic blasphemy transparent decoded holy” (138). It seem like he could only be himself around Safiya’s mother that his love for her would allow him to be who he wanted to be and more. I like the fact that a father is able to talk to his daughter about her mother, the way Gibson express himself does not make me feel like he is being to honest with her daughter. Even thought he talk about the struggle in their relationship, he does it in a way for her to be able to understand his point of view.

Anonymous said...

Itzel Diaz
English 1B

Love by Beau Sia is a poem in which Sia expresses his frustration and depression when it comes to Love. He talks about how hard is to find that one person that would be with him no matter what. I relate to his poem when he says, “why must we associate music with our love lives? I’m not trying to be profound here; I’m just saying that music takes me back” (182). Every couple has a song or songs that they identify with, once that person is not around anymore the same songs remind us of that one person. Memories can be sweet, but they can also be painful when it comes to remembering something we are trying to forget.

Anonymous said...

Itzel Diaz
English 1B

Patricia Smith’s poems are strong worded and express the cruel reality of life. Poems like A Motherfucker Too express the sick actions of three friends: Miles, Bird, and Dizzy. Miles, Bird, and Dizzy are members of a band; the poem describes how they took a girl with them and did what ever they wanted to do to her. Patricia says, “Up baby, up. And two of them smack slapped and one lock himself away, riding the back of the bitch” (193). Words like smacked and slapped made me think that the girl was being abused, the poem is does not defines whether or not the band member were abusing her, but the words Smith uses to describe the scene made me think like they were. Images of abuse are hard to get out of my mind, and Patricia’s words create images so clear in my head that I could not stopped feeling frustrated to the fact that situations like the one the poem describes happen every day and I can not do anything about it.