Blog 15: Freestyle

I completed Sight Hound a week or so ago, and so as not to spoil the ending, I won't discuss it. I also completed the second book in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series, The Great Hunt, and am on to book three, The Dragon Reborn. I usually read this for half an hour before I go to bed, and I've just been gobbling it up. In this book, the narrative mostly follows characters other than the main character, Rand, so we get to see the adventures of Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne as the move up in the ranks of the Aes Sedai and begin to hunt the Black Ajah. And, we watch Matt and Perrin as they draw the attention of Gray Men and other Shadowspawn, which suggest they remain important to the fate the land. At the end of the last chapter I completed, Chapter 43 "Shadowbrothers," we discover that one of the Forsaken, the evil Ba'alzamon's followers, has taken power in Illian. Perrin and some of the other characters have arrived there, so now I'm wondering, as they are, whether they'll make it out. When Moraine say that they need to leave "Unless you want to make closer acquaintance with Sammael," it's clear that they've got to go. We already know there are no ships bound for Tear making port in Illian, so they'll have to go on horseback. Since Chapter 44 is called "Hunted," I would expect there to be a bit of a chase. These plot elements keep me wondering and keep me reading.

Blog 14: Quote-Response Satrapi 1

I enjoyed reading Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis. In the first half of the book, young Marji has all of the black-and-white perspective of young people, which is why I like the extreme black-and-white color of the panels (no grays). Whatever she commits herself to, she does it without reservation, and like many beloved children, she feels she is the special one for the task. I like how she thinks she will become a prophet and the images of her relationship with God. In one image on page 8, God is holding Marji like a baby. He says, "Yes you are, Celestial Light, you are my choice, my last and my best choice" (Satrapi). This image is very comforting because God calls Marji "Celestial Light," as if she will bring the love and wisdom of God to the world like nourishing sunlight. Because she is God's choice, his "last" and "best," the dialogue also suggests she is God's chosen one, and no one but she can do what she needs to do. Also, the pose of God and Marji makes the panel comforting. She is held like a baby in God's arms. What safer place could there be? His body is white, which indicates the goodness of light, and around him is dark, as if he were protecting Marji from the evils of the world. I think the world gets a lot more complicated for Marji as the book moves forward, so it's harder for her to think of herself as a prophet.

Blog 13: Quote-Response Kooser

Well, I have to respond to "Carrie" by US Poet Laureate Ted Kooser (635) because I've met him. I'll try to locate and post one of the photos I took of him. "Carrie" is an 11-line free-verse poem without regular rhythm. The poem contrasts the persona's Aunt Carrie's cleaning dust with the dust resulting from her death. While alive, she worked energetically "like a thunderhead" to keep the house clean. The storm image suggests pressure, power, and drama. I can picture a woman who throws people out of the room so that she can attack the furniture with her rag. What is perhaps sad is that she wasted her energy on an activity that can never be completed. Upon her death, "dust/is her hands and dust her heart." She turns into the dust she fought; in the end her very hardworking hands and the heart that motivated them are utterly defeated. The last line "There is never an end to it" suggests that because the world and even people are made of dust, Aunt Carrie might have spent her life in more rewarding ways, perhaps applying her heart elsewhere, rather than trying to undo what will always be. I take that as a message that it's OK to leave the dishes in the sink so that I can play with my daughter.

Blog 12: Poem Paraphrase Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay's sonnet "What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why" represents an older woman persona speaking about having had many loves in her life. Perhaps because she has had many or because she is older, she can't remember then all. Tonight, those lost loves seem close though still unremembered, and she thinks sadly that she is lonely. Yet, she knows and perhaps is comforted by the fact that she once loved. I love the line "summer sang in me." It seems to suggest fulfillment of young love, which would be a good memory.

Blog 11: Quote-Response

I really like Gwendolyn Brooks's "We Real Cool" (579). The poem has four two-line stanzas, and what's interesting about the poem for me is that every syllable is stressed. That's pretty hard to do in English, as most words are comprised of a set of stressed and unstressed syllables. Brooks uses all single-syllable words divided into three-syllable sentences. Each line has four syllables and ends in "We" without punctuation (enjambment) except for the last line, which has two syllables "Die soon." I think the rhythm punctuates the short lives of these people. The syllables are all stressed, which indicates they are using every hard moment of their lives. The use of a plural first-person protagonist indicates that the characters, including the narrator or persona, act as a group, so there may be some peer pressure to participate in this lifestyle. The last line being short a syllable, ending with a period (end-stopped), and including the words "Die soon" emphasizes exactly that: because these people (I think of them as young men) live hard, they won't live long.

Blog 10: Song-Quote Response

Because my musical tastes got stuck in the 80s, I'm going to write about the lyrics of a Howard Jones song, "What Is Love?" Here is a verse from the song:

Can anybody love anyone so much that they will never fear
Never worry, never be sad?
The answer is they cannot love this much nobody can
This is why I don't mind you doubting

I really like Howard Jones for the philosophy in his songs. These lyrics don't have much poetry about them in that they don't employ the figurative quality of words. However, they do include the irony of love--that love must trust enough to assume there is no risk of loss and yet exist in the constant fear of loss. I like the confidence in these lines that the speaker at least believes in his own power to love so much that he can stand the doubts of his partner. I like also the realistic grasp of love, that love can't erase problems. It's nice to be assured of love despite whatever problems may arise.

Haiku

Words going places fast
Poems through tunnels like trains
Out into the sunlight