Experimental Writing Readings

My first experimental reading that I read was "Morning News" by Jerome Stern. This reading was pretty sad at first and kind of relieving in the end. The guy seemed so frustrated by the bad news that he got that morning. It was really when he started writing about how he had to tell his wife the bad news that I was hooked. He was so worried that he would hurt her. What would she do when he was gone? In in the end when they "go back to their childhood" and buy the biggest Television, I knew everything would be okay.

The second reading I read was "Changing the Channel" by E. Ethelbert Miller. I thought this work worked because it was something that everyone can relate to. It is a time the author can spend time with his father without having to worry about anything. He knows where everyone is and what they are doing, his father has a job. He doesn't have to worry about anything, except for resting.

Poetry Readings

For our experimental/ poetry readings I chose 3 poems. These poems that I really liked even if I didn't really understand them all.

The first poem that I read was "This Moment" by Eavan Boland. This poem was great. It has very simple and short lines. It really reminds me of describing to myself the moment that is currently occurring. My favorite part of this poem is "Stars and Moths, and rinds slanting around fruit, but not yet." I like the way he says stars and moths. It's not something that most would put together. What do stars have to do with moths, and why moths? I thought it was a good way to describe the time of day, which is early evening. The rest of that part just sounds good.

The second poem that I read was "The Letter" by Linda Gregg. I thought that this poem was quite uplifting but at the same time just a little sad. She writes about not feeling quite strong yet. I assume she was in an accident or was sick. Then she speaks of all of the happy things that she does and how she hopes to swim soon. Everything put together just screams overcoming a major obstacle. But the thing that makes me like this poem so much is that I am curious about the subject of the poem. Are they sick? Did they get hurt? Why just a half of a bottle of beer?

The Third poem that I read was Carolyn Kizer's "To an Unknown Poet." This poem works for several reasons. The first reason I think that this poem works is because the subject of the poem is writing to a poet. You don't hear about other poet's thoughts of poets very often. But it also has many very abstract details. The author also questions herself in the poem.

AIDS

The poem AIDS was not really something that I was looking forward to reading at first. I think AIDS and I think of sad things, as I think most people do. I finally sat down and read it after my fiance had convinced me that it was good. I liked it after all.

I enjoyed the way that the author set up the entire picture in the beginning. About his family and how he was treated and how he treated others. I thought that there was a great contrast from the beginning to the end. He writes about his mother soothing him and loving him and then in the end he talks about soothing his parents and loving them. He seems to think he has to make them realize that it wasn't their fault, much like a parent would do after a divorce or death to soothe a child.

Bird By Bird Reading 4

These two readings reminded me a lot of what inspires me the most about writing. It shows that no one is perfect at writing. In fact anyone can be a writer, they just have to write. It also talks about writing being a process that we may not be expecting.

I likes the way she wrote about the polaroid as a story, that it starts out being a picture of a child and ends up changing to adults, family and other things. It typically takes me a while to get anywhere closed to a finished product. I wonder if the polaroid/ story has ever really stayed exactly the same from flash to finish...

Most Prized Childhood Possesion

I thought that I would add yesterday's writing exercise to my blog. I think this will remind me to make this into something.
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Swift, slick, silvery blue blades. The best skates ever.
They were ratty and used
but they were loved and well customized
They took me places only fast paced high quality blades could take me
They hit the pavement every time I was
sad, mad, upset, or happy
They took me through all
my long annoying and awkward high school years
My mom asked me to get rid of them
"They're old tattered and have no breaks"
I didn't care, that is why I loved them
They were a tad too big
Sometimes I wore extra socks
They were so comfy
I was sad
I had to throw them away this summer
My knee blew out for the second time
I had to give them up
I had to give our quality time up

Micheal McFee "The Halo"

The Halo was a great story. It was a very concrete but also somewhat figurative short story. I thought the use of Jesus, Joseph, and "Mary" was great. "Mary" being the writer adds a little, it's like hey this is my son, he has a halo and my husband doesn't like it. It brings several elements from the bible into it, not just with the story of Jesus but it goes back to the beginning, talking about the golden fruit without a snake in sight. I also think this could mean something completely different. I haven't quite figured out what yet.

Bird by Bird Reading 3

The readings from bird by bird for today were interesting. I liked how she wrote on short writings being a first draft, and of course sometimes they are bad. I think it's great that she talks about how even well accomplished writers mess up and write something not so great sometimes. I also thought the quote that she used from E.L. Doctorow was excellent: "writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights; but you can make it the whole trip that way." I think that many writers would benifit from that quote. If you think about it that quote describes most people's writings perfectly, even if they know the end, they don't really know the middle. I'm excited to read the next reading now.

Bird By Bird Reading 2

I have now come to expect great things from this book. I found it very interesting when she described how to begin writing. She described exactly what happens whenever I try to write. I never feel that any of my writings are any good and often do find myself destroying them upon completion of a few sentences. I think that going through memories often becomes a great way to get the creative juices flowing, I'm excited that she wrote about that. It feels like I might actually be doing something right.

Anthology Reading One

The poetry reading was very interesting to me. I never looked at poetry’s effectiveness; I always just thought that it was a pretty and interesting use of words. I thought it was interesting that the author spoke on how it wasn’t important to know certain things as long as we can understand why it was mentioned. For example, when he says that it isn’t important to know how the man died or important to know whether the character knows how the man died. But what was important is knowing that the death shook the character’s world. Also the other reading began to make me think about why writing is always a creative process. Even if I am writing a history paper I never know exactly how the paper will end up, or even how I will get there.

How I am a total Nerd

I did something completely cool the other day. I was so hungry the other day that I decided the only way to tide myself over until my late dinner would be an egg roll from Orient Express. I walked into the restaurant and ordered my egg rolls. I began to walk away and decided that I just couldn't do it. I had to ask. So I walked back up to the counter and began to speak to the owner of the restaurant. I asked him what country he was from and he told me that he was from China. I said in the dorkiest way ever that I was taking Chinese. I felt as if I just got married or won a million dollars. I was so excited. He asked me what I could say in Chinese and I told him. I can really only ask what someone's name is and tell them mine, I can tell you that water is water and ask you to sit down. I spoke every Chinese word that I knew to this poor man and was enthralled about every single second of it. He told me that my Chinese was pretty good even though I only knew a few phrases. That just excited me even more. So the entire night I was jumping up and down about a 10 minute interaction.

The worst part about this whole thing is by this time I had only been taking Chinese for four days. Who was I to try to speak to someone from China after only four days of Chinese instruction? I have never had any experience with Chinese before, and I just break out with Chinese in a public place like I was meant to do it the entire time. I'm a German major. Who was I to think that I would be able to learn yet another language? Who knows what possessed me, but I love it. I mean it's not German or anything, but it is still awesome.

My fiance has this off the wall, completely insane theory. He believes that since I started learning German when I was 16 and was almost fluent by 18 that there must be something wrong with my brain. He thinks that when I was in the womb I got some type of brain damage or something and this allowed my primary language function of my brain to remain active for much longer than a normal person's. I think that this theory is a little off the wall. But for some reason it strikes me true. I speak German as if it was one of my native languages. I dream in German some times. Most Germans that I encounter in America are completely unaware of my American-ness. So there must be something wrong with me. Who knows.

Creative Writing: Bird by Bird 1

Bird by Bird had a very interesting introduction. I really hate introductions. She spoke on a lot of little things that came together to make since. Writing at least a little everyday is something that I think helps a lot of writers. Another big thing that she mentioned was that writing isn't about money or being published, writing is also enjoyable. The first chapter that was also pretty great. I hope to always remember my broccoli. I think that writers block is something that can always be worked through with some creative energy. I think this class is going to be pretty interesting.