Spring!!!!

I am late. I apologize. Today after school I went for a walk at Hinckley Park. I love to go there and walk. I prefer to run/walk but I am not permitted to do any running yet. (Sigh) The sun lit up the world illuminating everything. Fallen logs rested in mud puddles and the geese were everywhere leaving behind parts of them that required me to step over strategically. The trail was filled with people like me happy to be outside basking in the sun. The sun makes everything feel better. It is inviting. As spring approaches, we will find ourselves outside more. This will in turn make us put off what needs to be done.
We are also approaching National Poetry Month. It is a time to celebrate the poetry that speaks to us. Whether we like it or not, the music we listen to everyday is poetry. The way the flowers waltz in the wind is poetry. The laughter of children tickled to the core over something no one else cares about is poetry.
What I want you to do is define poetry. Look around you; pay attention to what you see and hear. Is it poetry? Describe a moment you deem to be poetry in motion. (Sorry to use a cliche.) It may not appear to be poetic to any other person. What matters is that it does to you!

Poetry

Hello minions...muhahahaha! Just kidding! I was watching Despicable Me. So our blog this week is about a subject near and dear to me...Poetry!!!!! Oh, how I love poetry!!

Poetry is what we say when our hearts are full

when we come to words in moments where clarity

is a bird flitting about our head, a rarity--

lost and elusive. Here is where we twist and try to pull

hoping to make meaning out of all that is chaos

to finally remove ourselves from life's confining box.

Poetry is how we find the questions no one will answer

and pose the ones grown in sadness, in fear, the him or the her.

It is rooted in the belief that words can save us, keep us,

protect us, but instead what we find is a new breed of justice

sworn to uphold a belief. We walk with our heads a little bit higher

for these words together build within those who listen a fire

meant to consume, and in the end truly inspire.

What I want you to do for this week is post your favorite poem. If it is really long, just post a small part or it--a couple stanzas. Once you post it, tell us why it is your favorite. We all come to poetry for different reasons. Please share yours. Happy posting!!!!!

Books

For the last week and the next three we will be engaged in reading different books. These books all bring information about the human condition to each of the readers. We learn from the characters, the time periods, and the themes about the human condition. Take our topic of the human condition from the first weeks of school and apply it one book we have already read and discussed; once you have done this, apply this idea to your current book. See the example below:

The book Night, teaches us that as humans it is necessary for us to change and grow in order to overcome and survive the situations in which we find ourselves. This can be seen in the way Wiesel works so desperately to survive the camps and in the way he became a voice for all survivors. In the book I just finished, The Bluest Eye, we learn it is part of the human condition to see what others have and desire it while never truly seeing the beauty in our own lives. The characters live life defined by some one's idea of self worth never knowing their own worth. Through these two texts, it can be argued that being human is about change. We change in order to find value in life. For some, the change is for the good leading to knowledge, but for others, the change destroys knowledge. To be human requires us to change in order to survive.

Cleaning

This weekend, I was on a roll. I cleaned out a room, and many cupboards. Cleaning and I are not good friends. I resent her. I resent that I have to put books down to clean, turn off the television to clean, stop grading papers to clean, not go shopping--all because I have to clean! Despite my resentment, cleaning is necessary. It is the way we remove the clutter from our lives. It is the way we organize our chaos and how we purge the things no longer needed.

Perhaps my resentment of her comes from the fact that I am a keeper. Not a hoarder, there is a difference. I keep my kid's pictures that they draw, notes from high school, poetry that I find, etc. Cleaning makes me get rid of things. It forces me to make choices between what I want and what I can store. It forces me to prioritize when I am thinking about what I may need 20 years from now--hence the reason I was able to wear my sweatshirt from 20 years ago two weeks ago for throw back day.

As spring approaches, it is often customary to "Spring Clean." The goal is to sweep away what we do not need and bring in the new. I am thinking I want to sweep away the clutter in my life. By clutter I mean the things that break my focus. This might include the negative people who rain on my parade, or the things I do that take away my time. I want to fill my house with positive ideas, activities, and people who add instead of subtract from my life.

Write this week about how you wish to clean house and what you wish to add to your life. Do not add names of people. You may describe people as negative or sunshine. Focus on the positive.

Symbols

I have been reading a lot lately. More than usual, I guess is what I mean to say. Reading provides me with so much; I find comfort in the language, the characters, the ideas and how the author chooses to convey them. All of these are very much a part of me. The more I read, the more I am able to understand text. Makes sense...right? The more I read, the more I am able to pick up on vocabulary, symbols, structures, styles, characterizations, and the like.

These books are symbolic of not just my personality but for the way I think. I am a person who does not just see the surface; I am a person who looks below the surface through the nooks and crannies to find meaning, to see how things work. It can be an annoying part of my personality. Watching movies becomes a game where I try to examine every word, every image, every camera angle to see what meaning is being made regardless of how subtle.

Books are a symbol I embrace. For this blog, I want you to think about symbols. We know that a symbol is itself and something else. Books are a symbol. In themselves they are an item that contains pages, words, covers--front and back, meaning etc... As a symbol they represent knowledge, complexity, devotion, class, interest etc...

What would be a symbol for you? Why is it a symbol for you? Break the item down and apply it to your personality.

Dreams

The American Dream is a theme within our text. The American dream is unique to each citizen. It is rooted in the idea of freedom and the opportunity for material prosperity. However, there are many layers to the dream. Look at George and Lennie's dream. What does the dream entail? What is it made of? What has to happen in order for it to occur? Who owns the American dream in our text?

I want you to read the lyrics to the two songs below or if you wish to find the songs and listen you may. However you choose, examine the American dream in both pieces. How do they compare? What differences do you see? What is standing in the way of the dream? How are they the same at the core? What symbols do you see within each song?

The two songs come from two very different and talented artists. It is not required that you like the songs and please do not allow your own bias toward song preference to get in your way of analysis. Click the song titles to go to the lyrics. "I Have a Dream" by Common and "Rain on the Scarecrow" by John Mellencamp.

Happy listening!

Oh, the Places we do love!

I love my house entirely decorated in holiday garb. Everything looks so complete. The smell of live greens and the stockings hanging on the chimney make my family room one of my favorite places to be.

This week, I want you to think about your favorite place. What makes it so perfect? What emotions does it evoke in you? What does it look like, smell like, sound like?

Do not tell us the place. Just like last week, I want you to describe it for us.