Poetry Unit Refection

1. What did you learn about poetry this unit? How?

I learned that some new poetry vocabulary that has helped me bring in new properties in my writing. Things like alliteration and refrain were some things I wasn't familiar with. Alliteration has helped me create most of my sound effects in this unit. I learned these words by filling in the rubric I was given to help me learn new properties in poetry. Also from the poems we like handout viewing great poets work  made me think about how I write. I think this made me add more imagery in it so I could sound a little bit more like poetry I have read. Exploring other writers work has always changed my methods to learn new tricks to make clever poems.

2.Where did you get your ideas for your poems?

Most of the time my ideas are from things going on in the world because I listen to the news on the radio a lot. I wrote about elephants escaping a cage because my family has always thought against animal captivity and I thought it was worth something to write about and it seemed like there were lots of things to learn about what goes on other than what is seen on stage. I also like to look into the near past and future and see what is going on then and I thought about some recent camping trips I went on with my dad seeing lots of running streams and stopping by them to eat and sometimes seeing pollution in the streams and a good amount of sad poisoned death. My first poem was about a project in art that I saw from another class of paper snowflakes with the sun streaming through the holes of the cut paper. I just like to write about things I hear an see.

3. How did you make your poems good?

When I am going over my first draft of a poem I try to add a lot of details and that is when I put the meaning in it. It is like I am trying to fill everything in to make it sound right. When I am doing this I have to repeatedly read it out loud to myself to figure out what word will fit best. I never feel hesitant to use a thesaurus because they can be extremely helpful and I depend on it a lot to find different words. My favorite sensory elements to use are sensory and sound because by using those words the sound effects of the poem come naturally to me and I think smell is an awkward sense.

4. Why did you write your poems?

I wrote my poems because I wanted to address what has been going on in the world and what has been making me happy lately. I just like to write about whatever comes to mind certain subjects over multiple poems don't really interest me. I really don't care about the meaning so much as what the poem sounds like and what its using to describe the object. It isn't always the meaning in the poem but what it says.

My 2 Poems

snowflakes in the sun- 

wavering and struggling in the scalding heat of summer

no wet ground to stick for it is so dry in the summer

it is too late for the rain to fall if so it does the snow shall die.

the small and intricate patterns so bright in the light  

ever so hopeful to find the night 

soon the sun will pass, 

they will be safe away from its natural way of harm 

the shadows will heal them 

reviving them to their original beauty

just to face another day.

elephant love-

two elephants stand in a quiet cold cage

alone, together, two feet of space from the spiring walls and themselves

ill intentioned visitors come and throw remarks at the elegant creatures

back to back to protect their lover and mate 

together they are limitless staring down the rude intrusion into their cramped and cracking home

the ringmaster comes in and cracks the dry air breaking up the cheer and laughter

loud they roar trunks crashing and bashing the unwanted visitors

storming through the cage the ringmaster at bay in his little hiding hole

tearing through the zoo then into town tromping and stomping 

spreading fear and panic.

 the blue lights come racing down the town

and with a small blast of air their is pain and darkness lays its sheet upon the elephant’s love

The Who

The Who was a band started in London, England. The Who was known for its crazy, fun onstage performances of them doing insane rocker dares. They were one of England’s first great rock bands also leading into some pop and punk. The Who has sold around 100 million records and forty singles along with a large number of gold, platinum, and silver albums. The Who rose to fame in England then greatly influenced America and several other areas across the globe. They rose to fame through pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline. The Who played from 1964-1996 and have made reunion appearances their largest and latest was at one of the recent super bowl half time shows.

The Who made it to the great rock and roll hall of fame and have been named one of the best rock and roll bands of its time. In 2006 the three remaining members of the band got together to make one last record but was abruptly ended by the death of Entwistle’s death and nothing has been done about the record since.

Africa Blog Reflection

1. The geography has created many difficulties for Africa especially because of the intense heat. It has had many resources to make it a rich country in resources but others have taken advantage of their resources and the people of africa itself. The large dry desert has created separation in their country making it difficult to advance. The rivers have allowed the people of Africa to prosper in the dry desert. Because of the poor ground quality the people of africa based their lives on gathering and hunting the animals in the savannah. The larger families would be ones who lived in the wetter central part of africa who would either farm or herd. Because of the slight separation most villages if any at all would have elders to seek advice and a communal council to make decisions.

1. Africa over the years has had many problems due to being a less advanced country in the world especially when fighting great Britain for freedom. Slavery was one of the main reasons Africa is so distraught because they tore themselves apart to make my by selling each other. Other countries have taken advantage of them to get the mineral rich earth that the africans live on. Slavery also created a world of danger and racism for the African people because they were looked down upon by other races. Really africa should be an overall rich country because of its ore and mineral based ground but they aren’t paid correctly and are stolen from. The lack of lush land has made them a very hungry nation mainly based on hunting to gather meat but it may not be the correct nutrition and is all based on luck. The relations of Africa with other countries was a lie affecting them because Europe was smart and would only sell the traders in Africa the lesser technology that even that was years past them. Today in their evolving country now that we all trade fairly Africa is rapidly developing and urbanization is happening leaving less workers to support the society but some are still clinging to what they have left of ancient religions

3. Africa’s greatest contribution to this world mentally has been a wide variety of music that continues to open up styles of music changing and altering branches of their culture. Lots of there arts were adopted and today some have chose to live a life loosely bound to what certain cultures believe in. Summer or warm weather plants have been discovered in Africa an they have taught the world how to use them  and what resources they can provide. Due to slavery the cultures of Africa have spread greatly into America and in Louisiana the culture of the creole has greatly influenced that area and it can still be found today. The math in Africa has always been very advanced and many scholars from other countries have gone their to learn what African mathematicians. In Egypt Pi was invented along with many other great egyptian successes. The ore rich earth that the Africans live on is full of gold and diamond and the gold funded the renaissance and created the gold and salt trade although slat was worth more then it was used as a from of payment. After having being taken over by the Europeans in the slave trade countries eventually gained their independence peacefully created a symbol that they will try to make peace with those who start with violence.

paper airplane video link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-4YgDOSNSQ

PA Assignment

I am going to do an interlocking hand drum pattern with Sam Ryan.