Did Curiosity Kill the Cat?

According to Alastair Reid "Curiosity will not cause us to die- only the lack of it will." The reasoning is in the beginning of poem: the cat did not die because it was curious, it was just not lucky. When I read this poem I felt like it wasn't a poem at all but merely like reading someone's thoughts on death or curiosity. This is odd because I've been known as the one in my family that is the most curious and being curious has helped and hurt me. To be curious means you want more knowledge and that is the greatest thing of all, is to gain more knowledge. I agree it is " Only the curious have, if they live, a tale worth telling at all." Some of the most heroic or advanturous people had to be curious to begin their journey. Christopher Columbus, Martin Luther King Jr., even Helen Keller had to be curious, and it is their stories in which we learn about repeatedly in school. In the poem Reid personifies cats and dogs; it is as if the dogs and cats were human. Cats are the ones who are curious and live, and dogs are the ones who die with no story to tell and no life that was lived because to live you have to be curious. The conclusion of the poem is astonishing, Reid says, "dying is what the living do, and the dying is what the loving do- dying is what, to live, each has to do." You have to live to die and you have to die to live- even if that means you have to be curious. The poem starts off as a thought toward being curious and ends in how to live or die.

Some Words are Wallflower Words.

"Wallflowers" by Donna Vorreye sounds like it isn't about words, but it is. This poem brings words that aren't used to life by explaining how there are words that aren;t used very ofter and are the wallflowers of words. She uses words in the poem like gegenshein and zoanthropy which don't relate to the poem at all and mean almost nothing. It makes me think about why she wrore this poem. What made her think about unused words? The whole poem is a personification of words which makes in enteresting.

Behind on number six

For poetry response number six I choose to read and respond to "In Blackwater Woods," by Mary Oliver. This poem showed good imagery, I could picture the woods and I could feel myself in the poem. There is a lot of metaphores and personification. The trees come to life and wood is a person itself. The whole poem is three sentences broken up into nine stanzas each with four lines, this showed how the woods are so real and how it felt being in them. This poem is from a book by Mary Oliver called, American Primitive. It is a book of collected poems by her. The poem almost puts off a melonchally tone and could make you almost feel sad or maybe just relaxed. The part I thought most about is when she says, "... every pond no matter what its name is, is nameless now." It made me realize how true that could be and how things that once mattered could simply not matter anymore. "In Blackwater Woods" is an enteresting poem.

Back in the day.

"1943" by Donald Hall is one of the poems we have decussed in class, but I feel as though it's a little hard to get my opinion out when I'm sitting there. Here it is. After reading this poem my first reactions were I felt like the poem was taking me back in the day. The war was obsorbing the men just as they got out of high school or were still in high school. Hall expresses how he felt about the war, the duties and sadness the war caused. You can really see the emotions in the poems words and style. two lines to the five stanza's is just right amount to express 1943. The poem is excellent and is one that could have an interesting antecedent scenerio. That is up for your oppinion.

Repsonse to Poetry.

The Giving Tree (I can't figure out how to underline this) was my first thought when I read the poem "Lost Brother." This man relates himself to a tree that he claims is his lost brother. Everything that happens to the tree he feels happening to himself as well. I never really thought about it but trees, and nature in general, are very comforting and reliable. Trees' are useful in many ways; they provide oxgyen, a playground, shade, food, and much more. They live to be very old and are one of the few biotic things in the world. Stanley Moss is the author of the poem and he says "I am prepared to live as long as he did (it would please our mother.)" This part really stuck out to me. I'm assuming he is talking about mother nature and that makes his thoughts about being the brother of the tree so real. We are related someway, somehow.

Poetry response three.

This weeks poem is "Still Memory," by Mary Karr. I thought this poem was nice, and I enjoyed it. When she begans to dream about her life when she was ten I began to think about my own life when I was ten. The end wraps it all when she describes how she would write about her life as it was happening so that she could remember it. This relates to me because I was taught as a child to write in a journal or a diary. I have kept a journal for quite some time and still do. Writing helps me remember the simple things like smell, noise and how I felt. Mary does the same thing in the poem which is a dream of her writing so she could remember. It is wonderful remember the good things about being a child and how recording it can help. I should have picked this poem to share in class because how much I could relate to it and how much I enjoyed it.

Always wondering why the blackberries are for Amelia? (poetry entry dose)

This week's poetry choice is "Blackberries for Amelia" by Richard Wilbur. This is the first poem on our poetry packet and everytime I open my binder to the packet the first thing I see is "Blackberries for Amelia." When I open to my poetry packet I'm usually on a different mission, and just notice this poem. So this time I opened my binder on a mission to read and get to know this poem.

My first question was who is Amelia? As the poem ended I made the inference that Amelia is Richard's grandaughter. The rhythem pattern is a, b, b, a, c, d, d, c. and so on. I enjoyed this because it is somewhat uncommon. As the poem progresses the blackberries grow and rippen. It begins in June with just branches and leaves. Then as the weather starts to change the flowers bloom then it ends in August when the blackberries rippen and are ready to be picked. The build up of the blackberries ready to be picked is intense. It ends sweetly saying how he needs a grandchild to talk to him as he picks the blackberries make them even better. I really enjoyed this poem and now i don't have to wonder what it's about everytime I open my binder or see my poetry packet.