Poetry Unit Reflection

Poetry has been a vital, real part of my life for some time now.  This has become apparent to me through this poetry unit, which has allowed me to answer the following questions.  

 This is a tough question to answer, because I have grown up reading poetry and usually I either love it or hate it, there isn’t really an “in-between”.  So when I was asked “What place does poetry have in your life”, I was a bit confused.  Being someone who’s favorite pastimes have always been reading and writing, poetry has just come along naturally with that.  In short, poetry is, and always has been, something I’ve enjoyed immensely, but something I don’t want to get too deep into.  My mother used to work at the Oak Park Public Library and she organized all the teen programs.  One of those programs was the poetry slam/coffee house that she held one Saturday every month.  Sometimes she would take me, and I absolutely loved it.  It just had that feel you get when you read beat poetry, that sophisticated yet aloof aura that you want to experience, but also want to stay away from.  Those nights have taught me poetry belongs to everyone, and I know from the emotion and depth of the poems I’d often hear.  From moody and mad at the world teens, to the security guards at a library, to even the nerdiest IT guys.  

Although those poetry slam nights taught me that the life and experiences of poets affect their poems, I’d like to elaborate.  One person everyone should know, Oscar Wilde, really proved that statement to me.  You might know Wilde was prosecuted and sent to jail (then spelt/referred to as gaol) and that he wrote many reflections from his experience.  His best known from those works, “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”  clearly expresses his feelings about jail and details his experiences.  “Dear Christ! the very prison walls/Suddenly seemed to reel/And the sky above my head became/Like a casque of scorching steel/And, though I was a soul in pain/My pain I could not feel.”  was written in response to the bleak conditions of the prison he was kept in.  

From my personal experiences, to those of Oscar Wilde’s, I have found that poetry has a place in my life, and can be part of everyones’.  I have also learned that a poet’s life can greatly influence their work.  

5 Flavors of Dumb

Prompt:  What ideas do you have about what is going to happen? What clues have you

read to give you those ideas?

Pages read:  Start to mid 40s

Because I've only just started this book this morning, I felt this was a good prompt to respond to.  To summarize what has been going so you are not lost, I'll give you the basics.  Our main character is a deaf teenage girl attending a school her parents can barely afford, which has already created problems she has to face.  If you're wondering what "Dumb" is, or thinking it is a stupid title, I'll tell you it is the rock band within the school. They have won the Seattle Battle of the Bands (which is really cool, Seattle is my favorite city, even if it is fictional) and are looking to getting a record deal.  As you can imagine, they aren't the easiest people to deal with.  After a bit of an awkward scuffle with the band's lead singer, Piper, our main character, was asked/demanded to get them a gig as soon as possible and become their manager.  So going from this information, and prior knowledge, I can make a few predictions.

I can already tell there's going to be disagreements between Piper and the band.  It's hard enough that she's deaf and they aren't patient, but musicians are stereotypically high maintenance.  Piper's a busy girl with school work and taking care of her siblings, so I can only imagine the struggle that is to come.  Along those same lines, though a bit different is the fact that they are in high school.  Although I don't feel this statement needs an explanation, I'll warn you of the drama that usually occurs.  And what's a good YA novel without its share of drama.  Relationships, crushes, friendships are all promised to come up, reading from the back cover.

I've mentioned this earlier -but it's a point that deserves to be brought up more in depth.  Piper's deafness (for lack of a much better word) gives her many limitations.  A harsh truth that she knows she has to face, but her socially inept nature restricts her from facing head on.  You can imagine the criticism, the disbelief, at a deaf band manager.  Sure there have been deaf musicians but with Piper's lack of funding and uncharisma (not a word, oh well) it will make it hard for her to stand up and get a gig.  Which would most likely seem like the end of the world.  So I predict either she'll have a miraculous recovery, and this book will not be as good as I thought, or she will find a way to get a gig doing as little talking and on as little money as possible.  Honestly, I wish her the best of luck.