Packet 2.1

Well part of me wishes we had class so I could have some new understanding to write about or a new concept to discuss, then I remember SNOW DAY (or cold day as it were in technicality). Reading farther into the packet proved a bit tedious but was nice for my suddenly free afternoon. A personal favorite in the rest of the packet was The Clock Fallen Into The Sea by Pablo Neruda.

The piece does have an interesting title, but the most intriguing part was that it was lined up next to the Spanish form of the text. It was fun and interesting to match up words and phrases between the two languages. Moving on however I would like to start analyzing what I see before me. In the first stanza he uses the term yellow at the end of the second line to describe many dimensions; in combination and in context with the rest of the stanza it seems to mean something along the lines of age and death, to wither away, to yellow like old paper.

In the fourth stanza he associates time with petals, presumably that of a flower, and states that they fall immensely. This adverb gives the immediate image of a flood of petals, almost clouding out the sky and sun, all about you. Such word choice throughout the poem keep invoking a sense and image of vastness, of being minuscule and insignificant to an unrelenting torrent of the universe. However, I must admit that after finishing it through and through several times, I am not too sure as to what message it wanted to present, or even what I feel it meant as a whole. the end leaves us like a cliffhanger, a sense of vagueness that forces question and second-guessing.

This piece offers itself to those more attuned to abstract analysis, I would love to hear/see what others thought of it.

(on the subject of time:...)

Alice: How long is forever?

White Rabbit: Sometimes, just one second.

-Lewis Carol 

Poetry Packet 2

Yay! Sonnets! I always loved Shakespearean sonnets; the pattern flow of speech is addicting and it's hilarious when you try and say them, or read them, in exaggerated accents and voices. Sonnets are also quite admirable and remarkable works of literary art, so few people realize exactly how hard it is to write in Iambic Pentameter. Any person wishing to write one must have an intimate knowledge of their languages vocabulary, to the extent that their brains are legitimate substitutions for both dictionaries and thesauruses.

My favorite pieces from the packet were Shakespeare's sonnet 128 and Muller's sonnet, a parody/remake of Shakespeare's sonnet 130. Sonnet 128 has a few abbreviated and accented words in it and a truly unique choice of vocabulary. For any person who cares and is reading this, I implore you to read sonnet 128, or any others for that matter, as exaggerated as possible; it will be funny, and you will laugh. Shakespeare did some of the queerest things to make an idea fit.

Muller's sonnet is an interesting re-write of Shakespeare's sonnet 130. Analyzing it, it is the same thing; same ideas, same order, just with different vocabulary, the author went through the original and changed words and phrases to more modern forms and metaphor allowing for better understanding; "If Liquid Paper is white, her racks are institutional beige." is a lot easier for the average person to understand than "If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;". Muller also make a point to write in a sense of comedy and lightheartedness in an obvious manner.

At this point I'm running low on thoughts of what to write so... Done 'n' Out!

"Comedy is tragedy upon someone else." - Anon

First Packet.

What a lovely start to the term, poetry has always been a favorite of mine. The sheer complexity that can be found in a simple stanza is actually rather astounding. The affinity for the metaphorical and figurative language, this causes a small jump in an interpretive difficulty curve but once such abstract concepts are understood and utilized well, the whole scope of meaning broadens to horizons. One, as an individual, is bound to interpret in slightly different ways and some could even spend an hour working on only a small portion in attempts to understand what the author wanted to say.

In fact my small group on Tuesday spent the majority of allotted time just discussing the first stanza of Geology of Water. We first explored the authors use of vocabulary in a singular form; i.e. "what does striated mean? Why did he chose that word over others?", "What could he mean by saying indigo, a color, is blind?", etc. We then looked at the vocabulary as it worked in the whole of the stanza, finding the author used a lot of colors to describe an object, one we deduced to be an ocean, blind indigo being the deep bottom where there is little to no light, or sea that met the requirement in line 7 of the first stanza: "to nudge the continents apart."

Another piece I enjoyed was Hinako Abe: The Scent of Verbena. I rarely see poems that try to alter their word placement, margins, and spacing to generate a larger ascetic picture. Unfortunately the, as I perceived it, hourglass shape did make it a strain on my eyes to read. It talked of a journey a person was making, climbing a mountain with another making their way to "the man made lake at the mountain summit." This is most likely a metaphor, that much is certain, it is a better question to ask of what it is a metaphor of. from my perspective i see the mountain as the innate and natural obstacle that is life itself, immovable, and the lake is man's self made idea of success and happiness.

But alas it's naught but my own interpretation, not the right one or the only one. poetry has always been fascinating, doing so much with/in so little. I really do look forward to to the other works in this class. I will also take this time to say that from now on at the end of each post I will put a quote, idiom, or wise words of such as I feel is fitting for the subjects I find in the week's literature.

"Words only have as much power as you give them." - Anon.

First

Well, this is a blog for my creative writing course. This is the most interactive I have ever been on the internet so I guess this will be a shot in the dark. When it comes to writing I have not yet developed an exact preference to any form, when it comes to school assignments and research papers I have a habit of using a large and mostly scientific vocabulary and maintain an almost robotic tone through out the entire paper. I also tend to take things from a neutral standpoint making it rather difficult to actively work with emotional topics.

Personally I have a growing preference towards fiction, I find that I deal with reality enough and enjoy the escape the fantasy realms provide. It is relatively easy for me to write poetry, the expression found in most is usually unique and moving and provides an outlet for all to express the abstract concepts of their emotions. What I have written however has rarely exceeded 2 pages due to the ideas in my head flying off before I can write everything down, if anything at all. With the work load of college these types of work have been reduced to little short snippets of wise words an life lessons or advice, the philosophy makes it fun none the less.

I decided to take this course because I felt it would provide an outlet away from the generic papers that seem so dull these days, provide something new to work with. I really enjoy the creativity, concepts, theories, and ideas found in the fiction I so often read and thought learning to write as such would be a good experience as such being able to get ideas to stay around would be something I would like to learn. Variety is the spice of life and consistency is the starch. I hope this will be a fun class.