Remember, Paper #2 is due Thursday @ 5:00 (see post below)

If you missed class on Tuesday, just remember that Paper #2 is due on Thursday, so we won't have class. Instead, make sure to get something to me (as finished as possible, as good as you can in the time) by around 5pm. A little late is okay, just not very late. 

I gave everyone the handout below to remind you about incorporating quotes and doing proper citations. Keep this handy in case you forget how to do it! 

Come back on TUESDAY, and we'll do a Writing Workshop to give you ideas about the next book and some other ideas about writing in general.

MLA Citation for Paper #2

When citing a poem in your paper, be sure to introduce the poem and the poet, and the cite the page number from your book. Always give enough context so that we know where the lines come from, and always explain why the lines are significant to you (what they mean or explain).

For example:

In Tina Chang’s Poem, “Story of Girls,” she describes an incident where her brothers held her down for an hour while devising various cruel ways to torture her. But when she thinks back to that incident today, she remarks, “Oftentimes it’s the quiet cousin I think about” (60). This is important because…

And when using Humans of New York, be sure to introduce the book and the image itself through description, and cite the page number. Try to avoid saying, “on page 232, there’s that picture of the old man who says…” Be more descriptive so we can see the picture as clearly as you can.

WORKS CITED

In general, include the author, the name of the poem (if you’re using poetry), the title of the book, and the publication information (which you can find on the inside cover).

Chang, Tina. “Story of Girls.” American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2018.

Stanton, Brandon. Humans of New York: Stories. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2015. 

For Tuesday: American Journal, Last Poems!

Here are a few more poems to read to give you ideas for Paper #2, and to read/enjoy in general. Again, you can read ANY of the poems in the book, but these are ones that I hope to discuss in class, and I feel are a little easier to get into than the rest. But they're just suggestions--read more if you like!

POEMS: Trethewey, Elegy (83-84); Young, Crowning (86-87); Ewing, Requiem for Fifth Period and the Things That Went On Then (90-93); Phillips, Mercy (96-97) Sacfidi, For the Last American Buffalo (pp.107)

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: What theme do you see connecting some or all of these poems? The chapter is entitled "One Singing Thing," which comes from the poem on page 107. What do you think that means? 

Q2: Two of the poems, "Elegy" and "Mercy" are about remembering one's parents now that the children have become parents themselves. What regrets does each poet seem to have now that they're grown up, and see their parents differently now? What might one or both of them have done differently?

Q3: Many of the poems in this section are about children as well. What are the poets trying to show us about children and childhood in this poems, esp. one like "Requiem for Fifth Period"? What do we miss (or misunderstand) about childhood now that we're adults? What do we forget?

Q4: In the last poem, "For the Last American Buffalo," the poet says, at the end, that the world doesn't care whether we live or die. Nevertheless, he says, "Tell is you do and why" (107). What do you think he means by this? Why should we tell the world--or anyone--that we "do and why"? 

Paper #2: The America We Don’t See (due March 2)

Paper #2: The America We Don’t See

INTRO: For this paper, another ‘conversation’ paper, I want you to consider how poetry and pictures can help us see the normal, everyday world in a different light. We get up, get dressed, and go to work or school and think “same thing, different day.” But every day could be wildly different based on how we see it, and even the most normal experience could hold incredible tragedy and power…for you, or for the other people around you.

PROMPT: Use the poems in this book to start a conversation about something that most people don’t see or think about on a daily basis, but is actually very common. It could be violence, death, mental health, divorce/break-ups, war, isolation, personal safety, etc. etc. Why don’t we talk about this more often, or how do we talk about it in ways that aren’t helpful or useful? Why is it easy to avoid talking about it? What is the danger of not talking about it? Make sure we understand “why this matters,” and more importantly, why YOU think it matters.

CONVERSATION REQUIREMENTS

·      Use 2-3 poems to develop this conversation, quoting from them and showing how the poems help us ‘see’ this conversation more clearly.

·      Use 1-2 stories from Humans of New York that you think also shed a light on this conversation, either from the stories themselves, or even just the pictures. How could one of the images become a metaphor for this topic?

·      OPTIONAL: you can also use outside sources on the topic to help you discuss this issue, though you don’t have to. It might add to your conversation, but you’re only required to use the 2 books in class.

·      Be sure to introduce every poem and HONY story with context: the poet/title, or the person in the story. Cite page numbers for quotations.

·      A Works Cited page that lists both books in class. For example…

·      Purupra, Lia. “Proximities.” American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time. Minnealpolis: Graywolf Press, 2018.

 DUE THURSDAY, MARCH 2^nd BY 5PM [no class that day]

For Thursday: American Journal: Layli Long Soldier, "38"

NOTE: If you want to learn more about the historical events the poem talks about, click on this link: https://blog.nativehope.org/the-untold-story-living-the-dakota-38-memorial

There's only ONE poem to read for next time, but a longer one. It tells a story (sort of), and is about history, but is also full of personal insights and metaphors. It's a fascinating poem about a little-known event in our nation's history that was understandably not included in many history textbooks until relatively recently. 

Answer TWO of the questions below:

Q1: In this poem, Layli Long Soldier writes that "Here, the sentence will be respected," and "Everything is in the language we use." Why is she being so careful with her language and in defining so many words/terms? Why does she want us to understand the "how" and "why" of language?

Q2: If you could hear her read this poem, what do you think her TONE would be? In other words, how would she read this poem? What message is she trying to convey by the way she is writing? Is it sad? Bitter? Sarcastic? Ironic? How can you tell?

Q3: What do you think she means by the statement, "Real" poems do not "really" require words? Why is this sentence italicized and given quotations? Is her poem not a "real" poem? And if not, what would a "real" poem be?

Q4: She calls the Ride of the Dakota 38 a memorial that is more important than a plaque or an object because it is also an act. How could a poem also be an act, rather than an object? How does poems, like rides, act? 

For Tuesday: American Journal, poems from Part III: "Words Tangled in Debris"

For Tuesday, we won't have any questions, but we WILL have an in-class writing response over one of the poems below. So be sure to read the following...

* Who's Who (53-55)

* Minimum Wage (56)

* Proximities (57-58)

* Story of Girls (59-60)

* Fourth Grade Autobiography (61)

* The Long Deployment (64)

* From Personal Effects (65-66)

* We Lived Happily During the War (67)

Here are some tricks to reading poems, as we've discussed in class: 

1. Remember, some poems have a kind of story or plot, but most don't. You have to figure out what the situation/context is based on the metaphors. So look for an intersting metaphor and try to figure out why the poem puts 'this' in terms of 'that.' 

2. Also try to figure out who's talking, and who they're talking to. Most poems create a character, and understanding who this character is helps you understand the poem.

3. Think about the Title. What is is referring to? A line in the poem? Is it another metaphor? Does it make sense after you read the poem? Would it help you re-read the poem with that in mind? 

4. Look for repetition as well. Repeated words or phrases are often clues to what the poem is about, or how we can understand #2. 

5. Read it OUT LOUD. You will hear things you won't see on the page. You'll hear the music, the rhythm, and the mood of the piece. The way a poem sounds is often the key to what it's about. 

Good luck, and see you next week! 

For Thursday: American Journal, Poems: see below

NOTE: I suspect some people still don't have all their books. If you for some reason don't have this book, or the bookstore doesn't have it, or for ANY reason. please let me know and I can get you copies of the poems. It's better to have the book, but I don't want you to give up simply because you don't have the book. So let me know.

For Thursday's class, read the following poems (you can read more if you want, but I chose the ones that I think are the most interesting and the easiest to read without too much background):

* Szybist, Girls Overheard While Assembling a Puzzle (25-26)

* Wheeler, "From the Split" (pp.35-36)

* Diaz, "My Brother at 3 am" (pp.42-43)

* Rasmussen, "Reverse Suicide" (p.44)

* Wright, "Charlottesville Nocturne" (p.45)

* Limon, "Downhearted" (p.46)

* Wiman, "After the Diagnosis" (p.48-49)

Answer TWO of the following after reading (and I encourage to re-read these short poems, because you'll understand more the more you read them):

Q1: Which poem seems the most like a story we might find in Humans of New York? Why is this? What kind of 'story' is it trying to tell (and does it remind you of a person/photo you saw in the book?)

Q2: Which poem has the most unusual structure? In other words, which poem isn't like any other poem you've read before? Why do you think the poet writes the poem like this? What does it help us see or experience to read it like this?

Q3: In Ada Limon's poem, "Downhearted," she's trying to explore the metaphor of being "down-hearted," which uses the idea we discussed in class of "down" being a metaphor for bad, out of control, unconscious, etc. How does she try to make us understand the emotion in other ways in this poem? To her, what does "downhearted" mean? (NOTE: Ada Limon is the current Poet Laureate of the United States, which means she's basically the ambassador of poetry!). 

Q4: Most of the poems in this selection (except the first one, about the puzzle) are from Part II of the book, which is entitled, "Something Shines Out From Every Darkness." What do you think that sentence is trying to say? How can something shine out from darkness? And how might this help explain or illustrate one of the poems in this section? 

For Tuesday: American Journal: read the poems below

On Thursday, we discussed what makes reading poetry different than reading normal writing (prose), and why poetry actually mimics much closer the way we think and experience the world. 

For example, most of the common statements we say every day are full of hidden metaphors that we forget are actually poetry. Examples are:

* I woke up this morning (you don't wake "up"--up is a direction; it suggests that you rise out of unsconsciousness)

* I can't get over him (you don't get "over" people--you simply have trouble forgetting them. "Over" is a metaphor similar to "up"). 

* I wish you would stop wasting my time! (you can't "waste" time, or spend time, or borrow time, or save time; time isn't money, though we think about it as if it is. It makes more sense to us, since money is abstract otherwise). 

Poetry tries to use our everyday metaphors in new, exciting ways to make them sound like poetry again. It also tries to take normal experiences such as going to the store, brushing your teeth, or looking at a sunset and frame them as completely new and unique experiences. Poetry makes us look at the world for the first time, much the way we did as children. 

So for Tuesday's class, I want you to read the following poems from American Journal and answer TWO of the questions below:

THE POEMS

* Girmay, "Second Estrangement" (we read this in class, but it's worth reading again--or for the first time, if you weren't there)

* De La Paz, "In Defense of Small Towns"

* Brown, " 'N'em"

* Voight, "The Field Trip"

* Jackson, "Mighty Pawns"

QUESTIONS (answer any TWO):

Q1: Remembering that metaphors substitute one thing in terms of another, discuss an interesting or unique metaphor from one of the poems. What does it make you see about the idea or object that you wouldn't otherwise see? Remember the painting we saw in class, where a glass could be a storm, etc. How might this poem change our associations with commonplace objects? 

Q2: These poems are all about everyday experiences from childhood and daily life: living in a small town, going on a field trip, getting lost, etc. These aren't typically the subjects of poetry for most people. So what makes these poems 'poetic'? How do they change our experience or understanding of these very normal subjects? 

Q3: Discuss a line in one of the poems that simply doesn't make sense to you. Why does it seem so difficult? Is it a series of words you don't know? A strange sentence construction? A confusing image or metaphor? A line that seems out of place? Why do you think the poet wrote it like this?

Q4: What poem could you especially relate to based on your own experience, memories, childhood, or ideas? Is there a poem that seemed to be taken from your own life? Why is this? Discuss a line or important image that you can specifically understand or relate to.  

Updates for the Class: See below

Since the university doesn't open until 10:00 on Thursday, we can't have class at our normal time at 9:30. So class will still be canceled for Thursday. So here's the schedule and changes for next week:

1. We WILL have class on Tuesday. So please come back on Tuesday, and the last questions for Humans of New York will be due on Tuesday instead. If you haven't done them yet, then you still have the entire weekend to complete them. 

2. I'll push the Paper #1 assignment to THURSDAY, the 9th by 5pm. It WILL NOT be due on Tuesday, since we need to have class before it's due. 

3. We WILL have class on Thursday as well, since I don't want to cancel yet another class after missing an entire week. But you won't have any work due. I simply want to introduce the next unit of the class, as well as our next book. So please come on Thursday as well. 

4. Let me know if you have any questions about the Paper #1 assignment, and I'll be happy to help you. I will be in my office from 10-11 tomorrow, as well as from 1-3. Or you can e-mail me at any time. 

See you next week!