State of the Planet

This poem was really hard to get into. The rhythm of it is also really hard to get. This kind of poetry is at the bottom of my list of texts we have read for this class. To help me try, key word, try to understand it I did some preliminary research. Throughout this poem, Hass repeatedly refers to Lucretius who was a Roman poet and philosopher who wrote a poem called On the Nature of the Universe. I did some research on this poem as well and found out that Lucretius was trying to discredit the belief that the gods created the world and universe or interfered in anyway. He presented evidence that the universe could be explained by natural phenomena. Lucretius said, “the regular but purposeless motions and interactions of tiny atoms in empty space.” The gods had nothing to do with it. In my research it seems to me that Hass believes that Lucretius presented this in his poem. The following passage seems to be his basis:

The book will try to give the child the wonder of how, in our time, we understand life cam to be: Stuff flung off from the sun, the molten core still pouring sometimes rivers of black basalt across the earth from the old fountains of its origin. A hundred million years of clouds, sulfurous rain. The long cooling. There is no silence in the world like the 

silence of rock before life was.

Hass, in this verse, portrays himself as an evolutionist. I could not find any support to prove that he is. But I picked up on evolutionists’ tones and this is where I got my conclusion. Another passage seems to confirm my conclusion.

Cells divided and reproduced. From where? Why? Then bacterium grew green pigment. That was the essential miracle.

Reading for Transformation

In reading this assignment I found a few things that interested me. First, McAloon talks about how Lectio Divinia works. I had never heard of lectio divinia before I came to school here. My best friend Bryan was the first person to explain it to me. I found it very intriguing to say the least. The first time I tried it was a great experience and profound. It helps to understand scripture and to focus on reading and praying. Focusing on reading the Bible and praying in difficult to me because I have an undiagnosed case of A.D.D. haha, but lectio divinia helps me to clear my mind and focus on what I’m doing. Reading a text thoroughly, running it over and over in your mind, is how we get something from the text that is being read. Say your studying for a test and you think just because you read over your notes you are prepared for the test. You take the test and afterwards you forget everything that you studied because all you were doing was memorizing and regurgitating information. I’m not saying to use lectio divinia to study, but then again I am, albeit, a different form of it.

Moving on. When it comes to poetry some poems are harder to understand than others. I tend to shy away from poems that hard to understand. My favorite poem is called For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon, and it is about the soldiers who died in the First World War. It is not a difficult poem to understand or to read. My favorite passage reads,

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn. 
At the going down of the sun and in the morning 
We will remember them.”

I think this passage can be applied to all soldiers that fall in battle because we must never for get their sacrifice. 

Sonny's Blues

Sonny’s blues tells an intriguing story of two African American brothers who come to understand each other through their own experiences. The story features through its two main characters the two different sides of the African-American experience in the 1950s. The storyteller has integrated himself into the white society as best he can but he still feel’s like he does not belong. He still feel’s the sting of racism and the limits imposed on him because of his color. He is aggravated that he cannot be who he wants to be just because he his black. But his brother, Sonny, never tried to integrate himself into white society and this caused him to have to find an outlet for his pain and suffering that his permanent status of being inferior has placed upon him. His outlet turned out to be music; especially the kind developed by other African-Americans, such as the blues. Through playing music, Sonny could loose his suffering and make it into something beautiful.

I am a history major and I am currently in a class where we are discussing the Civil Rights movement and the African-American experience in the 50s and 60s. This story is fiction but it is very true in the sense that it conveys a very real reality. Being an African-American during those times was extremely tough. All the violence that was taking place out in public with hardly any repercussions from the law. Studying the history during this time period helped me while reading this story because I could really see what the environment was where this was taking place.

I think we all have a way to deal with our hurts and sufferings. You have to find a constructive way to get things out. Some people choose crime or violence to enact suffering on others and through this they feel gratified because now someone else is suffering. Others choose more peaceful and constructive means, such as music and writing. This is how Sonny dealt with his suffering.

Post 13 October 2010

So I'm sitting in my room reading over the material that we either read in class or on our own. All of them have there own uniqueness. Some are comical, some are sad, some are reflective, and some are more serious. The two poems by Elizabeth Bishop are interesting because both are completely different. In the poem Five Flights Up she says, “He and the bird know everything is answered, all is taken care of, no need to ask again.” When I read this and think about how carefree animals act. They know the sun will come up. We as humans and more importantly as Christians know that God has it all worked out. We can trust in him because He has created the universe and if we just trust Him everything will go as planned.

The other poem is hard for me to understand. It’s dark and gloomy. The one line that stuck out to me is, “The city burns guilt. –For guilt-disposal the central heat must be this intense.” When visualize this I see an intense fire destroying everything in its path. The line that says For guilt disposal the central heat must be intense , I think this could mean the purging of sin like in the Old Testament Days.

Moving on. The play Sure Thing , is a really funny story to me especially because when we read it out loud I got to be the bell. Anyways, I like this story because of its meaning. We all at some point wish we had a bell that would reset things when we screw up or need a second chance.

I was reading Professor Corrigan’s Notes on Character and found that I agree with him that plot and character are not fully separable. Character’s usually drive the plot. 

Short Story

A Confederate Soldiers Story: July 3, 1863

Private Thomas Jackson was a Confederate Soldier who had been fighting since the beginning of the war in 1861. He was not a tall man, standing at about 5’ 9”. He had green eyes and a strongly shaped forehead. He was of light complexion because of his Scottish heritage. His parents had come over to America in 1852 to make a better life for their son. Thomas was ten years old when he made the journey with his parents. When they arrived they found a country tearing itself apart over the issue of slavery. His family made their way down south and settled in lower Alabama and started a farm there. Thomas loved it there and grew extremely fond of the area. The hilly terrain and numerous lakes and streams teamed with adventure. But as the years rolled by the rising talks of war engulfed the whole South. Alabama was adamantly pro-slavery along with the other states that decided to secede from the Union. Thomas was not for or against slavery; he saw it as the economic system of the South, but as the cloud of war descended over America, Thomas felt he had to defend his state and his way of life. Thomas cast his lot with the Confederacy and pledged his life to defend his state.

Thomas now found himself near a little town in Pennsylvania called Gettysburg. He had been fighting there for two days, but on this day he was told, “they where going to send the Yankee’s packing on the way back to Washington.” He was part of General George Picketts Division and under the command of General Armistead. Thomas and his fellow soldiers where sitting inside a tree line about three-quarters of a mile away from Cemetery Ridge. This was there objective. At about one o’clock the Confederate guns opened up and Thomas would recall later in his years that is sounded, “like a thunder storm.” Thomas and his buddies where talking about how the Yankee’s must be catching hell up there. It made them confident that when it came their time to charge that the Yank’s up on that hill would be ready to retreat.

In reality Thomas and his friends were scared. As the cannon fire continued, Thomas got quiet and leaned back against a tree thinking that this could be his last charge. He began to think about his parents back home in Alabama and wished he could see them one last time. The reality of battle during the Civil War was brutal. He knew that most of his friends would not make it to the ridge. He began to pray to God for protection. He was being overwhelmed by dear but then General Pickett came riding in on his horse and gave us a short speech that motivated us and gave us the confidence we where beginning lose.

We all loved General Armistead and he always knew how to keep our spirits up. His uncle was one of the men that defended Fort McKinley. He was from Virginia and so were all the soldiers in his division. Thomas had joined them after his unit had been decimated during the Battle of Antietam. He was welcomed and grew to love his comrades. They all knew their jobs and did them without question. Thomas was fighting in a cause he believed was right, and so were his comrades.

The cannon’s suddenly stopped and the order was given to rise up. We arose and dressed our lines and prepared for what was to come. We formed a line of battle and checked each others equipment, making sure nothing was lose. Losing your ammunition pouch would make for a bad day. As we were preparing for the coming battle, General Pickett appeared again. He shouted, “Rise up, Rise up, Remember today that you are from old VIRGINIA!” We all shouted and cheered because we believed that we could conquer any foe now. We were confident. The drummers start their beat and we began to move forward. The waiting was over it was time to advance and take the ridge and we knew we could do it. No Yankee was going to stop us.

As we marched forward the artillery boys cheered us on. They where waving their red hats in the air in a circle. They had done their job now it was the infantry’s turn. As we advanced we encountered the smoke from the artillery barrage, which was thick, and quite a few of us coughed. The anxiety was now beginning to rise. To say weren’t scared would be a lie. Any soldier will tell to that being scared is a good thing. We could see the Yank’s now. They were behind a stone wall. Then all of a sudden their cannons roared to life. The first shot his to the left of our formation and created a giant whole in the formation it hit, but they quickly dressed up the whole. Now artillery shells were falling all around us. Smoke was everywhere. Soldiers screaming in pain but we weren’t about to be stopped. We pressed forward hard and fast. Our vision was impaired because of the smoke but we just kept pressing forward.

We came to a road near the ridge, which had a wooden fence on both sides, this made for a killing ground. It slowed us down because we had to climb over the top while the whole time the Yank’s were shooting at us with their cannons. Then came the rifle fire which raked our lines up and down. The first volley took a heavy toll including my friend John Poe,but we returned the fire with much effectiveness. We continued to press forward and made it to the stonewall where we met the Yank’s in close combat, but our break through didn’t last long. They reinforced and we where forced to retreat. We had almost won the day but the great toll of life inflicted during our advance kept us from victory.

I lost my best friend John along with almost my entire division. The loss of life on that day was beyond imagination. I will never forget the day I took part in “Pickett’s Charge”. The nightmares haunt me to this day. I can still hear the screams of the wounded and dying. 

People Watching

Last Wednesday I did my people watching and found it fun and creepy. People are really funny to watch, their mannerisms especially. I was watching this one guy who every ten to fifteen seconds would fix his hair in the window at the cafe or in his phone. He had the Justin Bieber haircut so he would swish it. It was very amusing. I also found a few things at FireFall that were interesting. During praise and worship whenever the music got louder more people would raise their hands but as the music faded the hands starting to fall. I'm not criticizing people and they way they worship I just found it interesting. Does the music have to be loud and of good quality to take part in it? That's how it seemed during FireFall and Chapel for that matter. But getting off my soap box I enjoy people watching but not in the creepy way. I was sitting in the Library last Tuesday and I noticed that at least half of everybody in there was on facebook or doing something else besides homework. Most people were on youtube but I'm guilty of this to.

Watching people allows you to see who someone is without ever even talking to them. You have to be an active watcher though. Taking notes on how people react to certain people and certain situation helps put together a picture of certain person. You can tell if someone is a dominant personality or a passive personality. You can tell if the person dislikes something or someone by watching their facial expressions. People generally express their emotions about something by using gestures or facial expressions. This is very prevalent while watching people. And so I leave you with this, watching people is interesting but a little creepy.