Blog Assignment - Due Friday December 3, 2010

Ugh. I cannot think of a prompt this week! I stole one from davidrm.com, though

Journaling Prompt - Creating lists can be a provocative way of assessing your creative internal thoughts and can spur insightful contemplation. When writing your lists, write what comes to mind, even if you feel it is a bit odd. List 15 things that change. List 15 things that do not change. (Hint don't stop at ten, challenge yourself; go on to 15.) Continue by using your lists for journal entry subjects, fiction or non-fiction writing.

(http://www.davidrm.com/thejournal/tjresources-exercises.php)

So, create the list (you can post that or not post that), then make a poem out of one of the items. Or more then one - whatever feels right. Remember when you write the list that it does not have to make "sense" - just write what feels right and what comes to mind first. Trust me. 

Things That Do Not Change: 

1. My Age

2. Those words you said that one day

3. The notes on the piano

4. The taste of mac and cheese 

5. The smell of an attic

6. The look of bird seed on snow

7. Feeling Desire 

8. Wind on your face

9. The graveyard

10. Sleeping

11. The rhythm of jumping rope

12. Electricity 

13. Wanting to change

14. Resistance 

15. The crunching sound the blade makes on the ice 

OK - I will pick numbers 13 and 2 for my poem. Here it is: 

i've spent my entire life on the look out

for regret. it lingers and has always lingered 

close behind me, brushing my heels with its teeth

about to sink deep into my veins. i wish i could feel it. 

like the rest of the world. i wish i were them, wishing they 

were somewhere else, wishing they were someone else. but 

i am happy and content with never being happy or content. let's 

go back to a time when we were eight in a yellow tube on

some playground somewhere and i was wondering what 

i did that was so horrible and you said "we shouldn't 

be friends for awhile." at that moment it became a 

yellow tube that was everywhere and no where

at once. would you take that moment back?

or would you keep it there like a thorn

deep in the confines of my mind 

to marinate until the one day

when i would need to say

"hey, remember that

one time in   the 

yellow tube?"

 

Extra Credit - +5 points to the grade of your choice (can be test grade, paper grade, etc)

Attend one of the events at this writing convention in Appomattox for extra credit! You will need to write a one page "review" of the event - what did you learn? What happened? Was it beneficial? Etc...

Event flier:

https://sites.google.com/a/args.us/writers/

Schedule:

https://sites.google.com/a/args.us/writers/home/schedule-of-events

Optional Blog Assignment - Due Whenever

Write a poem on a "predictable" subject, but have your tone create a twisted interpretation. For example, you could write a poem about death but have the tone be happy. Or birth but have the poem feel strained or depressing. The title of your poem should be taken from a line in the poem itself (or part of a line)

Here is my example:

Zero

She came out screaming
and the nurse slapped her feet.

We looked at each other knowing we were beat -
beat from exhausion, beat by Fate.

I saw my daughter for 46 empty seconds,
all I could do was count

her fingers and toes like they do in those movies (20)
her eyes (2), her knees (2), her elbows (2), her eye brows (2)

how many times the doctor called CODE RED (7)
how many times the nurse screamed GET HER OUT OF HERE (13)

how many tears from my husband hit my cheek (8)
how many times I ever saw him cry in our lives (2)

how many times I got married (1)
how many months we tried to have a baby (74)

how many miscarriages (2)
how many majors I chose in college (4)

how many times I hit that girl for stealing my boyfriend (16)
how many teachers that told me I was better than this town (1)

how many months I had to work to buy my first car (24)
how many times I slow danced with my first boyfriend (12)

how many times my brother punched a hole in his wall (5)
how many times my sister left me at softball practice (7)

how many times I told my mom I wanted to be an actress (8)
how many times she listened (0)

how many times the nurse squeezed my hand and said "I'm sorry, baby" (9)
how many times my husband shouted out DO SOMETHING (13)

how many times the doctor said "We've done all we can" (13)
how many times the nurse asked "what's her name s'posed to be, baby?" (3)

how many times I answered (0).

Next Blog Assignment - Due Friday November 19, 2010

Start a short story or a poem with a quote by someone else. This could be a famous person or not. The story or poem should then "explain" the quote...or be what the quote means to you, etc.

Example:

Always

"As artists, we are eternally heartbroken." - Lady Gaga

i'll never find happiness.
i'll never be satisfied.

i'll never stop fighting.
i'll never stop being.

i'll never be okay with the world.
i'll never be able to look you in the eye.

i'll never feel free.
i'll never feel real.

i'll never have that moment people talk about.
i'll never even think about it.

yeah, i'll never find happiness,
but i'll never stop looking, either.

i'll never stop being me.
i'll never stop...

A Doll's House Review Quiz

Here is the online quiz to see if you are ready for the Test Monday*


http://www.makeaquiz.net/quiz.php?quiz=25275&k=ddd4ddb32d7e9acbeb9a9af858874228


*In no way is this a direct reflection of the test on Monday. There will more questions and different types of questions.

Next Blog Assignment - Due Friday November 12

We have already written pieces about being Trapped...now let us take the notion of being Free. Write a poem or short story about being Free. What does it mean to be Free? You could just define what it means, or you could create an instance or story that you think depicts this feeling.

And I will comment on last weeks blogs tonight, by the way. :)

My example - I don't really like it, but it works for an example I suppose...

Free

Is it even possible to be Free?
To have someone accept me for just...me?
To be able to walk down the street with my head held high,
To be able to live each day without telling a lie?

When I look at the world, I think no one is there.
No one feels as if he or she is treated fair.
No one agrees, and yet no one talks,
No one is turning on a light in the dark.

Maybe just knowing this makes me Free...
Does acceptance or love or equality make me me?
Do I really need to walk down the street with my headheld high?
Do I really care whether or not my life is a lie?

Is there really a clean-cut definition out there,
or am I the only one who cares?

Another Example

Here is an example of a poem about an EVENT that made you feel infinite....

By the way...remember to comment on at least one other blog. Some of you have not done this yet.

I am going to attempt to do an acrostic poem, which means the first letter of each line spell something out...I think I will do some sort of rhyme scheme too (I must be bored...)

When you are born without an age
E'verything makes sense until you
Realize the whole world wants you to go to college, get a pet, get engaged...
Ever since that night we drove to new york...i mean, i had no clue.
I thought we were invincible. i thought
No one could touch us...we were standing on astor street
Forgetting about everyone and everything around us...we were caught
In a fantasy world that i have never been able to again meet.
No one was starring directly, but everyone and everything searched our disposition for what it means.
If i were to die right now i would be a legend.
That was the night we drove to new york to scream.
Everything around us enclosing our voices until the world threatened to end.

Next Blog Assignment.. Due Friday November 4

Backtracking to Perks of Being a Wallflower...write about a time you felt infinite...or perhaps a person who made you feel infinite. I was writing a few nights ago, and I wrote this poem that reminded me of feeling infinite. So, here is my example... (it is a sonnet, by the way).... obviously my poem is an example of a person who makes me feel infinite, but you could also write about an event. It could be a short story if you want, too.

Counting the Folds

For Calvin

The folds of your leather jacket

are like the wrinkles of my grandfather's skin.

I'm telling you this isn't a love tactic,

this isn't the time we screamed into the wind. 

This has something to do with invincibility.

So, we try to find rainbows to pass time

until talking about nothing acts as sustainability

and the subtle swoosh of the swinging door breaks the sublime...

I've heard that soul mates have to follow a certain pattern

of blissful epiphanies and eternal moments,

but I have never felt closer to my soul when my world was shattered.

Therefore, it seems only fitting you leave the day I finally feel fulfillment.

       (What is anything if it cannot be shattered?

       On some level, I think we all want to be bruised and battered...)