Adua’s class in Canada

Teacher: Cristiana Ziraldo
Option #1:   Assignment for you to post on her blog:  http://creativewriter.altervista.org/

This post is meant to share with Adua’s class in Canada your view of what poetry is.  There are no right or wrong answers.  Ms. Linda Booy-Korvemaker and I would love you to read the quotations we chose about poetry.  Choose the one that speaks to you more closely.  Even if you may like all of them or none of them, choose one that is the closest to your idea of what poetry is.  Then if you can, look for a quotation yourself or much better write your quotation about poetry.  Ideally I would like you to post a poem yourselves, a poem that speaks of you at this very time.  The easiest way to do that is to jot down some key words that mirror your feelings at the time being and then link them in the way you wish.  However, “the string of words” you create should make sense.   I would appreciate if you could accompany the poem with a meaningful image or a video or a song.  Post your considerations and your poem and let us read the marvellous things that you can conceive with the power of your feelings and your mind.  Enjoy this post and enjoy sharing your views.  I am also attaching a photo of our class, can you do the same?

I have written some poetry that I don’t understand myself.
Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) American poet.

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it’s the exact opposite.
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) Czech writer.

Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.
Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) U.S. poet.

Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those we have personality and emotion know what it means to want to escape from these things.
T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) American-English poet and playwright.

A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. It finds the thought and the thought finds the words.
Robert Frost (1875-1963) American Poet.

If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) American poet.

This is my poem for you:

                                        TIME

Time
Fleeting
Obsessively
Seeking out human flesh
Heading for bodies
To reduce them to corpses
The set-phrase “carpe diem”
Does not work
It sounds puerile to
Time’s ears.
We’re just left with the fickle
Realization that we’re
Figures cut out of cork
Being drifted away by
The invisible yet spiteful
Power of Time

Cristiana Ziraldo

Why should people read or write poetry? Watch this trailer.  What do you think the answer for this woman is?

A great example of the power of poetry is
                                                              Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Teacher:   Linda Booy-Korvemaker
Option #2:  Or you have the option of submitting to me at [email protected]  your “verse” or contribution in response to John Keating’s lecture in Dead Poets Society, when he says:

John Keating: We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, “O me! O life!… of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless… of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here – that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.” That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?


How not to analyze poetry:


You may submit a poem or verse that represents what you hope to contribute. Write a journal entry that explains the poem/verse and how it reflects your “verse”.

 

31 Replies to “Adua’s class in Canada”

  1. The best quotation in my opinion is the one of Kafka because I think that in his sentence is concentrated the whole sense of poerty in fact he got exactly the point of writing and he used a wonderful way to describe it. I agree completely with his statement because poetry just let yourself come out and says things that we all know but its beauty is right here: find a better way to describe our everyday reality!

    Martina.

  2. My quotation:

    “Poetry is a sequence of words wich express your emotions and if they are not bring out they will divour your soul.”
    Veronica Sidoti (1994-2012) Italian student

    WHAT A MESS!
    It’s a cold winter,
    ice everywhere
    and slips everywhen.
    Headache and a cup of hot tea
    is enough to study phylosophy.
    Thinking thinking thinking lots of words
    the result is lot of homeworks.
    At your school be creative
    here it is a terrible headache.
    If the sun says: “Hello!”
    let’s go out and be your own.

  3. I chose the first quotation because it is the one that reflects better my attitude towards poetry, since when I write a poem, I can really feel it, but I cannot manage to explain or to understand it. In fact my own quotation is: “It is like I write my poems when I am asleep: when I weak up I do not even recognize them as mine”.

    My poem:

    I need my balance. Do not deny it to me.
    A safe place, hidden inside myself, only mine.
    Not a single tear down my cheek. Actually there is one and I love it.
    It is a memory. A memory I wiil not let go.
    I am finally happy, in peace, but still scared.
    Someone will break my wall, now that it is so strongly built.

    I need a getaway: leave.
    New places, new faces.

    I need to be activated,
    Because now I am unlocked in my own world: here it is the only way to survive.
    Maybe,
    A fresh breathe, an unexpected feeling, coming over me,
    Maybe,
    It will heal me.

    Finally, I need time to go fast now,
    So then I will be free.

    Sorry, I cannot manage to copy my image, so here is the link of it:
    http://www.google.it/imgres?q=equilibrio+precario&hl=it&biw=1680&bih=906&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=sdMJbPFfZsUuJM:&imgrefurl=http://flickrhivemind.net/User/streughui/Interesting&docid=WxmcWv-odJ9NdM&imgurl=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3656/3343932114_c95cb8c5cf.jpg&w=334&h=500&ei=xgMXT7rTC-SB4gTJ843sAw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=462&sig=103827909249166151083&page=1&tbnh=174&tbnw=116&start=0&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:13,s:0&tx=56&ty=71

    Sara Perin

  4. “A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. It finds the thought and the thought finds the words”
    I think this quotation is the one that speaks to me more closely. As Robert Frost does, I personally think that people write poems because in everyone’s life there’s always the lack of something. There is something wrong that the poet want people to perceive the way he does: he misses home, love or he feels guilty or he just feels there’s no justice and equality. However, I believe that everyone can write a poem because it is originated in people’s feelings and thoughts, hence all of us have the possibility to jot down some words that we consider poetry. Besides the moment we feel a strong sensation, the words come spontaneously and we are able to create something special even if it does have a powerful meaning just to one person.

    I also find this quotation by Oscar Wild particularly meaningful:
    “I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.”
    With this statement Oscar Wild emphasizes the fact that poetry is made of details that, if changed, modify the entire meaning that the author wants to convey.
    Alessia T.

  5. The quotation I like the most is that of Allen Ginsberg, since it expresses perfectly my concept of poetry. In fact if I think about personal poetry, I imagine someone lying in a cosy and warm place, trying to discover his own emotions. And, in my opinion, one of the best ways to give voice and inderstand our inner turmoil of feelings is simply to take a pen and let it run over a piece of paper: as, at the end of the work, we will look at the words jotted down, we will remain astonished by the quantity of feelings that we have tried to hide from ourselves.

    MY POEM:
    Me, alley of a fitting faith
    afraid of a frustrated fear
    conqueror of the fire of my sorrow.
    Sometimes hypnotized by a body in the mirror
    or troubled eyes,
    Sometimes shining on,
    on a cloud, far away…
    Me, not chilling down by my mind
    But resting on a soulmate’s shoulder.
    Me, shaping the words I need
    wishing that it will become clearer as I go on.
    But, for now, I continue my dance.

    The song I associate with my poem is “I wish you were here” by Pink Floyd.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCQTr8ZYdhg

    The image I chose for my poem instead is that of a cloudy sky, which is becoming clearer and clearer, bacause it conveys perfectly the the whiwlwind of different feelings that are becoming more understandable as the time goes on.

  6. Today I have lived fully,
    I have lived through his eyes,
    through his hands and his movements,
    through our silences full of words.
    Everything at this moment belongs to me.
    The light caresses me,
    the suspended sound confides me secrets,
    here everything is eternal
    like a drop of sun in his eyes,
    and I breathe the wish to be, to belong,
    and for the first time to choose me
    for ever beside you.

    The quotation which speaks to me more closely is the one of Robert Frost; in my opinion it is beautiful and true.
    Write a poem is not simple and it is not immediate, it is a natural thing, which not every person has inside; some people do it for necessity, maybe a person is so shy that the only way to tell what he thinks is through poetry. I write a lot of things, a lot of thought of every kind, it is a way to also analyse my emotions, to see them in another prospective. And I really liked the part which says:”It finds the throught and the throught finds the words”.

    Silvia F.

  7. A Love Story

    And finally you under stand that it was useless,
    To fight for nothing.

    You’ve lost an entire life to hope, and wait
    For someone that did not exist.

    And now, you are alone,
    Submerged by memories, only memories.

    You don’t know how to get up,
    You don’t know how to react.

    Maybe the time will help you,
    But now, there are only darkness and despair.

    You have your life, and he has his life,
    You always think about him, he just ignores you.

    Between you and him, there will be no happy ending,
    But you know, you always think about him.

    Irene Pellegrini

  8. It was revealing finding how, through the reading of these quotations, there are different and personal ways of defining what poetry means to us. I reckon it doesn’t exist a right or a wrong way to express what in our opinion poetry represents, maybe it doesn’t even exist a meaning of poetry, but we are asked to try to find one and I think the quotation that most sticks with my thought is the second one, written by Franz Kafka. As a matter of fact, as the writer wants to says, poetry is something so personal that sometimes is hard trying to interpret it without knowing some important characteristics about the author or without having some guidelines. Science, as Kafka affirms, could be considered the exact opposite of poetry, because it is universally comprehensible logical and rational, while poetry represent a changeable and unfixed reality, that doesn’t follow any kind of rules or pre-existed structures. Poetry is something completely free and open, something that does not depend on any guidance. At the same time, there are different and personal ways to interpret and to understand a poem, so poetry couldn’t be universally defined, as science does.

  9. The quotation that I chose is the third one ‘Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.
    Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) U.S. poet.’ becouse I always write my potries during the night ,with my own thoughts, listening my favourite song. All the poetries that I wrote are about me ,my feelings and how I feel about what is happening in the world arround me…The poetry that I wrote for you this time is about the war and haw I feel about it.. I hope you will enjoy it.

    CHILD SONG
    Why do they shoot mum?
    Why they aren’t afraid?
    They don’t have babies,they don’t have brothers?
    Why do they shoot in men?
    They really have no fear?
    Why do they shoot in wemen?
    Why their mommies let them,
    To shoot always in humanity?
    Mummy I’m just a kid
    And I want to see something usefull.
    Why there isn’t a transmission
    With good things and deeds?
    I want to watch cartoons
    I’m tired of all these evil things
    And see how they draw their hair
    They belive in lies and not in truth.
    Their mum didn’t teach them
    How to live our days ?
    They mummy?Really don’t think
    That peoples love each other?
    That everybody was a child like me?
    I know to little things about the world
    There is so many people in this world
    But nobody is listening to Me.

  10. Future,
    locked dreams becoming free
    past says its goodbye
    to a new life.
    Detach from insecurity,
    laugh as if you were a child,
    love as if it’d last forever,
    smile as nothing bad could ever happen.
    Swallow your fear,
    and fly like an eagle in the sky.

    The quotation I like the most is the one by Allen Ginsberg: “Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.”

  11. Night. Sleepless. Watch of
    goodbyes.
    Far away, towards the unknown – there
    you’re going.
    Other people, new languages, different ways of life:
    you’re going.
    Night of early missing, of unwanted questions, of
    hidden fears.
    Night of sweet hopes.
    You’re going.

    the quotation I like the most is that of T.S.Eliot:
    “Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those we have personality and emotion know what it means to want to escape from these things.”

    My own quotation is:
    Poetry is a voice whispering: “I’m here”.

  12. Mirror
    I need a mirror to look inside myself
    I need a mirror to look me straight in the eyes
    I need a mirror to understand my essence
    and what my true nature is.

    I need a mirror to reflect
    to look for
    to dig deep in my soul.

    I need a mirror to take a little time for me
    in order to revise my mistakes.
    Any mirror
    because what I need is
    to speak with a person who is me.

    I like this quotation:
    ”A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a love sickness. It finds the
    thought and the thought finds the words” Emily Dickinson
    I like this quotation because It’s the same for me and when I create a poem I think and the thoughts find the words.

  13. How can I keep on living
    not knowing what future will bring?
    “Do just what you are able to
    follow the scheme
    stop asking”.
    This is what we are tought.
    Follow your road and everything will be fine.
    NO.
    Rules are ment to be broken
    so let’s breake them.
    Live outrageously
    and future would not be that bad

  14. The quotation I like most is the one by Robert Frost because I found it true to my approach to poetry. I am trying to think of some relevant words to describe my feelings at this very moment, but I need some time before I can write my poem. So, teacher, give me some more time. I will post it soon.

  15. “One day this all will change, treat people the same. Stop with the violence, down with the hate. One day we’ll all be free and proud to be under the same sun singing songs of freedom like one day.”
    -Matisyahu

    I like this quotation because of the hope that one day poverty will be history, war will be eliminated, and people will all be free together. It’s what a poem is, an expression of the author’s desire for world peace and unity.

  16. Like As A Ship

    Like as a ship that through the ocean wide,
    by conduct of some star doth make her way,
    whenas a storm hath dimmed her trusty guide,
    out of her course doth wander far astray,
    So I whose star, that wont with her bright ray,
    me to direct, with clouds is overcast,
    do wander now in darkness and dismay,
    through hidden perils round about me placed.
    Yet hop I well, that when this storm is past
    my Helice, the lodestar of my life
    will shine again, and look on me at last,
    with lovely light to clear my cloudy grief.
    Till then I wander carefull, comfortless,
    in secret sorrow and sad pensiveness.

    Edmund Spenser

    I think that this poem is very meaningful because at first you may think that it is a sad poem. But if you look deeper it is actually inspirational to me. It says that whenever you are going through a rough time, eventually the clouds will pass and once again you will be happy. This poem is full of hope and the promise of better days.

    My favourite quote of poetry on the list was the one by Franz Kafka, because poetry to me is expressing yourself and making ordinary things extraordinary

  17. “A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. It finds the thought and the thought finds the words.” – Robert Frost
    I chose this quotation because it is the one that speaks to me more closely. Before writing a poem I always close my eyes and look inside my soul. I listen to the whirlpool of feelings that overwhelm me and then, magically, the pen begins its journey.

    The quotation I wrote about poetry is inspired by Robert Forst’s.
    “Let your feelings become beauty”

    My poem:

    I’m walking on a beam
    Through the sky
    It’s tiny, it’s frail
    I look down
    I swing
    I don’t want to fall
    That would be painful
    I cannot let my bones break
    Once again
    Why are my eyes still facing the ground?
    I am above the sky
    The clouds are soft pillows
    My finger can reach the stars
    Fresh air is filling my lungs
    Freedom
    I can feel it
    This is not the top of a canyon
    This is the springboard of life
    Soar
    Fly

  18. As I was trying to write a poem, I was listening to music. I happened to come across the song “Imagine” by John Lennon. Here’s some lyrics from the song:

    Imagine no possessions
    I wonder if you can
    No need for greed or hunger
    A brotherhood of man
    Imagine all the people sharing all the world

    You, you may say
    I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one
    I hope some day you’ll join us
    And the world will live as one

    These lyrics speak to me because, just liek Janae’s quote, they speak of a better world. A world without poverty or hunger. I believe that the world will become a better place one day; I believe the pain will end.

  19. Sorry I forget if I actually submitted it, so if this is the second one, please disregard this 🙂

    Like As A Ship

    Like as a ship that through the ocean wide,
    by conduct of some star doth make her way,
    whenas a storm hath dimmed her trusty guide,
    out of her course doth wander far astray,
    So I whose star, that wont with her bright ray,
    me to direct, with clouds is overcast,
    do wander now in darkness and dismay,
    through hidden perils round about me placed.
    Yet hop I well, that when this storm is past
    my Helice, the lodestar of my life
    will shine again, and look on me at last,
    with lovely light to clear my cloudy grief.
    Till then I wander carefull, comfortless,
    in secret sorrow and sad pensiveness.

    Edmund Spenser

    I think that this poem is very meaningful because at first you may think that it is a sad poem. But if you look deeper it is actually inspirational to me. It says that whenever you are going through a rough time, eventually the clouds will pass and once again you will be happy. This poem is full of hope and the promise of better days.

    My favourite quote of poetry on the list was the one by Franz Kafka, because poetry to me is expressing yourself and making ordinary things extraordinary.

  20. “Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.”
    I like this quotation the best because sometimes it is just so impressive to see how people are understanding your feeling which has been hidden by yourself and never think that it could be shared for one day. Someone said music the the common language throughout the world, I think poetry is just the same. So here is my favourite Chinese poem (now has been translated in English) and it was written almost one thousand years ago:
    “Thinking of You” —Part Two
    The moon rounds the red mansion
    Stoops to silk-covered doors,
      Shines upon the sleepless
    Bearing no grudge,
      Why does the moon tend to be full when people are apart?
      People may have sorrow or joy, be near or far apart,
    The moon may be dim or bright, wax or wane,
      This has been going on since the beginning of time.
      May we all be blessed with longevity
    Though far apart, we are still able to share
    The beauty of the moon together.

    I think it matches my feeling because Chinese New Year is coming but we are still far apart from our love ones. But when we are under the same sky and thinking about each other, the distance is actually not the problem.
    Through poetry, our thoughts have been voiced, our emotion has been understood, that is the privilege we got.
    The link of my image:
    http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=moon&start=40&um=1&hl=zh-CN&sa=N&addh=36&tbm=isch&tbnid=7eMGlnnv74d8HM:&imgrefurl=http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2009/29dec_bluemoon/&docid=dyRnoAyKG8gGxM&imgurl=http://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2009/12/29/29dec_bluemoon_resources/derosa1.jpg&w=2074&h=2645&ei=A1EaT5P_FsmcgQfHr6TkCw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=191&vpy=135&dur=731&hovh=158&hovw=123&tx=89&ty=101&sig=112996552057141364938&page=3&tbnh=134&tbnw=105&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:14,s:40&biw=1370&bih=582

  21. An excerpt from the song I hope you dance by Lee Ann Womack:
    I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
    You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger
    May you never take one single breath for granted
    God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
    I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
    Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens
    Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance
    And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
    I hope you dance

    I like these lyrics because they remind us to take every opportunity we can get and not being afraid when these opportunities arise. We should prepare ourselves for what can come to the future, but also not taking each moment for granted… We should live in the moment.

    I also like the quote by Franz Kafka in the list because poetry is written not for anybody else, but to express your own emotions.

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