Tocqueville (p. 1-47) for 1/28/15

I'm disappointed to report that unfortunately my copy of "Writing Down the Bones" is still not available in the book store and I am super frustrated about it! I could tell after reading "Despite my Bunkered Heart" that "Tocqueville" would not be as appealing to me as "Writing Down the Bones" was -- however, I gave it a fair shot and I found myself impressed with what I was reading. Political issues do not interest me in the least: as a psychology major, I enjoy analyzing the people and situations that I come across in life. I do this because I believe there is a reason for everything and I have a particular interest in finding out what that reason is. That being said I find it extremely exhausting, not to mention infuriating, to try to evaluate the reasons of why the powers that be within our government make the choices that they do.

Because I am of ignorant-status when it comes to war-related topics, I read the "Despite my Bunkered Heart" before I started the book rather than afterward. It turns out that it was really crucial for me to do so if I had any hope of understanding what was going on. I still don't have much of a thorough understanding about a lot of the topics I read about, but I really appreciated Mattawa's use of language throughout the entire book. I liked how the poems were consistently changing style and tone, with descriptions so great that I felt as if I could imagine the motion picture in my head.

One portion of the first poem "Lyric" that I felt I understood was: "Will we turn to each other and ask how long has it been... how long since?" When I read the second poem, "On the Difficulty of Documentation", I saw a passage including a great metaphor that was referenced in the "Despite by Bunkered Heart" review: "Carry the moon on their heads".

I have to say my favorite poem within the first 47 pages of Tocqueville would have to be either "Power Point I" or "Tocqueville" itself. The use of language was exceptional in both: "fizzle-effect" "smoldering" "trigger-happy". There were also two quotes I loved in particular from "Tocqueville" and "Power Point I": "To love one person you must contemplate loving the whole world", and "When I begin to kiss her face, I don't know if I'm telling her that I can't live without her or telling her goodbye."

All in all, it isn't my favorite topic of a reading selection --- but it's something I believe I will end up enjoying more and more as the time goes on throughout this course!

Writing Down the Bones: 1/21/15

So I ordered "Writing Down the Bones" from the schools' bookstore on the first day of class -- and it still has yet to come in! I printed the .pdf document, and I was surprised to find myself actually disappointed that it was only pages 1-41. I love to read, but I only like to read things that peak my interest. That being said, school textbooks don't peak my interest. Even though I took accelerated English classes in high school, I always had a really difficult issue with actually taking the time to read the books they assigned me.

I read the first page of the book, I became interested nearly instantaneously. It caught my attention mostly because of the style in which in was written. While reading, you nearly feel as if you are having a conversation with Goldberg herself. There were a lot of quotes in the first forty pages I read that really stood out to me:

"Like grating a carrot, give the paper the colorful coleslaw of your consciousness."
"To do writing practice means to deal ultimately with your whole life."
"There was no great answer outside ourselves to get us an A in school anymore."

I enjoyed how the separations of the paragraphs were indicated by changes in subject. It made for a very quick and concise read if need be. I felt myself able to relate to her in multiple situations, scenarios and theories: just based off of her descriptive context alone.

I really have not stopped thinking about writing since I read pages 1-41. It's something that I think I may decide to get into: I feel as if my life is very chaotic and that writing would may help filter out some of the things I may need to let go of. I may try the notebook challenge that was mentioned: filling out one spiral notebook a month of thoughts?

Poetry Packet (pg 1-11)

Today I read the first eleven pages of the Poetry Packet we received in class last week. There were a lot of poems that I enjoyed the style in which they were written but I didn't quite understand the meanings of them. I love being able to read and visualize a scenario in my mind or feel a certain feeling, so I enjoy the use of literary devices within writing. The first poem in the packet ("Geology of Water" by Reginald Shepherd) I thought had an exceptional use of language. I loved the description of "blind indigo" and the visual of "plates shifting" to "nudge the continents apart". I also loved the visual provided by the sentence "and drown knee-deep in air".

I absolutely loved the poem "The Scent of Verbena" by Hinako Abe: everything from the style of the poem itself to the style of writing and the tone that was set. This poem instantly wrapped me in from the opening sentence. Without any punctuation, it creates a sense of urgency while you're reading it. If you read it in your head, does anyone else notice themselves feeling as if they were listening to somebody verbally tell them a story? While reading, I felt a tremendous amount of empathy as if I was reading a local news article.

Shakespeare Sonnet 129 is another article that interested me: in particular, I loved the line "Th'expense of spirit in a waste of shame is lust in action; and till action, lust is perjured, murd'rous, bloody, full of blame. Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust:..." I really wish I could interpret this poem a little easier. From my perspective, I view this poem as discussing that not acting on lust is a miserable state of mind. It may just be due to a current personal situation, but when I read this poem I interpreted it as saying that men manipulate the concept of lust to benefit themselves, but in the end it backfires. My favorite sentence was the closing line: "All this world well knows; yet none knows well To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell."

Introduction

My name is Kelli Blackwood. I am a junior psychology major. After I get my bachelors in Psychology, I plan to attend graduate school. Currently, I attend school full-time and I work full-time as a billing administrator at a forklift business in Plymouth. In the future I would like to get my masters degree in Health Administration and work as an administrator at a mental health hospital. I have always loved to read and write, although it has been awhile since I've been able to put in much time doing it. Fun fact: I have a younger brother that I'm very close with, and I live on-campus at the Union Student Housing. :)