To After That

Renee Gladman admitted that To After That was a eulogy to an unfinished book.  If this was just the eulogy I am very curious to how that first book started, or would have ended.  It also made this book very complex and distracting.  A book about an unfinished book just made my mind wander more, which I assume was one of her goals.  Just like all the other readings from this semester so far.

            Throughout the book I thought there was an internal conflict of whether she was proud of what she had done, or upset she had not finished it.  At points she seems like she is complaining about not finishing what she started.  Which I can relate to since I am a competitive person, I hate the feeling of starting something and not being able to finish it.  On the other hand she also seems to be happy which what she has written.  Proud of what she started and genuinely upset she didn’t finish it.

            I think that this story was more about the lesson then the words.  That no matter what you should write as much as you can.  She wasn’t able to finish her other book so she wrote this one instead.  And that even if you do not finish something it doesn’t mean that it’s not good or you need to give up.  I think that connects greatly to creative writing, not everything I write will be good or finished, but its no excuse for me to stop writing.   

Response 2

          I want to talk about the activity we did in class last Thursday.  I thought it helped me to open my mind to different subjects for my poetry.  Since I do not usually express my thoughts and feelings on paper I am no  to great at it.  But when the Professor was reading words, I easily had reactions to all of them, and was able to write about it easily.  I think now that i should be able to just name any of my feelings and be able to write about it.
         Also I think it was great that everyone was able to go around the circle and give their opinions on the poetry packet.  I read all the poems and only understood a couple.  The ones that I did get, everyone else had different opinions on.  Which in my opinion is the great thing about poetry.  Everyone can read the same poem, and see it in a different way.  With neither being more wrong or right.
         Lastly I really want to talk about the faculty reading last night.  It opened my eyes to many different forms of poetry, and presentation.  The first presentation was extremely interesting.  I think her use of background noise was more distracting then helpful.  It was nonsensical and just took away from the overall experience.  I really enjoyed the second reader.  She chose some very interesting pieces and was able to read them in her own voice, which was outstanding.

Dim Lady

I really like the poem Dim Lady by Mullen.  We always hear about how great Shakespeare is, especially his original sonnets.  Unfortunately his work is lost on me and many people in this age, because of the language.  I have to read the poems over and over before I start comprehending them.  Reading the sonnet in a modern text helped me to go back and read the Shakespeare one and understand it better.  The modern one, Dim Lady, was lacking all of the flow and rhythm that Shakespeare's sonnet was.  So to me Dim Lady was more of a tool to read the Shakespeare poem than as an equal modern replacement. 

Intro

Hello, this is Jeff.  I live in Kentwood MI.  I am a sophomore with an undeclared major.  I played soccer and track throughout my life.  I love all other sports, both watching and playing.  I am not much of a writer, so i hope this class can help me with that, since it is pretty important.