Portfolio

I wanted to put this poem that I wrote a few years ago in my portfolioit. The poem was for my brother I lost a few years ago. I have not finish the poem because it was really hard for me to continue and its not something I do very well. So I though I would share my cheesy poem with you all. Hope you enjoy it.

A day, week, month, year
my family isn't complete
without you here.

I remember the good
times never the bad
you were the best
brother I every had.

I long to hold you
and feel your embrace
I can't stop the tears
rolling down my face.

I miss you so
much it hurts inside
and wish you were
here by my side.

It is over !

Its finaly over no more writing until the next English class. I do have admit I had fun in the class it wasn't all bad. I just hated writing so much I did not like following that freaking book , god it was tourter! I learned a couple of new things but I also feel rushed through this whole semester it was here then gone. Seriously we have all wrote about how much free writing has helped us so maybe you should try it to.

Whats English For anyways?

What are we every going to need this much English for? I will probably not need to write a resaerch paper for the fun of it ever again. Well , it was not very fun at all. I did get to learn about something new but the paper got a little boring after the third page. Ugh, it would not have been so bad if i could of done it on something out standingly weird of cool and if i didn't have to choose a side to prove a point. All in all i did it got it done and handed it in but hopefully neveer again. Why do i need to know about formal essays for? All this stuff for, i feel like it is just taking space up in my brain. So, maybe i get good use of it in the future.

Almost over!!

I am so glad this semester is almost over, it feels like english class has been my worst enemy. I have always disliked writing but i did find some very useful tools this semester in class. The free writing is definitely something that i will use in the coming semesters Im sure. Not really sure if it is the writing i disliked or the fact that i sturggled with it. Im the type who writes a paper and if im satisfied i dont go back and revise a hundred times. Im learning that is not alsways the best way of doing things.

Progression

After looking back at some of my work from the beginning of this class, I must say I have a sense of pride about how i have progressed as a writer. I am certainly more confident now in my writing skills and am not so stress about finding a place to start when i have to write. The confidence boost hopefully will help me make a decision about English 102. I have to take it this summer, and if i take it in the classroom i will miss my sons whole soccer season. I am trying to decide if I have enough writing skills now to pull it off in an online course. Kids are only little once and I don't want to miss any of it. The research essay was intense, and sometimes frustrating, but i am happy with its outcome. Have a great summer everyone.

Lori

Autobiography

I am sitting here trying to do the autobiography assingment. I thought it was going to be easy. Well If I got grades I appreciated on my assignment then I would use them. I have to do a couple of my process writes because I don't have enough but I will get it done. Its the weekend and its not like I haven't stayed up all night doing homework before. Whats one more time for old time sake. I feel like I need a break from this madness so looking forward to summer vacation to begin. I got to tell ya my life was so simple before I stared college. I don't think I have made my brain work this hard in so long I am begging to believe I need a brain scan just to see if I have any brain cells left because Its been on pause for so long. I know I am capable of doing this work and passing classes I just find myself frustrated with everything. Calgone take me away!

I have to admit....

I have to admit that i have learned alot of good techniques and tools in english that have made the writing process much easier. I feel though that we should have spent some time on proper grammer and puncuation in class because its seems to be an issue in my essays. It has caused some of the grades on my papers to go way down. Other than that i think i just need to work on the organization of my essays. Free writing has definetly been the best tool to use on any writing assignment. I think every english class should incorporate free writing to help students. Without that i dont know how i would have gotten started on my assignments. Hopefully these writing tools can help me get good grades in english next semester!

research paper

Doing a research paper is by far the hardest and most frustrating assignment we done thus far. You would figure being a research paper it would be easy because you have alot of information in front of you but its not. Trying to find a thesis, gathering information and trying to find enough ideas to fill five pages worth. OMG i started having a panik attack trying to do it all! We really do have a great teacher but in all honesty i cant wait till english is over! Writing is just something i do not enjoy.

English

I was under the impression that this would be the last English class that I would have to take until a month ago when someone informed me that I had to take another English class. I have to admit that I was not really pleased with this information. I do not feel that I am really good at English. I stink at spelling, writing, and dislike reading. I do like the pointers that I learned in this English class (free-writing). I have to tell ya it has made it just a little easier to do my assignments. The only problem is that I am a big procrastinator when it comes to doing my English assignments. I am sure that Mr. McCoy has already figured that out. I should of fee-wrote this blog before because I have no idea what else to say. I will next time.

End of the Semester

WOW! I can't believe there is only one more week left of classes. This semester went by way to quickly.
It seems like only a few weeks ago that we first learned how to free write(ugh). But I am definately ready for the summer vacation to be here. I don't have to stress about homework, or have to be gone away from my family during the week.
Vacation could not have come sooner, but I'm going to miss my classmates. We had a lot of fun times this semester, even though most of us had other stressful situations going on, we always found way to make eachother laugh. I'm going to miss you guys :(

Research Paper

It sucks that at the last minute I have to change topics for the research paper. I was going to do it on tattooing, but the person I was going to interview decided not to help me out.
So now its going to be on Domestic Violence. This is probably going to be a way easier topic to write about anyways, especially because the topic is fresh in my head. I used it for my argumentative essay. I hate it when outside things get in the way of me completing my assignment. It's annoying and just makes me waste my time.

Autobiography

Writing my autobiography is going to be a difficult experience. I believe that I'm a good writer, but it's so much easier when somebody else writes about my writing. I find it very hard to critique myself as a writer, especially when I don't really see myself as a writer at all. Finding the 10 pieces of writing that I've done this semester is going to be difficult because I want the writing that I put in my portfolio to be perfect.This is probably one of the hardest assignments I've ever had to do in my life.

Misc.....

Here comes the deadline for the essay and i have yet to start, im not sure where to start exactly. I have found some information but cant decide what my thesis should be. With so many things going on for this class having both of those journals due, the essay and an auto biography. A little much i beleive. Awell lesson learned : no more night classes!!!! Anyway this essay is more of getting started i think and once i get going i will be able to take right off. If i cant then i do not know what i will do. Also the posts and comments for the blog are frustrating too for the end of the semester pack. Well good luck to every one on the essay and end of the semester stress!

Research Essay

Im finding this more difficult than i think it should be. I think Im having the most problems with Citations. Trying to figure out how to cite another citation.. How to cite show on TV or an interview on taped for Ustream. Im frustrated and need a break. Anyone else having the same problems?

weight off of my shoulders

The semester has winded down and we've finally reached the end of a long spring semester. I don't know about all of you but I do know it has been a stressful go around for me and to being this close to finishing with next week being finals and all I am really excited. It doesn't help that we have had a long winter/spring to drag us down. I will speak for everyone when I say that I hope this summer is a good one that everyone can enjoy it really is well deserved. I enjoed this class a lot and hope that all of you have as well... I know that I will be taking a lot from it and that is the most important thing.

Using the Free Writes

The free writing technique really came as a shock to me in the beginning of this class.  At first we just practiced by writing about whatever we wanted, then came the real stuff.  We free wrote in order to lead us to realizations, deeper meanings, and additional points that we could make and might have otherwise forgotten.  It actually helped me with a couple of the essays.  I would go back into my free writes and highlight anything that could be turned into a point in an essay.  I took the highlighted things and made them into sentences.  I might not use this technique all the time in the future, but I hope if I'm struggling, my brain tells me, "Hey, don't forget about the techniques you learned in McCoy's class!" 

Three Levels of Revision

I actually thought that "revising on all three levels" was very helpful to my writing.  I edited my essay about love using this technique.  Going through and reading what you're saying to everyone and actually changing what you said instead of just leaving it, really makes for a better essay.  I ended up changing my essay quite a bit, and making it so much better.  Also, the muscles part of the revision, which is the organization of the piece, actually led me to change the order of my information and points.  Before learning this technique, all I would do was fix spelling and punctuation errors if there were any, and add anything obvious that I forgot.  Now, I will try to incorporate this technique into any further essays I may be assigned and even letters/emails I may have to write.

I'm the Last Minute Type

Why is it that I am up way later than I should be doing this blog?  I've always been like this.  I can't remember the last time I did an assignment more than a day before it was due.  The reason might be because I usually produce good enough quality work to get at least a mid-80's grade.  Even though I always get good grade on my last minute work, I know it could be much better than it is if I had just taken a few days to plan it out and revise it more.  I know a lot of us here can relate to this issue.  None of us working up to our full potential, all just for that extra hour of relaxation, or whatever else you may be doing.  It's a shame that I didn't give full effort this semester, but I think I might try to procrastinate a little less next semester.

Stuck on one topic

No matter what I start writing about, it always ties back into hockey. This is probably because hockey has been a part of my life since I was 5 years old, so it applies to a lot of my life. Theres always a different part of life that come back. I dont know if this is common with most writers. But nearly every free write has to do with hockey. But hockey is my life, I have always had the dream pf playing college hockey. But I was wondering does anyone else have this situation? Its not really a bad thing, it just gets kind of annoying because I can never to seem to write about any other topics.

First English class

This was my first college english class. I was a little overwhelmed at the beginning because of all the writing on the syllabus. But once I actually started to write the papers, and use the techniques I learned it was pretty easy. The free writing technique definitely helped me out the most. I have never really liked writing, but the free writing process made it easier. I felt that once I got all my thoughts down onto the paper it was much easier to organize them. Overall the tips we learned really helped me out, and this was a good class to start off with.

Home Stretch

I can't believe that it's almost over. I went into class with serious reservations.  The extent of my writing backround is limited. Once class began and the new ideas on how to germinate your ideas and help them grow were groundbreaking for me. I appreciated the fact that even though we were expected to write quite a bit, most of it was just different approaches to the same topic so ultimately it was the same girl with different outfits some exciting and some well, not so much. I feel somewhat accomplished now though.  I find that even though I don't practice that often, when I need to, I can articulate seemingly well.  This class has been cool. Challenging, but cool.  I am not going to miss the wining about topics or the length required but I will miss the getting together. I hope that even though at times it was demanding, that everyone can say that they learned from this experience.

GRADING

Every essay in this class was graded on it's own level. I feel that prof McCoy was pretty blunt and honest when grading the papers. I felt that all the comments were very helpful in helping you better your next paper. My grades fluctuated at times and i felt like sometimes i was making the same mistakes on my papers as i did on previous one's which was very frustrating.

ENG 103 TOPICS

Overall throughout the semester i thought that this class was very fair. Although it seemed like there was a lot of work there was a lot of great writing tactics taken from the class. The topics are not always appealing or something that you want to write about but after it was done i learned something from every essay.

Last minute details

So I am trying to finish up my final paper and organize all of my journal entries so that they can be turned in on Friday. It's interesting when I take a look back on all that I have written in this class and how my views on some of these papers have changed. When I first started this class I was under the impression that we would do some basic English including grammar and such and of course have several papers to write. I had no idea how much we would actually be writing and how far off base I was on my expectations. Although I was not thrilled with the idea of some of these papers, I have learned to be grateful for what I will take away from this class. I was able to apply some new techniques to my final paper and am sure these techniques will come in handy in the future. Overall I enjoyed the course but I will say that I could have done without the peer reviews. I didn't get much out of that and would have preferred using that time to work on my own paper.

Two days to go!

OK, we are down to the wire now with only two days of class left. I am experiencing some mixed feelings between being excited that I will have one more semester down which means I am closer to my goals, and the know knowledge that I still have a lot of writing left to do with very little time remaining. I feel like I have been overloaded with papers this semester and I will be extremely relieved when classes are over and all papers have been written. I will say that although I did not enjoy writing so much this semester, I did find the assignments interesting and some of the tasks forced me to learn things about myself that I wasn't aware of. I am planing on taking another English course next semester and I feel that I have learned some helpful tools that I will be able to take along with me on my educational journey especially my English classes. For now I will finish writing for this class and look forward to a wonderful summer, relaxing by the pool with my children.

ENG 103

Overall, I have enjoyed this class. At first I wasn't into the idea of eight AM class, but as the semester went on, I got used to it. I work early shifts most weekends when I go home so it got me used to waking up on time for the most part. I don't agree with all the methods in this book, but I do like free writing and the different levels of revision I have learned from it. I would pretty much just write an entire rough draft before and then write it again taking out the best parts and adding more information. Now I know to get all the ideas out first because there is plenty more you can come up with on a topic then what you first write down.

Revising

All throughout middle school, high school, and my first year of college, I was never much of a reviser. Usually I'd write my essays the night before, and I don't think I've ever gotten less than an 80 on a writing assignment. But I really learned the benefits of revising. Every time I went to revise an essay in this class, I felt like I made the essay a great deal better. Revising actually can be really helpful, as time consuming as it may be.

College Essays...blah

College essays...let's face it. They suck. But for once, I've actually enjoyed writing assignments in this class. Probably because the topics were things that people could easily write about, things people are passionate about and had strong opinions a lot. But that still didn't help when it came to assigned essays in other classes. Particularly philosophy. Although I hated writing essays in my philosophy class this year, probably because I hate philosophy, I think it was easier just because of ENG-104.

Free Writing Topics

I don't know if this happened for anyone else, but pretty much all of my free writes had the same theme, or at least ended up on similar themes. I think this showed me how consumed my mind is day to day with a particular subject, but free writing also helped me to have an outlet for things that were going on in my life. After free writing, I always felt better.

Staying On Topic

Another thing I've learned how to do throughout the semester was staying on topic. Believe it or not, when I'm writing for myself, I go off topic and overstate and use complex language, unable to summarize it into simpler terms. Because I was unable to do that, it meant being confused when reading a number of my essays, and trying to find another means as to understand what I'm trying to say. Honestly, I was going 'all around the bush' to go into broader detail about my feelings about the topic I'm writing about. I now realize the way I did it wasn't the answer. To stay on topic, you have to stay focused on the subject at hand and do it for the rest of the essay as well.

Learning how to write an Essay

The most difficult thing for me throughout this semester was knowing how to organize an essay. In 7th grade, it was easier for me (either because I didn't overanalyze or because it was lower level English). As the years gone by, knowing how to construct an essay has been an up and down experience for me. Perhaps, I made it tough for myself because I overstate, because I think because I'm in college, it means you have to be very descriptive. But then I notice the other students didn't overstate and had drafts that were better received. Because I'm simply too complex. I realize now that though in an essay organization and description are two of the most important things, it would be wise not to overstate to the point of it being too complex. To write an essay, you have to organize your thoughts when you have them down.

Taking Your Time on assignments

Due to the fact that I've always procrastinated, I was never able to work up to my fullest potential. In the Invest In Yourself packet from my Reading class, when you procrastinate and fool around instead of just getting an assignment done and out of the way, you tend to 'firefight' (a term meaning just completing assignments at the last minute) and complete assignments you could have done better on. had you managed your time more wisely. I see now that I'm not the only one who procrastinate, yet it's still embarrassing to think how our professors would react if they found out we were placing very little effort in getting an assignment done ahead of time or waited until the day before a project is due to complete an assignment. though understandably they wouldn't be surprised.

Procrastination 2.0

Well, since I am just now activated to post on this blog, I think it's safe to say I procrastinate for way too long! It comes from a combination of waiting until the last second because I either forgot or didn't want to do the piece of work at first and sometimes in other classes, not fully understanding how to do the assignment. It has gotten better over the semester (other than forgetting due dates sometimes) and I plan on stopping it all together in my next semester. I am forced to sometimes in my other classes though because they are all computer based using programs I have never used until this semester.

You learn something new everyday

This class has taught me many new things throughout the semester not only things about writing and english based stuff but, things about myself as well... which is always interesting to think about usually one thinks they go to class to learn something on the subject in which they are studying and thats it.Free writing has taught me a lot about myself as a writer things that I probably wouldn't have ever guessed if it weren't for this class. I enjoy learning new things like that because it helps you grow as a student and as a writer. Your strengths and what could use dome improvement. It makes it a lot easier to put yourself into your wiritng instead of just a flat boring paper that you don't want to finish for that sole purpose you have lost interest.
Samantha

Writing throughout the semester

Throughout this semester i learned a lot about myself as a writer. Free writing helped me be more open with my writing and not care about it sounding weird or maybe even stupid to others. Although sometimes it is very frustrating because i am not the best writer and to be honest it is not one of my favorite things to do. The peer reviews in class were also interesting because you get opinions from other classmates and also get to see how their writing compares to yours.

Research Essays

i find that research essays are easier than a regular essay. you can provde more information to the reader bc you are given information that you may not nessecarily think of when you resrerch. i hope that this paper will be easier to do since i have failed the other ones either from lack of effort or i tried and i just received a bad grade. i hate when you think you did so good and then you didnt. i am looking forward to this essay and i hope everyone else is too espically since its so close to the end of the semester!!!!! Good Luck Guys.

End of the semester stress

I find that the end of the semsester brings a lot of stress,. At the begining of the semester you start out fresh, start out new everything seems so simple easy. Assignments are easy to stay on top of. Everyone is a perfect student from the start even the most unorganized student is at the top when the semester first begins, really, it's the middle of the semester you have to worry about when everyone begins to get a little lazy and fall behind. Did I say everyone? Maybe not everyone but many. Falling behind and laziness is what makes the end of the semester so stressful because no one wants to fail and realizing this late in the semester and trying to keep up with the work can be very overwhelming. For some of us it's a different kind of stress I've noticed a lot more work is given towards the end keeping up with regular school work and having to study hard for finals the pressure is on to get good grades.

Samantha

Commas

Comma's are my demise. I use too many, i don't use enough. I am so com-fused!!. Does anyone know of an reputable online proofreading program, or one i can purchase relatively cheap to help me with my comma issues? Can anyone offer some easy to remember comma rules that would help with my confusion? Thanks

Lori

Procrastination

Procrastination. It’s a word that came up for me today during a conversation I was having with someone and it made me think about how much I have been procrastinating lately. I have put off writing these posts for about as long as I can and it is starting to weigh heavily on me now. I am not sure why I put this extra stress on myself when I know that if I just got them done and out of the way I would feel much better and have more time to focus on my other classes but I always seem to wait until the last minute and then get completely stressed out over it. I am not a person that enjoys writing publicly or sharing what I am thinking and feeling but I will say that I just finished writing my Interpretative essay and I found it to be a very interesting assignment. I enjoyed writing that paper and trying to think and feel as the writer had while they wrote.

Essays

I often find myself struggling to write an essay. One things is trying to find the time to write it before the week flys by. I find my self rushing to finish the essay bc i dont know where to start and once i figure it out im working to finish it before the class starts. Another thing is that i feel that when we are given an assignment i struggle to unddrstand what is expected out of the essay. Like the loop writing essay, once i read one of my classmates essays i finally figured out that i was just supposed to take my freewrite and turn it into an essay i dont know where the confusion came from but i finally figured it out. As i commented on Nora's post, i hope that we take a break with the essays and read some stories that are interesting, as long as we dont have to do any process writes about the stories.

English

I always thought English class was fun in high school. We always read books and got to act out plays. in collage and in high school we keep a journal. The journal we wrote in high school just had every day writing in it. In English 101 we get to keep two journals, how exciting! Just playing.I like the one journal, the free writing one,but i don't like the other one at all. That's one of the things about my English class I hate.
One of the things i do love in English is free writing. It never accord to me how freeing it is to write. I love to get lost in writing. I don't like to write essays and have to put all the work in to essays like we do in class. I really hope this class disengages me in writing. I would probably not mind the work if I had more time myself. I have a very busy schedule so, when I want to write an essay it has to be done for homework in a matter a days. This just means i put out poor quality essays. I also had the expectations that we were going to do a lot more reading then maybe a little writing about what we had read but it is nothing like that.
All and all its defiantly a lot harder then i was expecting. So to everyone out there you will get through this class just as i am. its not the teacher, hes great but its the work in putting out a good essay.

Some interesting information on writing anxiety

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/writing_anxiety.html

"Writing anxiety" and "writer's block" are informal terms for a wide variety of apprehensive and pessimistic feelings about writing. These feelings may not be pervasive in a person's writing life. For example, you might feel perfectly fine writing a biology lab report but apprehensive about writing a paper on a novel.You may confidently tackle a paper about the sociology of gender but delete and start over twenty times when composing an email to a cute classmate suggesting coffee. In other words, writing anxiety and writers' block are situational (Hjortshoj 7). These terms do NOT describe psychological attributes. People aren't born anxious writers; rather, they become anxious or blocked through negative or difficult experiences with writing.

To read the rest , copy and past the link into your browser. Alot of good stuff.

A little less anxiety)

Im finding that my writing is getting better. I have compared it to last years class and have seen growth. Freewriting has helped me alot. I have been able to freewrite and create an assignment of of just some crap im spewing on the paper. My anxiety level has gone way down, and today was feeling pretty accomplished about my paper. (though it has not been graded yet. ) :- ) Is anyone else having a similar experience? Im especially wondering about those that were in the same writing class with me last semester. Well, sorry this is short. Im on my way to another class. Ill try to write more later.

Lori

Frustrations

 I was hoping that this might come a little easier than it has.  Its not the topics so much as what has been expected from the initial assignments. On my last assignment, the collage, I thought that I would have done better.  It's going to be a personal struggle through this I can see.  I haven't been in school in 14 years so relearning or excepting that what I thought I knew was wrong and accepting  it is tough.  The ability to really expand on a topic and give a deep explanation and not over do it isn't as easy as it looks.  Hopefully I will get a grade that I can live with and keep telling myself that it's going to take practice.  After that hopefully I don't beat myself up I am my own worst critic!!!

writing anxiety

I am finding that english is my most frustrating class!Free writing then process writing and more writing on top of that.Writing is one of the most draining processes for me and of course the class with the most homework.It takes me forever to just write a short paragraph,but i know theres more i could contribute to the writing assignment that i just hesitate on.Im second guessing myself every step of the way.I guess im just trying to figure out how to let it all out.Am i the only one having such anxiety with writing?

Reading Luis Cernuda

I decided that I would post some of my free-writing from my journal, this one from a write I did this past weekend on the a book of translations of Spanish poet Luis Cernuda (much of my personal free-writing is responsive to books, films, etc.).  I post this one because I was particularly frustrated by the noise in the house and by my inability to remember much of what I read or even make head or tail of it.  Anyway, I thought it might be a good example to share, so that you can see how a do it myself.

Free-Write on The Poems of Luis Cernuda

I started reading Cernuda today in the Edkins and Harris translation put out by New York University Press in 1971, an edition I didn’t know existed till I was browsing the shelves at OCC’s library yesterday.  Anyway, I find Cernuda’s poetry interesting.  I recall trying to read Paz’s introduction to his work at Installations Unlimited a few years ago, when I was waiting on my car, and then I recall sitting on my front steps and trying to read the first poem and a couple others one summer when I was still living on Westcott, and I recall from all this that his work is difficult—not at all easy to comprehend on a basic level.  This is for a few different reasons.  First, he doesn’t always locate the reader in a location, but instead seems to write in the abstract emotional space of desire and dream, though via fairly straightforward imagery and metaphors.  But as a reader, you never know exactly where you are in his work, except inside his own feelings.  At least this is how the poems I’ve read from the First Poems strike me.  There are also rapid shifts of place, inasmuch as there are location markers at all (for example, in the autumn poem where Virginia is mentioned—I can’t remember the name).  Anyway, I’ve read about ten poems so far today, so I thought I’d try to write about them, the parts that I recall, and simply by describing some of these, start to connect with his work, which I don’t quite feel myself doing yet, though in part this is because of children around me, etc.  It’s hard to read with small children demanding attention.  I noticed the interesting first poem in First Poems where the window becomes the means for the man looking out of it to find peace.  There is a binary in the pieces (and this is mentioned in the translators’ introduction) between something like an ideal world of dream and the changing world of ordinary reality.  There is also love in his dream/ideal world, and this theme crops up constantly in the poems from his second book.  Anyway, there is a tension between peace and change in the first few poems.  I remember also the second poem, where sleep doesn’t give us access to a joyous land—there is no joyous land, something like this.  [As a digression here:  I’m having an incredibly hard time concentrating here because Katie’s singing and rocking in the next room, and I’m getting increasingly agitated.  I need to stop before I yell at her for no reason.  What this all brings up for me are my anxieties about memory because I’m trying to remember parts of the text, quite intentionally, instead of simply letting what comes up come up.  Actually, I just went in and brought her out her, and now she’s “writing” in her notebook at the other end of the table.]  Sleep is the time of “disillusionment,” since it is the time where we don’t dream—where there is no desire? Something like this.  And the walls are constantly there in the first book, at least (again) the poems I’ve read from it—walls that hem the speaker in, but that also (I think) give him the space away from the changing world, the place where nothing stays the same, where nothing is constant, and where consequently there is no peace—something like this.  I also noticed in the second collection the hunter returning home to Virginia and the strange image of the lambs with brutal faces, or some kind of harsh faces, and I think he means the hunter who is returning to Virginia, that he is the lamb; or of course it could be what he’s hunting, but that’s not clear.  Here’s where translation can be problematic because I bet in the original it’s probably clear, as I’d gather it would be clear in English—not that there can’t be obscurity in English poetry, of course:  Hart Crane leaps to mind, and he would seem to be an analogue to Cernuda.  Anyway, there’s a single tree in two of the poems:  the one in the first poem that makes indolence take notice of ardor—no, it’s not ardor, but a word like it—just can’t think of it now.  And there’s the tree that recognizes those returning home in the Virginia poem.  I wonder if the hunter is like the hunter in the Elizabethan poems? Could be? Hunting a heart? Something like this.  I also noticed in the last poem I read that there is the night—well, this isn’t the last poem, but near the end of those I read—the night which goes everywhere, like foam, and that seems to be looking for someone—the speaker? That is his question, though now I can’t recall enough details:  I know she shakes her hips, or sways her hips, but is she looking for someone, or what is the verb? I don’t recall now.  And there’s the wind, which made me think of Shelley’s poem, the wind which goes through, the foreigner, the agent of change, perhaps? But then the speaker is the wind? I don’t know, now I feel like I only got about 30% of what I read—or that I at least only remember about this much of the basic “plots” of the poems.  But they are difficult for, since I do like a location, even if the writer moves away from it quickly.  My bias? My Saturn side? Something like this.  I also noticed that there are often white walls in the poems, but I’ve already said this, right?

[Later]

I think I need to re-frame how I read poetry, particularly difficult poetry:  I am a man listening to another man or woman telling me something about the world, for in some sense that’s why we write, isn’t it? To tell someone else something? And I think I’ll go back through the poems I’ve read, slow down a little bit, and see what Cernuda is telling me.  Maybe that’s a frame I can work with when I read his work and not get so caught up in the difficulty of what’s going on, of not understanding, etc.—all my old fear-traps.  I want to get back to Duncan, too, and finish reading the “Medieval Scenes” and everything else in my pile(s).  At any rate, with poetry, I have to slow down some, and I should emphasize this with my students on Tuesday at Oswego:  you have to slow down with poetry. 

Free Writing

Last week in class, I found it very helpful learning to free write. I am the type of person who is very organized and a little bit obsessive about my papers(projects) for class, exspecially if other people are going to be reading it. I felt like free writing helped me to get all of the things that have been on my mind of my mind by writing them down. I actually left class and felt a little less stressed that evening. I thoroughly enjoyed free writing and think it will be very helpful in the future.