Post 3

I read Mattawa's Tocqueville. The first couple poems I read were strange and different. They didn't come across in a bad way, they just didn't make much sense. A lot of them just felt like a lot of words thrown together in a flowing manner. I wasn't too impressed with his work til I came across the poem Tocqueville.

The poem Tocqueville intrigued more than all of the others I read. It did that because it was like another book of poems in a book of poems. Book-ception. But the smaller poems inside Tocqueville felt super emotionally tied and just made me want to keep reading. I just read and read and couldn't stop til I finished.

The language used was powerful and thought provoking. " It just doesn't look like Racism. What do you call it then? A kind of mould, software, bedrock." This quote isn't very long or use massive vocabulary words, but it makes you process what you just read and also uses a lot of emotional pull.

Khaled Mattawa is a good poet who, I am convinced, can write any and all types of poetry.  I am looking forward to reading more of his works in the future.

Post 2

I read Cameron's Right to Write, and it was actually really intriguing.  I enjoyed how she incorporated her own experiences into it so it felt more personal. I was convicted when she started talking about her love of writing, and also about Alan, the teacher. She got him to write every day even when he didn't feel like it and it eventually took him over and his love for writing even lit up him in his day job. I have lost my love of writing for days at a time every once in a while, and I don't get it back for weeks or sometimes even months. I plan to take her plan for Alan into my daily life so my love of writing illuminates my day to day life.

I also re-read the sonnet portion of the packet. Honestly, these poems felt more natural and worth more of my time than the others. The sonnets draw me in, make me feel, and their ideas stick in my head. The rest of the poems are read and done with a few thoughts, like : " Man, that was weird." "Ok, and the point was?" The Shakespearean sonnets struck me as the most inviting and honest poems and that is why I preferred them over the rest.

First Post on Writing Down the Bones

    Reading through J. Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones, I found some enlightenment. I first thought that the reading would be non-helpful and worthless, but I was gravely mistaken. The first thing that spoke to me was her "First Thoughts" section. When she listed the five things we "must commit [ourselves] to" while writing, I realized that I do not normally abide by them. After reading this, I plan to do so. If I were to summarize the five points it would be like this: No matter what keep writing, don't stop for errors, just have the writing flow out of you without thinking. Just go hard at it and don't quit till you are finished.

    Another thing that intrigued me was the fact that she said we need to practice our writing. I had never had that cross my mind. Ever. But after thinking about it, it makes sense. Just like with the sports I played in high school or playing the piano, practice makes perfect. I've decided because of this to make sure I write something at least once a day.

    Goldberg's section about having a list of things to write about surprised me. I normally just write about whatever comes to my mind. But having a list to choose from is smart because whenever a new idea comes to my head I can write it down and finish what I am working on currently. Normally when a new idea flies into my brain, I normally drop whatever I am working on to start this new idea. But with the idea of the list I can finish and do all the ideas that come into my head.

    In the list section, one of her options of things to write about caught my eye.  This option was to write about people you have loved. I never thought about writing about that because it was so personal. But that is why I should because passion can create beautiful masterpieces of work.

   These are the reasons why I am now excited about this semester in this class.