Taahir+Henry

="Words written in verse may speak volumes when those spoken do not."- Caressia Combs =

** Ode to procrastination: **
Your a bad habit that I've become accustomed to. I never complete anything early now that I have a system that works. It works so well that I don't fail. I do pretty well actually. Not taking out the trash until I hear the trucks down the street. Waking up at 4 a.m. and finishing my benchmark the morning its due. Finishing homework only a few minutes before class starts. So much time on my hands and yet I always wait until the last minute. It never lets me down. Even when I start something early, intending to finish it with time to spare, it always comes down to the last moments. Some of my most creative work has been the result of procrastination. In fact I did this poem in math class, this morning.

**Sonnet:**
I don't like this assignment oh, it stinks. Got tired and I can see no meaning. My understanding of this starts to shrink. I'm doing this when I could be cleaning. I sort of understand it but its hard. I wish we had something different due. Oh, some vocabulary would be ard. Iamb is pointless and shakespeare is too. Why is iamb so annoying dude. Before I knew I thought this was easy. This has put me in a very bad mood. Yo I'll go listen to some young Jeezy. I was not creative when writing this. Sonnets and iambs are what I dismiss.

**Raised By Poem:**
A no trouble taking No pork eating Cooking not so good Hard working You can do it on your own I can do fine myself

A little on the big side Doesn't let it get in the way "I can't do it all myself" Cubicle clinging Somewhat similar to me Strong willed

"You can walk home" Caring yet mean Sometimes warm Can get serious quick Type of mom.

**My Haikus:**
1# I came home, and slept. I woke up, and did some stuff and then I made this.

2#

Haiku or Sonnets? I ask myself as I write. Oh yea, sonnets stink.

3# Haikus are great fun. I can do them in my sleep. Maybe I'm dreaming.

4#

Flying eagles fly Sleeping mountain lions lie. Banana pudding.

5# I need some clever lines, so I sit here for hours. okay I'm finished.

I'm not experienced in writing poetry, or creating detailed descriptions for poems so I decided to keep everything simple. I wrote about the things that almost immediately came to mind. My ode was to procrastination, because it was one of the few things I could think of that wasn’t an object or a person. I didn’t really grasp the concept of writing sonnets. It was due to the fact that I was uncomfortable writing in iambic pentameter. The easiest part of writing the sonnet was making up the rhyme scheme, I just had to make sure the words fit ten syllables and the unstressed and then stressed format. I had a bit of trouble getting some of the words into the unstressed then stressed until I learned that words like “oh” could be place in front to make them fit. The Raised by poem was straightforward. I decided to write it about my mom after the prompts we used in class. I chose to keep the layout the same as the original poem. I wasn't sure of what to do for my last poem, so I figured making a few haikus would be interesting. The only difficulty was getting an entire point across in such a limited format. Five seven and then five syllables are required in that order. It seemed simple at first, but I found myself writing and then re-writing my poems because I noticed that they needed some contrast.
 * Analysis of My Poetry:**

**Eating Poetry by Mark Strand**

I nk runs from the corners of my mouth. There is no happiness like mine. I have been eating poetry.

The librarian does not believe what she sees. Her eyes are sad and she walks with her hands in her dress.

The poems are gone. The light is dim. The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.

Their eyeballs roll, their blond legs burn like brush. The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep. She does not understand. When I get on my knees and lick her hand, she screams.

I am a new man. I snarl at her and bark. I romp with joy in the bookish dark.

** Close Reading for: Eating Poetry **

The theme of the poem is that others can criticize poetry and the way people interpret and use it. The man in the poem eating pages of poetry may just be used to symbolize his understanding of it. The librarian who dislikes this represents someone that doesn't approve of the way he interprets the poetry. "The librarian does not believe what she sees. Her eyes are sad". This was her reaction to him, and just supports the idea of people criticizing others. The poem describes a situation where a man has gone insane with happiness. "Ink runs from the corners of my mouth. There is no happiness like mine". The second line of each stanza is never the longest line. This creates a flow for the reader. In the first stanza the speaker is expressing his happiness, and in the second stanza the librarian is upset. Mark strand might have written this as a metaphor to represent the way people view how others use and treat poetry. Towards the end of the poem the speaker says he is a new man, this could be as a result of his new understanding for poetry. The last stanza has shorter lines and is only three lines total. This helps the reader believe the speaker has changed, as opposed to him speaking the same way the entire poem.

**Man and Camel by Mark Strand**

I sat on the porch having a smoke when out of the blue a man and a camel happened by. Neither uttered a sound at first, but as they drifted up the street and out of town the two of them began to sing. Yet what they sang is still a mystery to me— the words were indistinct and the tune too ornamental to recall. Into the desert they went and as they went their voices rose as one above the sifting sound of windblown sand. The wonder of their singing, its elusive blend of man and camel, seemed an ideal image for all uncommon couples. Was this the night that I had waited for so long? I wanted to believe it was, but just as they were vanishing, the man and camel ceased to sing, and galloped back to town. They stood before my porch, staring up at me with beady eyes, and said: "You ruined it. You ruined it forever." ||
 * On the eve of my fortieth birthday

** Close Reading for: Man and Camel **

The poem suggests that no one likes to be closely observed and considered odd or strange. In the poem there is a man on a porch watch a man and camel walk together and sing, and is intrigued by what he sees. “They stood before my porch, staring up at me with beady eyes, and said: 'You ruined it. You ruined it forever.'" He may have been using the man and camel to represent a couple that was not comfortable being seen or judged. There is a line break "Yet what they sang is still a mystery to me-" This is meant to be all one thought, even thought the next line is the rest of the sentence. Before the line break, the reader has to focus on one specific thing that the speaker is thinking before the rest of what is said is noticed. The entire poem is written in one body, there are no stanzas. This makes the overall reading go faster, but there is less time to think about what is happening as the reader progresses. There is no rhyme scheme in this poem, but it still flows.

**From the Long Sad Party** **by: Mark Strand** Someone was saying something about shadows covering the field, about how things pass, how one sleeps towards morning and the morning goes.

Someone was saying how the wind dies down but comes back, how shells are the coffins of wind but the weather continues.

It was a long night and someone said something about the moon shedding its  white on the cold field, that there was nothing ahead <span style="font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Verdana; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">but more of the same.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Verdana; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Someone mentioned <span style="font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Verdana; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">a city she had been in before the war, a room with two <span style="font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Verdana; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> candles <span style="font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Verdana; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">against a wall, someone dancing, someone watching. <span style="font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Verdana; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">We began to believe

<span style="font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Verdana; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the night would not end. <span style="font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Verdana; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Someone was saying the music was over and no one had <span style="font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Verdana; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> noticed. <span style="font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Verdana; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Then someone said something about the planets, about the <span style="font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Verdana; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> stars, <span style="font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Verdana; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">how small they were, how far away.

** Close reading for: From the Long Sad Party ** This poem suggests that poems don't have to focus specifically on one thing in order to convey a message. The things that the speaker mentions seem random, but they still tie into the theme of how things happen and they are out of ones control. For example "How one sleeps towards morning, and the morning goes", "There was nothing ahead but more of the same", and "Someone said something about the planets... how small they were, how far away". On their own these statements don't support the theme, but together they show the reader a message. This poem uses very descriptive words and phrases to make the poem more interesting to the reader. The way it flows draws the reader in even thought there is no rhyme scheme involved. The poem has a negative tone, but for some reason it doesn't seem like the speaker is particularly bothered, just distracted. It is broken up into five stanzas, and in each stanza a different situation is described.