Parody of Homage to My Hips

Oh my God,
look at her hips
I just don't understand
how she can look in a mirror.
I mean she has to be like
a size ten or something.
I would just die
if my hips
could not fit
into a size two.
And she is so confident!
I mean I guess the saying goes,
"shake what your mama gave you"
but i would lose a few inches
before doing,
that.

I wanted to do a comical poem since we talked about what society thinks women should look like. My intent was sort of to make fun of what society tells us to look like, and how we should act when we look a certain way.

What Makes Poems Memorable

The first poem I read was Kincaid's and I have to say I really enjoyed it. What I imagined the poem was talking about was maybe and overbearing mother telling her daughter how to do every single thing. I also picture a very critical mother, possibly one who never shows love or any other emotion towards the daughter because she is forever critical. Collins' poem about snow was not my favorite. I thought maybe he was describing a day off and how everyone would be glad to hear about a day off. I also thought he was describing what different people would do on their day off. I did like Collins' poem about poetry. I think the message he was trying to convey was that a lot of the time people over think poetry and that's not what needs to be done. He was trying to show that you can simply look at a poem without trying and trying to get a deeper meaning out of it, which is what you told us in class and it is something I need to be better about. I also liked Clifton's poem about her hips. I felt that maybe her hips were a metaphor for her personality possibly, but she could simply be talking about her hips.

In all four of the poems we read for today I noticed that in most of them, words were repeated, which is a strategy we talked about in class. I particularly notice in Kincaid's poem she use this is how over and over again, and it made it very memorable because it seemed so critical. In Collins' poem, Snow Day, he repeats the word closed a lot when he is talking about the schools maybe getting the point across that everyone is glad that the schools are closed and that they have a day off. In Collins' poem about poetry I noticed he used the repetition of sounds including the S and T sounds, which is something we talked about today in class. Clifton also uses the repetition of sounds in her poem as well as repeating words like they to make her poem memorable. She constantly reminds you what she is talking about without having to say my hips over and over again. Overall, I really enjoyed the readings for tonight.

Description in Poetry

My favorite poem for this assignment was Atwood's poem. When I read it i thought it was about a woman who could not make up her mind because the poem said I want, I don't want, I want. I also think the poem was saying that the woman kept a lot of things inside because she talks about her heart refusing to say what it seems. In my eyes it is also showing the battle between head and heart. I also enjoyed Rios' poem. I read it a few times and what I got from it was again someone who keeps things bottled up inside. The reason I thought this is because the poem talks about words and how the character has none and says nothing, yet it is clear that the character has a lot going through his head. I also think this poem is talking about how much a mother does for us. Finally, Peacock's poem was a lot different than the other two, and it wasn't my all time favorite but that may be because it grossed me out a little. I think the poem is talking about how we look at something in particular and judge it, when really we may be doing the same thing. I got this because the poem describes that crushed possum with its brains, guts, dreams, and then it says "what we are".

I felt that all of the poems had original parts. What I mean by that is while Atwood's poem about the heart may not be an original idea, because there are plenty of poems out there about the heart, she did original things with it. For example, she describes the heart as an actual organ, not a cute little red shape that we see on Valentine's Day cards. She shows a picture with her words when she describes the heart as an organ, and then after she paints the picture she tells us about the abstract. I likes Rios' poem as well because he paints a very vivid picture of someone sitting at a table while the mother cooks. I liked the overall rhythm of his poem. It was a good rhythm for reading a poem because of his usage of commas as well as breaks. Peacock's poem was another very descriptive one, however it was not really an image I wanted to think about however, that did make it memorable. If she hadn't used the gross images she did then I probably wouldn't have remembered it, but because it evoked an emotion (disgust) in me, I remembered it. I felt that all three of these authors did well with descriptions.

Content

I sit here on the roof,
the roof of my little house
smiling and looking up
at the deep blue sky.

I have done nothing yet,
nothing of extreme importance,
nothing to better myself,
yet I am happy.

Sitting on the tip of my
extremely little house,
I realize I am content.
I don't need a Pulitzer,
a Heisman, or anything else.

What am I doing right?
I am not so sure
about that one question.
I don't care though because
whatever it is I am doing,
I am happy with it.

My life has no great meaning,
no aim, no direction, no purpose.
As I sit here on the roof
of my little dog house
I ask myself,
does any one's life have to
have such a great meaning
in order for a person to be happy?

The answer in no,
no it does not.
I am happy playing
with my one true friend
and with lying on top of my house,
rather than being inside of it.
I am just me,
and that is all that really matters.

What Should Poems be About?

The poem, Loading a Boar, by David Lee was about what writers of poems should write about. I felt like the main point of the poem was to show that all writes have trouble, but that is because they aren't writing about the things that they know. The poem, The Pathos of Charles Schulz, by Matt Bondurant, in my opinion, was maybe about things that we cannot change. I felt like the poem was giving a problem and then in the end telling us that there was no point in worrying about those problems because we had no control over what happened, and we can't change what happened. Finally, Sharon Olds' poem, I Go Back to May 1937, went along with Bondurant's poem because it was about being able to go back in time and change something. However, in this poem, the character has the ability to go back and change an outcome but he doesn't because he would have never existed if he did change the past.
Lee's poem I felt was original and memorable because of the action with the boar. I have mixed feelings on the boar though because I feel like that part might be unnecessary to get the point across however, it does make the poem memorable because you don't see many poems about boars. Also, I liked the point it made about writing what you know because I feel like a lot of people don't do that. In my opinion you can't really write about things you don't know because you wouldn't really have any emotion towards the writing. Schulz's poem was a little more confusing to me, especially towards the end. It starts with talking about a spelling bee and then ends with telling us we can't rid ourselves of a specific thing. After reading it numerous times I thought maybe he was trying to tell us we can't change things so there is no point in worrying about them, but I still don't know if that is the point of the poem. I feel like the point should written in a way that could be easier understood because we don't really know what he is talking about being rid of. Lastly, Olds' poems was a very interesting one. I had to go back and read it again to really understand it but I'm pretty sure it is telling us everything happens for a reason and we shouldn't change those events even if we had the power to. If the character had changed the fact of his parents getting married then he would never have existed, therefore he realizes he shouldn't have them not marry each other. I liked this poem and the point it made and I also feel it is memorable because it makes you think twice about what you wish for, which is something I feel everyone should think about. The Lee and Old's poems were my favorite, the other was a little too confusing for me.