Group Satire Video

Poem Video

Nature Know it All

As the fall leaves begin to change
Pat began to wonder what was next.

Nature was always changing
from one day to the next
Leaves changing from green
to yellow,orange,red.

Nature always finds a way to survive it all.
It's the genius that invents the future.
From winter,spring,summer, fall
nature survives it all.

Winter brought gloom
while spring and summer sought to change it all.
But fall reminds us all
that nature knows it all.

"Hope" by Lisel Mueller

Poem/Song Response

True Love

It is true love because
I put on eyeliner and a concerto and make pungent observations about the great issues of the day
Even when there's no one here but him,
And because I do not resent watching the Green Bay Packer
Even though I am philosophically opposed to football,
And because
When he is late for dinner and I know he must be either having an affair or lying dead in the middle of the street,
I always hope he's dead.
It's true love because
If he said quit drinking martinis but I kept drinking them and the next morning I couldn't get out of bed,
He wouldn't tell me he told me,
And because
He is willing to wear unironed undershorts
Out of respect for the fact that I am philosophically opposed to ironing,
And because
If his mother was drowning and I was drowning and he had to choose one of us to save,
He says he'd save me.
It's true love because
When he went to San Francisco on business while I had to stay home with the painters and the exterminator and the baby who was getting the chicken pox,
He understood why I hated him,
And because
When I said that playing the stock market was juvenile and irresponsible and then the
stock I wouldn't let him buy went up twenty-six points,
I understood why he hated me,
And because
Despite cigarette cough, tooth decay, acid indigestion, dandruff, and other features of married life that tend to dampen the fires of passion,
We still feel something
We can call
True love.

Judith Viorst





The song I thought of when I read this poem was "At Last" by Etta James.Both the poem and the song are about true romance.They both deal with your soulmate, the person you are destiny to be with.The song and poem are about expecting your soulmate for who they are and vice versa .With expecting your partners shortcomings you can finally experience true happiness.

Personal Line Breaks

"Vermin"
"What do you want to be when you grow up?"
What child cries out, "An Exterminator!"?
One dilligent student in Mrs. Taylor's class will get an ant farm for Christmas,
but he'll not see industry; he'll see dither.
"The ant sets an example for us all," wrote Max Beerbohm, a master of dawdle,
"but it is not a good one."
Those children don't hope to outlast the doldrums of school
only to heft great weights and work in squads and die for their queen.
Well, neither did we.
And we knew what we didn't want to be: the ones we looked down on,
the lambs of God, blander than snow
and slow to be cruel.
-- William Matthews from The New Yorker, 1997.

I put the line breaks where I did because the poem started off like a conversation to me.So I wanted the questions on one line and the answers on the next line.Also while I read this poem the breaks were natural pauses, so I added a break there too.The poem is about how we have decisions and choices unlike ants who do not have that same pleasure.With this in my I decided that I didn't want more than one action or point in a line.So I divided the poem so that each line is able to have a significant point.

Maya Angelou Picture

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

The free bird leaps

on the back of the wina

nd floats downstream

till the current end

sand dips his wings

in the orange sun rays

and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks

down his narrow cage

can seldom see through

his bars of rage his wings are clipped and

his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings

with fearful trill

of the things unknown

but longed for still

and is tune is heard

on the distant hill for the caged bird

sings of freedom

The free bird thinks of another breeze

an the trade winds soft through the sighing trees

and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn

and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams

his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream

his wings are clipped and his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing

The caged bird sings

with a fearful trill

of things unknown

but longed for still

and his tune is heard

on the distant hill

for the caged bird

sings of freedom. Maya Angelou

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-know-why-the-caged-bird-sings/

In the picture above and bird is singing like in the poem.The bird sings because singing is its own true freedom.The bird cannot fly away and come and go as it please, so it sings instead.And in the picture above the bird cannot fly away so he sings to allow himself some freedom.

Maya Angelou Personal Response

The Lesson

I keep on dying again.
Veins collapse, opening like the
Small fists of sleeping
Children.
Memory of old tombs,
Rotting flesh and worms do.
Not convince me against
The challenge. The years
And cold defeat live deep in
Lines along my face.
They dull my eyes, yet
I keep on dying,
Because I love to live.
Maya Angelou
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-lesson-2/.

I like this poem because it's about hope.Angelou is saying that life can be hard and make you bitter but your love for life should be greater that.This poem speaks to me because Angelou is pointing out all the negative parts about life in order to make the greater.We are able to go through trials because we know that there is something greater out there.I like this poem because Maya Angelou is trying to convey that life is worth going through hard times.

Maya Angelou DIDDLs

Woman Work

I've got the children to tend
The clothes to mend
The floor to mop
The food to shop
Then the chicken to fry
The baby to dry
I got company to feed
The garden to weed
I've got shirts to press
The tots to dress
The can to be cut
I gotta clean up this hut
Then see about the sick
And the cotton to pick.S
hine on me, sunshine
Rain on me, rain
Fall softly, dewdrops
And cool my brow again.
Storm, blow me from here
With your fiercest wind
Let me float across the sky'
Til I can rest again.
Fall gently, snowflakes
Cover me with white
Cold icy kisses and
Let me rest tonight.
Sun, rain, curving sky
Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone
Star shine, moon glow
You're all that I can call my own.
Maya Angelou
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/woman-work/

I like this poem because Angelou is able to connect and convey the trials a women has to go through.I like that Angelou use a imagery as I read the poem I could picture the Mountain sky.Her use of vivid imagery makes the reader want to continue reading.This imagery makes the reader connect their personal lives to the images in the poem.Angelou uses imagery to help convey what women have to go through and what they have gone through.