Non-Fiction

Simple by Kerrie Kemperman

http://www.creativenonfiction.org/brevity/pastissuestwo/brev38/Kemperman38.html

I first clicked on this poem because of it's title and as I read along I truly enjoyed this short story of non-fiction. I love the daughter-father relationship discussed in this story because you don't get to read much about them, at least I haven't. Most stories are rather about the bonding between a father and son.

The daughter-father relationship kind of reminds me of the relationship I share with my father. My father's also a very simple guy who doesn't like to show off.  He also has a tendency of showing/telling me things about his childhood and the life he's seen thus far like the father in the story does. Sometimes, like the author, I only half listen to what he says but if I were to question myself and ask what's one of the things I admire about my Dad, then his simplicity - simple talks, simple belongings, simple clothes, simple lifestyle - would definitely be on the list. 

This story is meaningful because a father-daughter's relationship is actually hard to understand. I don't understand my relationship with my Father half the time but I know it's special. For example, I don't communicate with my Dad as much as I do with my Mom but when it comes down to a funny family argument my Dad and I are definitely backing each other up!

Raymond Carver

Little Things

To be blunt, I hated this story. While reading the first paragraph, I was able to foreshadow that the story wasn't going to be a happy one because of the way Raymond Carver describes the unpleasant change in weather. When he uses parallelism to compare the darkness that is setting both outside and inside of the house you sense something intense/dramatic is going to occur. 

I was fine with the story until the baby was mentioned. There was a couple arguing and being hopeful, I figured that maybe at the end things will be solved. But when Carver mentions the baby, there's an entirely different twist to the story and you don't know where it's going to go. I didn't like the story because of how the baby was being treated with lack of care by the parents because of their argument. No matter how mad they were at one another, I feel there was a better and mature way to handle the matter. Carver uses ambiguity at the end to let us think of what happened to the child. Although it's not said, you get the assumption that the baby was injured and this gave me a feeling of disgust. Carver definitely knows how to impact his audience emotionally.

"The Sea of Lost Time" Picture

My cousin and I at the Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco. It's awesome!
We are "UNDER" the sea and we look pretty lost too. Haha.

I Have Been

I feel like I have been a rhinoceros many times just because I’m always trying to keep everyone around me happy and satisfied and sometimes while doing that I sacrifice what I really want. I was recently a rhinoceros when some friends and I were hanging out and they wanted to go to one place and I wanted to go to another. Ultimately, the decision of where we would go was up to me since I was driving. Still, I decided to take them where they wanted to go and didn’t really think about myself.

I have also been Berenger a few times. I remember when I was younger I was with my huge group of cousins and almost everyone decided to pick on one of the younger ones for something. I knew they were just joking and were only trying to have a good time but I began noticing that my cousin who was being teased was actually getting bothered and kind of sad. So after a lot of “bullying” I got very defensive of him and told the others to stop. It was kind of shocking to them because I’m the youngest out of all of us and usually stay calm so they weren’t expecting it. I got mad but for a good reason.

"Sway" by Michael Buble

When marimba rhythms start to play
Dance with me, make me sway
Like a lazy ocean hugs the shore
Hold me close, sway me more

Like a flower bending in the breeze
Bend with me, sway with ease
When we dance you have a way with me
Stay with me, sway with me

Other dancers may be on the floor
Dear, but my eyes will see only you
Only you have the magic technique
When we sway I go weak

I can hear the sounds of violins
Long before it begins
Make me thrill as only you know how
Sway me smooth, sway me now

Other dancers may be on the floor
Dear, but my eyes will see only you
Only you have the magic technique
When we sway I go weak

I can hear the sounds of violins
Long before it begins
Make me thrill as only you know how
Sway me smooth, sway me now

When marimba rhythms start to play
Dance with me, make me sway
Like a lazy ocean hugs the shore
Hold me close, sway me more

Like a flower bending in the breeze
Bend with me, sway with ease
When we dance you have a way with me
Stay with me, sway with me

When marimbas start to play
Hold me close, make me sway
Like an ocean hugs the shore
Hold me close, sway me more

Like a flower bending in the breeze
Bend with me, sway with ease
When we dance you have a way with me
Stay with me, sway with me

This song can be a poem because each stanza is composed of four lines that all have a rhyme scheme of AABB. Buble also uses two similes to make a comparison of how he would like his love interest to dance with him. For example he says,

“Dance with me, make me sway
Like a lazy ocean hugs the shore ” and

“Like a flower bending in the breeze
Bend with me, sway with ease.”

There’s also visual and auditory imagery in this song. For example, we can picture two lovers dancing throughout the song. Also, in the first line he mentions “marimba rhythms” and he then later mentions "the sound of violins” which automatically makes us imagine these sounds of music. 

Spring

Spring in New Hampshire by Claude McKay

Too green the springing April grass,

Too blue the silver-speckled sky,

For me to linger here, alas,

While happy winds go laughing by,

Wasting the golden hours indoors,

Washing windows and scrubbing floors.

Too wonderful the April night,

Too faintly sweet the first May flowers,

The stars too gloriously bright,

For me to spend the evening hours,

When fields are fresh and streams are leaping,

Wearied, exhausted, dully sleeping.

Again, I chose this poem because of its simplicity. I feel like McKay makes the message of this poem straightforward, which is that the outdoors is beautiful, especially during the season of Spring. As McKay describes, Spring is when the grass is green, the sky is blue, and the flowers have just began to blossom. This poem encourages me to spend more time enjoying nature rather than sitting indoors and being boring. I also like McKay’s use of rhyme in both stanzas which have a pattern of ABABCC. For me, rhymes always make a poem more fun to read. Lastly, I like to read pieces of work that soothe my mind, and this poem kind of did that, a few of the other ones were a bit on the grotesque side.

Ode to Things

Pablo Neruda's "Ode to Things" captured my interest because it talks about life's little pleasures. It kind of reminds me of how man-made things have a certain beauty. Also, to me, the tone of this ode is happy and calm which makes it nice to read.