Dakota+Foster

I never thought I could write poems before. I didn't think I was a poetic person. I though the people that wrote poems were born to be poets, they just had that natural rhythm. After going over in class the definition of poems, I tried my best to write my first poem. I found out that poetry was an art form and whatever I write it is art. My writing is poetry. Also, I found out the basic elements of poetry. In my memory poem that were the first things I wanted to use, figurative language. I tried to use similes, metaphors, imagery, and personification. For example, I stated "Every breath ran out of my body at once / Like a rock being dropped on my chest and every rib breaking steadily." In those two sentences, I used personification and a simile.

As I started to get the hang of things, I wanted to try harder techniques. In my found poem, I tried to use sentences that wouldn't ever go with each other. Really random sentences. I didn't want to really tell a story, I just wanted to use sentences that were random and go unnoticed. I thought that sounds would go with that because people make noises when they are happy, frustrated, or confused. Those noises usually just go unnoticed too. I said "And that's all I am saying / whack! / I am too old for this."

In my riff poem, I used one of the lines from the video watched in class. The line was ''Some say don't count. We do. We always do.'' I took that line and repeated it ever other line. In between, I put in my own line that I thought related to the line. I said this "Kids shouldn't be in adult conversations. There opinions don't count / Some say we don't count. We do. We always do." I wanted the poem to be serious and for kids to be able to relate to it. I thought hard about my lines that I put in because I wanted them to be great.

Well, I hope you that you enjoy my poems! Thanks for reading them!

- Dakota Foster

"Poetry is like making a joke. If you get one word wrong at the end of a joke, you've lost the whole thing" - William Stanley Mervin.

**Memory Poem -**

cold day in the winter. Early in the morning still dark outside. the cold floor, chills went ran through my body. There was no breakfast to be eaten. My mom's eyes were red. My dad's eyes were red. Every breath ran out of my body at once. Like a rock being dropped on my chest and every rib breaking steadily. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I was crying so hard that I started to wheeze. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I was still so young, I didn't really understand <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I ran after him. I didn't want to let go. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I was forced to let go.

<span style="color: #000080; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Ode to My Cat** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">You came into my life, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">5 years old. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Runt, smaller than my foot <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The color of your eye was the sun shinning. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">It wasn't that you were the runt that I loved you. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">You were a ball of energetic intensity. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Meows creep through the car <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">louder and louder and louder <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">out the box <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The carriage's sent stayed on your for days to come.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Days later, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">you are adjusting. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Tumbling around, break things in weird places. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Crying for attention. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Your fur was left all over the house. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The course but soft but smooth hair as you gotten older. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Time passes, you are bigger than I remembered <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Everday is a different memory <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">a bigger adventure <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">a better life.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Catching flies <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Mice <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Squirrels <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Other cats. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The outside scent never went away. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">You never stopped getting into things. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Putting your little paws in paint, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">tracking all over the house. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Strong, harsh scent of paint all over the house.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">You never disappointed. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Everyday was better than the last. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Still pumping with excitement to this day.

<span style="color: #000080; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**And That's All.** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I can't even read my own handwriting. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">black like me.. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">And that's all I am saying. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">whack! <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I am too old for this. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I am too muscular for a dress! <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">It's too the fourth degree. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I've never seen something more ridicously amazing. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">waka waka! <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">And that is all.

<span style="color: #000080; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**I Was Raised By...Poem** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I was raised by soul food. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Cornbread making <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Putting your foot in it. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Food where the smell ran all the way to the front food. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">"Take as much as you like, nothing ever runs out."

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I was raised by <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">"Eat until your stomach is bigger than your body." <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Mouth savoring, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Tongue tingling, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Senses dancing, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Kind of Soul Food.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I was raised by <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Taste Buds dancing, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Stomach singing, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Body raving, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Type of Soul Food.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I was raised by... <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Grateful to be alive, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I am happy to die, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">"I am too full to move." <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Real Soul Food.

<span style="color: #000080; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**We always do.**

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Kids shouldn't be in adults conversation. There opinions don't count. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Some say we don't count. We do. We always do. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Kids shouldn't be allowed to vote, they don't know anything about politics. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Some say we don't count. We do. We always do. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Don't ask a kid for their opinion. They never know what they want. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Some say we don't count. We do. We always do. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Kids have no idea how hard life is. They are just selfish kids that have no idea what is going on. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Some say we don't count. We do. We always do.

<span style="color: #000080; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Paradise**

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">the shine was blinding, but it was perfect <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">the sand was unbearably heated. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">every step burned the skin off my feet.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">the laughs of others ran in and around my head. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">the water bounced back and forth off the shore. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">different rocks appearing like shiny new coins.

<span style="color: #000080; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Detailed Study - Sylvia Plath**

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Sylvia Plath's poems reflect a very stressful and hard life. The struggling that she goes through just to leave for another day is very clear in everyone of her poems. While, I was reading her poems I thought that she could have suffered from depression. I thought that she was troubled in her head and it hurt for her to live. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">While reading her poems, I noticed that they are more understandable if they are read out loud. I was reading //<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> The Companionable Ills, //I didn't understand what was going on or how these sentences told any kind of story