Seamus+Kirby

=Intro:= Poems are a lot more than just words put together to sound like art. Poetry invokes an idea, or image into your mind, through the creative use of metaphors, adjectives, and all aspects of language. I think that a lot of poems try to make it sound like the poem connects to a deeper, more powerful issue in the world. Some poems connect to a more clear issue, but some connect to a more abstract, and not clearly stated issue. These issues could relate to many people, or they could be very personal issues. Some poems, on the other hand, don’t connect to anything at all, which doesn’t make them worse, but different. I think in my poems I wanted to try and connect them to something bigger, but like many poems, these bigger “things” were not always obvious in my poems. For example, in my poem //Ode to my shirt//, there are lines like “Hidden from millions / Worked in by thousands / An oppressor’s palace,” and “Made by the oppressed / Made for the privileged.” These lines clearly relate sweatshops, and sweatshop labor, and poverty in general. However, in other poems, such as my imagist poem, it says things like “Sitting in a pool of tears / Dreaming of what it could have been.” While these lines seem to be about some issue, there is no specific issue that it can actually be applied to. Another, smaller thing about my poetry is the way I like to organize and structure my poem. I always start a new line with a capital letter, even if it isn’t a new sentence. I think that the majority of my poems are shorter than most other poems. My shortest poem is my imagist poem, which is only four lines long.

=1. Quote=

"Poetry... is... a speaking picture, with this end: to teach and delight."
- Sir Philip Sydney

2. Revised Draft of Memory Poem (Using simile, punctuation)
The birthday of a small boy. A toddler, Who reclines on his high chair, like a lord, That rules over his land. Staring at a cake like a hungry wolf.

Two candles on the cake, That burn slowly; a tame flame. That seems good enough to eat, To a toddler.

His parents were there, Happy at first, Then alarmed and they leap up to stop him. The boy hungry enough to eat fire



=3. Ode to My Shirt (Rough Draft) =

A striped shirt Sits in my drawer Week after week Ignored by everything.

Three words on the tag Most important of all But thought of the least "Made in Vietnam."

A huge factory Hidden from millions Worked in by thousands An oppressor's palace.

Each worker Is unique Each worker Forced into sameness.

A striped shirt Made by the oppressed Made for the privileged And ignored.

=4. Overheard in SLA (Found Poem)=

That's Mink! That's birdification! Wait, don't write that down! Stop writing everything I say down! I talk to myself when I sleep, I say la-la-la-la! Oh there you are Ryan! How do you smell so sweet? No lie, it was the biggest hot dog I've ever seen. Felizimos Cumpleañosis Mr Sanchez!

=5. I was raised by people=

I was raised by people Food eating Food loving "Can I have some more?" Kind of people

I was raised by people Love feeling War fighting Pain causing Kind of people

I was raised by people Music listening Sound hearing Gun fearing Kind of people

I was raised by people Flower smelling Trash littering Cleanliness striving Kind of people

I was raised by people God fearing Destruction seeing Sadness ignoring Kind of people

=6. Riff Poem:=

We do right, we do wrong The world spins round and round And the days go on Billions of people Dragging along in a trance Tired of their lives Yet fearful of change

Dull and sunken eyes On a colorless face Rises in the morning Just to go back to sleep We do right, we do wrong But what is right? And what is wrong?

media type="file" key="Poetry Recording.mp3" width="240" height="20"

Line "we do right, we do wrong" originally by Kurtis Lamkin

=7. Spilled Meat=

A thick, juicy slab of meat Rests upon the floor Sitting in a pool of tears Dreaming of what it could have been

=8. Walt Whitman Detailed Study=

Walt Whitman’s poems have many themes and features that they all share in common, with few exceptions. One smaller thing that he frequently does is title his poem with the first line in the poem itself. For example, his poem //The World below the Brine// begins with the words “The world below the brine,” and his poem //I Hear America Singing// begins the words “I hear America singing.” Another thing that is very common in his poems is metaphors. He generally doesn’t use small metaphors, to describe one thing in one line, but he uses big metaphors, in the sense that something in his poem is used to represent something else. In some cases, his entire poem is describing one big metaphor, like in his poem //The World below the Brine//. While //The World below the Brine// is describing some underwater area with seaweed and fish, it’s last two lines are “beings like us who walk this sphere, / the change onward from ours to that of beings who walk other spheres.” These lines compare this world below the brine to our world, which explains who the entire poem was describing our own world. Another thing he talks about a lot in his poems is about how diverse our world is. In //I Hear America Singing// he says “I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,” which talks about how different people in America are from one another. He then goes on to talk about the carpenter, the mason, the boatman, and many other types of people all singing. Knowing how he tends to talk about the diversity in the world helps to explain the metaphor of the poem //The World below the Brine// because when he talks about all the different types of seaweed, fish, and life below the ocean he is also talking about all the different kinds of people that there are in America. Walt Whitman wrote a lot about politics, and about America in particular. Two of the poems I chose, //I Hear America Singing//, and //Long, Too Long America//, have America in the title. //I Hear America Singing// is mainly about how diverse America is, and about all the different songs he hears all the different people singing. //Long, Too Long America// is about how he thinks that the current generation of people in America have gone soft because the things they have, have been given to them by another generation. He also says that they have learned how to live from “joys and prosperity only.” Another poem of his is called //A Leaf for Hand in Hand//. He starts be talking about many different working class jobs, like boatmen and mechanics, and “all processions moving along the streets,” and how he wants to join with them until they “walk hand in hand.” This means he wants to help the poor to join together. Overall, Walt Whitman was a person who had many opinions on different topics, and while some of them may have been controversial, he put his opinions into poem form in creative ways that has reached millions.

Click herepoems by Walt Whitman.