Post Five: If I Should Have a Daughter by Sarah Kay - Analysis

"If I should have a daughter…“Instead of “Mom”, she’s gonna call me “Point B.”"

This spoken word poem really stuck with me. I liked how it wasn't too emotional because a lot of the spoken word poetry is really overwhelming with emotion, and that sometimes makes me feel uncomfortable. Throughout the performance she used a lot of hand gestures to grab the attention of the audience, and made it really affective. It was really passionate, yet not overly presented. I had a lot of favourite quotes from this poem and it had a lot of meaning behind it.

She starts the poem off positively with what she would tell her future child. Near the end of the poem it gets more negative but still positive in a interesting way. One of my favourite parts is her introduction to her poem. She starts off with saying that she wants her daughter to know that she is point B. I thought that was a great way to get the audience involved because it really made me question why she would want to be point B for her daughter. I thought all mothers would want to be point A for their child, but once she explained that she wants her daughter to always find the way to her, it created more meaning.

I love how Sarah is very honest throughout the poem. She just tells it like it is on how life works. She wants her future daughter to know that life is hard but you can always fight back and get back up.

"She’s gonna learn that this life will hit you, hard, in the face, wait for you to get back up so it can kick you in the stomach."

She also uses a bit of comedy to lighten the mood in her poem. Sarah talks about how there will be many sad points throughout life either dealing with boys or relationships, but Sarah will always carry an extra supply of chocolate. This is where I saw a lot of Sarah's personality come through. At this point she seemed so calm and knowledgeable about how those hard situations work. She made the audience laugh and effortlessly changed the mood.

"‘cause there is no heartbreak that chocolate can’t fix. Okay, there’s a few heartbreaks chocolate can’t fix."

Another one of my favourite parts of this poem is the way she ends it. It is very sassy, bold, and confident which shows her personality a lot. It shows that Sarah would do anything for her future daughter no matter what that scenario. She's telling her daughter that even if her voice is small, and can't be heard, don't give up.

"Your voice is small but don’t ever stop singing and when they finally hand you heartbreak, slip hatred and war under your doorstep and hand you hand-outs on street corners of cynicism and defeat, you tell them that they really ought to meet your mother."

This poem really shows the care that she would have to give her daughter. She uses creative writing techniques that makes the poem stick with you. It's really engaging how she can just say a line,and then turn it into something no one ever thinks about.

Winds of Darkness (Combination of 5 poems)

 

 

 

So early it's still almost dark out.

And the dark street winds and bends.

 And now, when merry winds do blow,

 the wind of banners

I stand amid the roar.

 

 

 

Line 1: Happiness by: Raymond Carver (http://100.best-poems.net/happiness.html)

Line 2: Where the Sidewalk Ends by: Shel Silverstein (http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/shel_silverstein/poems/14836)

Line 3: The Dark Hour by: William Henry Davis (http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/william_henry_davies/poems/3078.html)

Line 4: If You Forget Me by: Pablo Neruda (http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/pablo_neruda/poems/15705)

Line 5: A Dream Within A Dream by: Edgar Allen Poe (http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/edgar_allan_poe/poems/18847)

Cottage Paradise

Every summer she escapes

 

with no city, nor friend

 

Just the freshness of air

 

Sparkling liquid dancing in wave shapes

 

Orange, yellow, and pink sky blend

 

Nobody has a care

 

The bush, the beach, the lake

 

Brutal hot days in cold crisp water

 

There are sand castles to make!

 

The land getting hotter

 

Mountains from a far

 

Who really knows where we are?

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post Four: Short Story Reflection

I like reading short stories that have some sort of mystery behind it. I always seem to stick to a plot that has a mystery. I always like a story with an incident either shocking or intense. These sort of short stories always keep me reading. I also like having a character that is likeable in the story. I don't tend to read stories with characters that I dislike because it make me dislike the story. It does depend on the story, but a likeable character to me is a character that is strong, smart, and isn't afraid to show some emotion. Understanding how a character feels is really important to me. I want to know how a character is feeling in different moments. It's what makes the character easier to understand.

One of the short stories that I read during this unit was called an Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. This short story really stood out to me because it was intense and I liked how it had a major twist at the end. The story focuses on a character named Peyton Farquhar, who was about to be executed. Throughout the story your perceived that he escaped and that he survived, but it ends up to be all a dream. His character really stood out for me because as he is escaping I was routing for him to get away. The author really showed his emotions during every situation. I was really happy that he survived. Once I found out it was a dream I felt different kinds of emotions because I knew he wasn't going to survive. The story made me feel something, and that's what stood out for me.

When I was writing my short story, it was harder then I thought it would be. I edited it many times, and it was a big process to create it. What I found most challenging was creating an impact and making the story realistic. Creating that impact is ultimately an authors goal, but making it realistic would help a lot with the impact. That was very difficult aspect to accomplish because I was trying so hard to focus on making my story interesting, that I forgot to make it more realistic. My favourite stories to read are ones that have an impact, so I wish I could have created more of that in my story. I also didn't like the way I ended things. It was hard to create a conclusion because there were so many things I could have done. I would like to improve it a bit to create more of a twist at the end of the story. What I really liked about my story was my character. It was easy to write in her point of view because I felt like I knew her. I also like how I did a flashback, it makes the readers think about what is happening and makes the story really interesting. It revealed a lot of emotion for my character and I think helped understand her thought process.

I think I learned a lot in this short story unit, and I hope that my writing is improving. Going into this course I thought that the short story unit would have been really hard for me. Opening my imagination is difficult. It was exciting to see that I can come up with creative ideas and I learned a lot about short story writing.