Week 3-Ecclesiastes

          Hello, again!
          Today I want to talk about the poem that I most recently read in my creative writing class. The title is Ecclesiastes. Interestingly enough, his was a book in the bible all about wisdom and how it is passed down from person to person, and whom you must look to in order to find said wisdom. The poem is made up of several pairs of lines, mostly single sentences. in the first line, there is a "rule" that the author states. To me, this rule reflects the authors' view on society, or rather, the way that he sees how society works. This is how he sees society's moral and legal absolutes. Society has both social mores and social folkways that govern how society functions, and how people behave within their given culture. That said, the "rule" would represent the law or more/folkway in itself, and the "trick" seems to represent the way that we manipulate others into feeling or acting a certain way.
           One line reads "The rule is to make them feel that they've come late, the trick is that you're willing to make exceptions." this says to me that he author views being late as an unacceptable, or otherwise frowned-upon behavior. This is the more that we perpetuate. The trick, being making exceptions, is all about making a person feel special. You make them feel like they are set apart from everyone else by allowing them to be late and, in doing so, you instill a sense of gratitude, or debt in that person. This makes them more susceptible to you and your will because they may feel as though they owe you something for making the exception for them. You allow them to feel like they can get away with technically unacceptable behaviors, at least for this one time, and you give them a false sense of being indebted to you.
           Another line reads "The trick is that you're willing to help them, the rule is to sound like you're doing them a favor." This especially sounds to me like there are hints of manipulation. Once again, after helping someone out, you, being a self-serving human-being, try to instill a sense of debt in this person you help. If they feel like they owe you, they are inclined to return the favor. Little things like that can warped our perception of any given event in immeasurable ways. The author seems to view the world from a narcissistic point of view, as if he sees the world for what it truly is an anyone who does not notice this is simply a fool. It is as if he has some insight into how to manipulate those around him because he knows how to turn any situation in his favor.  He sees all actions as having a more selfish ulterior motive. Any choice we may make, any help we may administer, or compliments we may give can always benefit our own selves in some way. We try to get something out of any situation by disguising our actions as selfless. By the same token, the ulterior may not always be as petty as others. One line reads "The rule is to assume that their(a child) parents abused them, the trick is to sound like the one teacher they loved." In his case, the motive of being like the teacher that they loved would be to gain their confidence and trust so that you may find out what happened to them. It may be for their benefit, but you are also trying to get something from them as well.
           A fellow classmate brought up a very interesting counterargument to my observations. She read this poem and interpreted it as someone with wisdom, perhaps someone of significant age or status, passing down wisdom through the words. If there is a rule, then there may be a correct way of handling it. To her, it was as if the author had a lot of life experience, and was simply passing on his knowledge to someone less wise than himself. I think that could be a valid opinion. Either way, Poetry is always open to interpretation, and this poem caught my eye because of the different viewpoints that could arise from it. well that is all I have for this update. As always, thank you for reading!

Blog Update #2- Poetry

           Hello again! thank you for reading. once again I am going to update on my progress is this Creative Writing class. our homework for this week was to blog about anything that we have done in class thus far. well I chose to post about some more of the poetry we have read. In class on Tuesday, we looked at some poems in our poetry packet. There were some by poets from America, some by poets from foreign countries, very few by anyone I have ever heard of. There was one from Emily Dickinson, whom I personally enjoy. the poem that I chose, however, did not stand out because I knew it, it stood out because it appeared to have undertones of racism.
           The one poem that stood out to me was entitled "Parade". When reading it at first, It didn't exactly stand out. "Seven ladies and seventeen gentlemen at the Elks' Club Lounge planning and planning a parade." The initial response I hade was that it would be uninteresting and boring, something about a parade or party that wouldn't really appeal to me. The rest of the first stanza did nothing to reinforce this feeling, as it talked about a band in the parade and a Grand Marshall in his fancy suit. The second stanza is what caught my attention. The very first line of the second stanza read "Motorcycle cops, white, will speed it out of sight" and I thought, wait......are the motorcycles white, or are the cops white? and if the cops are white, why is that important...? then I read on. "If they can, solid black cant be right."
           This is where I started to think that this poem was about racism. It seemed ironic that the poem was called "Parade", a fun and enjoyable celebration, but there were subtle undertones of racism that followed. The cops were white, and they were trying to keep the African Americans out of the crowd. Next it read "I never knew that many negroes were on earth, did you?". One person was talking to another, and the other replied "I never knew!". That confirmed my suspicions. The poem ends with many shouts of "PARADE!" and one person saying "a chance to let the whole world see, the old black me." The ending got me thing about racism and how the world was just a few decades ago. Racism was a huge thing, what with segregation and women's rights. The fact that there were seventeen men and only seven women planning the parade shows hints of sexism. but among all else, the prominence of racism was staggering. Obviously the man in the poem was furious that everyone around him was having fun and celebrating, all the while there were people wondering why there were so many "negroes" around.
           That being said, I think that a poem like this, unfortunately, is not so far off in todays world. This world has come so far in terms of ridding the world of racism and segregation, but there are still cases of it everywhere. who knows, maybe there will never be a perfect world where racism does not exist, and where women are considered equal to men, but this poem showed me a lot about how black people were viewed in older times, and why they must still feel like they are being suppressed. it is easy for white people to celebrate and have fun, ignorant to the oppressions around them, however, for African Americans, they feel it every day-wondering if the next person they walk beside will being hoping not to be seen with them due to their skin color, something they were born with, something they have no say in, and no control over. Hopefully in the future, this problem will not be so prominent, and perhaps we can rid the world of racism altogether. Until then, I will try not to be blind to the comments a racist innuendos around me and maybe that will be enough to make a difference.

Blog Update

           This week I have chosen to blog about the poem I have written for my poetry assignment. Whilst reading our poetry packet, I tried to focus on the feelings that I could best identify with. In reading the poems, I felt happy, silly, sad, joyous, ruminative, surprised, contemplative, confused, and also hungry. I am usually always hungry. Since it is the winter time, I decided sadness was how I felt most connected to the reading. The reason for this is that during the winter for the last few years I have been losing family members, right around the October-November time-frame. First, a friend from high school passed, then my grandmother, then two of my uncles. I wanted to tap into those emotions to create my first poem. I had to do so using a selected 20 words from a list that we created in groups in class.
            When I wrote this poem I didn't use any rhyming, because in reading most of the poems in our packet, I noticed they didn't rhyme and still they came out beautifully. In my poem, I described what it feels like when you lose someone you feel close to. There is a sense of weightlessness, as if you've lost the connection to them. I wrote about how you see shades of black because that is a color of mourning. Next I wrote about how nothing seems real. It feels like a bad dream, a vivid one at that, and you wish to wake up, but you don't. Lastly, I wrote about how time is the healer of all things, and it, too, will heal the wounds left by loss.
            The grieving process is different for everyone and being able to put those feelings down on paper was very therapeutic for me. In addition to that, I enjoyed starting up poetry again, as I do very much like to write poems, but have not done so in quite a while. The assignment gave me a challenge, to put the words from the list in my work, and that helped me to think outside the box, and ultimately helped my writing tremendously. I look forward to writing more poems and sharing how I came up with them, what emotions I put into them, and why. Thank you for reading.
          

           Hello, my name is Matthew Mollette. I am 21 years of age, and this is my second term at Eastern Michigan University. I believe am still considered a Freshman. I plan on majoring in Music Therapy with a minor in Criminal Psychology, or I may decide to swap those later. Honestly, I am unsure of what I want to do with my life. My interests have always been in music. I play the Clarinet, recently taught myself to play the Piano, and have also recently began to take up singing; and I sing and play piano at my church. Unfortunately, the more I learn about music, the less I was to get involved with it. Give me one good reason there should ever be a double-sharp or a double-flat( for my other music majors). I have, however, been learning more about Psychology, Sociology, and Criminology, and I have found them all entirely fascinating. I am unsure as to what kind of career those could get me into, but I'll figure that out later.
            I took this class mostly because it fit well with my schedule, but also because I think that no matter what career path I choose, effective writing techniques may benefit me greatly. My other classes include Criminology and Sociology, and I have taken psych classes in the past. Outside of school I am involved in my church, where I play my music, and I help with our youth group activities. I got a job in Ann Arbor five months ago working at the American Eagle outlet, and I enjoy it....most days. I live with a relative of mine, though I try to support myself financially as best I can, though it is never easy. My goal for my future is to one day have a job that I enjoy, that pays decently, and that I actually want to wake up to. If you have any advice, please share! That's about all there is to getting to know me, thanks for reading!