Journals #63-65

#63: Identify your favorite restaurant and explain in detail why you like it.  Or do the same for your least favorite restaurant.


#64 is a free write.


#65: Many poems are simple descriptions, or images, of ordinary things, or moments. Find inspiration in this room or building, locker, home… anywhere, and write a short poem using descriptive language. Here is an example of an imagist section of a poem:
I walk along a street, returning
at midnight from my unit. Meet a man
leaning against an illumined wall
and ask him for a light.
His open eyes
stay fixed on mine. And cold rain falling
trickles down his nose, his chin.
"Buddy," I begin...and look more closely--
and flee in horror from the corpse's grin.

JOURNALS 57-62

Here are your journal assignments 57-62

57:  Free write.

58:  Ten things I do (or don't do) when I'm depressed. 

59:  Comin' Thro the Rye -- what does it mean?
Comin Thro' The Rye



O, Jenny's a' weet, poor body,
Jenny's seldom dry:
She draigl't a' her petticoatie,
Comin thro' the rye!
Comin thro' the rye, poor body,
Comin thro' the rye,
She draigl't a' her petticoatie,
Comin thro' the rye!


Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need a body cry?
Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the glen,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need the warl' ken?
Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the grain;
Gin a body kiss a body,
The thing's a body's ain.

60:  Attempt to analyze this Emily Dickinson poem. What may be her message?

The Body grows without—

The more convenient way—
That if the Spirit—like to hide
Its Temple stands, alway,
Ajar—secure—inviting—
It never did betray
The Soul that asked its shelter
In solemn honesty

61:  If you were to re-title The Cather in the Rye what would you name it and why?

62:  Describe a smell that reminds you of childhood.  Explain why.

Journal #56 -- Who are you?

Read the poems. Explain the message in each. What do they have in common? How are they different? Write your own version of one of these poems, attempting to answer the question:  Who are you?




But someday


But someday, somebody'll


stand up and talk about me


and write about me


black and beautiful


and sing about me


and put on plays about me!


I reckon it'll be


me myself!


Yes, it'll be me.


-Langston Hughes





I'm Nobody


I'm nobody! Who are you?


Are you nobody, too?


Then there's a pair of us - don't tell!


They'd banish us, you know.






How dreary to be somebody!


How public like a frog


To tell your name the livelong day


To an admiring bog!


-Emily Dickinson

Journal #54 and #55 -- -- March 4 and 5

Journal #54 -- Identify three songs that you feel apply to Catcher in the Rye. Quote the lyrics in the song that apply and explain why it connects (in more than three sentences for each song).


Journal #55:  You are on a small rowboat in the middle of a storm.  Your oars have fallen overboard and because of the rain and the wind, you cannot see them or retrieve them.  The only person with you is an eight year old child, a sibling, relative or child of a friend.  There is only one life jacket.  Who gets it and why?  Write your response in poetry form.  :)

Journal entry #53 - March 2, 2010

Journal #53: Personification is a valuable tool because being humans, we have a tendency to relate to body language and emotion that mimics our own actions. When using personification, be fully aware of how the imagery affects the tone of the poem. If you are trying to convey a dark feeling, you wouldn't uses images like "The butterflies danced in a circle of wind," but you could use the butterflies and say, “The butterflies kept vigilance of the garden, and they sliced the wind with their wings."


For the following words, use personification to describe the objects.

The ocean

A car

The wind

An unfinished poem

A roach

The curtains

Example for the above: The ocean sways his hips to the monotonous hum of the steady wind.