Creative/Literary Nonfiction

I Am A Bad Mother

By Deborah Gang

I chose this literary nonfiction story to be meaningful because many mothers tend to worry of being bad mothers, like my mother. I relate this story to my own life experiences.  I know my mother always wants the best for my sisters and I. There has been occasions where my mother has broken down and cried, asking if she has been a good mother. Sometimes she has felt like she has not done enough. I understand her worries sometimes, or at least try,  and tell her that she has been both father and mother. She has been the best! I am thankful to God for giving me the biggest blessing, and could not ask for more. 

Magnificent Moon

What a beautiful night. The moon is to the fullest, shining so bright. Oh moon, you are so unique in your greatness. I admire and sigh, while looking up high. Knowing how far away you are is just unbelievable at times, like tonight. You shine upon everyone giving us your light and showing the way for the disoriented and the hopeless. Your light gives hope. 

As I contemplate You, I get lost with you in space. Your radiance is so tender making me dream with you by my side. I want to be part of your space. Make me another star that can shine in your sky. I get lost gazing upon you. I drift away and no one or anything makes me feel at peace like You. 

You help me  mediate, it is just you and me. You listen to me when I'm in doubt. You feel my pain when my tears roll down my moon-face. Oh moon, you never condemn me or point out my imperfections. You are just there...with me.

A Winter Walk

The snow slowly falls and sinks along the river bank. The site of this place is beautiful, peaceful, but vacant. Solitariness chills the bone, crystallizing the vital organ, making of it a complete glacier. Not even the sun with its mighty power and radiant rays of shine, could brighten a soul. The sun can not bare the emptiness of the land and blasphemies against the Almighty for having to see the sorrow the land suffers. The winds howl and the clouds cry out rain. The rain becomes ice crystals that pour with great mourn for there doomed landing.  The snow makes all that's different look the same. There is no hope and angel-like ghosts are trapped on iced branches of the dead trees. The creeping snow on the surface is like death approaching the body, giving no sign of existence.

The song I chose is "Someone Like You" by Adele, an English singer-songwriter. I like this song because she is contradicting on her feelings but at the end she seems to have resignation of her loss. I find this song to be poem-like because she rhymes. For example, on the first verse of the first stanza she ends with down, on the second line she ends with now. And almost for every stanza she rhymes.

"Someone Like You"

I heard that you're settled down
That you found a girl and you're married now.
I heard that your dreams came true.
Guess she gave you things I didn't give to you.

Old friend, why are you so shy?
Ain't like you to hold back or hide from the light.

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited
But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it.
I had hoped you'd see my face and that you'd be reminded
That for me it isn't over.

Never mind, I'll find someone like you
I wish nothing but the best for you too
Don't forget me, I beg
I remember you said,
"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead,
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead, "
Yeah

You know how the time flies
Only yesterday was the time of our lives
We were born and raised
In a summer haze
Bound by the surprise of our glory days

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited
But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it.
I'd hoped you'd see my face and that you'd be reminded
That for me it isn't over.

Never mind, I'll find someone like you
I wish nothing but the best for you too
Don't forget me, I beg
I remember you said,
"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead."
Yeah

Nothing compares
No worries or cares
Regrets and mistakes
They are memories made.
Who would have known how bittersweet this would taste?

Never mind, I'll find someone like you
I wish nothing but the best for you
Don't forget me, I beg
I remember you said,
"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead."

Never mind, I'll find someone like you
I wish nothing but the best for you too
Don't forget me, I beg
I remember you said,
"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead,
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead."
Yeah

Poem for Anthology

The poem I chose is Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe. I chose this poem because it is about love and about a guy who is devoted exclusively to his one and only Annabel Lee. The poet seems very deeply honest with his expressive stanzas that he helps create images that seem almost vivid-like, or at least in my opinion.

Metaphor

Heights are full of deception that dare me to fall the higher I go and promise to give me wings so that I can fly...the heights offering false promises is the Old Deceiver's doings.

Rhinoceros

I have been a Berenger when at work co-workers see that I'm falling behind on paperwork and they tell me to forge signatures or alter legal papers, so that I can finish faster. I don't of course; it's a good paying job I can not afford to lose and not just that but I do not want to get sent to jail! 

6 Word Memoir

Mother, daughter. Connection, love. Eternity.

Transformations Question #29

Of what symbolic importance is the ball in "The Frog Prince"?

I think the symbolic importance of the ball is vanity and the loss of a materialistic object. The princess in this poem describes herself as "quite adorable", which makes me assume that in that ball she reflects her beauty and her vanity; she is torn down when she realizes that the ball has sunken and will not be able to keep admiring the precious ball in which she reflects her beauty.  The princess also expresses her loss in metaphors--her moon, her butter calf, her yellow moth, and her Hindu hare. She explains how the ball would not be for sale in Au Bon Marche, and it is clearly stated how the ball meant very much to her. She is royalty and we could say she lived in abundance of gold, jewelry, and much wealth. She cared for her materialistic objects and the loss of her ball was one of her whims. Sexton possibly felt that her vanity was based on what she owned or had and realized that maybe for once she could give in to something ugly and worthless. After that, she discovered that beyond appearances and worrying for worthless objects, that life is more than what the eye sees.

The Old Man and his Grandson

There was once a very old man, whose eyes had become dim, his ears dull of hearing, his knees trembled, and when he sat at table he could hardly hold the spoon, and spilt the broth upon the table-cloth or let it run out of his mouth. His son and his son's wife were disgusted at this, so the old grandfather at last had to sit in the corner behind the stove, and they gave him his food in an earthenware bowl, and not even enough of it. And he used to look towards the table with his eyes full of tears. Once, too, his trembling hands could not hold the bowl, and it fell to the ground and broke. The young wife scolded him, but he said nothing and only sighed. Then they brought him a wooden bowl for a few half-pence, out of which he had to eat.

They were once sitting thus when the little grandson of four years old began to gather together some bits of wood upon the ground. 'What are you doing there?' asked the father. 'I am making a little trough,' answered the child, 'for father and mother to eat out of when I am big.'

The man and his wife looked at each other for a while, and presently began to cry. Then they took the old grandfather to the table, and henceforth always let him eat with them, and likewise said nothing if he did spill a little of anything.

I think Sexton chose this to be part of her collection of poems to show that even family can hurt you the deepest and when in need of care and hospitality, they can turn away from you. The old man was receiving horrible treatment from his own son, and the son with no compassion isolated him. Do not do to others what you do not want others to do unto you, that is the theme of the poem.

"Auguries of Innocence"
an excerpt

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

1. What does the stanza mean?
I think the stanza means that even the smallest and insignificant things in life are part of something that create a whole. A grain of sand can not stand for itself; billions and billions of grains of sand compose a shoreline, a sandy beach. But without the other grains it would not complete the whole. As for a wild flower which grows without intention of being planted of mixed species, could be valued and contemplated just as a beautiful red rose. Blake is saying that living the moment and appreciating the small and insignificant can bring as much joy as the big and valuable things in life.

2. How does Blake use a literary device to convey that meaning?

Blake uses ambiguity when saying "to see a world in a grain of sand" because he can mean that parts compose the whole, like a grain of sand composes a sandy beach. He can also mean that nature and people are each a grain of sand that complete the whole, meaning the world.