Cyber-Freewrite
Post you responses to a poem from the War Poems package here.
Post you responses to a poem from the War Poems package here.
posted by Professor Wanda's Posse at 8:29 AM
Thursday, March 17, 2011
About Me
- Name: Professor Wanda's Posse
- Location: College of Alameda, Alameda, CA, United States
I have a Master's Degree from the University of San Francisco in Writing, and an undergraduate degree from Holy Names College in Humanistic Studies. I write a weekly column for a local newspaper, San Francisco Bay View. I also have an Internet Radio Show: Wanda's Picks http://wwww.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks
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28 Comments:
Emmily Manown
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A 9-10 am
17 March 2011
Response to:"Speaking: The Hero"
I read a couple poems before i decided to write and talk about this one. This poem was very nice, yet very real. I really liked the wording of it, but it is a a sad poem. Its about a man who is drafted to war, who does not want to go or shoot anyone. He ends up trying to run away and he cant, because you cannot really escape from the military so they courtmartialed him.Before he dies they call him a coward because he doesn't not want to shoot people. He ends up dying in battle, when they give the speech in his hometown they lie to everyone and say he was a great warrior and now fine prince.
Ronald Parker
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1 A
28 February 2011
8-:850
Poem:
Grass by Carl Sandburg
The poem grass is a short but informative poem. Everytime the phrase says pile them high in certain places it reminds me of all the deaths and wars that took place there. When they say I am the grasss it is a metaphor that the bodies are being covered by the grass or dirt or anything once they go under ground. the phrase let me work refers to the people doing the burying.
Jonathan Abordo
Professor Sabir
English 1A 8-8:50
17 March 2011
We are reading about poems against war. It starts off with a short paragraph written by Thomas Paine in 1776. The main points that I pulled out of it was that there is tyranny in war and the harder something is, the greater the you feel. One of the poems that stood out to me was Rain on a Battlefield by Yehuda Amichai. It is very short but the meaning is so powerful. The author is saying that it rains, either literally or with bullets on the battlefield.
Cherefah Obad
March 17, 2011
English 1A
The End Is The Begining Response:
I really enjoyed reading The End Is The Begining By
Wislawa Szmborska. It opened up my eyes to many new things that i didn't know happend. I never thought of the things that happen AFTER the war that goes on for many days to weeks on end. The poem talks about how after the war, someone has to clean up. It talks about how things will not straighten up after the war. I think that after a war, The city /country never goes back to how they were before. There's either happiness from the victory, or hopless from the loss.
Cody Henneman
Professor Sabir
English 1A 8:00AM-8:50AM
17 March 2011
Freewrite response to "Speaking: The Hero"
I thought that this poem spoke volumes about the horror of war and the pressures and hardships soldiers face. I thought that the structure of the poem was really powerful. Because of the fact that the couplets gave a really grave tone and mood because the lines were short and succinct. I thought that how in the end after the speaker died, the soldiers talked about him as a hero. Just because they wanted another person to join their army. This poem is very powerful and I think that this poem accurately portrays the realities of war
Adalie Villalobos
Professor Sabir
English 1A 8-9am
17 March 2011
The End of the Beginning
This poem is extremely sad. It is very true what the poet is saying. After every war, someone has to clean up the remainings of everything and everyone. The blood, body parts, guns and more are left there, dead, waiting for to picked up and thrown away. Some people who clean up the mess are left distraught and truamatized but some just do it and get it over with with no feelings at all but just to clean up the mess. I do not know how people could just see that and have no emotions at all while they clean it up. This poem is sad and speaks the truth.
Eman Obad
Professor Sabir
English 1A 8-850
17 March 2011
Today in class we read peoms about wars.But i decided to write about this one just because i liked it. It was short but had alot of meaning to it.It was very sad, But I kind of understand it. The poet spoke about people who died in the war.
Adrieanna Williams
English 1A/8-8:50
17 March 2011
Poem Rersponse
In the poem entitled Grass by Carl Snadburg he uses the grass as a metaphor to describe the many bodies that have been buried because of war. Sandburg uses many wars in his poem to show the amount of death caused by war. The grass becomes life like as you read the poem it describes how it feels like it has become the perosn who has to be the culprit to cover up all the deaths. At the end of the poem it states " I am the grass; Let me work.
It's a poem that is sad but at the same time it shows the price of war.
Stacey Kidder
Professor Sabir
English 1A 9-9:50am
17 March 2011
Poem that I read: Speaking: The Hero by Felix Pollak
I enjoyed reading this poem more than I thought I would have. It was sad but true in relation to what happens in the military and war. Pollak made sure that you understood the hypocrisy and irony between his feelings and those of the military.I got many different visuals between all of the lines. I feel like there are many people out there that would agree that they, too, share the same feelings as Pollak. I usually am not a fan of poetry, and certainly wouldn't choose to read war poems if I was looking for poetry, but has changed my mind just a bit.
David Odza
English 1A 9pm-9:50pm
17 March 2011
Poem Response to Grass
The poem Grass by Carl Sandburg is about how grass always grows and will cover the bodies of old. He names various places of massacre in history and says, "pile them under me, let me work", talking about grass. It is a dark poem because people are killed, but the bodies are covered by grass and people seem to forget and repeat the same mistakes. Then these places turn into tourist spots, but people don't think about the tragedy that actually took place. They ask "what place is this? where are we now?", instead of asking about the people and the problem.
Eman, what poem did you read?
Julie Phoukeo
Professor Sabir
English 1A 8AM
17 Mach 2011
Free write-Poetry on Wars
The poem I am reading is called “Speaking: The Hero” by Felix Pollak is about a young man who died from the war and the town gave a speech and called him the hero. It is a sad poem especially when you know that your mother have to bury your grave where it suppose to be you. It was depressing but true in relation to what happens in the war. I’ve never really known what it feels like to have someone dear to me pass away. It must be a very numbing, devastating feeling, which really doesn’t quite sink in even when it happens right in front of you.
Ashante L. Washington
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A, 9-950a
17 March 2011
War Poem Response: Rain on a Battlefield
The war poem, "Rain on a Battlefield" by Yehuda Amichai was very moving and sensational because I was able to imagine the imagery that was described. It was a short poem but powerful. Though it only used very few words, those few words were able to get a point across that was very realistic and non-abstract. The imagery that I received from the poem was that in war, dead soldiers as they die are lain all over the battlefield uncovered through any kind of weather. The type of weather that was used as an example was rain. But, those who are alive are able to shield themselves from such weather conditions as the dead cannot.
Alex Peña
Professor Sabir
English 1A
17 March 2011
Poetry at the War “Give Back Peace”
I liked the poem by Sankichi Toge called “Give Back Peace” because it was simple but you still get the felling the writer wanted to put out. It talked about a guy that lost all of his family to the war. He wants all his family members back from the dead. But we all know that it is impossible. He also asks for peace in his country and world. “As long as men live as men, Give back peace, Peace that never crumbles” (Toge 8).
Zinaida Dzhilavdaryan
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1 A
17 March 2011
Responses to a poem from the War Poems package
I read the poem by Felix Pollak called Speaking: The Hero. The poem tells the story of a man who was sent to the war. I enjoyed reading it. We can see and feel how it is to be a soldier. Somebody said that war is a crime against humanity. Neither soldiers nor their family members need beautiful word and a status of a hero. Soldiers want to live, and their relatives want them to be healthy and alive.
David Guzman
Professor Sabir
English 1A 9 a.m.
17 March 2011
War Poem Response
I read a poem by Felix Pollak called “The Hero”. The poem is a paradox of the life and death of a soldier. A soldier who was forced by his country to aim a gun, yet refused to fight, didn’t want to die, and did everything possible to escape the war that was not his. Is it fair that someone who loves life should die for his country without wanting it? Is it fair to call someone a hero when he was really trying to save himself? Is it fair that a mother loses her son for her country? When you are forced to do something that you do not want to do, is that not also a form of oppression?
Summer Hurst
Professor Sabir
English 1A 9am-9:50am
18 March 2011
Response(s) to the poem(s) from the War Poems package:
I love poetry so I was excited to read the poems from the War Poems packet. Most of these poems were sad and depressing, but expresses the truth in several ways. I think that it is very important for people to read and understand the significance of Fighting for our country in these beautifully written master pieces. The readers of these poems will definitely know that the authors wrote from their hearts. They definitely got their point across. I love reading these poems and experiencing the perspective of the various authors. I feel like I am there, looking through their eyes. I read all the poems but, the one poem that catches my attention the most is Umoja: Each One of Us Counts. (10-11) I enjoy this one in particular because I like how the author describes each person individually with such passion. Through her writing she emphasizes it clearly that each and soldier who has fought for our country and dies has a story that needs to shared all over the world. No matter if one knows someone fighting, it is very important for every single life that is taken by the wars, should and always will be praised for everything they achieved and always remembered and honored in the hearts of others and most importantly never forgotten. These war poems have changed my views on war in many ways.
Shameiko Porter
Professor sabir
English 1A 8-8:50
19 March 2011
Response To War Poem
Rain on the Battlefield
by Yehuda Amichai
This poem is very short but says a lot and shows emotion. It depicts a battle scene in the rain where the living are covering themselves with blankets to protect their faces. Ones who do not have blankets covering them have been killed. The writer kind of gives the feeling that these fallen soldiers are forgotten. The way the poem is written gives me a small visual and it saddens me a bit.
Vanessa Dilworth
Professor Sabir
English 1A 9-9:50am
17 March 2011
Response to War Poem: The End of the Beginning
The poem that I read was about the end of the war. I find it kind of ironic that the poet called it the end of the beginning. To me it seems the suitable way to define the end of a war would be to call it the beginning of the end. The poet, Wislawa Szxborska, writes how at the end of a war someone must clean up all destruction caused by the war and how all cameras by this time will have gone off to yet another. She states that after the effects of the war people will begin to build everything all over again and compares “grass which has overgrown” to “causes and effects.” To me this symbolizes that after a catastrophe such as a war, now matter how horrific, life will eventually spring forth, renewed.
Andrew Duong
Professor Sabir
English 1A
20 March 2011
Response to - Speaking: The Hero
I found this poem to be extremely interesting in the sense that irony is in every single line. It demonstrates two perspectives as one is with the speaker himself and the other in the military. It begins with the speaker not wanting to join the war but the military brought him in anyways. When he tries to escape, they accuse him of breaking the law. Even when he turns down killing, names such as coward are thrown towards him. Eventually faced with death, military lies were all over the place during a speech. I believe the most crucial lie in the poem is "They said I gave my life. I had struggled to keep it." I find this to be incredibly outrageous as to the speaker not even wanting to join the war in the first place. But what happens? The military speaks as if he was willing to give his life. There is also a frustrating tone in this poem and is pointed out in the last line two lines, "I wanted to live. They called me a coward. I died a coward. They called me a hero." Now that he is dead, the audience only knows of the untrue actions that went on with the speakers life. His whole war story is in the hands of the military as they give out false inspiration to the audience such as, "They called me a hero." This poem portrays the war in a very powerful way. It gives out the sense of the harsh reality that occurs in certain lives of soldiers.
Vanessa Rocha
Professor Sabir
English 1A
20 March 2011
I really liked the poem Rain on a Battlefield by Yehuda Amichai, it is a very short poem but touching. From my point of view I understood that when it rains, it rains on the face of the dead and on the live friends of her, and even though they are dead, she still remembers them, especially the dead ones, that don’t have anybody to cover their heads or protect them. It is also very sad because it makes us think about all of the people that are gone because of the wars.
Jeffrey To
Professor Sabir
English 1A 8-8:50
20 March 2011
Response to:Rain on a Battle field by Yehuda Amichai
This is a short 5 lines poem. It describes raining on a battlefield. The soldiers who are alive cover their faces with blankets preventing themselves from getting wet. But those who are died are covered by nothing. They can not prevent themselves from being dry from the rain because they can not.
I found this short poem inspiring and emotional. It did not take many words to visualize how the soldiers felt and the condition of the rain.
Tyler Mecozzi
Professor Sabir
English 1A 8A.M.
17 March 2011
War Poems
Thomas Paine
Paine describes the hardships Great Britain imposes on the colonies. He states that their is no true definition for slavery because the oppression Great Britain instills on the colonies is not considered slavery. He said that people don't understand value unless their is a price to pay. I agree with this statement.
People take things for granted such as family and friendship because it is given to them. If they had to fight for it, they would appreciate it more. This was the same concept that the American Soldier's video insinuated with citizenship. They give their lives to the service for them to obtain citizenship. Those people appreciate their status more than those born in this country because they worked for it.
Theodore Lionberger
Professor Sabir
English 1A 8 AM
21 March 2011
War Poems
Saadi Youssef
In "From America, America," Saadi Youssef professes his love for the traditional flavors of Americana, and then offers to "exchange gifts" of American symbols - for example, James Bond's gun for Marilyn Monroe's giggle, and finally, "Take Saddam Hussein and give us Abraham Lincoln, or give us no one."
The poem closes with an identification of the Arab world with "the dead" and seems to imply that America's treatment of the mideast is insensitive to the hardships routinely faced by its people.
Angela M. Vasquez
Professor Sabir
English 1A 8-8:50
22 March 2011
Rain on a Battlefield
By Yehuda Amichai
This is a short 5 line poem about it raining on faces. Live soldiers cover their faces with blankets and dead soldiers faces are not covered at all.
I thought this poem was sad. I visualized it raining on a battlefield full of soldiers both dead and alive.
Sherri Short
Professor Sabir
English 1A 9-9:50
17 March 2011
War Poems Response
I enjoyed reading the package of poems despite their heartbreaking messages. Several poems moved me, but my favorite was ‘Mourning a dead Sparrow’ by Alexandra Kostoulas. The resonating message in each of the three sections is that atrocity and/or death are things each person feels directly responsible or accountable for. Each of them seems to feel guilty about it, but they keep it inside and numb themselves to the pain their actions cause. In the first two sections, men use their love of music as a defense mechanism. This helps them each disassociate from their emotions, effectively numbing each from their pain and reality; losing themselves in their love of music as a defense mechanism.
In the final paragraph, the sparrows’ fall and death overwhelm the writer to the point of crying. The author is pointing out the extremity of emotional reaction to the senseless death of a mere sparrow, which is meant to highlight how the men finding themselves killing men and animals are disguising enormous pain. Pain that would probably be disabling if they were in touch with the emotional impact they would normally go through if they were not blocking their feelings.
Audrey Topacio
Professor Sabir
English 1A
"Speaking the Hero" Response
I think that what the speaker is trying to say is that, most of the time people are forced to join the military because of various reasons.
These people are scared but the government does not want the people to know the horrors of being a military man, that is why they contort the image of those who were 'cowards.' It's such a scary thing how far people would go to get what they want. The government wants recruits, they hide the truth behind the military.
Audrey Topacio
Professor Sabir
English 1A
"Speaking the Hero" Response
I think that what the speaker is trying to say is that, most of the time people are forced to join the military because of various reasons.
These people are scared but the government does not want the people to know the horrors of being a military man, that is why they contort the image of those who were 'cowards.' It's such a scary thing how far people would go to get what they want. The government wants recruits, they hide the truth behind the military.
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