Some of my poems
The Pelican
Flapping wings,
Long small body,
Huge beak,
Brown Coloring,
The bird stands out against the green jungle,
Then,
Turning,
He slowly picks up speed,
Using the long stretch of water as a runway
Turns its eyes up to the darkening sky
He makes a desperate leap up,
Giant wings beating the air,
Water falling from its feathers,
A white bird framed in the background,
Embraces the blue black of the sky.
As a little group on a boat gasps at the spectacle,
Nature moves on.
By Calvin Tong
Extended Metaphor Poems
Sunrise
Everyday the dragon of the world,
Wakes,
Breathes its ever-present fire in to the sky,
For all to see,
And all to remember.
Chainsaw
Roaring out with teeth of fire,
Heart thrumming,
Blood exploding,
Slowly arks down,
To cut up nature.
By Calvin Tong
What I didn’t know
I didn’t know I loved trees,
Green, swaying in the wind,
I didn’t know I loved fire,
Crackling, changing, bring orange,
I didn’t know I loved water,
Clear, rejuvenating, rippling, making waves,
I didn’t know I loved rain,
Pattering against the window in the early morning,
I didn’t know I loved winter,
As it makes the world freeze.
By Calvin Tong
Ode to pencil
Hark,
Pencil,
I thank you for these words,
Written with your dark center,
On a creamy white sheet of paper
Without you,
Life wouldn’t be the same.
You wouldn’t be there,
To aid in passing the time,
Or to help having fun,
You couldn’t spin fantastic tales,
An author without you is nothing,
With your light wooden body and gray graphite core,
You are as reliable as Old Betsy,
Unlike the new laptops
By Calvin Tong
What Do I Think About Writing Poetry?
Over the years I’ve tried a lot of forms of writing, from poetry to short stories. So far I think that I’ve liked poetry the most. I think this is because I never think to hard about an idea or an assignment. If I try to do that, its like I’m chasing a thought that is always on the horizon. Then I try just relaxing and some how I get an idea. After that I just like to sit relax and let my mind do all the work.
Another odd thing about poetry is that I prefer to write with a pen and paper. I usually like to use my computer because my handwriting stinks and I can’t read it. But when I’m writing a poem, typing doesn’t feel right. My poems always have bad flow when they are typed, but when I use a pen and paper they seem to flow better.
My favorite type of poetry to write, is any poem that paints a really good picture in your head because I like to visualize the scene in my head then try to describe what it feels like to be that person. Even so my favorite type of poetry to read is nonsense poetry because I like to have a good laugh some times.
Even though I have favorites I think that writing any kind of poem is more fun then regular writing because you are less encumbered by punctuation and form.
Demo Page
Metaphor: A direct comparison without the use of as if, was like E.C.T.
Ex. The Sea is a giant monster trying to swallow the ship
Simile: A comparison using as if, was like E.C.T.
Ex. He moved as if he was made glass.
Personification: giving some human traits to something not human not human
Ex. The orange tree danced in the wind.
Alliteration: repeating words with the same first sound
Ex. Bob’s Blue Buoyant Boat floated lazily on the water
Iambic Pentameter: A line that has a rhythm of -/-/-/-/-/ or unstressed stressed unstressed stressed E.C.T also the pentameter part means that there are five iambs in the line.
Ex. The woods did shake as if they were not full.
Rhyme Scheme: a pattern of rhyming through out the poem
One stanza Ex.
The bird isn’t flying,
I think it is dying,
As it plummets from the sky
I decide to cry
Hyperbole: an exaggeration that you would never do but it will help people get the picture
Eat the moon made of cheese
Poems we have read in class
Mother to Son by Langston Hughes
Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with ne carpet on the floor –
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
‘Cause you finds it’s kinder herd.
Don’t you fall now –
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair
I like this poem because the whole thing is one great big metaphor about life. I think that it captures the whole life thing perfectly with that metaphor, because stairs come in many different shapes and sizes like people’s individual lives you also get tired climbing up them as you go.
I also like this poem because it has a nice rhythm that helps the poem along.
I Saw A Jolly Hunter
I saw a jolly hunter
With a jolly gun
Walking in the country
In the jolly sun.
In the jolly meadow
Sat a jolly hare.
Saw the jolly hunter.
Took jolly care.
Hunter jolly eager-
Sight of jolly prey.
Forgot gun pointing
Wrong jolly way.
Jolly hunter jolly head
Over heels gone.
Jolly old safety catch
Not jolly on.
Bang went the jolly gun.
Hunter jolly dead.
Jolly hare got clean away.
Jolly good, I said.
Charles Causley
I like this poem because it is a nonsense poem and I really like to read those. I thought it was funny that the author decided to put jolly next to some things that you don’t really think of as jolly, like “Hunter Jolly Dead.” The jolly repetition helps a lot with the flow, rhythm and makes it hilarious. It was nice how the author used repetition of one word to make such a great poem!
Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley
When I first read this I didn’t think much of it, sure it had nice rhythm and sound ok but I didn’t think about it much. After I thought about it and we thought about it as a class I really liked it. I liked it because it had one great message told through all of those lines. The message is one that will benefit everyone it is that even if someone captures you or tortures you, they can’t control your thought or emotions.
This is a very inspirational poem that I think I will enjoy and think about every time I see it.
One Poem Written by a Peer
Art Project
It crouched
silently, eternally still, with
all 8 legs on the pale gravel floor
its pincers like pairs of sharpened
chopsticks, poised and
ready to strike
its slender, brown-plated
Body curled
Upward
And sharpened to a point at
The tip like a
Warped rapier
And then it
Leaped
Right out of the photo and off
The computer screen, landing
Onto my keyboard
Creating a string of letters
wdab jviiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
Then slowly turning? around
To face me, tiny eyes
Shining like jet-black marbles
And then
Suddenly, it
Pounced
8 Limbs ready to latch onto my face
Coiled tail ready to stab into my eye
I would’ve been dead
But I reflexively held
Up a sheet of tough
Watercolor paper
I cringed
And when I dared looked again
It had melted back
Into 2-d, trapped
On the paper
Its once-precise edges blotched,
Colors augmented, dimensions
peculiarly distorted
But that didn’t matter.
I handed it in
By Serena Xu
I really like this poem because it is an interesting idea; I know that an artist can make things really look real but having them jump onto the paper is really creative. I think that the whole thing is one big symbol of how a real artist can make something then imprison it in 2-D as she says.
I also like this because the rhythm isn’t very fast; the line breaks effectively slow it down so I can absorb the information. While I’m talking about the rhythm I want to say that she obviously paid attention to the punctuation and line breaks, they are in places that I wouldn’t have thought of.
Overall I like the concept and execution.