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Poetry Out Loud: My Poem

     The poem that I have chosen to be my Poetry Out Loud poem is called: "A Blessing" by James Wright. The first time I had read it, it sounded beautiful. I flowed very well and it made me think about what kind of a character the author is trying to portray and what deeper meaning he was trying to reach with this piece. It reminded me of the time when we went on a road trip and stopped near the edge of a cliff that was partly fenced off. It was very quiet and the scenery was mesmerizing. It gave me the sudden feeling of joy, but I had wished that there was no fencing because I felt that it was blocking what could have been an even more fantastic view. I feel like the author of this poem is enjoying the time he is having with these two indian ponies, and from his last line: "break into blossom", it shows that he is feeling so happy and exhilerated that he just might break into a beautiful object.
     I have been practicing for this recitation, and came to the conclusion that no one can recite this poem the way that the author imagined it to be recited, but I can try my hardest. After watching others perform their poems on the video clips that were provided, I feel that they all said their poems in different tones that they thought fit the poem. For my poem, I am going to try to remain calm and say it in almost a somber tone of voice, up until what I think is the climax of the poem. Then I will try to alter my tone so that it contains more enthusiasm.
     Imagery is a huge part of the poem I plan to recite. This has really helped me to memorize it because I picture a mini story in my head and then when I recite the poem it is similar to me telling a the story of a man and his friend stopping along the freeway and keeping these two lonely ponies company. Then in a sudden burst of joy or realization, he thinks that he is so incredibly happy that he will burst into blossom.

Urgent! EC Blog

     After completing the five part paragraph on To Kill a Mockingbird, I realized that I needed to work on choosing the right concrete diction to support in the commentary. I kept this in mind while writing this five part paragraph on "Shoulders" by Naomi Shahib Nye and chose my concrete diction very carefully. I read the peice through multiple times, understood what I was to support and kept my opinions open. I finally came to the conclution of which concrete details to use and was satisfied. They supported my main point, and I had many different options on what to support. This led my commentary to be fairly succesful as well. Therefore reading my own critique on the first paragraph really helped me to develop my second one.

Poetry Out Loud Website Activity

Part 1: Website Cruising

1. A Blessing, by James Wright
2. Under the Vulture Tree, by David Bottoms
3. When You Are Old, by William Butler Yeats
4. Fairy-Tale Logic, by A.E. Stalling and Boy and Egg by Naomi Shihab Nye

Part 2: What do you think?

• Of the poems above, one of my favorites is "A Blessing" by James Wright because it is made up of mostly imagery that gets the reader and the listener to imagine the scene of the poem.
• "Under the Vulture Tree" by William Butler Yeats is not quite my style of poetry, it has a very serious tone to it and because it was written in the 1940's, it is a little bit outdated.
• If I had to choose one of the poems above, I would choose "A Blessing" by James Wright.
• I don't have a real connection to this poem, but I do feel like when I'm reading it, it feels as if I'm walking in a dream with a farm, animals, and a soft breeze on my face.

Part 3: Scoring Criteria

• I think that "Dramatic Appropriateness" would most likely be the easiest for me to gain points on because I understand that acting out the poem would not be the best way to present the poem, but instead adding subtle hand gestures that fit with the poem's content would be a better approach.
• "Voice and Articulation" would probably be the part where I would score less points because I tend to speed up (therefore does not keep an appropriate pace) what I am saying if I get nervous. I also don't always realize how loud or soft I am speaking in front of a group because I am so concentrated on not forgetting the content.

Part 4: Videos

1. The first video that I watched was "Bilingual/Bilingue" by Riana P. Esphallat. I thought that she recited the poem very well, she put emphasis on the right places and it went very smoothly. The accuracy was also something that was very well portrayed because there were some words in a different language that she said with the country's accent.
2. Another video that I enjoyed watching was "The Man-Moth" by Kareem Sayegh. From the way that he was reciting it I could tell that it was very well practiced. There were noticeable climax's that he portrayed by the tone and emphasis he was putting at certain parts of the poem. The movements he made with his hands went with the poem's content and the whole thing flowed. Even though there was a tiny mistake in one of his words, he bounced back and did not seemed fazed about it.

Part 5: Summary
     Poetry Out Loud seems like a good experience for everyone to come out of their shell when it comes to speaking in front of a crowd. I also think it would be fun to listen to how different people took different approaches to memorizing and presenting the poems. The competition seems a bit nerve racking and competitive from my point of view right now, but I will try my best and hopefully do well, though I do not expect to win. I am planning to memorize "A Blessing" by James Wright because it was very well written in a unique writing style that I like. The website was very informative, I enjoyed having the sample speaker poets that gave me a general idea of the expectations. I feel more excited about this project after doing this blog post because it gave me an idea of how the competition is going to be.