"The Things They Carried"

I couldn't get past the first story. The imagery of Martha on the beach spoke to me. I felt that I had to captured the image that Cross had of her. I decided that certain quotes should be there; quotes he dwelled on. Of course I included the pebble. I'm not sure why, but this is the response that I came up with.

Come Closer by Hania, is a song that,to me, fits the mood of Cross' situation.

Sand Storm

 “The Sand Storm” by Sean Huze was a well written play. I love the detail he put into it and having the narrator just brought it all together. In the end when you find out that the strong narrator died in combat was a sad moment for me. It was nice to see how he touched everyone of those soldiers lives. The fact that Huze wanted to tell some terrifying stories from the war and how they affected the soldiers was bold. As it says in the beginning, a soldier keeps his stories to himself. I have experienced that with my father.

 He’s been overseas twice now. Once in Desert Storm and in the Iraqi was. This play really hit home for me. It made me feel guilty for not trying to contact my dad more when he was in Iraq. It made me think about what he went through and how he has never talked about it.  Learning how much those soldiers lived for letters was heart-wrenching. All the flashbacks that went on during the play made me think of how my dad could sleep through any noise but the slightest touch would wake him and he would be on his guard. I really appreciated this play because it let you see inside a soldier’s world. I’ve already told my dad that he should read the play and I’m going to bring it to him as soon as I can. I still want to cry when I think about the soldier looking for the foot’s rightful owner or how images of innocent people kept being brought back into their minds, haunting them.

My dad in Desert storm (pic from his facebook)

My dad's blog

Rite of Hanging From a Window

The 2 poems that spoke most to me were “Rite of Passage” and “The Woman Hanging From the 13th floor Window”. “Rite..” made me laugh and think of the times when I was a kid and everything seemed to be a battle between new kids and me. I know all about being the new kid, I moved a lot as a kid. The way the party was portrayed as a room full of “Generals” comparing their strengths was adorable (line 25). Even though it sounded so serious I just kept reminding myself that it was little kids and then I laughed some more. One reason I laugh is because at that age you almost think like that, like you are in some epic battle of strengths. The way her son broke apart the featured fight was amazing. Most people don’t think about fights like that. Throwing something that everyone knows is helpless in the mix changes the perspective and in this case it resolved a fight.

The second poem, “..Woman Hanging..”, reminds me of how I feel at the moment. I feel like I’m on a ledge and I don’t know if it’s worth it to pull myself back up. The way the author constantly goes back to who she would hurt if she let go really makes one think if it’s worth it. In the end for me I know I’m going to pull myself back up, I know it’s what I have to do. This poem speaks to me because it goes to that dark place that we all go to at some point. I like how the poem ends with a choice and only the reader can guess what the women did.
site where I found the picture

"Necessity" response

Sam Hammil has a very interesting view of the world and he doesn’t hold back. I love how he taught poetry and writing in prisons and to battered women as a way to help them express what they have been or are going through. He uses his experiences from his life and from working with those people to prove his thoughts about writing. He comes across as cynical and he tries to show the world as it is, not as people would like to believe it is.


He constantly talks about how the world truly is and how it’s not as pretty as people feel it is. He talks about rape, massacres, prison, and abuse, and how we all will cringe and feel bad for those who are suffering yet we won’t do anything about it. He says we are in a world where emotions are frowned upon as if we all are desensitized to the horrors around us. WE are instilling this desensitization in the children of the world. Hamill has some harsh beliefs about the world, a negative picture and I believe he’s right. People are drenched in “solipsism” these days (page 5). I love how he says “We think poetry is about emotions. Poetry is not about.”(page 4). That is definitely true. Everything he said about “Knowledge is the loss of innocence” really hit home (page 5). I never have thought of it in that way. Truly there are so many points in the paper that I really appreciate. I’m glad someone has pointed out the negativity in the world.

Statistics on battered women.

wccha.org