Category Archives: W 11/14

November 14, 2012

Posted on by

On Wednesday in Seminar, we continued with the reading of our poems. Brendon was first, discussing his poems Check Mate by Lucio Mariani and Birthplace by Michael Cirelli. The first poem is written from the point of view of a victim of 9-11. It tells the story of how he played chess with his father every night, and his father told him “to always watch out for those treacherous towers.” This sentence, like most of the poem, has a double meaning. In chess terms, “towers” would be the rooks, while in NYC, the “towers” would refer to the World Trade Center towers. The poem also speaks of how “it was special to grow up behind a hedge,” meaning that he had some grass or plant life at his house, instead of just concrete sidewalks of the city. Throughout the poem, however, it seems like he is still celebrating the times that he has spent with his father, even though he is deceased.

Next, James presented his poem Ing Grish, by John Yau. While this poem was by far the most comical, it carried one of the strongest messages. The poem begins with pairs of random and unrelated words such as dung and dungaree, and humdrum and humdinger. While the word pairs are unrelated to an English speaking person, a person who does not speak English would think that these words were related based on their prefixes. Dung refers to animal droppings, while dungarees are pants. They are two totally unrelated items that share the same prefix. The same goes for humdrum, which means dull and monotone and humdinger, which is a remarkable person or thing. They are complete and utter opposites, but still manage to share that same common prefix. In addition to poking fun at the construction of English words, Yau is making fun of English phonetics. For example, “Chinee, Chanel, and Cheyenne” all start with a ch- prefix, but have two different pronunciations. Chinee is pronounced with a hard Ch, while Chanel and Cheyenne are pronounced with a soft c- sounding like “shh.” As with everything else, in order to make fun of something at this level, you must understand it extremely well. Yau never learned Chinese, despite the hard pressure from his parents.

Finally, Penina read New York at Night by Amy Knoll. The poem was written in 1912 when the modern city was still developing. Before this time, major cities shut down at night and there wasn’t always a hustle and bustle. Now, we are starting to see that movement in the city never stops and that people are always moving. The structure of the poem can be compared to the city. The rhythm is uneven, dropping mid sentence and creating chaos. The poet also believes that the city itself is ugly. In addition to the structure being almost non-existent, the words she chooses to use are very violent and sharp sounding, due to the heavy use of consonants. At the end of the poem, questions are asked of why the people in the city never stop and rest. It all goes back to the fact that New Yorkers can do it all and it’s what New Yorkers are known for.

11/14

Posted on by

Wednesday’s session of Seminar was filled with interesting discussions.  The poetry presentations were highly entertaining and talking about the poems was enjoyable.  James’ poem, Ingrish, was by far my favorite poem that day due to a couple of reasons.

Ingrish was, without a doubt, a very unique poem. I have never read or listened to a poem about the poet not wanting to learn his ethnic tongue.  Although I do not have too much in common with the poet’s issue, I still find this poem very relatable to my life.

About a year ago my dad told me that it would be a good idea to learn Chinese.  As a traveling businessman, my dad explained to me that knowing Chinese would be highly beneficial for my future.  Initially, I was extremely turned off to the idea.  Learning another language, let alone a language so different from my own, is difficult and time consuming.  As a teenager in my senior year of high school, the last thing I wanted to do is spend my free time learning a different language.

Just like the writer of Ingrish, I was opposed to the idea of learning Chinese.  Our reasons might have been different but our goal was similar.  However, I came around to the idea of learning the language.  In fact, I am taking Introductory to Chinese next semester and it is pretty much the only class I am looking forward to.

Hopefully, the final day of presentations will have another poem that is amusing and relatable to my life.

11/14/12-Swathi Satty

Posted on by

Yesterday, was part 3 of the poem recitations. The first person to go up was Brendon and I learned the significance of pronouncing words properly because “used to” and “i’d used to” are two separate things, which was a mistake he made in his first poem “Checkmate”.In his poem, there was a lot of alliteration and imagery. The chess game was symbolic because the rooks could have been seen as being the twin towers. Once again, the way the poems are read makes all the difference. The second poem “Birthplace” had to be read with a little bit more rhythm and when it was, I clearly saw all the alliteration in it. The second one was much more energized and I had a better understanding of the words when the poem was read with rhythm.

Rob’s poem was interesting and once again this poem had to be read with rhythm because it was written about the blues in that manner. After Professor Kahan played the piano in the background, Rob got a better feel of the poem and I was able to understand the poem better. The most memorable poem for me was Penina’s because of the meaning of the poem. We can all relate to the fact that New York is the city that never sleeps and Penina read in an aggressive manner and showed that the narrator was clearly tired of the artificiality of New York. I suppose I could relate more to this poem than any other because I have also wondered about how life would be different if I lived in a place where the surroundings were predominantly natural. I also found it fascinating that while the narrator and I had the same outlook, we look at it in different ways; she feels aggressive over it which I just feel curious.

I noticed that while reading the poems, the students had to take a lot of criticism from Professor Kahan and then properly translate it when having to re-read the poems. If I fail to properly deliver the poem this Monday, I hope I can also properly consider her criticism and enhance the meaning of the poem. This is significant since the other students don’t have the poem in front of them.

Poetry Recitations Continued: 11/14/12

Posted on by

Today’s seminar seemed to have a kind of theme to it today in some respect, although I’m not sure it was planned that way.  We continued poetry recitations, and some of the poems we heard seemed to have a musical background or musical connection to them.  Of course, almost all poetry has a beat, a rhythm to it, but the poems today particularly seemed to have the musical element.  The first poem with this musical element was Birthplace.  It was a combination of poetry and hip-hop, so when read a certain way, it gave the effect of the hip hop music that we are all familiar with today.  The content of the poem revolved around a teenager who had just moved from Boston to New York, and this poem expressed his emotions and feelings regarding this change.  For me, the hip-hop beat and background gave the poem New York style and feel.  The second poem with this musical connection was The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes.  The poem, when read with or without music, definitely had the jazzy, blues-y feel to it, just when regarding the rhythm and length of the sentences and onomatopoeic devices.  One line that stood out to me was “He did a lazy sway.”  The poem itself seemed to have a “lazy sway” feeling to it.  I did especially like when the piano was played in the background of the poetry reading–it gave the poem extra emphasis, and really related to the mood, the tone, and even the content of the poem.  I like the musical connection these poems had, because then the poem is just like the common idea of a poem–rhythm, rhyming, and deep, intricate meaning.  There’s something extra that makes it special and gives it a whole new meaning beyond the other common elements.

Language was another poetic element that was discussed in today’s class.  The poem Engrish specifically brought up this discussion, because in the poem, the author explains how he doesn’t know certain languages, and he cannot pronounce certain words.  We discussed how learning a new language is difficult and frustrating, and that English must be the hardest language for any foreigner to learn, just because, in all reality, we do not speak properly at all and we combine and invent words constantly.  The author of this poem brought up this very matter in using three words: “Chinee, Chanel, Cheyenne.”  Enunciating these words shed light and put emphasis on the difficulty that is learning another language.  This brings up another point: the way a poem is read and emphasis on certain words gives new meaning to the poem and helps the person reading it get more into the character of the poem.  This was definitely applicable to the last poem we heard today, “New York at Night.”  I really liked the poem, because of its content and the way it was written.  It was written so emphatically and purposefully that when a person reads it, the language becomes such a significant factor in truly understanding the point of the poem.  I like how different words throughout this poem (and any poem) hold different weight and how choosing particular words adds or changes the meaning of the poem.

With each class, I am noticing the different techniques that make poetry reading a true art and give me more appreciation for people who recite poetry frequently.  It is interesting to observe and take notice of, especially since this is something new to me and not something I see very often.

11/14/12 – Part 3 of Poem Performances

Posted on by

Today’s seminar class was another around of the poetry performances. Finally, it was my turn to go and I couldn’t have been more anxious and nervous. Unfortunately, both of the poets I was assigned to research had very little information on them; so my introduction was very short and sweet. Public speaking, is a very useful trait to master, and it definitely comes more natural for others. Reciting the poem in front of your friends and in front of the class are two completely different things. Although, I had practiced my two poems numerous times, nothing compares to actually speaking it and living in the moment.

I related to the second poem titled, Birthplace by Michael Cirelli a lot more than the first one titled, Checkmate. The prime reason being was the fact that Mr. Cirelli combined poetry and hip-hop into one, which I felt was incredible and mind blowing. I felt I had to read it as a rap in order to get the full effect. I didn’t realize how pronouncing each word can really skew with the meaning of the words and more importantly, the message the author is trying to convey. I have a somewhat New York accent, so I don’t pronounce some of the syllables entirely in the word. That is a difficult habitat to break, but with Professor Kahan correcting me when I mispronounce a word, I am slowly starting to fix the problem.

Because I don’t want to talk about myself in this entire blog, I will discuss James’s performance. His was done with such emotion and feeling, I felt as if I was in the poem acting out and thinking the way the characters had thought. Although, he pronounced some of the words incorrectly, I still give him credit for acting out the poem in a comical manner.

Poetry I believe is all about the underlying meaning; in other words delving deeper into the text and answering some abstract questions. I personally feel that my poem, Checkmate represented a multi-layered set of opinions that can be supported by direct quotes from the poem. After I finished reciting my first poem, Professor Kahan explained her take on the poem, as well as what she believed was the message. It differed a little from mine, but I can wholeheartedly see where she is coming from, and I respect the fact that she thinks about poetry and other forms of art in an abstract way. I hope by taking this course I can develop this skill even slightly, for it is a great trait to possess, and will be useful moving forward in life.