Reading Responses Parts 1 and 2

I was simply looking through the blog requirements when I remembered that I should probably get cracking on writing my reading responses. Being an avid reader, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the materials. I thought I could break it up between poems we read vs instructions.

1 - Poems

There were two really stellar poems that we were assigned that I wanted to talk about, the first one being A Martian Sends a Postcard Home by Craig Raine. This poem was beautiful in the way that it looked at ordinary things. I found myself drawn into it and captured by the diction as well as the very refined sense of style. There is something about the words on that page that make me want to read the poem over and over again. I find the work highly appealing and highly useful as standard by which to measure poems.

The second poem that I really, really enjoyed was The Gulf By Campbell McGrath. I will be most likely basing my free verse poem on this very poem. It has such words about it. I envy the words, the imagery, the mastery of the English language. When I speak of art, I speak of things I can see-- line, texture, balance, ect. I look at this poem, and I can only say I love the words, but the words are no less art. My head erupts with sharp sea imagery when I read this, and I am a sucker for poems about the sea. I myself have written several things about the sea. If I had to pin this to an artistic style, I would say Surrealism.

2 - Instruction

The part that I enjoyed about the instruction is no doubt a part that most students enjoyed about the instruction part of the reading. I very much liked the question/answer device that the author has implemented in class. I think I may adopt this very strategy for myself and add it to my many ways to start writing. It can only make me stronger. I know that I was probably supposed to pull more from the reading and while the style is really flowery and skillful, the Q/A device is really the thing that spoke the loudest. I think it will be invaluable in my writing.