Poetry Meme
Lesley tagged me for this a couple of days ago but I haven’t had time until now.
What’s the first poem you remember reading/hearing/reacting to?
Ummm….I’m really not sure! I’ve never read a lot of poetry and I don’t really remember reading much as a child.
I was forced to memorize (name of poem) in school and…
In Flander’s Field by Lieutenant Colonel John Mcrae – I understand why they made us learn it but good grief! Could they not have taught us all to read it with the way that it’s punctuated? It drives me NUTS to hear it read line by line. ARGGG!
I read/don’t read poetry because...
Well…I don’t read it often. I have trouble with it in part for the same reason I have trouble with short stories. I’m very bad at picking up a book, reading a small portion of it, setting the book down and then letting myself mull over it. I’m just not good at it.
A poem I’m likely to think about when asked about a favorite poem is…
Umm…I don’t really *have* a favourite. But I did read this one recently and I rather like it.
After a While
After a while you learn
The subtle difference between
Holding a hand and chaining a soul
And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning
And company doesn’t always mean security.
And you begin to learn
That kisses aren’t contracts
And presents aren’t promises
And you begin to accept your defeats
With your head up and your eyes ahead
With the grace of a woman
Not the grief of a child
And you learn
To build all your roads on today
Because tomorrow’s ground is
Too uncertain for plans
And futures have a way
Of falling down in mid flight
After a while you learn
That even sunshine burns if you get too much
So you plant your own garden
And decorate your own soul
Instead of waiting
For someone to bring you flowers
And you learn
That you really can endure
That you are really strong
And you really do have worth
And you learn and you learn
With every good bye you learn.
Veronica A. Shoffstall
I write/don’t write poetry, but…
When I was in the 5th grade we had to write poems and submit them to a province-wide anthology. My poem was one of the ones selected. I think they thought it was cute. I think they were on crack. I’m a horrible poet.
My experience with reading poetry differs from my experience with reading other types of literature…..
I think what attracts me to literature are the stories. And it’s not that poetry isn’t about moments in time but that’s all they are – moments. I want more. I want the whole messy story. I do okay with epic poems although that’s probably not surprising.
I find poetry…
I think perhaps the best way I can describe is it that I like the *idea* of poetry. I just personally don’t enjoy the experience of it that much.
The last time I heard poetry…
It was probably on the radio. Sounds like Canada on CBC Radio 1 sometimes has poets on. The last thing I remember was some poet who was doing “Random Acts of Poetry”.
I think poetry is like…
String theory. When someone who knows it is talking about it I get it and find it interesting. But on my own I’m lost and can’t be bothered.
And I’m tagging SKEET because she finally has a freaking blog (Skeet…perhaps this is a good excuse to start up that book blog you hinted about…)
Technorati tags: poetry, meme
Posted by sassymonkey @
9:01 pm |
Hmm maybe…
Now this is something I can afford. Although there’s absolutely no point in signing up for it now because I will totally forget about it. Don’t believe me? I forgot to turn on the dryer today. And recently I’ve started drinking my coffee black because half the time I forgot to put cream, sugar or both in it.
At Harbourfront Center in Toronto:
Handbound Books
Saturday, January 13
10am – 2pm
$70 (materials included)
Learn the rich history of book-binding and make unique handbound books using a variety of materials.
I could be cool like Iliana and make books!
Posted by sassymonkey @
5:16 pm |
If only…
I’m not against spending a lot of money on books. I don’t really mean to but you know, it happens.
But even I can’t justify the $350 price tag for this.
Oh well, I wouldn’t have anything to wear anyway.
Posted by sassymonkey @
11:51 am |
Short takes (2 posts in 1!)
I expected more from Defining Dulcie.
I liked Dulcie. I thought she was a pretty good character. But she wasn’t fleshed out enough. None of the characters were really. I felt like I just barely scratched the surface of any of them.
Dulcie’s dad dies. And then her mother decides to pick up and move to California. After they get there she decides she’s going to sell Dulcie’s father’s truck and that put Dulcie over the top. She steals the truck and drives back to Conneticut to stay with her grandfather and to go back to her job as a janitor at the local school. When she gets there she discovers that there’s another girl working there, a girl whose home life is not quite ideal.
I think the book was quite simply too short. It’s under 200 pages and I don’t think that was quite long enough to deal with everything in the book – driving across country by herself, everything with her mother, Roxanne’s mother, Dulcie’s grandfather. I think if it had been longer and more fleshed out and we had really gotten to know who these characters really were it could have been a really good book. But since it wasn’t, it’s merely ok.
Speaking of short books… The Book Boy by Joanna Trollope was really short. When I saw it on the list of new books at the library and read the description I missed the part of where it mentioned it was a “quick read”.
It’s a tiny book. I felt like I was reading a kid’s book. It’s only 96 pages (!!!!) and that’s with large print. I need to start paying attention to what I’m reserving…
The main character, Alice, can’t read. Her husband is a bit of bully. And her kids don’t respect her. Her son Craig begins bringing home an “scary” boy named Scott. Alice is scared of Scott but soon decides that he’s going to be the person to teach her how to read.
It was predictable (not a lot of room for plot twists in 96 pages). It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t really good either. And it didn’t even last me one full round trip public transit ride to my friend’s place. And that was irritating.
Technorati tags: Defining Dulcie, The Book Boy
Posted by sassymonkey @
1:50 pm |
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr
My library’s catalogue is not working properly. I cannot check my account. I cannot search for books. It just endlessly tries to load the page but never does. I don’t get a time out error or anything.
Soooo annoying. How am I supposed to figure out a. what I want to read next seeing as due dates play a role in such decisions and b. if the library as the book I’m looking for?
And they’ve done maintenance at least twice this month. Twice! Two extended periods of me not being able to check anything at all and now I still can’t. And worse I don’t know when I’ll be able to because when they do maintenance they at least give you a timeframe.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Posted by sassymonkey @
11:32 am |
Shipped
Twilight and New Moon have been shipped. They could arrive as early as today, depending on what warehouse they’ve been shipped from. I usually get them within a day or two of shipping notice.
The challenge will be waiting until Saturday to start reading New Moon. I’ve decided since it consumes my brain I *must* wait until the weekend. I suppose I could start it Friday evening but I read Twilight at night and then did not sleep well at all.
ARG!
Have two books to blog about later if I get a chance…although the way things are cropping up today I may not…
Posted by sassymonkey @
10:36 am |
Vampish
I spent last night reading Twilight. I posted about it at BlogHer.
But I can’t stop thinking about it and it’s driving me nuts. I want to curl up in bed and reread sections of it. It’s very hard to work today. I’m sorry but writing (or rather regurgitating) configuration tables is not nearly so interesting as Edward and Bella. And it’s driving me nuts because really? I can’t figure out why I liked it so much. In many ways Bella is a your typical lovesick teenager. Sure she’s in love with a vampire but that’s a minor detail right? 
And because I cannot stop thinking about it I order it online. And I ordered New Moon. And then when I saw that it would cost me almost $8 for shipping but I could order a $10 book and get free shipping and barely a difference in overall price I pre-ordered Colleen’s The Rest Falls Away. (Colleen I have a beef….Chapters.ca is showing a release date of February 2007 instead of January – you are depriving Canadians for a whole month – shame on your distributors! )
Yes. I, Sassymonkey, just ordered THREE vampire novels.
Technorati Tags: Twilight, The Rest Falls Away, vampire, BlogHer
Posted by sassymonkey @
12:08 pm |
Canada Reads – the all-star edition
I really wasn’t expecting this to be announced this early. They don’t run Canada Reads until February (Feb 26 – March 2) Hmmm I didn’t think they did it until April. Guess I was wrong.
The books and their defenders:
All of the defenders have successfully defended their choices in the past 5 years. Could be interesting…
I don’t know how many of these I’ll read. I know that I do want to read Lullabies… I don’t think I’ll be pledging to read them all – partly because the thought of reading a short story collection at the moment makes me want to stick a fork in my eye. (Why the ire for short stories right now? No idea.)
Technorati tag: Canada Reads
Posted by sassymonkey @
9:33 am |
Cybils Nominations
I was responding to Denise’s post about the Cybils nominations at Fast Times at Homeschool High when my comment was getting ridiculously long so I moved it here. I am really only looking at the YA nominations.
Denise asked, ” Who should win? Who will win? Which book(s) on these lists would you NEVER recommend to anyone?”
Looking at the YA category I’ve read a number of them. I *loved* A Bad Boy Can be Good for a Girl but I’d probably put an advisory on it (it’s sooooo gonna be a challenged book at some point). I know that a lot of younger readers will read from this list and the topics in this are a bit more mature. I think it’s a good middle school read (but I’m thinking of Canadian “junior high” which is grades 7-9).
As much as it pains me to say I would not recommend Meg Cabot’s How to be Popular and you know I love Meg Cabot. This particular book just felt flat to me.
I’ve also read:
Born to Rock
A Brief Chapter in my Impossible Life
Just Listen (love it but could be triggery)
Nothing but the Truth (and a few white lies)
On my TBR list:
An Abundance of Katherines
The Astonishing life of Octavian Nothing
Between Mom and Jo
The Book Thief
Dairy Queen
Hattie Big Sky
King Dork
Loving Will Shakespeare
Trigger
I think the strongest contenders of the books I’ve read are A Bad Boy Can be Good for a Girl and Just Listen.
But I also think that the strongest contenders overall are all on my TBR list – An Abundance of Katherines, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, The Book Thief and King Dork. While I don’t think it will win, possibly due to less exposure, I really want to read Between Mom and Jo because it’s a storyline I haven’t exactly read before. Similar to others but at the same time different.
YA authors continue to surprise me with where they will go and how they go there. So many of them deal with serious issues but escape being depressing. They don’t take the flowers and butterflies route – they get down and gritty and sometimes punch you in the gut. But somehow they leave me happy that I read them.
Technorati tag: Cybils
Posted by sassymonkey @
11:23 am |
Just Listen
Sometimes when I’m having a crappy day I need something to escape. That’s usually books. Although this week with all the headaches I’ve had that’s mostly mean escaping to my bed with my laptop and a movie. Was it SARK that talked about your bed being your refuge? ‘Cause this week I’m seriously loving my bed. So when today turning out to be totally craptastic and I was frustrated and belting out the blues along with Matt Andersen wasn’t working (not to mention probably really annoyed the crap out of my neighbours as I was loud and I cannot carry a tune to save my life) I logged off work and retreated to my bed.
I didn’t think I’d have time to read Sarah Dessen’s Just Listen. It’s due back at the library tomorrow and I just simply didn’t think I’d make it. I had every intention of working late tonight and over the weekend – before things got craptastic. But when I retreated to my room I took this with me. And I loved it. This was the first of Sarah Dessen’s books that I’ve read and I loved it and want to read them all.
Ok first – the title? I love the spot where I comes from.
“You might totally hate it,” he admitted. “or not. it might be the answer to all life’s questions. That’s the beauty of it. You know?”
I looked down at it again, studying the cover. “‘Just Listen’,” I said.
“Yeah. And don’t think or judge. Just listen.”
“And then what?”
“And then,” he said, “you can just make up your mind. Fair enough, right?”
This did seem fair to me, in fact. Whether it was a song, a person, or a story, there was a lot you couldn’t know just from a excerpt, a glance, or part of a chorus. “Yeah,” I said, sliding it back to the bottom of the stack. “Okay.”
When you read this you will see this is a moment. A moment that makes much more sense when you read it. But it resonated with me. And I really, really liked Owen. If I were a teen-aged girl I totally would have that the hugest crush on Owen. Tall, sensitive, broody, vaguely unapproachable, and known for having a wicked punch? Yeah…totally would have fallen for him.
Secondly, I dearly needed to laugh today. And I really, really was not expecting to laugh at this book. It had triggery issues which I was sure were not going to bother me but I was certain that I wasn’t going to laugh. Enter the secondary cast. Rolly amused me. A lot. I totally had a picture of this totally quirky guy I’ve seen in a movie or two (won’t link because I hate it when other people put faces on my characters). Anyway, Rolly’s job is as an attack dummy for self-defence classes. And while it’s really not that funny (and I knew that at the time) it is a reflection of today that this totally made me crack up and made my cat stare at me as if she thought I had lost my mind and this prospect frightened her.
“Oh, no,” Rolly told him, shaking his head. He had a really sweet face, I was noticing. Where Owen was big and broad, more the attacker style, Rolly was smaller and wiry, with bright blue eyes. “Attacking is much better than clerical work.”
“It is?” I asked.
“Sure. I mean, for one, it’s exciting,” he said. “And another, you really get to meet people on a such a personal level. There’s a real bonding in someone beating the crap out of you.”
Reading it I’m starting to get the giggles again. I tell you, I’ve cracked. It’s been a long week.
And Annabel, the star of the book. There’s a lot of her in me. Although I’m probably a lot less silent and a lot more self destructive. I think if you mush her and her two sisters together you might get me.
Good book. Great book. Might have to buy it when it comes out in paperback. Because I’m sure there are some other days where I need something to remind me that work is just that. Work. When I just off the computer it’s over (or at least it should be). What does this book have to do with that? Not a lot. But it made me step away. And now the anger and frustration I was feeling earlier has mostly evaporated and I feel good. I have distance now. I have perspective.
Posted by sassymonkey @
8:33 pm |
