"Crib for pencils matchbooks
splinters of trees in my apron
restructured trunks all over
the place My desk once an oak
its rings now blocked
angles of legs and grooves
Paper I write on past
maple or pine so many
limbs gone sapless
Time has tucked in
arranged days waking
sweeping feeding the cat
washing a plate as moonlight
wants reading poems as
the week unfolds
then folds again
Morning gasses
I can't recall numbers
count back to zero stunned
That I came to be born
The whole night is shrinking
trunks and twigs
kindling to ash the fabric
of sky taken in Seams
hold only so long then
fray frazzle dangle us
all in the dark
when I fall
what pocket
will cradle me?"
This passage from the book is one of the 33 poems "written" by the main character Emily Beam at the end of a chapter. This poem is one of the last ones written in the book and comes near the very end. While writing this poem Emily was standing in Emily Dickinsons old home where she wrote her poems. Before this Emily had talked about how she felt a connection with Emily Dickinson and maybe believed in reincarnation. While there Emily seems to feel a much stronger connection to Emily Dickinson and writes this poem. I think this well help hook readers in partially because the poetry is very beautiful and helps show the writers graceful style of writing and because the content of the poem while reading into it is very intriguing.
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Monday, August 10, 2015
Entry 4: And We Stay
fter finishing the book And We Stay I was very glad to have chosen it out of the list. I chose this book because I wanted to read one that was written recently so I first looked into the ones that won or were honored in 2015. I naturally looked at the winner, I'll Give You the Sun, first but didn't like the idea of alternating perspectives between both people and times so I looked at the next book on the list, The Carnival At Bray. This book seemed interesting but I wanted to read something with less of a love story than this one seemed to have. The next book on the list was And We Stay which I thought seemed interesting and had poetry at the end of each chapter which seemed interesting. The next two books just didn't seem as interesting as And We Stay so I decided to read that. After reading I never really felt a personal connection to the main character Emily. The only similarity I really found was she uses poetry as a creative outlet and I enjoy writing stories and occasionally read poetry for fun but never write it. I couldn't find a lot of personal connections in this article as it deals with something I've never experienced and is set in a boarding school when I've only gone to public school. I would recommend this book to my cousin because she is also into poetry as a way to express her feelings and skipped entering a poetry contest in the past out of fear of losing. Overall I found this book thought provoking and interesting. I looked forward to reading it and finding out more all the time.
Sunday, August 9, 2015
Entry 2: And We Stay
The main character of my book, And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard, is a 17 year old girl named Emily Beam. At this point in my book the reader has just found out then before and maybe when Emily's ex-boyfriend Paul killed himself, Emily was pregnant. The readers can assume from things that were said, that she's not pregnant now, and doesn't seem to have a baby, that Emily had an abortion. The abortion may have been what caused Paul to threaten Emily then kill himself. Right now Emily's seems to want to understand why this caused Paul to kill himself and how to get over the guilt of both the abortion and her boyfriend's suicide. Emily's French teacher and her new roommate K.T., other major characters, seem to know that Emily is going through something and wants to help her use her poetry to help rebuild get confidence and help her get better. K.T. also seems to want to be Emily's friend as she seemed to be best friends with the girl who used to live with her in Emily's room and looking for a new best friend. Themes that are beginning to appear are just because you stop living in the world doesn't mean you won't stop affecting the world. You can see this in Emily's constant guilt and want of understanding over what Paul did. When Paul shot himself it seems like he just wanted to stop having to deal with things or face consequences but now other prod have to do it for him. The structure of And We Stay is very interesting. It is in present tense but third person so Emily's story is being told as it goes on but seemingly not by her. For the flashbacks in this book they often start with phrases such as "Emily tried to forget" or "Emily remembered how" and then goes into past tense while telling about something happened before she got to boarding school. Another interesting thing about the structure of And We Stay is that at the end of each chapter is a poem "written" by Emily that helps show her feelings and reveal things that happened. Now that the book has revealed more about Emily and her boyfriend Paul's relationship I'm even more interested in what happened and how it will continue to affect Emily.
Entry 1: And We Stay
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