HORSELOVER

A Poet

2007-01-22T11:10:00.000-05:00

A Blessing
by James Wright
Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,
Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.
They have come gladly out of the willows
To welcome my friend and me.
We step over the barbed wire into the pasture
Where they have been grazing all day, alone.
They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness
That we have come.
They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other.
There is no loneliness like theirs.
At home once more,
They begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness.
I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,
For she has walked over to me
And nuzzled my left hand.
She is black and white,
Her mane falls wild on her forehead,
And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear
That is delicate as the skin over a girl's wrist.
Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom.

James Arlington Wright was born in Martins Ferry, Ohio, on December 13, 1927. His father worked for fifty years at a glass factory, and his mother left school at fourteen to work in a laundry; neither attended school beyond the eighth grade. While in high school in 1943 Wright suffered a nervous breakdown and missed a year of school. When he graduated in 1946, a year late, he joined the army and was stationed in Japan during the American occupation. He then attended Kenyon College on the G.I. Bill, and studied under John Crowe Ransom. He graduated cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1952, then married another Martins Ferry native, Liberty Kardules. The two traveled to Austria, where, on a Fulbright Fellowship, Wright studied the works of Theodor Storm and Georg Trakl at the University of Vienna. He returned to the U.S. and earned master's and doctoral degrees at the University of Washington, studying with Theodore Roethke and Stanley Kunitz. He went on to teach at The University of Minnesota, Macalester College, and New York City's Hunter College.
The poverty and human suffering Wright witnessed as a child profoundly influenced his writing and he used his poetry as a mode to discuss his political and social concerns. He modeled his work after Thomas Hardy and Robert Frost, whose engagement with profound human issues and emotions he admired. The subjects of Wright's earlier books, The Green Wall (winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets award, 1957) and Saint Judas (1959), include men and women who have lost love or have been marginalized from society for such reasons as poverty and sexual orientation, and they invite the reader to step in and experience the pain of their isolation. Wright possessed the ability to reinvent his writing style at will, moving easily from stage to stage. His earlier work adheres to conventional systems of meter and stanza, while his later work exhibits more open, looser forms, as with The Branch Will Not Break (1963). James Wright was elected a fellow of The Academy of American Poets in 1971, and the following year his Collected Poems received the Pulitzer Prize in poetry. He died in New York City in 1980.

Althought not all of his work is to my liking I find this poem to be very moving. The relationships made with an animal or friend is a very powerful thing which is hard to break. It is so nice to beable to see the animal and know that they missed you or are just happy to see you.

Who Knew????

2007-01-08T08:42:00.000-05:00

Spencer's mothering technique says one or two drinks is ok!
The reduction of hypertension is eliminated with a bottle of Vodka!
Some amounts of alcohol can starve off heart disease while producing a drunk-in-training Leanne!
Alcohol drank trying to outrun brutal inner demons!
Small but memorable victories found a minimal increase in stroke!
The inebriated lost years of drinking preventing deadly blood clots!
Life of quiet, nearly impoverished desperation doesn't make for longer life!
While learning to handle tragedies drinking reduces the likely hood of heart disease!
After surviving an abusive marriage moderate amounts of alcohol can scrub off death!
The produce of drinking not only fewer heart attacks but the added bonus of grandmother hood twice over!

In writing this poem I used two articles: one was about a mother who gave her 16 year old a bottle of Vodka for her birthday and the other was about how having a drink or two can help prevent heart disease.

The DMV Tester's

2006-12-04T08:59:00.000-05:00

Why do they always seem so person friendly?!? (Thats sarcasm.) Almost everyone i know went to different places and no matter where they go, their "grader" is never nice. Its like they take their job WAY to seriously, all they do is move from car to car. They act like they work for the U.S. government inspecting something that will cause a world war. Its not that big of a deal grading a road test. (No offense to any of the graders out there reading this i just don't understand why they are so mad all the time.) Personally, I think that job would be easy and if i had it i would be really happy and nice to the drivers. First, they are probably scared to death having to drive a car with someone whom they have never met sitting in the passenger seat inspecting you like you have a disease or something. Its uncomfortable. By Sam D.

WOW Sam love your blog it is so true, when I took my test the tester got in did not even say hi or look at me he just asked for my paperwork(lucky for me I had everything:)). So first I thought ok he's probably had a long day so I asked "Has it been a long day?". The reponse I got was very rude, he mummbled the word "normal" and that is all I got. The rest of the drive was vary quiet the tester mumbled every direction and I had to repeat the direction back to him to make sure I had them right. How frusterating!!!!!!!

SO all in all I was pritty scared because he had just failed my friend and I hoped I would pass. I did and now I am a licensed driver(watch out!!!) and I love it is great!!!!

Views on World War II and Vietnam

2006-11-13T08:59:00.000-05:00

First Vonnagett in the beginning starts by picking on war by saying that it is a children’s war because most of the people fighting are only about 18 and I feel that that is right but I do not consider them to be children because the academy trains and prepares them for the front lines which makes them more prepared and ready. Then he makes references to a boy whose father was killed in Vietnam.

Vonnagett uses references from WWII and the war at Vietnam he kind of makes fun of the wars by making fun of a child’s father for being killed on a hill which is not important to the development of the war. Another reference is when Vonnagett and his group go to Dresden. It is "supposedly" the safest city in the war but through the jumping of time we find that Dresden is indeed bombed and many die.

SAT's Should Colleges Base There Enterance On Them

2006-11-08T12:51:00.000-05:00

Over the past weekend I took the SAT reasoning test at Eden High School. This is the second time I have taken it and it has not gotten better. The long hours and and tons of reading is very difficult. There are 2 main themes to the SAT Math and Reading/Vocab and basically you get about 25 minutes to finish on average 24 question. So should colleges base there exceptences on the score of the SAT?

Yes but they should make some adjustments to the test. For one thing there should be a longer time limit. For some to read and really understand the passage they need to take longer. Therefore because the person is trying to rush the score suffers and the not all the questions are answered. Basically that is the biggest problem I have with the SAT. But it would also be nice if we got longer breaks to clear our minds for the next part.

With more time to finish the parts I think that the scores would be higher and students would be able to get into better schools and then get a better job over all making more money.

"The Secret Letter from Iraq" and Slaughterhouse-Five

2006-10-31T09:55:00.000-05:00

War - any serious struggle, argument, or conflict between people. When I think about war I think about the war in Iraq not the internal war that the soldiers have to experience. In The Secret Letter From Iraq (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1543658-1,00.html ( Access this letter click this web address)) the author has similar experiences as the Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse-Five. First they both have a hard time writing about the war one because there is classified information and two because how can civilian people believe the stories that they tell when they have never experienced any thing like that before and have nothing to compare it to. In The Secret Letter the author tells of a good marine and how he had just lost his life while on a mission with his unit. A similar thing happened in Slaughterhouse-five when Vonnegut’s friend was blown up, he stepped in to the light and he was gone. The loss that they both felt was the same and each of them took out there anger out in different ways. When at war the only thing that any one can think of is there family and home, which is all they want.

Can anyone capture the true sense of war, can words express feelings in a way for people who are not involved can understand? Vonnegut from Slaughterhouse-five points out the difficulty in writing a true war story and after writing over 5000 pages he still did not have a book to show for until the book Slaughterhouse-Five was published. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut says that you can write about the war but will any one believe it? The stories are so bazaar or are hard to believe that people don’t believe it. I feel that nether of the authors really capture the true sense because I feel that you can only really feel the true sense of war if you have gone to war or lived through what they had to live through the twenty hour days and the constant demand for perfection. Florence Nightingale once said “I think one’s feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions which bring results.” I think that she is saying that feelings are to hard to put in words and if the words do not have a purpose or end result then they should not be put into words for sack of every one’s feelings and mind.

When writing the letter I wonder what was going through the authors mind was he just writing to a family member or was it more like entering an entry in a journal, a private thought about the war or was it just an overview of the war? I believe that this letter is neither for nor against the war, war is not a happy thing it is sad and people do get hurt and may die but we know that and we do put family and friends in harms way for a greater good. Like the author said he can not talk about the things he does therefore it is hard to write. I believe that the author puts facts and little stories to lighten the mood for if war was serious all the time no one would get through.

One Pretty Weird Movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-10-25T13:27:00.000-04:00

When I first watched this movie I was at my friend's grandma's house and it was really late and dark. We started the movie and it didn't take long for us to be totally frecked and really scared!! I mean first we were two girls just like the movie and then some of the movie was in a cabin which was in the country and my friend lives in the country weird right!! We were frecked!!

Tralfamadorian's View The Universe

2006-10-16T08:57:00.000-04:00

Tralfamadorian's have different views on a lot of things but the biggest is there way of thinking on death. A person may appear dead, but in all reality the memories that were created with the dead are still alive and fresh in our minds. The Tralfamadorian's think that the past, present, and future always exist and that it is only humans that put one moment in front of the other.
Their are some pros to this way of thinking for example it is comforting to a person who just lost a loved one to think that that person is still there and just around the corner or not there at that moment. But there are also cons to this way of thinking. It is basically giving the person an easier way out and not making them deal with the reality of the loss.

In our world today Billy's way of thinking might be beneficial to some but we have thought about death as being "gone" for so long that it would be hard to turn from our ways. It would also cause people to second guess there faiths and beliefs and it might cause some uproars. Therefore over all I believe that it would be more damaging then good.

Quote from Slaughter-House-Five

2006-10-11T11:37:00.000-04:00

"You'll pretend you were men instead of babies, and you'll be played in the movies by Frank Sinatra and John Wayne or some of those other glamorous, war-loving, dirty old men. And war will look just wonderful, so we'll have a lot more of them. And they'll be fought by babies like the babies upstairs" (Slaughter-House-Five, p. 14).

War is not cool but in some movies through the characters and plot the end result produces a cool and wonderful thing. But in others there are some that are heartbreaking and sad. Some movies are braveheart and enemy at the gate they both have a sad story of revenge and pain. I believe that these are anti-war because the people fighting really don't believe in war or want to fight for there own different reasons. I am not saying war is fought over pain or revenge but they are great influences and can have a lot of power on people.

I think that this quote is true because most wars are started because of an insult or a killing like in Braveheart. The reaction that is given is a simple child's reaction and then the actual war is fought by kids or young adults that are only 19 or 20.

I think that other movies help promote war in different ways like Forest Gump he says the one good think that is good about war is that you can get all the beer and BBQ you want(I think). The violence and the killing attracts the younger generation and they think it is cool. As for movies promoting war in the olden days, I think that the threat of other countries and/or the insult of another country towards a country is more powerful back then. And that respect weight more then media.

My Life

2006-10-02T08:54:00.000-04:00

Forever now I have lived on a farm and haved had horses and deer!! With the horses we Barrel Race and with the deer we raise them and sell them to NYC resturants. For the past few years my family has been involved with a barrel racing club called BRWNY it stands for Barrel Racers of Western New York. In this club we ride every tuesday night during the summer. There are meny divisons for example the divison I am in is the Amateur divison which means I ride with adults and compeat against better horses. Each night you go you get points for placing in your class and at the end of the year the points are added up to produce the year end awards the are many different prizes. Over this past summer I have earned enough points to win the top prize and receive a Grand Champion Buckle which in past years has been a saddle but with different people there are different prizes.

Over the past weekend I was recently at convention in Columbus Ohio. The convention is for all of the best Quarter Horses and riders. They come and compete in a lot of events such as barrel racing, calf roping, pole bending, pleasure, and english. It is BIG and there is tons to see! Although Congress goes on for a couple weeks my father and I really only went for the barrel racing and pole bending but we also saw some of the western pleasure show which is pretty intense.

There is a lot of history behind the Quarter Horse Congress like that it is the worlds biggest single-breed show and it brings over 110 million dollars to the local economy(more facts go to http://www.oqha.com/congress/faq.htm)

Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump By David Bottoms

2006-09-20T09:04:00.000-04:00

This is kind of a weird poem the way that the rats believe that the light is killing them. The relationship that the author makes between the beer cans and the rats I feel is pretty right. They both are smelly. And are good for nothing exept for that they are fun and entertaining.And the rats eating the dump and the men drinking beer are pretty similar in a way.

In grandslamdsam's blog she makes a point about the relationship between the rats and the men and she thinks that the story is taking men and representing them with rats. She is comparing the men to rats. I think that that is a good way of discribing some men.