Till today I cannot understand what God wants us to achieve in life. Is it happiness? Love? A good career? A significant experience? There are moments of frustration where I am skeptical on what to do and what step to take next. With the belief that our mind is impermanent, is it that God wants us to figure out what we had done in our previous life and continue that same responsibility? Is it a test? A test of how strong our mind is to say no to our distractions and our afflictions? Is he preparing us for something? There have been many years of debate of whether the world will end. The recent speculation is that the world will end on December 21st 2012. The Ancient Mayans state that their calendar stops on this date and hence the world will come to an end. Many have scoffed at this prediction - singers like Britney Spears and Jay Sean have written songs and created an image in teens minds that this prediction is a joke! Movies have been directed showing catastrophic events happening on this day creating a feelings of fear and confusion.
Are these predictions perhaps warnings to us humans of whether we have accomplished what we are supposed to in life? Perhaps God is reminding us of what our goals are in life, if not, why are these dreadful events happening and harming many innocent people. There have been earthquakes, tsunamis, and many unexplained deaths of penguins, birds and other animals. Why would God want to strand these good people in these awful situations. Is this really God's way of showing that he loves us? Why is he harming our creation - the only explanation I can come up with is that it is a test of our strength. All cultures, religions and races to come together and stay united no matter how deadly an event may be.
If God is preparing us for something bigger, than perhaps this so called "world ending" is not a physical death but rather a mental death. Perhaps our minds will finally be more open and we will finally be a united species ready to take on anything that may occur in the future.
I attended the Buddhist Retreat in Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu. I went to this retreat with an aim of learning how to control my mind and returned back to New Delhi with much more - I had learned how to manage my mind a bit better, learned about meditation and Buddhism and gained a new perspective about life and people. I had returned back with this new awareness that wanted to be a better person and help others!
Waking up at quarter to six in the morning is definitely not a teenager's idea of a summer holiday yet I decided to embrace this spiritual experience! I would hear the monks chanting coming from a distance that instead of commonly bringing someone into a blissful sleep, managed to initiate my awakening into the day. Gorgeous, swaying trees huddled close together and the brightly colored flowers seemed to unconsciously bring a smile to my face. While drinking my tea, and enjoying the breath-taking view of the valley, I felt at ease and far away from all the chaos and poverty that Delhi capacitates. My mind finally took its first single breath.
Meditation seems a breeze to many who have never tried it however, once beginning, one will realize that meditation requires a lot of discipline and determination. It takes years for one to meditate properly and control what thoughts enter and exit your mind. Yet when one begins to meditate, it provides a significant aid when conducting your daily activities. Meditating for ten days, I recognized that I had - by a wide proportion - been able to make better use of my mind. I would analyze situations with much more thought and care and look at them with positivity and optimism. This is a tremendous benefit to one's character because being happy really allows one to appreciate life more than one usually does.
The teachings and discussions gave me a firmer understanding about Buddhism and helped me with meditation to some extent. I have realized that life is truly beautiful but humans are unable to appreciate this because of our afflictions consisting of impatience, anger, hatred, jealousy and pride. These afflictions are part of human nature and act as barriers to our permanent happiness. At times, we feel happy yet this is not permanent happiness, this is temporary happiness. Permanent happiness resides within us and is something much harder to achieve. Temporary happiness, for example, exists in a bar of chocolate. When eating this delicious temptation, we feel energized and happy yet this taste eventually subsides and our happiness disappears. We cannot continue to eat chocolate bars for the rest of our life to obtain permanent happiness. We must conquer these afflictions in order to gradually love life for the way that God has created it!
There are two steps:
I believe that the first step is to be mindful. Be mindful to every action that you conduct in your life. Closing the door, drinking your tea, taking a shower, even going to the loo! It is wonderful what the miracle of being mindful can do to one's mind and character overtime - the positive seeds begin to bloom and the negative seeds begin to rot. The negative seeds are our afflictions - of course these seeds will never disappear, but if one tries to use the positive seeds frequently, it will become a habit to leave the negative seeds untouched. (This step will most likely take many, many years of our life, perhaps we will not accomplish this even when we are 80! It's never too late to start though!)
The second step is to help others while sharing this new found knowledge you have discovered about life. With good intentions, you may not get the result you wish for, but your heart was in the right place and thus God will reward you in some way. I only know of one relative who has achieved both these steps. He keeps to his routine and lives a simple life - visits the temple, goes for his walks, eats, watches television and sleeps yet whenever I come and sit next to him, he finds the time to teach me a new lesson about life in anything he does. Whether it is something that enthralled him that day, whether it is something he is watching on television, he teaches and shares his wisdom with patience and kindness which always seems to have such an effect on me that I feel strongly about helping others and making a difference in the world!
Hi everyone and welcome back to the most awesome blogspot account ever. The blog posts linked below are subjected mainly towards poems and my interpretations of them :) Enjoy!
Depth If this was my poetry exam
The link above is to my blog on "If this was my poetry exam". When reading this, you will notice an unbolded writing section which discusses the steps I will take to writing a poetry commentary. The bolded part is my thoughts and connections of the actual interpretation of the poem "Old Pond". I noticed that the author of the interpretation defined words differently than I would have which reminded me about the article "Expressive Language" which discusses the power of words.
Interaction Wanda's Identity
The link above is to Julie's blog about the poem "Wanda Why Aren't You Dead". Julie and I had some similar ideas yet she interpreted some things differently to me which I found rather interesting. In some areas she could have added further analysis which is where I added my blog link as a reference. I also linked Nina's blog because of an insightful statement she made about the lack of punctuation. Nina, Julie and I all said something different about the lack of punctuation and I thought Nina's statement was beneficial to Julie and I to ponder over.
Discussion Expressive Language
The link above is to my blog post about "Expressive Language". Pooja begins a discussion with an interesting perception I had not thought about when I read Baraka's article: 1984. Language is a source of manipulation in Orwell's 1984 yet I do not understand the purpose of words like "ungood" which were preferably used instead of the "bad". Was this a form of manipulation? Aishwarya then joins in the conversation and introduces a new aspect: art. This was a different approach! Xenoblogging Commentary on Wanda Why Arent You Dead
The link above is to Adrienne's blog about the poem "Wanda Why Aren't You Dead". Overall, I thought that Adrienne clearly conveyed her interpretation successfully through the analysis of certain literary devices. Her language was understandable and had good fluency. I really enjoyed reading this! Great Job Adrienne!
The link above is to Pooja's blog about the poem "Wanda Why Aren't You Dead". Apart from some careless spelling errors, her analysis was insightful and I enjoyed reading it!
Sometimes I feel that life would be easier if I was indifferent to everything. Think about it, in times of grief and sadness, wouldn’t you love to have no feelings at all? Wouldn’t you love to simply accept it and move on? Emotion is such a great obstacle in life; it creates road blocks and is the trigger button of an explosion; it destroys you and everything around you. When you do not sleep, you become frustrated, cranky, annoyed and impatient. When you are hungry, you can’t focus on anything but food, your mind drifts off and you become demanding and stubborn. Every action you do triggers some sort of emotion and why do we want to be trapped with our emotions? Why can’t we just live freely and be happy?
If I were a robotic human, I think I would be much happier. In Camus’s The Stranger, Meursault realizes he was happy with this lifestyle before he killed the Arab. His life was simple and he was satisfied with it. When his mother died, he showed no emotion and did not let it affect him. To me, this could be potentially good because grief and depression destroys people. These negative emotions kill people’s dreams and interfere with their lives. Meursault does not let that happen, he attends his mother’s funeral and moves on in life. Do not get me wrong, I do not agree that people should show no sign of affection or love to their loved ones, simply that perhaps not grieving can be a better option for anyone because he/she does not have to undergo that long process of hurting.
All these negative emotions make you obfuscated. It takes you off the right path because getting emotional affects everyone’s choices, decisions and answers. It misguides you away from your goal and we can’t let that happen! If you are indifferent, nothing stops you from following the rational way. And is being rational such a bad thing? Not at all, being rational is in fact a good thing and allows you to follow the facts. And what beats the facts right? I know in my previous blog, I talked about all that “living the moment” crap, but really, how can we live in the moment when there are so many inevitable happenings occurring in your life that stir up such negative emotions?
How can we escape from our prison? This happy self in oneself emerges during the good times and this unhappy self emerges during the bad times. Why do we even have another part to ourselves? I can’t think of anyone in this world who would want a bad self to stir up such negative emotions to make one feel depressed and awful. It is these emotions that cause people to cause harm to others, to cause harm to one, to cause harm to the environment. So is being indifferent really a bad thing at all? Yes, we miss out on happiness, love, joy, excitement, but why should we have to endure all the sadness, depression, grief in life? Are those brief moments of happiness really worth a life filled with sadness inside?
Sometimes I wish I could be indifferent because life would be an easier game to play. If there were hardships in life, we wouldn’t have to endure that hardship because being indifferent would allow us to escape such horrors that would have stirred up inside of us.
The poem “Wanda Why Aren’t You Dead” conveys a general picture about a black woman called Wanda. This picture is further colored with the analysis of sound, speaker and diction. With these elements, I was able to appreciate her character and empathize with her situation.
The overall poem has a derogatory tone and can be noticed through the repetition of “wanda” at the beginning of most sentences. Furthermore, there are many question words such as “when”, “why”, “how”, “what”. Both the repetition of “wanda” and these question words creates a nagging sound. One can imagine being pestered by all these judgmental comments. These are comments because there are no question marks which further emphasizes the disapproving sound of the speaker. The repetition of the phrase “wanda why are you so angry” supports the critical judgments made to wanda which in turn supports the derogatory tone. However, repetitions of many of the same words suggest a weakness in the character. The stammer of “I’m sorry I didn’t remember that that that that that that was so important you” reveals a flaw in the speaker and alters the tone of the poem completely to a more uneasy tone. It then ends with a calm tone: “why ain’t you dead”. This reveals a certain aspect about the poem or rather, now understanding the sound throughout the poem, it could be understood to be a rant or imitation of someone with a defeated purpose as observed in the end.
At first, it can be easily concluded that the speaker is perhaps Wanda’s boyfriend because someone is addressing her in the beginning of nearly every line. However, with the new knowledge that this poem is a rant, it can be concluded that perhaps the speaker is Wanda herself; the inner corrupted Wanda hater. This prediction can be supported with the absence of question marks. There are no question marks yet the poem comprises of many questions; the reason to this could be that Wanda already knows the answers to these questions. The inconsistent anger portrayed throughout this rant conveys to readers that Wanda is very self-conscious about her image and position in society. We can also understand that she is very defensive through the line: “wanda you’re ALWAYS on the attack”. The capitalized “ALWAYS” emphasizes her resistance.
The diction that Coleman uses not only is the source of the derogatory tone but also allows readers to understand Wanda much better. The language used portrays her low social status: “why ain’t you rich”. The word “ain’t” and the grammar in that sentence clearly shows her low education. Moreover, words like “hell hole” which is an example of an alliteration exaggerates her poor living condition. The repeated phrase of “tell me” suggests that Wanda has insecurities and is controlled by her inner corrupted self. Lastly, the critical comments mentioned throughout the poem like “how come your feet are so goddamn big” and “wanda, that’s a whore’s name” confirms the immense negativity she puts upon herself.
Overall, Coleman’s poem uses sound, speaker and diction to convey the situation of a black woman. Most of the poem is spoken through a derogatory tone yet ends with a defeated one. This is expressed through the last line: “why ain’t you dead” suggesting that her obsession over her flaws is her tragic flaw that leads to her death.
1)Read the poem enjoyably (to try to get into the moment)
2)I would then read it again and note down all elements (structure, imagery, diction, syntax, setting, tone, alliteration, personification) that the author uses.
3)From there I choose the specific elements that I believe I could expand on.
a.Diction (focused throughout the poem and will be touched on in every element) and Tone
b.Imagery (this would cover personification and setting)
c.Structure
d.Meaning
4)I will first highlight all words I think contributes to the overall meaning of the poem.
5)Then I would look at the first stanza.
6)This includes many descriptive words (blue mountain, white snow gleam, pine bulk, hemlock half, ragged rocky, single, clear, flat etc.)
7)What do I notice? – COLORS. “blue”, “white” Most of the words are descriptive to describe the atmosphere, the scenery.
8)I would then note the effectiveness of alliteration – “hemlock half”, “ragged rocky” – How does this affect the poem? What is its main purpose? - Perhaps to slow down and exaggerate the imagery.
9)Now I move on to the second stanza
10)What words are there? “Biggest little” – Interesting, what does this mean? – Oxymoron?
11)What are the colors used? – “Brown”, “white” (again)
12)What words associate certain colors? – “water” (blue), “naked”” (skin tone)
13)What do I notice about the tone? How does the diction create certain tones? I believe the first stanza has an amazed tone because of the imagery created with the diction. The tone in the second stanza however is rather disgusted.
14)NOW let’s focus specifically on to imagery
15)How does this diction contribute to the imagery created? All the diction in the first stanza creates a beautiful fantasy mountain image in my mind. Whereas the second stanza relates more to the title of the poem “Old Pond” Perhaps this is the reason for the authors interesting structure? RELATE IT TO THE TONE
16)NOW let’s note the structure and how it contributes to imagery.
17)If I draw a line around the right side of the poem and turn it 90 degrees to the right, I see two mountains. Does this have any purpose?
18)The sentence structure: Short, incomplete sentences. What is the effect? – To allow the reader to imagine and create own perception.
19)The structure of the poem itself. The first stanza and second stanza have the same structure. The word time in the middle of these stanzas perhaps means that we are looking at the mountain but at different time periods.
20)The meaning. Let’s combine all my observations to create one overall meaning.
21)“a naked bug
with a white body and brown hair” – I think this is a person not a bug because of the description: “white body” and “brown hair”. A bug would not have HAIR. - reminds me of Gregor.
22)Then the next line “dive” – a bug would jump or hop. I don’t think it would dive.
23)Look at all elements now; see if my observation above means anything.
24)Try and find a meaning.
After reading the commentary on "Old Pond", I became aware to many things I had not previously noticed in the poem. However, I am proud to say that I did acknowledge some very key points such as the meaning, tone, syntax, color, and more! The author of the commentary acknowledged the difference in both stanzas of which the first stanza was about the beauty of the mountain snow scape and the second was about the impact of a dive into the glacial lake. I was able to note this difference and recognize it through the difference in tones. The author of the commentary recognized the repetition of colors. Colors are used to create a clearer picture of the atmosphere to the reader and Snyder had the intention of "hitting the eye before the mind can organize them logically". I think Snyder was able to do this very effectively! This author then goes on to talk about some metaphorical phrases. I was very interested to read into this because I did not note any metaphors. The "needle-sprays"metaphorically means "the pines are spraying or scattering their needles in the endless cycle of birth and death, where waste and fertility are often indistinguishable." - This statement confused me - "endless cycle of birth and death"? Not once did I think about this idea when I was reading through the poem. What I did notice is the author of this commentary did define certain words in his own way by making assumptions. This relates to the article we previously read "Expressive Language" in which we understood the power of words. The author says that the mountains "would usually be called jagged, a ruggedly masculine word. Notice the word usually. He/she is making an assumption about the mountains which is perfectly acceptable because it is his/her interpretation of the poem. I will make sure to analyze certain words and defining them in relation to the poem and its theme. I realize that this author also stated that "a naked bug" was relating to a human. WOO! I also took note of this by the description of "a white body and brown hair" (12) However, I just stopped there I did not dig in like this author did who said that the "white" color suggested his innocence (color symbolism) - again another assumption about color - and he stated this statement signified his race. These assumptions that are made give a more insightful approach which I plan on using in my commentary. I also like how the author is able to make a universal judgement on it. For example, when he mentions that Snyder "strives to quiet the mind, often pictured in Buddhist teaching as a still pond." The author is connecting the title of the poem to culture. I think this is fascinating. There was something that was bugging me when I read the poem. I didn't understand the ending: "Splash!" The theme about life overall was incorporated well into his analysis. The author said that the "Splash!" signified the clearing of any "cobwebs, trivialities and false ideas". He/she also observed that it was a jokey finale compared to the Zen-like ambiance of the poem. I liked this annotation of the ending.
The sonnet “The Harlem Dancer” leads to reveal its theme in the couplet at the end:
“But, looking at her falsely-smiling face
I knew herself was not in that strange place”
This couplet changes my perception I first had enough to change the tone and meaning of the poem. At first, I believed that the interpretation of this sonnet was quite simple: young prostitutes dancing in a night club in front of a young audience. However, the diction used can be defined in many ways and the theme revealed in the couplet as well as the context of some similes and metaphors altered my perception of it. As Baraka said in his writing “Expressive Language”: “it is the users that establish the world’s realities”
I believe the theme in this poem was that economic conditions can cause one to commit actions one never thought one would do yet one must endure to survive. This theme allows me to empathize with the prostitute and therefore I can highlight the diction used that corresponds to this emotion: “Her voice was like the sound of blended flutes.” The comparison of “blended flutes” could be used to express her hypnotizing effect on her audience however, in my opinion; the theme suggests that the sound of blended flutes is soft and could describe her vulnerable position like her audience is in presently. In addition, the next line of the sonnet provides a context to where the flutes were played: “Blown by black players upon a picnic day.” This situation completely contrasts the chaotic scene of a nightclub where everyone is drunk and running around while a group of people sitting together on a picnic day suggests a unity and blissful peace. Moreover, her singing and dancing is described as “gracefully” and “calm”. This contrasts to the dancing of a common prostitute – sly, sexual, open, and revealing. These contrasting comparisons to the prostitute enhance her economic depravity that much more once the theme is understood.
The audience creates the sexual tone in the poem. “The wine-flushed, bold-eyed boys, and even the girls” describes their current drunk and manipulated situation. They are mesmerized by the prostitute’s movements as described through their “bold-eyed” eyes. Then to further heighten their condition, McKay states “even the girls”. The word “even” can be stressed on to highlight the hypnotizing effect of the prostitute. Then McKay goes on to say that they “devoured her with their eager, passionate gaze”. The word “devoured” is usually used to describe the consuming action of a food by an animal. This word is animalistic and emphasizes their sexual hunger and desires. The words “eager” and “passionate” both describe their young age and sexual needs.
All in all, the theme alters the meaning of the original diction which alters the overall tone of the sonnet. The sonnet portrayed both a sexual tone from the audience and a sorrowful tone from the prostitute.
