Confident Women Unite(Poetry Reaction #8)

            “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou, a very empowered woman one that understands what its like to love yourself. In general this is a very empowering poem to women, it shows them all the things they should love about them self.  It shows that no matter what a women has they are still a women, whether they have big hips or small lips or anything someone believes to be different or not attractive, they still are a women, and they should be proud of it, no matter what. Women are truly phenomenal because they live each and every day passing people that talk about them as they pass. It may make them feel inferior but this poem helps them realize that they don’t have to feel that way.

The speaker of this poem obviously has a lot of confidence.  She would be able to stand tall and flaunt her whole body at a crowd of people laughing at her! Its a very empowering poem, it can show women of all ages and size that the first step to being phenomenal is confidence! Confidence in yourself really shows how you feel about yourself,  than it is projected towards other people. They pick up a certain aura about a confident women, or any gender in that manner. She’s so confident that she has the power to brings men the their knees. They are shocked by her confidence in herself,

This poem made me honestly feel proud to be a women. Though many people may bash on the gender, thinking females are weak, and don't have much purpose in life, this poem shows that women live for themselves, to be themselves, and to be fierce when doing so!  No one should have to impress anyone else, they should act and look the way they want to! The way they feel comfortable, they have to walk in their own body, no one else does. Its a much better trip when you enjoy how you get there.  

She mentions that she's not bowing her head, she's explaining why, like many other women, that she is not shameful of herself. She knows she's amazing. She has no reason to worry, even if someone tried to bring her down, as long as she believed she was awesome she would stay awesome. Its sad to know that many people base their thoughts of themslf on what other people think or say about them, especially when it’s negative. The speaker is saying to love yourself, be proud of who you are. This is a great message to I believe a lot of teenagers who always pick and choose what their least favorite body part is and how much they hate themselves.

I find that being confident not only boost your own spirits, but it give people around you a better view of yourself. I try my best to be confident in what I do, I make sure to keep my head held high. Of course, I have my down days, everyone does, but I quickly pick my head back up. I hope i’m never the reason that someone stops being confident in themselves, if anything I would want to bring their confidence up. It is such an amazing feeling to be able to walk past a bunch of people and not have to worry what they think or feel about you, because you only care about what you think of yourself.

War and Aliens, The Perfect Novel(Reaction #8)

   

Almost 24 years after WW2, Apollo 12 was rocketed off into space and scheduled to land on the moon. While on the moon astronauts took photos of their surrounding on the moon to send back to earth. These pictures allegedly showed UFO’s in the distance, which triggered a lot of people to start to wonder if they really do exist. All of that talk about other life in space may have led to many ideas of aliens actually existing. Slaughterhouse Five written by Kurt Vonnegut in 1969 may have been heavily influenced by these sightings to add extra terrestrial life into his novel. It’s an fascinating read for both war enthusiast and alien chasers. The novel is written like you're jumping from place to place in time, including WW2 and other occurrences in the protagonist's life. Its wild, but surprisingly easy to keep up with.

    The novel is extremely interesting, never a dull moment there’s always something to respond to, such as the vulgar language, gore, and absolutely impossible stories. Its crazy how creative Vonnegut had to be to have come up with some of the stuff that is mentioned in the books. I was so awe-stricken I know I would never be able to think up anything like it in my lifetime. ““They see them as great millipedes- “with babies’ legs at one end and people’s legs at the other,” says Billy Pilgrim. Who would ever think of this!? Who would think to add a story about alien abduction into a novel about World War 2. He was able to shape these aliens the way he believed aliens would look. Of course this actually happens a lot, writers making up their own creatures, its been happening for centuries even, all the way back into Greek Mythology.

    Another mention in the book that I felt was humerus was only a few pages in. The mention of anti-war books, and how hard they were to stop, he even compared them to glaciers. ““I say, ‘Why don’t you write an anti-glacier book instead?” What he meant, of course was that there would always be wars, that they were as easy to stop as glaciers.” Its such an ironic statement especially with global warming actually melting the glaciers. You wouldn’t be able to compare war to glaciers anymore. At that time it was just supposed to be a statement, they believe glaciers couldn’t melt as immense as they have now, theres no way. They’re just as big as wars, theres no way of stopping them. For people that believe the war nothing but trouble then maybe this saying is a good thing. At one point in history people believed that the glaciers would always be around, but now they are melting away. Maybe sometime in the future, war will melt away as well.

    Its so great that I found a novel like this one, it was so captivating and exciting to read. I didnt want to put it down, it was never dull, lately most novels I’ve read have been very disappointing, and I’ve fallen asleep reading them. This novel restored my hope, it reminded

me that not all books that are AP appropriate have to be uninteresting and confusing.  I was even surprised that just the parts about the war were interesting, but I kept reading because of the aliens. It was such a strange concept that at any moment in our life, we could also be doing something else, which is the way the aliens saw everything. It also gives its readers a nicer perspective on death, and how at point in time a person might be dead but in many other points in time they were alive, living their life to the fullest.

Sometimes you Need to be Carried to Safety (Poetry reaction #7)

 

On hot days during the summer, or when on vacation, most people tend to visit the beach. No matter what they do, even if they were to go straight into the water, its easy to notice the imprint their feet leave in the sand. Sand is like a block of cement that quickly gets fixed, the imprints don't stay there forever, no matter what anyone tries to do to save the footprint in the sand. The poem “Footprints in the Sand” by Mary Stevenson takes a religious tone, but its easy to make ‘god’ in the poem symbolize really anyone that is trustworthy in the readers life, like a family member. The poem shows how when someone is in a difficult situation in their life, it may seems like they’re all on their own. In reality the person they trust the most is helping to the best of their ability.

From the first stanza its easy to tell that the poem is trying to bring in the fact that sometimes people will be by your side and other times you'll be on your own. Many people are promised by their faiths or family members that they will always be by their side. Its easy to notice them when they’re going through fun times. As soon as they fall into tough times, they’re focused on themselves, not the people around them. Its hard to see that their are actually people around them trying to help. After those hard times, people are able to look back on it and they think they got through it all by themselves, but really they were probably helped a lot, and they didn't even notice.

    At first I had read the poem and I had thought it would be about how when you aren’t in need people flock to you, they want to be around you and have just as much of a good time as you. When hardships strike, they run away from you, they don’t want to be a part of all that, they probably have their own problems. I figured the poem would end with something along the lines of sometimes you have to help yourself. I believe the ending truly shocked me. I wasn’t expecting that type of ending and it made me understand.  I realized that its true, there really is someone usually there for me, there is no way I would be able to get out of some of my saddest times without the help of someone.

    To survive in this world, I’ve been told that you need to have faith, whether you believe that or not, its all up to you, but there have been many times in my life that I was repaid for keeping positive thoughts. Its hard to see when you’re hurting that you weren’t always hurting, but you have been hurt before. I’ve always thought of life like a rollercoaster with a lot of inclines and drops. The inclines are the fun times, like I said before when everyones around you and you’re having a great time, and you’re caught off guard by the big drop. The big drop being sorrow, loss, anger, etc. You can’t drop forever, there will be at one point another incline, though it may be as small as some stranger complimenting you on the streets, or as big as winning the lottery. Those people or things are all carrying you back up, as if now you’re going up a hill and you’re so spent that you need someone to help you back up.