I read the creative non-fiction Driving Lessons by Karen K. Lewis at literarymama.com. I liked the creative non fiction because the woman was teaching her son to drive which allowed her to look back on her relationship with her father and her duties as a parent.I like the title of the work because it summarizes these two concepts of literally teaching her son and metaphorically reflecting on one's life and soul.

http://youtu.be/L6K8Uq88BEQ
The song Carmen reminds me of the story Innocent Erendira. Actually Lana Del Rey entire album entitled Born to Die was fascinating to listen to with all of the books we've read. Several of her songs contributed to the overall affect a particular work had on me. Her tragic love songs really captured the end of Rhinoceros and Baron in the Trees. Her song Without You reminds me of Cosimo and Viola.I highly recommend listening to this album while reading these books or any book  of your choice:)

I read  "Why Don't you Dance?" because I was in the mood to laugh. At first I thought the man was kicked out by his wife therefore relocating himself and his stuff to the front yard.Then I wondered if it really was a yard sale or his actual living arrangements.Anyways despite my minor confusions I thought the story was cute,weird, and surprising.

I took this pic last week at Stars.It was closing night of Evita and the cast hung out in the lounge after the show.This pic reminds me of the scene in Innocent Erendira where her grandmother dolls her up to attract customers.

Rhinoceros

Rhino-I usually am a rhino. I tend to not speak up and be a leader. However, I will  step up if I have to.Currently, there is a huge conflict going on in my life and instead of doing the "right" thing I am watching the incident  unfold and sticking with the majority.


Berenger- A year ago when I was a senior at North High I expressed Berenger-esque qualities. For our spring play our teacher wanted to do a show that noone wanted to do.So I spoke up for the class by speaking to him respectfully and eventually by having them sign a petition ( for proof I wasn't alone) and writing a letter to our teacher.

http://youtu.be/4-L6rEm0rnY

I just thought I'd add the link to my song choice:)

I chose the song Memory from Andrew Lloyd Webber's  Cats.It's my favorite song but I genuinely felt it was poetry due to it's ambiguity,similie,repetition,and personification.
It also contains visual, auditory, and olfactory imagery. The ambiguity is shown because we don't know the details of the past or of the memories.Simile- "Like the sunflower..." Repetition of the words memory and day illustrate how the past is fleeting and how one loses time. This song personifies the moon saying that "she is smiling alone?". The visual imagery can be shown through  words such as "withered", "fading", and even "beautiful". Auditory imagery is expressed with words such as "moan","mutters", and "gutters". Olfactory imagery is used to describe"the stale cold smell of morning. This song also uses several references toward light to symbolize hope and persistence.

Memory

DaylightSee the dew on the sunflower
And a rose that is fading
Roses whither away
Like the sunflowerI yearn to turn my face to the dawnI am waiting for the day . . .

Midnight
Not a sound from the pavement
Has the moon lost her memory?
She is smiling alone
In the lamplightThe withered leaves collect at my feet
And the wind begins to moan

Memory
All alone in the moonlight
I can smile at the old daysI was beautiful then
I remember the time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again

Every streetlampSeems to beat a fatalistic warning
Someone mutters
And the streetlamp gutters
And soon it will be morning

DaylightI must wait for the sunriseI must think of a new life
And I musn't give in
When the dawn comes
Tonight will be a memory too
And a new day will begin

Burnt out ends of smoky daysThe stale cold smell of morningThe streetlamp dies, another night is over
Another day is dawning
Touch me
It's so easy to leave me
All alone with the memory
Of my days in the sunIf you touch me
You'll understand what happiness is

Look
A new day has begun

Springtime

This was my favorite because I have read the novel Lolita by Nabokov and thought this poem's allusion to him was very interesting.I liked how the title was a bit misleading  because it sounds like it is going to literally talk about the wonders of spring and butterflies. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it had a much deeper meaning and references that I was familiar with. Butterfly Catcher
by Tina Cane
In the Sixties Nabokov switched from ink to eraser- topped pencil on index cards a box of cards for Ada a box of cards for dreams whose "curious features" include "erotic tenderness and heart-rending enchantment" in one draft he traded "stillness and heat" for "silence, a burning" so picture: Vladimir seated at the trunk of a tree a spring day at Wellesley where he marvels at his students and their cable-knit socks the way each elastic grips without binding just below the knee so exquisite an application of pressure that when said sock is slowly peeled off the skin shows no trace at all

I chose this poem because A) I liked the defamiliarization used to show a new way of thinking about an everyday necessity such as clothes, B) It reminded me of Neil Patrick Harris in How I Met Your Mother and how his character, Barney Stinson, has a deep love and appreciation for suits. SUIT UP!

Ode to Clothes

Every morning you wait,
clothes, over a chair,
to fill yourself with
my vanity, my love,
my hope, my body.
Barely
risen from sleep,
I relinquish the water,
enter your sleeves,
my legs look for
the hollows of your legs,
and so embraced
by your indefatigable faithfulness
I rise, to tread the grass,
enter poetry,
consider through the windows,
the things,
the men, the women,
the deeds and the fights
go on forming me,
go on making me face things
working my hands,
opening my eyes,
using my mouth,
and so,
clothes,
I too go forming you,
extending your elbows,
snapping your threads,
and so your life expands
in the image of my life.
In the wind
you billow and snap
as if you were my soul,
at bad times
you cling
to my bones,
vacant, for the night,
darkness, sleep
populate with their phantoms
your wings and mine.
I wonder
if one day
a bullet
from the enemy
will leave you stained with my blood
and then
you will die with me
or one day
not quite
so dramatic
but simple,
you will fall ill,
clothes,
with me,
grow old
with me, with my body
and joined
we will enter
the earth.
Because of this
each day
I greet you
with reverence and then
you embrace me and I forget you,
because we are one
and we will go on
facing the wind, in the night,
the streets or the fight,
a single body,
one day, one day, some day, still.

Pablo Neruda

Ghost House

    I DWELL in a lonely house I know
    That vanished many a summer ago,
    And left no trace but the cellar walls,
    And a cellar in which the daylight falls,
    And the purple-stemmed wild raspberries grow.
    O'er ruined fences the grape-vines shield
    The woods come back to the mowing field;
    The orchard tree has grown one copse
    Of new wood and old where the woodpecker chops;
    The footpath down to the well is healed.
    I dwell with a strangely aching heart
    In that vanished abode there far apart
    On that disused and forgotten road
    That has no dust-bath now for the toad.
    Night comes; the black bats tumble and dart;
    The whippoorwill is coming to shout
    And hush and cluck and flutter about:
    I hear him begin far enough away
    Full many a time to say his say
    Before he arrives to say it out.
    It is under the small, dim, summer star.
    I know not who these mute folk are
    Who share the unlit place with me—
    Those stones out under the low-limbed tree
    Doubtless bear names that the mosses mar.
    They are tireless folk, but slow and sad,
    Though two, close-keeping, are lass and lad,—
    With none among them that ever sings,
    And yet, in view of how many things,
    As sweet companions as might be had.

I chose this poem because it reminds me of my current fascination with the Addams Family.The Addams family live like a regular family except they have a deep love for the grotesque and morbid aspects of life.In this poem the persona is describing the house in which it lives and how it appears to be lonely and deserted with only "tireless folk" a.k.a ghosts there as "sweet companions".Like the Addams family the persona of this poem prefers to spend its time in the company of immortal beings than with other members of today's current society.A key phrase I like from the Addams family musical is "Define Normal" which I feel accurately describes both situations encounters and preferences. In this poem Robert Frost uses auditory imagery to convey a sense of how alone an desolate the surroundings of this house are.Frost achieves this imagery with his choice of diction, words such as "hush", "flutter" ,and "mute" truly captures the essence of this solitude in this poem.