Tail of the Blue Bird Pages 36-80

When I read this section of the novel, the first thing I thought about was the corruption of the government in Ghana. I found it outrageous that Kayo was pulled over and stopped and charged with trying to destabilize the government. The reader even gets a sense of this corruption on page 53 where Donkor says that these high level positions in the government are solely "by appointment". This theme of corruption is the principal focus of this reading, it goes on to mention how these corrupt officials will dodge taxes and partake in illicit activities as well. Ultimately the author shows us how these officials use their power beyond justice, they use it to attain what they want, when they want. Because the threat of arrest is one that not many are willing to risk, they feel obligated to comply. This section of the novel ultimately makes me wonder how the author truly feels about the law enforcement system in Ghana. Is the system really as corrupt in Ghana as this book makes it out to be, or is it just the authors bias clouding his writing? It's an interesting thought, but one that I will never know for sure.

Jean-Baptiste Tati-Loutard

Through reading Loutard's poetry I noticed a striking theme of the sea repeated throughout his first four poems. It makes sense considering that they from a book called "Poemes de la Mer" which translates to sea poems/poems of the sea. He uses a lot of nature imagery throughout his poetry such as "tree of the seasons", "earth of the past", "flow of seed", "first call of the sun" (61) all of these can be found in his first poem News of My Mother. He, like many other African poets also uses dark imagery especially in his poems Noonday in Immaturity and Pilgrimage to Loango Strand. Images such as "scent of their blood", "scars burnt", "life sickens me", "blind me", "estuary of death" (62-63) all follow this pattern. It is rather disturbing and intense to read yet it still is very interesting, just in a dark way. I had trouble understanding what his poetry was really about, but I have a feeling that there was a source of bitterness in his life that caused him to write the way he did. I really enjoyed the first four poems of his collection but the proceeding ones were far to dark for me. This poet has pent up anger or bitterness about something in his life and I am curious as to what it could possibly be. I could only speculate as to what it might be.

Big Journal Entry: Poetry Presentations

I choose to analyze the collection of poems by Gabriel Okara from Nigeria. In my presentation I really tore these poems apart with analysis and what they could mean, and why the writer used the style he did. I veered away from the subject of the poets personal life and focused much more on the actual poetry itself and full-on analysis.

1. I was really happy overall with how my presentation went. There were however a few things that I could have done better though. To start, I felt like I really grasped a good understanding of what each poem in Okara's selection of poems was about. Even though I had not planned out every detail of presentation out clearly, a lot of what I had to was instinctual. The poems were very easy to talk about in this period of time, I covered all the main points I needed to cover with the exception of one thing. I forgot to mention any detail of Okara's personal life which I felt would have been extremely useful. The cons of not talking about the poets life are mainly that the class doesn't get a good understanding of the poets background, but more importantly it might be easier for them to see how his personal life had an effect on his poetry. Regardless, I really enjoyed this project because it was a low-stress assignment but more importantly it was actually cool to see how poets from each country differed and remained the same as well. One thing I did notice for some presentations was that some people found it difficult to maintain the full required time and as a result would drag on, speak slowly or start rambling on about non-important stuff. This wasn't a serious problem, however it was one that I did notice for a few presentations. Some people did put a lot of enthusiasm into their presentations and recitations of their poems, at least I really enjoyed reciting the poem. In terms of what I liked about my poetry, I really liked how easy it was to talk about and analyze. Here is an example:

Moon in the Bucket

Look!

Look out there
in the bucket
the rusty bucket
with water unclean

Look! 

A luminous plate is floating -
the Moon dancing to the gentle night wind
Look! all you who shout across the wall
with a million hates. Look at the dancing moon
It is peace unsoiled by the murk
and dirt of this bucket war.

Right off the bat the first thing that the reader notices is the constant repetition of words in this case (look, moon and bucket) this is a stylistic element of the poem that is noticeable right off the bat. The language is extremely simple perhaps because Okara didn't want anyone to read this poem and not understand it. Words such as "dirt" and "rusty" make the reader thing of living in impoverished conditions in a poor settlement. And finally there is the imagery that Okara conjures, it is one of separation and anger. Phrases such as "shout across the wall" imply a sense of a separation between two groups of people. There is a lot more to be said even about a small poem of his like this.

2. Throughout African Lit. I have felt that taking a much more specific approach to either novels or poetry in general is the best way to analyze a poem as opposed to taking a broad view, it is important to know the background of who you are studying, but it is also important to not let that skew your analysis of that authors' writing. One assumption I did make from reading this collection of poetry that he wrote was how pessimistic he was. Okara leaves these disturbing and negative images in the head of the writers. He uses phrases such as "abandoned roots", "grief stricken mourners", "deathless earth", "earth dying" (229) in his poem The Snowflakes Sail Gently Down which I find amusing because it greatly contrasts with the soft sounding title he has. Another observation I made was that he had some sort of link to religion because he makes a reference to either god or gods in his poem. Though me mightn't have been very religious he still makes a mention of god in all his poems with the exception of his last one, Moon in the Bucket. Through his poetry and managed to come to two conclusions about him, first off there was undoubtedly a source of pessimism in his life as none of his poems offer any hope or overall positive message. Secondly, religion was of some importance to him because he makes a mention of god(s) in almost all of his poetry, perhaps he sought comfort in it which helped him deal with his pessimistic life?

3. I felt that my poet was very similar to Laksh's poet in a stylistic sense.  Like Okara, Laksh's poet Dipoko uses words that convey a great sense of anguish and pessimism such as "agony", "black hood", "despairing" (37). I saw the greatest similarity his poet and mine but I noticed that a lot of these African poets despite all being from different countries still tended to use dark imagery that didn't give the reader a strong sense of hope. That being said, Okara is generally a unique poet. He doesn't have any strong political motivation that other poets and he wasn't directly exposed to the Apartheid movement. He is undoubtedly an interesting and unique poet who can't be compared side by side to another country and/or person.

Poetic Terms Brainstorm List

Light
Dark
Happy
Sad
Spontaneous
Boring
Slow
Fast
Intense
Light
Long
Short
Simple
Complex
Love
Hate
Layered
Concise
Abstract
Unique
Rhyme
Recurring ideas
Central theme/object
Religion
Secular
Personal
Intimate
Secretive
Ballad
Folk Tales
Iambic Pentameter
Classic
Modern
Elegy
Epic
Epitaphs
Free Verse
Haiku

Free Write

This morning I've been extremely tired. With five hours of sleep last night it's pretty easy to imagine why. The added stress of an AP econ. test I'm not ready for, tomorrow doesn't help that situation in any way at all. This class has generally been very good to me, there's been some entertaining times as well as one where I've not been very focused. AP physics on the other hand has been a breeze, as has pre calculus this year. I'm starting to run out of thing to write now so all I can say is senior year is progressing how I expected it to, some classes are fun, some classes are a drag, thankfully this isn't one of them. On the topic of this class there have been some entertaining books we've read this year namely "Things Fall Apart" while other have been plain awful such as "Nervous Conditions." I'm indifferent about this short story anthology as some stories have been well written and some have been horrendously boring. Like I said before, this class has its ups and downs. I would suggest eliminating "Nervous Conditions" from the future curriculum to make this class better in the future. I speak for everyone when I say that.

Religion in African Short Stories

When viewing all of the stories as a whole almost none of them share anything in common. In fact each story- despite some being from the same region in Africa- feel almost as if they are from a completely different place.Many stories- though not as much in the group of those set in North Africa- paint over religious themes. Some make it seemingly obvious while others may include a brief mention of it or none at all. The story "Papa Snake and I" is rather secular in nature, in the sense that it has little to not association with any religion whatsoever. These stories tend to be much more lighthearted in both tone and nature. They don't gloss over serious or pressing matters, in the case of "Papa Snake and I" the plot revolves around a snake that has been killing many chickens in the middle of the night. The same applies to a story much as "The Bridegroom". The plot itself associated with religion and isn't a heavy (more serious) topic than most of those that have a strong religious presence however despite that it still does have some heavy topics for the reader to think about. We see the protagonist of this story struggle to come to terms with the fact that he will soon have a family and how it will change his entire life, hardly a lighthearted topic however this is not the full story but instead only a snippet of it. The story itself is lighthearted in nature filled with vivid description of musical instruments and the starry night sky. When viewing the story such as "The False Prophet" because it so strongly based on religious themes it includes much more serious themes such as the folly of man. I've noticed that religious stories overall tend to be more dark and serious as a whole. An interesting and noticeable observation.

Creative Writing Exercise Nii Parkes

The Best Grilled Cheese Sandwich in the World:

You remove the bread from the plastic bag taking care not to bend or tear any of the pieces, heat up a pan with a slither of butter in it prior to doing this. Once the butter is simmering nicely add both pieces of bread in and cook in the pan taking care to do this on both sides. Cook each side until a nice golden brown texture. Remove both hot pieces of bread and add the cheese in between them and throw onto the pan for a final round of frying. When the cheese is dripping off the sides you can remove the sandwich, let it cool down and enjoy.

Autumn Leaves:

You take a rake and go on yo tour lawn. You give a heavy and frustrated sigh before beginning to rake your leaves. When you are ready to your leaves pick up your rake and rake the leaves for an indefinite amount of time until they are all in one big pile, than you sit back and enjoy a clean lawn. There is not much else to be said about raking leaves other than it is extremely boring. Have fun.