"Coconut" by Paul Hostovsky

In the poem, "Coconut," I can see a child with a parent in a market or a toystory. The child gets a round type of oject that was only ninety-nine cents. The child does not know that this round object could bring him a beautiful gift that you have to work for. The child asked for his father to buy the coconut, but his response was "no." The child became very upset with this decision and began to cry. The child was very happy that he could keep this -- a hard rock--that was the happpiness of a the child. As he placed the coc0nut on the kitchen table, he realized that the happiness was on the inside of that coconut and it was his task to find a way to recieve that happiness that was just waiting for him.

We can see the image of the coconut between the dad in this poem. The dad in the poem relates to the outer shell of the coconut. The father refused and resisted to buy this coconut until the son began to cry. We can also see the image of happiness. As stated in the poem, "Bear with me I want to tell you something about happiness." This quote shows that happines can be important in our life. Happiness can be that inspiration that keeps us running everyday. "Began to consider how to get into it." This quote show that the way to recieve happiness is to think about how to get it or how to get into that coconut. Their are many ways, but only that one way will work for you.

Happiness helps many of us in everyday life. In my life, happiness is my friends. My friends are always their for me to make me smile no matter how bad my day is going. How can you become happy? Everyone has their own sense of happiness and it can be everything from listening to your music or just being alone, but how do we become happy? Sometimes we have to sit at that kitchen table and wonder how to get inside that coconut and recieve happiness. We have to fight that outer shell and think of how to get that happiness that is sitting in that coconut. Yes, this could be a task that could be a challenge, but yet one way or another you will always get into that coconut pass the hard part until you sail into your happiness.

"Apology to the Wasps" by Sara Llittlecrow-Russell

In the poem, “Apology to the Wasps,” written by Sara Littlecrow-Russell, I imagine a nest of wasps attacking a girl. The girl wants to rebel her anger against the wasps. She felt that she had a lot of power and control in the situation and that two wrongs make a right. So, just because the wasps stung the girl, she felt the need to go back and attack their home, “I took out biochemical weapons/And blasted your nest,” (line 2-3). She then had a feeling that told her that she hurt the wasps in a horrible way and the wasps were there just to protect their eggs.

We can relate this poem to events that have happened in the past. As the poem states, “I was the United States Air Force,” (line 5). From this statement, we can see the image of war and September 11, 2001. The wasps are the terrorists from Iraq; the many Iraqi’s that stung us on that horrible day. The wasps stung the United States and the response from the United States was to attack back. The United States in the poem is the girl who was stung by the wasps. The girl wanted to hurt the wasps, but then felt bad that she did so. This is just like the United States who wanted to hurt Iraq, but did not want the innocent people to get hurt.

“Two wrongs do not make a right.” This is a quote my parents tell me every time. I am sure that we can all relate to this poem, because I know that I can. I sometimes feel like the wasp that attacks people by saying something or doing something to offend people, and then they probably are like the girl who wants to have power and wanting to rebel back. I can sometimes relate to the girl wanting to rebel against something. This quote “two wrongs do not make a right,” means that if someone attacks you (verbally) it does not mean that you should do it back. In the poem, the girl was attacked by wasps, and felt the need to go back to seek revenge, but then felt sad as she saw what she has done to their habit and their family. If everyone could learn one lesson from this poem it would be that two wrongs do not make a right.

"For The Falling Man" by Ann Farnsworth

In the poem, " For The Falling Man," by Ann Farnsworth we can picture the day that will never be forgotten, September 11, 2001. On this tradgical day, two planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, another plane crashed into the Pentagon and another plane crashed into an open field. We can all remember where we were and what we were doing at this turning point that changed the lives of American's forever.
The poem "For The Falling Man," reminded me of seeing people jumping out of a tall tower; just as we saw on that horrible day of September 11. The man in the poem had a choice, to jump from a tower with more than one hundred floors or to stay in the fire. The man had these last few moments to think about the many happy memories he had in his life. "Last night you read stories to your children, tucked them in, then curled into sleep next to your wife." This quote from the poem is stating how this man was thinking about his memories on what he did the night before this awful day. He read stories to his children and tucked them in and slept next to his wife. As his time was coming to an end, he chose to jump to his death within a very limited amount of time as the towers began to fall. I can remember seeing the footage on that day of September 11th and actually seeing people jumping from the Twin Towers from the floors higher than belief.
On this fifth anniversity of the attacks of September 11, 2001, it has changed the lives of many. It must be hard for wifes or husbands to come home knowing that their partner will not be there. The children who come home from school and are not able to see their mother or father who has been lost in this tradgic event. I did not lose anyone in these attacks, but I do know many people who did lose a friend or family member on September 11th and had a hard time dealing with the lost.
As we can all see, the events of September 11, 2001, will never be forgotten in the United States of America. September 11, was a day that amazed everyone in every aspect of life. The United States grew as a country to become more united as we shared the tears of losing a loved one or a family member on this terrible day. As the United States came together to mourn what has been lost, we can say that September 11, 2001 will always be remembered as 9-1-1.

September 8, 2006

Today, I have created my first blog for my British Litature class for Mr. Peters.