The City Dark

"Chad Moore, of the National Parks Service, reminds us, When we add light to the environment, that has the potential to disrupt habitat, just like running a bulldozer over the landscape can. Darkness is a necessary habitat for nocturnal animals, so what's the habitat for people?" (qtd. in City Dark)

 

Light pollution produces these destructive consequences. Every living thing depends on the Earth's regular rhythm of day and night to manage internal cycles. Some animals depend on this dark source to search for food and mate. But, us as human beings do not worry about how other living organisms will adapt to our convenience.

 When reading this quote you have to stop and think about how selfish we look, but also how we are harming the life of other living organisms. Light pollution is harming the lives of animals such as birds, sea turtles and even plants.  For example, birds use the moonlight and stars as a way of navigating through the night skies, but with brightly- lighten cities they become disoriented and crash into these brightly- lighten buildings. Another example, some plants bloom at night but with the excessive use of lights, prevents this from happening.

As seen in the documentary light pollution also endangers sea turtles. Sea turtles are attracted to light. Newly born sea turtles need the dark sky to find their way towards the sea, but because of artificial light behind the beach, they end up heading towards the cities instead of the sea.

Animals that have to avoid predators, such as frogs, or snakes, constrain their movements under a full moon, and hunt on moonless night, others search for food after dark, but because of high use of lights, they never get to see that darkness they wait for.

The things that we find so convenience in our daily lives have now token a toll on other organisms. I feel as though, we do not worry about things unless they affect us. So let me state, not only are animals and plants affected by light pollution, but we as human beings are. Light pollution (Indoor lights and outdoor) affect our melatonin level which can lead to cancer. Indoor and outdoor light sources affect our basic cycle within our bodies.

With that being said, “Are we actually benefiting from our excess use of light source?” Not really, if you ask me. Cancer is not beneficial for one’s health.

The sad part about this whole thing is that this type of pollution continues to spread and intensify in countries throughout the world, and many people remain unaware of its negative impact. We have grown to enjoy the things ease our living, but can cause potential harm to not just animals, but us too.

By turning off unnecessary lighting, closing your blinds while lights are on, or turning off the television before you go to bed, you are making difference. With a few cut backs, and new designs, we can put an end to light pollution, and preserve our planet.

Wait, Where's the Sky!!!!!!

     About three nights ago my boyfriend and I went on to his back porch to take a look at the night sky. There was barely anything to see, besides a blank canvas.  We literally could count every star that was visible from our sight, and believe me there wasn’t many. I was quite shock because back at home in the islands, the sky would normally be lit, with little diamonds that cluttered the night sky.

I remember as a little girl walking with my mom to the beach, where we would look up at the night sky trying to count every little diamond as she would say. The sky was so beautiful and lit. The stars were so bright and made my mom and I look small compared to them.  I felt as though the night sky complemented the beach each time we visited.

The night sky in Houston has nothing on the night sky back home.  The night sky here in Houston projects nothing but a gloomy sky. It’s as though the sky is wrapped in this foggy plastic cover, where you can barely get a good view of its true beauty. This foggy plastic cover would be referred by astrologist as light pollution.

I find it sad that because of the light pollution here in Houston new cannot view the true beauty of the night sky.  We are unable to see the sky with our own eyes, which is sad. I feel as a city we should do something about this.  With light pollution here, people who are interested in astronomy will not be able benefit.  Children cannot go in their backyard and actually witness one of nature’s beautiful sights for themselves.

I’m sure I am not the only one who is troubled by this, and if I am the only one who is concerned that is sad.  We need to raise the awareness, to help reduce light pollution. Like seriously, who finds staring at a blank sky fascinating, I sure don’t. If we don’t do something about this situation now, the younger generation will grow up unable to see the stars that light up the night sky.

It’s kind of funny how this week blog topic was a huge eye-opener to me. It raised my awareness on how we as human can find comfort in the things we need such as light, but also how we fail to see how simple things go disappearing right before our eyes. I never noticed that there was not stars in the sky until told to do so.  Sad I know, but I’m sure I am not the only one. I them thought about how my mom would take me out to look at the sky as a little girl, and how infatuated I was with the night sky too now, where you can only get a view of darkness.  Those little diamonds that once use to light up the night sky have now slowly began to vanish before our eyes.

Love Spoken In An Unusual Way

Majority of poems are about love or the harsh after taste of a relationship which was once sweet, to a relationship gone bitter. Carol Ann Duffy's poem "Valentines" and Julie Sheehan's poem "Hate", both express love.

When you first take a look at Julie Sheehan's poem "Hate", you would assume that the poem is about hate, but instead the poem is about love. The poem given from a woman's perspective. She goes into a great depth of details, attempting to make the readers and herself feel as though she hates this person she speaks about. When you clearly get the sense that this a woman that is obsessed with this person she speaks about. For example, she states " Everything about me hates everything about you… The history of this key-chain hates you… My aorta hates you.  Also my ancestors… Layers of hate, a parfait.”  Here she gives a detailed list of hate which truly  symbolizes how she constantly thinks of him, and sees him in every detail of her life. Another example that's give strong proof of this is when she goes on by saying, "My lungs, duplicitous twins, expand with the utter validity of my hate, which can never have enough of you.”  Shes admitting that her every breath is a thought of him. You get the sense that she  fears the power of this love, and would prefer to think of it as hate. 

Opposed to Julie Sheehan's poem "Hate", Carol Ann Duffy poem "Valentines", describes the love between two people and how one uses an onions to represent the love they share. She also goes on by using the scent of an onion to describe if one was to leave the relationship, the lethal scent of an onion will for ever be cling to them, no matter if new love was to be found. In this poem She rejects the gifts typically associated with Valentine’s Day, such as ‘red-rose’, ‘satin cloth’, ‘cute card’, ‘kissogram’ but by bringing an ‘Onion’ as a gift which we find in the second line as “I give you an onion”.This poem symbolizes how real love is. The different layers of the onion are like the layers of someone’s personality. Beauty is just skin deep, but discovery of true character deepens one’s love. Carol describes a beautiful idea that true love is not based on the color of the skin or appearance, but in discovering the true personality of the other.

The two poems share the theme of love, Duffy's poem tone was a bit more aggressive than Sheehan's, whose poem was more in the tone of an obsessed woman. I feel that unlike Sheehan's poem, Duffy's poem can be seen from both a females and males perspective, but the male perspective more seldom. Both poems have an extensive use of negative language. 

I really enjoyed both poems and how the authors of these poems describe love in such different styles. I feel like both poets succeeded when it came to developing a connection with the poem.

"The Arm"

In the poem "The Arm", it tells an interesting off-beat story. I find this poem to be interesting simply because most poems do not start off with a line such as, "A doll’s pink, broken-off arm was floating in a pond. The man had come to with his dog.” It gives a whole different feel to opening lines. The meanings behind his words are very serious, tough, and most of the poem shows or represents sad thoughts. Which lead me to wonder why would the poet begin his poem with such a line? I find this line highly unusual. 

Another thing that was quite confusing and a bit odd was the poet referring to the subject "The man" as of to “A man". Normally a poems use first person, but this poet uses third person. If anything I would think that the poet would refer to the man for the first time as “A man". The use of “the” gives the reader a sense of already being familiar with the man, and gives the character a much different persona in the reader’s mind.

Another question that came to my mind while reading this poem is, “Who exactly is this man, who would see the arm of a doll in a pond on his walk and not regard it as garbage, but as a piece of plastic with a history, which someone once held dearly?" I wonder if the reason the man stopped is that the arm could have possibly brought back memories or a similar incident. I mean for example, the scenario he give us of an older sister being furious at her younger sister, taking it out on her one limb at a time. Maybe that the arm was in the water because the man came in the future and is remembering when he threw that doll’s arm that belonged to his sister in the water and forgot about it.

After my first analysis of the poem, I did not fully understand it, however, is kept on re-reading it over and over, thinking deeper into the meaning. The poem covers Covering sibling rivalry, sexuality, and marital differences, and probably more I probably did not even recognize, this poem is more complex in one page then most short poems or books I’ve read. The poet uses subtlety to tell the story of two rivaling sisters that fight and argue and at the peak of a dispute; the older sibling throws an arm from the younger girl’s doll in the pond. I feel that approach was probably to create a deep connection with the reader.

However, the poet goes on by pushing the level of complexity in this poem even further, by including a father’s dislike for his son’s sexuality. Explaining that taking the arm off of the doll was the father’s idea of a punishment. At this point, it would seem that those are the only messages that the poet is trying to tell us, but even in the final lines of the poem, he adds an even more subtle conflict/issue. Stating, “his wife was sure to question” which also leaves the impression in in my mind that he was also thinking of the differences in opinion or belief between a man and his wife.

One thing I did enjoy about this poem is the symbolic element of this man reacting to an odd situation in a good way, embracing it rather than ignoring it. I feel that the poem in general shows that this character reacts to odd situations like this in a good way all the time, taking advantage of things that most people wouldn’t. I really enjoyed  that this poem is both a story and a more general message about the character in it.

After Effect

" Ever After" by Joyce Sutphen

vs.

"What I Want" by George Bilgere

These two poems are extremely unique because they both address love of past relationships. Both poems address the same topic but they both address the topic in different ways. Not only does both poems address past relationships but they also express what they need.

In both, the narrators do not dwell on the negative things, but in one the narrator tries to think of the situation over objectively, while the other has a revenge motif  This is where the sadness of both poem comes from. I feel as though both poem do not try sugar-coat anything, and you get this honest and frank picture of a couples who used to love each other but whose love for each other has changed along the way.

Both poems address the sadness of each narrator's life (clearly their failed marriages).

In the first poem " Ever After", the narrator is able to describe emotions which prose can not. You are able to capture the emotions a woman who has been divorced and left to find out who she truly is. The poem itself portrays that after her divorced or separation of the persons she speaks of she has some curiosity of who she is to this person now,than just an ex.

In the second poem, the narrator uses anaphora or the repetition of initial opening words or phrases, throughout the poem.  The central idea of "I Want" is repeated and adds a plaintive quality to the structure of the poem. The poem does not sound like whining.  Rather, the list of things the speaker wants goes from the lyrically precise things such as his description of talking with his aunt "In the humid summer twilight, as the hot/St Louis day expires upon the water/And the moth-eaten Chinese lanterns /Glow like faded Kodachrome."  

As in the first poem the narrator addresses some of the sadness of his life (clearly his failed marriage, his father's drinking, the loss of his aunt, as well as numerous other relationships that no longer exist.) I found that the poem mood was hopeful. The narrator wants both beautiful things, as well as revenge. 

I really enjoyed this poem because of the revenge motif..the repeated threats and wished horrors for his ex-wife and all his wants which some I consider needs. I also like how the poem doesn't just include bashing of his ex-wife. Rather, he takes this as a way to both reflect and state on what he does need.

These two poems are so different in their own way but both pass the same message. They both project what they need. The poems both do a good job of portraying very memorable items and image. For example in the first poem the narrator describe the moment where her ex and her were holding the knife that cut their wedding cake. Another example would be from the second poem where he tells about a couple on their paddle boat coming in from the lake. Both poems lack complete details of both narrators past relationships, but gives enough to show the sadness of their lives.

"To Stammering"

When I first read this poem, I clearly did not know what the heck it was about. But when I read it a second time I think I figured out the meaning of this poem. The first line pulls you in by directly addressing the poem’s subject: “Where did you come from, lamentable quality?” (line 1).Clearly, the narrator, is looking back on his speech impairment because “Before” the speaker “had a life” its stammer was “about to ruin” its “life” (line 2).
I think that the narrator is looking back on his speech impairment. I wondered why the narrator used the subjective pronoun "You", throughout his poem, but then I realized that the use of the subjective pronoun was to address his stammering.
The narrator speech impediment was an “experience of enemies from inside” and this inward conflict caused all sorts of outward conflicts because it “ruined a cast party”, showed a lack of “confidence”, and showed a lack of “manliness” (lines 13, 14, 15). The narrator then made a statement that the stammer was more troubling than the “big boys / who cursed [him] and hit [him]” because he was unable to understand the conflict fully without “psychoanalysis” (lines 6-7, 18).
Throughout the poem the narrator projected anger toward his stammer but at the end of his poem their was a sense of understanding. The voice’s “elders said” “Don’t brood about things” and maybe they were right (line 4). Was he trying to imply that maybe the answer is to just get mad and then time for getting even comes later? Maybe. Its clear that he got over his problem though.
I feel that through out the poem the narrator was discovering himself. I also feel that the narrator had you use direct address to tell of his childhood-pass, and could not have done so another way. I feel like the use of this gives him another chance to say thing never said in verse.
After reading the poem I was like, why the use of second person so much, but then I came to realization he was addressing the subjects in his title. I found it to be unusual and a hard mode of expression to pull off be the narrator was able to execute it perfectly. I really found the narrators style of address both beautiful and different.
The narrators style of writing is very impressive. I found this poem to be very different from any other poem I read. I would like to try my hand at this stance some day, brainstorm times and personal traits that have yet to be fully explored and then speak to them directly. My feeling here is that unexpected conclusions would arise naturally and much that lies buried beneath my surface would soon rise to the surface. This poem intrigued me so much and also showed a reflection of my pass, which I will not discuss at the moment.

Stitches: A Memoir

[Taken From: whaatnext.wordpress.com ]

The book Stitches is a beautifully told graphic novel of one boys journey through a twisted world  of unhappiness and a dysfunctional family, where abuse was physical and emotional and expression was forbidden. 

In the beginning I found the book Stitches to be quite an unusual book which was completely made of sketches you would see in a comic book, but I found that these sketches were a perfect way to tell a story of this boy who loses his vocal cords at a young age due to cancer. Pictures as we all know tend say more than words could. The author made a clever decision of using pictures capture his frustration, sadness, the lack of ability to stand up for himself and fear of a young boy. 

I feel that the black and white of the illustrations worked amazingly to tell his story. Gray was a great hue for this novel considering the fact that the novel reveals Small's lonely and bleak childhood. Some of the best frames are when the author uses direct light source on the characters. For example when David goes into the elevator, and the door opens and closes, the author does a wonderful job of creating that direct lighting effect. The author does if throughout the book and if reading the book I recommend you stop and study the frames.

The illustrations in this book are just phenomenal. Even when there no dialogue the picture speak for them self. I think the beauty of this book comes from Small's illustration, the way he uses his illustrations to show emotion  and tell his story. Small's vision is extraordinary, he takes us as the readers through this journey of his life with artwork which hold breathtaking power. His illustrations remarkably cinematic, I mean down to the tiniest details.

One thing that I did notice through out his illustrations was the pictures of the modern furniture, which instantly told you this was during the baby boomer generations. For example all the lit cigarettes, cocktail parties and highballs, all gave you the sense of which generation he grew up in.

The author uses  a series of images so powerful and absorbing. The use of these illustrations allow us as readers to see the perceptions of this boy without Small persisting self- righteousness of that stance. These illustrations allows the author to show at the same time how he was a victim but to separate himself from the claims of victim-hood.

My honest opinion is that if this book had not include these illustrations, it would not be what it is. The illustrations add so much to this book. I've never read a graphic novel before, and probably never would have, if it was not selected for me to read for my English class. This novel completed changed my mind of graphic novels. I'm in love with this book and the authors clever ways of expressing his emotions through illustrations.

If you have never read a graphic novel in your life, this ones worth reading.