Do readers believe that any one person can turn their life into something beautiful, even when all they have seen in their life is ugly? Based on this non-fiction poem the narrator finally realized his life wasn’t as bad as it could be. In Baca’s “Cloudy day,” readers find a speaker very attuned to the outer world while being incarcerated. Born in New Mexico of Indio-Mexican descent, Jimmy Santiago Baca was raised first by his grandmother and later sent to an orphanage. A runaway at age 13, it was after Baca was sentenced to five years in a maximum security prison that he began to turn his life around: Jimmy learned to read and write and unearthed a voracious passion for poetry.…
It’s your typical cop movie, findable on the local channels. Two police officers claim to use their power for the good of the people, but find out how much easier it is to take matters into their own hands. Although we all can get this on our television for free, director Tazewell Thompson takes Keith Huff’s “A Steady Rain” and turns it into something worth paying for, or did he? The set is completely simple; as a matter of fact I must say it is very uncreative. There are two seats in the front and several are lined up in the back making two single rows. In the far back and sides of the stage, there are blinds with cracks in it as if people have been peeping through them. No art work, not even a coffee table, just chairs and blinds surrounded the stage. It took a while but it hit me, it is an interrogation room. Now, the only thing I predict coming is be a waste of hard earn money and angry people in the audience asking for a refund. But when the two actors came out and started to talk to the audience as if we were a part of the act, it startled me and caught my attention. I’m really in for the night of my life and if you were in my shoes, you’ll be to. This is definitely not your typical play; loyalty, friendship, and lives are at stake. Huff wants us to understand that it does not matter how long or how close you are with someone because in a split second they can betray you.…
Its 9pm on a Sunday and I can feel the first of the rain as its droplets catch on my outstretched palms. There’s something very humbling about the rain. It’s one of nature’s great forces, and completely escapes our control. When the rain comes, it doesn’t account for petty human drama, politics and cultural divisions. I ponder this thought as I round the bend and turn down the next street. The rain is a reminder that above all else, we are at the whim of mother nature. Beyond our constructed realities and perception of modern society lies a force mar more powerful than humanity. This is a somewhat overwhelming thought, and instantly I long for togetherness and company, but I must remind myself that I am a stranger here. Through the windows of the houses lining this street, people go about their lives to the sound of the rain on their rooftops. Perhaps some of them are experiencing similar thoughts to my own? Raindrops slide down my forehead and drip from my brow onto my eyelids- the water blurs my vision. In this dreamlike state, I wander forwards, the lights around me shifting, darting and sliding in the darkness. At this bizarre moment in time I feel a sudden and uncontainable urge to peer through the windows of the houses that surround me, to catch an insight into the lives of these strangers. Through each window lies a different truth, and I am suddenly all too eager to explore these realities- lives that occur in spite of the rain.…
Trying to go to school the next day. Standing in the shower thinking maybe if I dont get out I wouldn't have to start my day and move on with it all. But as the water turns to a shivering cold I realize it’s all too real. Pushing through the first five periods of the day, the last three seemed as too much. Feeling as if I will never be able to be happy again. All these gloomy days crafted me into who I am today. This whole experience making me grow up just a little bit faster, and a little more mature and understanding seeming as I already live the life as an adult, but only being a…
This film touched my heart deeply, and because of that my reflection is that when you bring the sun inside, no matter if it’s raining. Maybe every day may not be good but there's always something good every day. Throughout our lives we will find golden ages, moments of full sun others with clouds and storms. But never forget that you have within you everything you need to…
Today is one of those rare days in which it is raining and I’m sitting on the windowsill waiting for a sign. Something that says ‘move on’. There is still a part of me that hopes every day that you're alive and I haven't found you yet. I will have searched the far corners of the earth before I let myself believe you dead. I dream of you every night, then wake with the bitter taste of regret fresh in my mouth. You abandoned me. You have marooned me on this earth, and it is dark without your light by my side. All that fills my mind is when you were still beside me. I distinctly recall one summer when we were not quite children anymore and still too young to be adults. It was raining so hard that the streets were flooded for the first time in eighty years, and you had insisted on escaping to the desert.…
I told my mother that I was going to the post office hoping to have a letter from my father. My mom said “Miranda, I heard that things should get better soon and this will be all over with, please be quick and be safe, it will all be over soon.” That gave me some hope. I left my skis in the house, knowing what I was going up against. I stepped outside into the blizzard, expecting the worst and not returning home. When I finally got to the post office, I realized that it was closed. Feeling hopeless, I was ready to give up and let the elements take me. But suddenly a flyer blew by me. I snatched the flyer and it said there is a food drive going on at the town hall. I managed to get there; I looked up, strained of all energy. The mayor explained how he was proud of me because I was getting food for my family and thinking of everyone else before myself. Being so exhausted, I looked up at the sky; a patch of blue peeked out at me. I jump up in excitement, an energy rush running through my body. I jump up and down, knowing that things are only going to get better from here knowing that my little brother Johnny and the rest of the family have a chance to survive. The mayor asks what all the excitement was about; I said “look up; there is hope in the air!” He looked up with the rest of the people at city hall in awe, looking hopeful. I had received a ride home to inform my family on the news. Once I told my mother, she cried tears of joy, knowing that everything should be over soon. Johnny screamed in joy, knowing that we all made it. Life will only get better now. This will soon be the life as we knew…
In the midst of a gentle rain while these thoughts prevailed, I was suddenly sensible of such sweet and beneficent society in Nature, in the very pattering of the drops, and in every sound and sight around my house, an infinite and unaccountable friendliness all at once like an atmosphere sustaining me, as made the fancied…
The acrid curses that followed only led me to tear more, but the bittersweet aftertaste of each tear soothed the pain in my wound. Slowly it recovered and the bleeding had stopped, casting the last tear into the puddle beneath. ~~~ Dark, gloomy clouds infuse the horizon as the prolonged day tardily transformed into the polar opposite of light. A droplet of rain water landed on the side of my cheek as we stared at above.…
We were all sucked dry from the sun that day with zero energy left, we scavenged what we could and we still ate better than we could have at any local dinner. The day was still long and was only going to get hotter and longer even as the day came to a close. There was more things to do around the land than there was at any theme park. So as we all sat around and waited for something to do you could tell that everyone was thinking the same thing as sweat poured down all of our faces. The cold spring fed creek was the only thing that was going through my mind and I knew that was the only thing going through anyone else’s. We walked down to the creek as there was no other way that you could reach it, and as we got closer and closer you could hear the light eco of the fifteen foot waterfall coming off of the trees. The only thing I was looking for was the spit of the water flowing up through the large oak and misquote tree branches. You knew when everyone saw the water, you could see the sight of the crystal clear water shining off of everyones eyes and you could tell that there was a sudden sign of relief that came upon everyone after the long walk through the large misquote trees avoiding as many thorns and cactuses as they possibly could, being careful as could be you weren't going to miss all of them. And there was no better feeling than soaking your wounds in that…
In the poem, “There Will Come Soft Rains”, by Sara Teasdale, an initial interpretation may be based on the knowledge that it fits into the post-apocalyptic/dystopian genre. To truly appreciate and understand a literary work, one must attempt to interpret it in many different ways. As a secondary interpretation, one may understand the poem to be portraying the message that humanity plays an extensive unnecessary role in the survival and vitality which nature upholds on earth.…
The shrieking sound of my bed pierced my ears as I rolled over to the “colder” side. Peeking through my bedroom window, was a ray of the rising sun who softly kissed my face as I wistfully arose from my slumber. A burst of summer breeze blew over my body stretching out my bones as it fell upon my skin. I sit up on my rusted bunk and take in a deep breath, as I exhaled, I tell myself that I’m releasing all of the negativity in my body. It’s my therapy.…
The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The note of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering the eaves.” This is ironic because she is admiring the fresh spring life as an aftermath to her husband’s death. This contradicts the mood of the story. Then she could now be seeing a new life for herself now that her husband in no longer with her. This would make since, because as previously stated, her heart trouble could mean that she is unhappy in her life. This event of her husband dying could be opening new doors and that is why she is seeing light out of all this darkness happening around her.…
As I stepped outside my porch, like any other day, to attend my morning quite-time. This day wasn’t just like others. I was so peaceful and quite. I saw the sun’s rays in my eye, lighting my way step by step. It shined so bright, it burned my eye. I saw the beautiful green trees up across the sky, with birds flying over them and other just waiting to sing…
When Geraldine returned to class after lunch, she didn’t complete her homework, which was to write a poem, because she was planning to do it during lunch at home. Unfortunately, it totally slipped her mind given the situation she just had to deal with. The teacher questioned Geraldine about her poem not being completed which was supposed to be based on what is it like to be alive in this glorious world. Geraldine almost started crying. She then quickly and angrily said she couldn’t write such a positive poem when her world just turned upside down! Even though no one else knew how awful her life just became, Geraldine quietly expressed that nothing lovely has happened in her life. She was stating her real feelings that turned out to be a beautiful poem that couldn’t be made up. Her teacher then realized that Geraldine’s words were based on her real life and could never have been made up.…