Mady Sowell

[madyiscool]

Mentor Poet Post 6

“Googolplex” Chloe N. Clark

“Try to sort out what we

know from what we think

we know from what we want

To know.”

In the world today we have to find a seperation between what can stay a mystery and what we need to look up and know. There is no longer this wonder we had when we were children. We can find the answers to things that we think about, it feels as though our thoughts are no longer our own. When you look up what you are thinking and there is already an answer, it is now clear you are no longer thinking outside of the box, someone has thought what you have as well.

With all this new technology we lose our sense of touch with other humans. Chloe Clark writes “Pushing close together, we stare at phone screens, watching people testing the limits of their bodies.” There is a new definition to being together and hanging out. Being on your phone separates you from the person you want to be with. We get so wrapped up in the drama and the thoughts that someone may post about, we forget to have thoughts and conversation in person with someone we love.

This is apparent in my own life. There is a rule at the dinner table in my house, no phones allowed. If we are all together but everyone is looking at a screen we become content with sitting in silence looking at different apps and games. Sitting together in silence takes away from the importance of communication and putting family first. We find more joy in watching a tv show on Netflix, rather than sitting and talking about our day at school or work with our family members.

Within the writing Clark makes a reference to the saying “curiosity killed the cat” I think her use of this was brilliant. Saying this allows readers to understand her true meaning behind this writing. Constantly wanting to look up an idea is killing how humans interact. People can look up anything, those things can be good or bad. It is simply killing us. We don’t know who we are if we can’t look at the number of likes on a picture or how many followers you have. We find those numbers to define us, and with lower numbers we feel our value is less. (374)

[madyiscool]

Mentor Poet Post 5

“Hum” by Chloe N. Clark

“And now when the whales give

Themselves names

The sound each makes

Can call out to no one.”

To begin this poem is a lot different from the other poems I have read. This poem is no longer talking about love, it is talking about the sad truth of what has changed from our past to now in poetry. Looking at the above stanza I pulled, Chole N Clark writes the change in how whales communicate. The whales no longer understand each other. She connects this to the change in poetry, there has been such a great change in how humans speak, now fewer people understand what past poets have written. The importance of her comparisons is that poetry from the past no longer calls out to humans in the present.

The tone of the poem is not sad, Clarck writes in a way that it is a matter of fact. Clark knows this change has happened, especially when she writes “The simplest messages have become poems in dead tongues,” Using dead as a description of how people understand a message allows for us readers to understand that there is no going back. In present times people will no longer understand the beauty and messages that were written in the past. I thought her use of whales was very smart. Within her connections I made the assumption that she could be connecting this change to the laws of Darwinism. Those who change with the times and grow from what has changed will survive. If you stay in the past and don’t learn what is happening in the now you will be dead, along with those poems. Knowing her scientific background I felt confident in knowing there is a possibility she may have made that connection herself.

Chloe writes her poem so that those reading can easily see the importance in how she shifts her poems. She uses the shifts between every stanza so that we can know both things are important within each stanza. If you know anything about whales they live a pretty easy going life, nothing super extravagant. I want to think that the importance of whales stems from that thought of how whales live. Poetry has lots of meaning, and Clark writes in her poem how there are messages easily found in every piece of old poetry. However, now people don’t think it is easy to find the messages anymore. The same way that whales can get lost. If they lose each other it is no longer an easy going journey, they are alone and scared. (411)

[madyiscool]

Mentor Poet Post #4

“The Body Turned” Chloe N Clark

“He told me he could taste the freedom,

sweet upon his tongue, I stare out

the window, watching the sun bleed.”

Love is freedom, however throughout this poem there is this feeling of being trapped. There is this loss of hope throughout this poem. Looking into context within the writing, Chloe Clark chose to use past tense, she continuously writes “He told me..” this shows that this person she was writing about is no longer there. This leads me to believe that the sense of loss is coming from a past lover. The person could have left her for another. However, with how dark and sad she is writing it could be this person died. In the end she is left lonely or mourning the loss of someone she once loved.

When reading this poetry book by Clark, I have learned that she has a different book about science and poetry. This could lead to why her poem is dealing with love and what happens in the forest. Showing how things work when animals are free to roam. They don’t have ties to anything but themselves. Animals don’t have remorse, the way that a man who leaves his lover for another with no problem.

The title has meaning for the poem by exactly saying what she is trying to get across. “The Body Turned” shows there is some kind of change. Whether this is from actually turning away from her and leaving, or showing the change that comes when you lose someone. When you lose someone forever, there is this pain and change in yourself. Loving someone allows for there to be a connection and walls that you build in yourself to be taken down. When they leave those walls come back up, you are now trapped within your thoughts. Clark was free when she was in love, now she is left lonely and has no freedom. (385)

[madyiscool]

Cheating on my poet

Christopher Poindexter

“It takes more strength

To give a damn

Than to not.”

To not give a crap what people say or think is what people want. They want to be the girl that no can mess with. However, because this trait is so sought out for, we lose touch and connection. How could anyone possibly get close, if no one truly cares? That is why I really love the ending of this poem. Saying that in the world today it is harder to care for things than not caring. It is so true, if you don’t put in any effort and just go through your day it will be easy. However, it will get boring rather quickly.

I think what Christopher writes is so important. “Give me someone who gives a damn about what truly matters.” When you put in effort and care about something you become invested in. You are willing to make things work and if something is wrong you talk it out and get through it. Let’s say you’re with someone for a long time and you’re having a wonderful time. Then, all of a sudden the other person no longer feels the need to give effort and work to keep the relationship working. When that happens to you it truly sucks. Thinking you knew someone until they wear I don’t give a damn so well.

When cheating on my poet Chloe, I realized how upbeat the last poem I posted from her was. She was falling in love with someone. However, Christopher writes like he is sad, sad that the world is different. That no one cares about the little details. They want the bigger picture with all the glory and no affection. Also, their writing styles are different. An example is the fact that Chloe has a title for all her poems and Christopher does not. I find that interesting did he want to leave the meaning open for interpretation?

When first reading I wasn’t sure what the reason was for choosing the word damn to repeat throughout his poem. However, after a little thinking my thoughts kept going to a beaver, I know the childish side of me coming out because they build dams. With deeper thoughts on beavers I know that they build dams to keep water away. What if the reason that Christopher uses the word damn to show almost the fact when you do give a damn you are keeping all the bad things away. You’re giving in the time and effort and it pays off. Your relationship is safe. (418)

[clairematthews]

“White Morning” by Alicia Ostriker

“They say the Americans staged nine-one-one, he murmurs politely. We cannot believe the images in television, you are American, what do you think?”

This is the line that made me really understand what this poem is all about. When I first read the title I thought the poem was going to be about a snowy morning or something happy, but reading this quote I was able to infer that this poem was going to be about 9/11. Also something that stood out to me about this quote was that they didn’t say nine-eleven they called it nine-one-one. I just never thought that other cultures would have a different name for this historic event. Perhaps another reason that this quote stood out to me so much is because of the relation it has to all the speculation in today’s world about what is real and what isn’t, like how some people don’t believe the moon landing was real. In this poem, a Muslim guide vocalized the belief that 9/11 was made up by Americans and never really happened. Again I guess it took me by shock that another culture would think that this horrific event in American culture was fake. As the quote continues he justifies his earlier statement by saying that they can’t believe it really happened because all they have seen of it was the images on their tv screens.

Focusing more on the poem as a whole, Ostriker made many interesting writing choices that I think really made the poem have a deeper meaning. For example, in the fourth and fifth stanzas Ostriker uses similes and other descriptive wording to describe what happened on 9/11 without literally describing it. Instead she said, “slamming fist into wall, flames like giant marigold blooming”. I think she decided to describe the event this way to let the reader infer what she is actually talking about without literally giving it away. Also, to me, wording it like this gives the poem a lighter feel instead of a more serious tone like it would have if Ostriker decided to detail the exact event.

Another interesting writing move that Ostriker used was an allusion to the national Anthem. In the fifth and sixth stanza she says, “rockets’ red glare... bombs bursting”. I read this as allusion to the National Anthem because that song carries a lot of meaning and weight behind it. And that song is usually played to be a symbol of patriotism. I just thought this was a fun hidden gem that Ostriker hid in the poem.

Finally, I feel that I have always had an interesting connection to writing about 9/11 because, being born in 2002, the whole event is history to me. I have no real life connection to the event unlike my parents, teachers, and even siblings. So when I read this poem about 9/11 as opposed to Ostriker reading this poem we have two different view points. I am reading it as history but she would be reading it as someone who remembers what actually happened on that day.(492)

[madyiscool]

I think it was really smart that you made the connection of how different cultures view somethings so horrible that happened and people who died.  I never understand how people can’t believe things happen when there are people who are alive who can tell what happened just based off of being there. But I do think it is important that we do know our history, like you said we weren’t born before this event happened so to us we have to go off of what other people say. Knowing about it will allow us to understand the gravity of the suffering.

[madyiscool]

Poetry Blog 2

“Tricks to Keep Away The Dark” Chloe N. Clark

“We feel safe when we

Taste one another

And we feel safest

When our mouths are numb”

While reading through many poems by Chloe N. Clark I have come to the conclusion I am a sucker for a good romance. Out of all her poems, I was drawn to this one quickly. Right in the opening lines, Chloe writes “We’ve been eating oranges until our mouths go numb.” She uses the same wording as the lines I wrote above. I think this creates importance around feeling safest when you are with the one you love.

I struggled to understand why she chose an orange at first. There are so many other things she could’ve chosen like apples or grapes. However, I believe the reason she chose an orange held a purpose. Oranges in this poem are used to represent love. Love can be sour, sometimes when eating an orange people look for the sour ones. The ones that make your face pucker up and you have to take a second to collect your senses. On the other hand, love can be sweet, and you never want it to end. Also, an orange has a thick layer on the outside protecting that inside. You have to peel away the outside just to get to the goods. This could be a direct connection to a person. We are all different and have different “layers” that make us up. Once someone gets through them you can easily love them. It is when someone doesn’t take the time to go through each layer they luck out, and don’t get to see how truly great you are.

In the title, I believe her reference to the dark could be loneliness. The loss of love in your life allows you to feel ”dark.” This plays an important role in the poem. It shifts from dark to light when the main character is introduced to love. Two people no longer need other things like oranges to not be afraid of the dark. Love is light and with it you can conquer anything.

Within her poem I really liked the way she uses her tone. While reading I was feeling as though the main character could be a child. I came to this thought by the fear of the dark. This is a childish fear, as you grow up you are no longer afraid of the dark. In class we talked about how the purest form of love is childish. When you are in love you don’t have to act all grown up. There are parts of yourself that you missed coming out when you find the one you love. The shift that I underlined shows the change between the dark and love. This also changed the tone. I want to believe this is because over the course of the poem the character is growing up and the kissing is an older version of the person. (497)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGJuMBdaqIw

The link isn't working the song is Firework by Katy Perry. I think I may need to explain the reason I chose this song. I think it fits well with the fact that when you're in love there is a light and a spark that is happening. This fits the idea of a firework perfectly. They are big and bright just like love. No one can hide who they love the same way you cannot hide a firework

[madyiscool]

“You Told Me To Check The Facts And Read The Numbers” By Chloe N. Clark

“And still we keep kissing, passing

Our hearts back and forth like playing

Cards, Go FIsh.”

The world todays has seen such tragedy and pain. People are dying all around us, and after reading this poem I felt a sense of hope. While reading this poem there were many statistics such as every minute 265 people are born. However, every minute 115 people die. The hard truth is for everything that is good there is going to be bad. As humans we need to find it in ourselves to move on, and love eachother. That is something that is highly important in this poem. Her main goal is to make it known that you may feel hurt, but you will love again.

The title holds lot of importance within this poem. I feel this from how she speaks of love. Love cannot fit into the molds of statistics and facts. There are no boundaries. It changes the wave of truth, that is why when she speaks of all the bad there is facts. People can count death rates and know who is born. However, love is something that everyone has and can do if they choose. Her tone is very matter of fact. However, her theme comes from truth not facts. Love wins in the end, that is the truth even without a statistic. Love is experience and happiness you feel it and don’t always know what it is at first.

At first I found it was hard to understand the line “more than 99% of species that have ever lived, over all of time are extinct.” However, after looking at the bigger picture I believe that Chloe uses this line to make it straightforward what will happen to humans without love. We will become “extinct” there will be nothing to hold on to if all you care about is yourself.

Within the poem chloe uses something many people can relate to, dessert. She brings up the fact “And women have more taste buds than men do, so that chocolate is extra bitter, extra sweet.” I really like how she uses the bitter and sweet in the same line. Love is not always sweet it can be so bitter that it hurts. I wonder if within her poem she is thinking of her own experience in a relationship. She was tasting more sweets and love than the man, and then at the end all she could taste was bitterness. (429)

[madyiscool]

Mentor Poet

When assigned this unit my first thought was how can I choose from such a big list. There are so many good choices. However, all I know about poetry is that I enjoy reading ones that hold lots of meaning, and I can relate them to my life. My first poet I chose was Daniel Beaty. I actually chose him to be my mentor poet. I really liked how he had a rough upbringing and he used that to write. I felt that he would have good information and lots of intense moments in his writing. I did struggle with the fact my main point was I wanted to relate to the poems and if all his poems were about being in pain and rising above it, I may not understand all of them. However, that problem was quickly solved because it turned out Daniel Beaty is just a writer and doesn’t actually weite poetry. So after ordering and book and being set, I had to change my mind. Going into looking I knew what I had to do. I needed to make sure I read a few of my poets poems and make sure I loved them before I ordered a book. I stumbled on my mentor poet just by going down the list. Her name is Chloe N. Clark. She writes with such deep and powerful meaning that pulled me in wanting more. She writes about love, acceptance of yourself, her sister and much more. All those things I relate to. The poem that pulled me in for sure was The Escape Artist Ponders Morality. It has so much depth and imagry I can almost picture being there, struggling along side him. The line that pulled me in was “there are so many chains you wear and that wear you.” This could be real chains or the chains in the esacpe artist’s life that holds him down. There is a clear example why I love Choloe’s poems there is so much packed into one line or stanza!

[jackyoungs-blog]

So you know how everyone says there phone is listening to them? We’ll the craziest thing just happened. I was talking to my parents about the book I’m reading “The Hot Zone” cause they wanted to know how the book was so far. Anyways, about 10 minutes later I open up YouTube a click on a video and the ad that pops up is a trailer about a new movie being made in the next month about a deadly virus that could spread across the world. Imediately I was like “that’s so funny. I’m legit reading a book exactly about that.” So I go down to the title of the ad, and I’m not kidding, it was a National Geographic trailer for a remake of the book “The Hot Zone”. I had never seen this trailer before then and I’m still blown away in the timing. The trailer was actually uploaded only 3 days ago. As I watched the trailer, I think it’s a perfect depiction of how the book perceives the Ebola virus. The trailer depicts it just as scarily and vividly as the imagery does in the book. This was a very cool coincident and I am definitely going to watch the movie when it comes out.

[madyiscool]

I think this is CRAZYYYYY!!! Your are never truly sure if all the talk about how our caneras and search history are being used until you see something pop up and your like woah how did it know I was doing that. I think you could maybe even use this as a source if you saw the trailer and found things to connect it to.

[jackyoungs-blog]

Ebola, Marburg, and a Real Life Cave of Death | RealClearScience

The expansive mouth of Kenya's Kitum Cave can appear out of nowhere. Mount Elgon National Park's jagged landscape, coupled with a dense cover of lush, green plant life, conceals the cave surprisingly...

One major thing the book focused in on was Kitum Cave and the Marburg virus that somewhere lived inside it. The book gave a lot of detail about the cave and the Marburg virus that mysteriously somewhere lived inside, however, I wanted to try to learn more about the cave and the Marburg virus that lives inside. I found this article on Kitum cave and funny enough the article actually referenced “The Hot Zone” multiple times when it talked about people that were mentioned in the book like Charles Monet, a man that journeyed  into the cave and caught and died from Marburg virus.  In all, this article gave me a better understanding of the cave itself that I did not receive from the book. 

[madyiscool]

Its good that you looked further into something your book brought up. Books don’t always go into detail on specific things they bring up and it can get confusing. My book did it a few times and I had to do some research to fully understand what was happening.

[jackyoungs-blog]

When reading through the reviews of the book “The Hot Zone”, many of the reviews had one thing in common; that the book would scare me. At first I was pretty skeptical that this would be true but very quickly I realized I was very wrong. This was one passage that really got me. Lots of the imagery in many passages has been very vivid but it’s been easy to convince my self in those ones that it probably wouldn’t happen. However, in this passage, there is no imagery, only practicality and logic. The scary part about this passage is it’s 100% true and it’s something I can’t convince myself that it’s not logical. It’s easy to convince my self that someone really wouldn’t have there guts spill out if they caught the disease but I can’t deny how fast the disease could reach me by how connected our world is. I used to play a game called “Plague Inc.” and the whole premise of the game was to crate your own disease and spread it as quickly as possible so you can wipe out the human race before a cure is found. Plane transportation of the disease was so vital in the game to making your disease spread rapidly, just as the book is describing. I’m all, this was just one passage that really got me scared and thinking as it something I could question or even consider debating.

[madyiscool]

How large scale this virus is still blows my mind. You don’t fully understand that until you see how one country being affected could be fatal to so many outside the country.

[jackyoungs-blog]

I finally decided to read the book “The Hot Zone”. When picking out the book I wanted to read, I knew I wanted a book that would scare me or a book that would make me question or think about our worlds future and where it could go. I knew the book I wanted to read would probably be more about science and the future. However, I didn’t want the book to feel like I was reading a straight text book. So I wanted to find a book that was written more in the form of a narrative. This book happened to meet all the criteria that I was looking for and seemed pretty interesting to me as the ebola our break was relevant for about a year and then it kind of just disappeared so it’ll be cool to read more about it.

[madyiscool]

I think this was a smart choice. You want something that will challenge you, when your aprehensive about something you will want to learn more to further your understanding of whats going on.

[jackyoungs-blog]

“The Hot Zone” #1

I think it is super interesting how the author went about writing the book “The Hot Zone”. Going into the book, I knew it was going to be about the spread of Ebola over the past couple decades but I did not know the book would be so scary and suck me in. Basically, I was just expecting the book to be very informational and maybe even bland. However, as I started reading, the book almost felt like I was reading a book about a fictional monster. The author wrote the book almost like a narrative, the scary story about how the Ebola monster was passed from person to person, and the mystery of who may have it and how easily you can get it. Instead of it feeling like I’m reading out of a textbook, I felt engaged in the story about a monster where I see how it enters and kills another person. It’s truest horrifying and intriguing how the author wrote the book in a narrative perspective, following Ebola and it’s victims.

[madyiscool]

I think the fact you really liked the book will help you when forming your writing. When you find a book and can’t put it down and you’re making connections to your life it will help put things in perspective. When reading about victims it puts something that might not seem so big into a bigger picture. Also, when you dive deeper into research you will be able to learn more too.

[jackyoungs-blog]

‎Plague Inc.

‎Can you infect the world? Plague Inc. is a unique mix of high strategy and terrifyingly realistic simulation. Your pathogen has just in

This is a game I used to play a ton when I was little. Basically the premise of the game is you create an infectious disease and your goal is to spread the disease as quick as possible and kill the entire worlds population. Looking back on the aspects of the game, it’s very accurate to what’s being described in the book “The Hot Zone”. The book keeps on commenting on how the Ebola virus traveled. The book comments on how traveling by plane can be an huge issue, how the virus could have potentially spread by air, spread by blood, spread by animals, and it describes how there is a place where the disease had to start, the book says their suspicion is it started in a cave called Katum Cave. Every single one of these aspects of disease spreading directly connects to how the game works. You pick a spot in the world you would like to start and over time you can upgrade your virus. When upgrading, you are basically allowing your virus to spread in different forms where you choose animals, bloodstream, air, you can have it travel by plane to other countries. The effectiveness of each form of transportation directly correlates with the book too. For example, in the book it comments on how blood to blood contact for the Ebola virus makes it harder for it to spread. Likewise, in the game, blood to blood contact is a cheep upgrade you can buy that is not considered to be really good. In contrast, in the book it talks about the deadliness of disease traveling by air and disease being transported by plane. Similarly to the book, these are basically the most expensive upgrades you can buy for your disease as they are the most effective. In all, there is a lot of crossover between the book and the game that gives me a better understanding on how the virus works. I’m not sure if this could be considered a secondary source but I figured it didn’t hurt to blog about it.

[madyiscool]

I think comparing the book to a game that more people play and may understand was genious. It will allow you to use your understand of the game to understand the book.

[jackyoungs-blog]

The Ebola Virus Explained — How Your Body Fights For Survival

What does the Ebola virus actually do in your body? Why is it so dangerous and why does it kill so many people? We take a look at the apocalyptic war that ra...

After reading the book “The Hot Zone” and hearing its definition of how the Ebola and Marburg virus works and functioned, I wanted to learn more about it. I was searching through yotube for a video that would help me understand more about it, as the book really helped me understand the origin of the virus and how it spread but I wanted to see it a molecular scale. This source really helps me gain an undertsand of the biology behind the virus where the book was able to give me some vivid imagry, but I could not physically see it in front of me.  I think even watching this video before you dive into the book would be extremely helpful because although the author did an amazing job of describing and explaining the virus so the average reader could understand, this will give you some prior knowledge that could help you follow along as a reader. The video also give you a lot more vocabulary and a greater understand of you body and how it fights viruses as a whole, not just secluded to Ebola. 

[madyiscool]

I think it was really smart of you to further your understanding on the same topic maybe on an easier platform. Especially with being able to physically see diagrams or drawings will allow you to grasp a deeper understanding.

[jackyoungs-blog]

Inside the Monkey Lab: The Ethics of Testing on Animals

VICE News gained rare access to the Biomedical Primate Research Facility in Holland, to see what happens to the monkeys inside. How much animal suffering is justified to save human lives?

A main focus of the book was about how the CDC used moneys to test level 4 hot agents and see there effects and how they spread. The entire book, however, I couldn’t help but question the ethics of testing on these poor helpless monkeys. These defenseless monkeys are basically being collected and sold over the ocean, they reach mainland and then they are just immediately injected with painful diseases where they are left to be studied and die. The book lightly touched on the ethics of killing the monkeys when they talked about how sometimes they would have to kill the control monkeys or the healthy monkeys in the experiment. The main characters would always feel bad when they had to put the healthy ones down but not once did the book say injecting monkeys with lethal, deadly diseases was unethical. The entire time reading the book I couldn't’ t help but get frustrated at parts when the irony in what they were doing was too high. Literally at one point in the book, it was commenting on how one of the scientists felt bad about having to kill the control monkeys as they were injecting and studying monkeys that they had injected lethal viruses into. This article focuses on the same thing I am commenting about. However, also addresses the cost benefit analyst of using monkeys as test subjects. Although it pains not only the public but even the scientists to use these poor monkeys as test monkeys, monkeys are one of the closest primates to humans and its practically on way to find cures for diseases. The article covers both sides of the argument however. It states of 90 virus cures that have been proven to work on monkeys have not works on humans since our immune systems are still widely different. Its very interesting to be able to read both sides of the argument and gain a deeper understanding to why monkeys are used. 

[madyiscool]

I agree with you on feeling conflicted with hurting the monkeys. I understand how using something other than a human to find a cure or further reasearch on an issue makes sense. However, they are still living breathing animals who would feel the same affects as a human. I think its a moral decision that has no right answer. Its questioning whose life has more value and that is not an easy question to answer.

[jackyoungs-blog]

I think it’s really interesting how the author went about writing the book “The Hot Zone”. Instead of giving the extensive history and science of “the hot” viruses and boring the reader to death, the author went out of his way to interview and figure out the life story of each person who interacted in some way with the Ebola virus wether the person was the family member of the victim, a servivor after coming in contact, or the person like in this passage the person who supplied the animals to the world that contained the virus. The book is almost set up exactly the same as the documentary we watched earlier in the year “Why We Fight”. Each persons story is like one of the talking heads in “Why We Fight” and each perspective is pull from different areas with one common connector which is they all were involved with the virus. Unlike my u derstand of “Why We Fight”, at the moment I’m struggling to figure out the purpose of the book other than to inform and scare the reader. I do prefer this type of writing over just facts and history as this way I can be well informed and sucked into the book itself at the same time. 10/10 book so far.

[madyiscool]

I think making connections to other books and seeing how the writer is making the book more than just a novel on Ebola is important. Reading about real people go thorough this aweful disease and hearing about the struggle allows you to really grasp the depths of this issue.