#emphatico

[joiefully]

P.U. (for the university & the dumb baby)

Oof. So today, I've honest to accepted the fact that I am going to get rejected (or maybe deferred, if they're being nice . . . ) from Princeton. I ended up looking at the stats of last year's SCEA applicants today, and well. I'm Asian, female, and nothing particularly sets me apart, you know?

I keep telling myself this, but I can't seem to get over something unless it slaps me in the face, or something. Why must I keep hanging onto that tiny sliver of hope if there is overwhelming proof that I'm going to get rejected? And I call myself pessimistic. If I really were, I wouldn't be wishing like this.

But ah, well. My biggest concern is that I have to fall out of love with Princeton as soon as possible and start writing my other college essays. My transcript requests are due in a week or so (I'm guessing), so I should really narrow down the list of schools I'm applying to. It's just so hard because I have a single-track mindset, you know?

Speaking of which, I got my realcare baby for Family Life, today. . . . Its name is Apple Shostakovich Tolstoy :). And it's super annoying, and I just wish I could do my Calc HW and writing and college hunting in peace. Perhaps I should run and take my shower before it starts screeching again.

But today was a good day! Even though I pretty much died after my Calc class, because we had a test (and it fried my brain). Newspaper editing was okay this afternoon. Okaaay, I will start being awesome really soon, now.

S/O to Steph!! Your card made me so happy and I read it many times already. I'm definitely planning to send you & Kaush something, too! Getting to it . . .

[midnightsapphixe]

In which I invite people over and they don't and now we have too much food. AKA ALICE AND STEPHIE PLZ COME OVER MY PARENTS WANT YOU TO COME AND EAT PLZ you can bring your mom Alice Don't even worry about bringing food lol just plz come before we drown.

[emphatico]

firstie: the american sentence

You've heard of the haiku... the tanaka... the pantoum... the diamante... now, prepare yourself for the "American Sentence" (all credits go to Allen Ginsberg). 

"From the bough

floating down river,

insect song." 

Haiku by Issa (1763-1827), translated by Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto

The structure of a haiku is deceptively simple: three lines, with five, seven, and then five syllables. Don't be fooled, though. Haikus force poets to compact their ideas and imagery, to express mountains through only a handful of words. As Czeslaw Milosz puts it, "...things appear like lightning, or as if in ther light of a flare: epiphanies of a landscape."

An American Sentence consists of one sentence of seventeen syllables. Here's an example:

"Four skinheads stand in streetlight rain chatting under an umbrella." 

- Allen Ginsberg (observing the New York street scene). For more, check out his book Cosmopolitan Greetings (1994).

(Fans of Ezra Pound will find this form familiar.) 

As with the haiku, the brilliance of the American Sentence lies in its immediacy, its lightning flash. We see only one moment, but what a stark moment it is. Before (and after) you write a couple of American Sentences, stand up, away from your computer, and take a walk, or just observe your immediate surroundings. Look outside of the window. Convey what you see as directly as possible through an American sentences. Remember, only seventeen syllables!

Have fun. :) And don't forget to post your American sentences!

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MORE EXAMPLES

Put on my tie in a taxi, short of breath, rushing to meditate.

(Allen Ginsberg)

Do you remember the time shoes lasted longer than shoelaces?

(Paul E. Nelson)

So many dreams among us yet we barely notice even our own.

(June Damanti)

[emphatico]

bienvenue. welcome to poetry 101.

Emphatico charts my self-education as a poet. As you probably know, high schools don't typically offer courses on poetry (and that might be a good thing). But here at Emphatico, I try to provide an "Introduction to Poetry", or at least a semblance of it. The best thing about poetry is that you can never really "graduate" from it. I'll post an assignment, inspirational picture, poem, or one of my own epiphanies several times a week. You're welcome to post a response. 

You won't need anything for this class except for yourself, and an open mind. 

See you around!