Reading Poetry by the Morning Moon
Wind sweeps a stray cloud across the sky, exposing half of a gray-mottled moon. It’s nine-thirty in the morning, and the moon looks like an island in a pellucid sea. Sitting in the mossy crook of a hickory tree, my legs dangle above the creek. A walnut leaf drifts past, on its way through the valley, destined for the river and finally the bay. For a moment, I think of taking off my sneakers and socks, rolling up my jeans, and dipping my toes into the soft silt lining the creek bed. The meandering stream is only shin-deep and with four strides I could sit on the other shore. In the October chill, however, I reconsider; instead, the smells - mud, fish, decaying leaves - intoxicate me.
“My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air.”
I know it’s a romantic idea, reading “Song of Myself” on a stream bank. In fact, if Walt Whitman’s spirit were to brush by me in the gusting wind, I’d probably hear him say: Close the book and watch. Listen.
A shriek pierces through the orange and gold treetops like a blast of steam escaping a teakettle. Looking up, I see the silver belly of a red-tailed hawk as it glides in circles below the moon.
“I fly those flights of a fluid and swallowing soul,” writes Whitman. He, too, must have witnessed the swooping undulations of a ruddy-winged bird. His heart, like mine, unburdened.
From my rough but solid seat in the hickory tree, I hear, at first, the sounds of Annville’s busy thoroughfare - the drone of engines, squealing brakes, the chime of a church bell. Soon, however, other noises trickle into my consciousness. Water over fallen branches. Staccato crackles of a squirrel in the brush. My own breathing. The world has been reduced to a microcosm in which I am the center. In this cosmos there are no thoughts of the future, only a mingling of the present and past.
Maybe it’s my solitude, or perhaps it’s the wind caressing my face with the smell of wet leaves, but I feel suddenly close to my home, a farm that is sixty miles west and a mountain away from this hickory tree on the Quittie. Closing my eyes, I see the familiar wisp of smoke curling from our brick chimney, the crooked lightning rod on the barn roof, and the mountains that surround the valley, Hidden Valley, like the walls of Jericho.
The purpose of this paper is to reflect on multicultural education, the achievement gap, and unresolved issues, prospects and challenges moving through the 21st century. I will show my knowledge, through research, of the efforts and tactics educators and policy makers are being urged to consider helping narrow the academic disparities which continue to divide racial and ethnic groups moving forward. Furthermore, after viewing the required video presented by Dr. Ferguson, I will describe my views on the achievement gap, and how as a teacher, I can implement some of the suggestions and concepts of Dr. Ferguson into my classroom, school and/or district. After all, we need to arrive at mid-century with adults and children from every background feeling they have as m...
Whitman, Walt. “Song of Myself.” 1855 ed. Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” Edwin Haviland Miller. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1989. 9-11.
The world's natural resources are being consumed at an alarming rate. As these resources diminish, people will be seeking alternative sources by which to generate electricity for heat and light. The only practical short-term solution for the energy/pollution crisis should be nuclear power because it is available, cleaner and safer.
As a native of Miami, Florida, I have witnessed the many cultural changes that have taken place over the years. As an educator teaching within the nation’s fifth largest public school district for the past 25 years, I have had a great amount of exposure to the cultural diversity that makes up the public school, and I have become very familiar with challenges, family issues, and cultural differences that can influence the educational performance of my students. I have developed an understanding that in order to provide the most successful learning environment for culturally diverse student’s, teachers must be able to provide classroom instruction that is free of personal bias and which addresses the diversified cultural learning needs of every student. Too many schools are not set up to give students an education that teaches them to love learning and takes their individual needs into account (Castleman & Littky, 2007).
Marguerite Annie Johnson, better known as Maya Angelou, was an American author, poet, dancer, actress, and singer who has recently passed away on May 28th, 2014. She published seven autobiographies, and several books of poetry, and was credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. Her poem "On the Pulse of Morning”
“By 2050, one-third of the world’s energy will need to come from solar, wind, and other renewable resources” (www.altenergy.org). America can no longer rely so heavily on nuclear energy. America needs to harness the energy found within natural, renewable resources. In fact, nuclear energy needs to be phased out completely because of its negative impact on health, the environment, and its overall cost.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is an enveloped retrovirus. It affects the immune system and the body loses its ability to fight diseases. It is mainly transferred by sexual contact. However, it can also be transmitted by contact with body fluid like blood, breast milk and so on (CDC, 2016). A patient is said to have AIDS when he/her suffer from many opportunistic infections (CDC, 2016).
HIV is a virus that can be sexually transmitted, obtained through hypodermic needles or contaminated blood transfusions, or passed on from mother to child through pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding. It starts off with flu-like symptoms, then it interferes with the immune system, making people prone to illnesses. Their immune system becomes very vulnerable. Sadly, there is no cure for HIV. Research shows that HIV originated in Africa; however, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was not recognized until 1981. HIV is a source of heavy castigation and it causes economic problems as well, especially count...
Nuclear power may lead to some extensive breakthroughs in multiple fields for better or for worse in the case of humanity and its survival. It’s a topic that people need to take a bit more seriously as it holds the chance to make or break the future for earth and its inhabitants. Greater risks have greater rewards and as observance of nuclear products and ideas deepen then so do the products yield, perhaps into infinity. While nuclear power is accompanied by several risks, it can also be the solution for various global strains and difficulties. Sufficient energy for the world is a huge goal to tackle and requires the use of any efficient resource we have, especially when the source has so much potential.
Kailin, Julie. (1998). Preparing Teachers For Schools and Communities: An Anti- Racist Perspective. High School Journal, 82, 1-9.
“Song of Myself” is written completely in free verse, as it has no consistent poetic form throughout. In my opinion, this could resemble how life really has no set rhythm or length. From what I have read, the image of grass is mentioned several times throughout the poem, and is observed by Whitman in many different lights.
This is an autobiographical type of poem in which the author, Walt Whitman, is also that persona, who in developing this type of poetic work, and surpasses the traditional limits of the “self.” The captivating and attention-grabbing aspect of the poem is the free verse technique or style, which significantly makes the development of the “self” a calming task while celebrating a personal life. The persona is described as a lover of nature, and incorporates three sections of the self-personality that include “I,” “me,” and the “soul”. Whitman’s use of sexual or bodily imagery and his use of grass as a central image and metaphor create a poem that is bold and uncommon for his era. A unique element of the poem is that the poet declines the basic conventions and rules of poetry. Whitman’s poem doesn’t follow any specific rhyme scheme, nor does it have a particular beat count or structure. Whitman still manages to successfully represent and replicate smooth flowing thoughts and ideas from the mind to the paperwork, making it a revolutionary form of poetry.
Sitting in the back seat between two towering piles of clothes and snacks we drive up the abandoned streets of Adell. I see vast open fields of corn and dense wooded forest filled with life, along with the occasional, towering grain house. We pull into a dry, dusty, driveway of rock and thriving, overgrown weeds. We come up to an aged log cabin with a massive crab apple tree with its sharp thorns like claws. The ancient weeping willow provides, with is huge sagging arms, shade from the intense rays of the sun. Near the back of the house there is a rotten, wobbly dock slowly rotting in the dark blue, cool water. Near that we store our old rusted canoes, to which the desperate frogs hop for shelter. When I venture out to the water I feel the thick gooey mud squish through my toes and the fish mindlessly try to escape but instead swim into my legs. On the lively river banks I see great blue herring and there attempt to catch a fish for their dinner. They gracefully fly with their beautiful wings arching in the sun to silvery points.
Most people recently infected by the AIDS virus look and feel healthy. They may not show symptoms for several years, but the condition is eventually fatal. Even though one might not know that they have this deathly disease, and remain apparently healthy, they can still pass it along to others, and they then pass it on to others, etc, until an abundant amount of people are infected. Symptoms may include fever, fatigue, weight loss, skin rashes, a fungal infection of the mouth known as thrush, lack of resistance to infection, and swollen lymph nodes. HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is transmitted through blood, semen, and vaginal fluid. The virus is usually transferred through sexual intercourse, the transfusion of virus-contaminated blood, or the sharing of HIV-contaminated intravenous needles. HIV cannot penetrate intact bodily surfaces, such as skin, and quickly perishes outside the human body. Consequently, AIDS is not spread by casual physical contact.
Whitman's Poem "Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking," is not, at first glance, an obvious love poem. Most readers would probably consider this a tragic poem about death and love lost. In spite of the fact that the poem is about intrinsically sorrowful events, or perhaps because of it, Whitman is able to capture a very unique and poignant portrayal of love. There are three major perspectives to examine how Whitman develops the theme of love in Out of the Cradle, and by examining each reoccurring theme in the poem separately, we can come to a more complete understanding of how they work together to communicate Whitman's message about love.