For a Stone Girl at Sanchi ~ Gary Snyder

The author of this poem is Gary Snyder. Gary Snyder is an environmentalist which explains why a lot of his poems are about the environment. He was young when his parents divorced and lived with his mother. He was married twice and had one son. The title of this poem confuses us because a stone girl at Sanchi to us would mean a statue of a girl in Sanchi. Sanchi is a little town in India.

The first lines "half asleep on the cold grass night rain flicking the maples, under a black bowl upside-down,on a flat land, on a wobbling speck, smaller then stars, space." could mean that some one is laying on the ground, it could be the writer of this poem. We think he could be thinking, maybe day dreaming. The black bowl upside down could mean the sky as if he was looking up at the sky, from laying on a flat land. The speck could be a reference to himself, he could feel like a small speck compared the the universe that he's looking at.

The next lines "the size of a seed, hollow as a birds skull. Light flies across it-never is seen." The hollow as a birds scull could mean that it's quiet and that he can't hear anything around him. The air or area around him feels hollow and desolate. When light flies across it -never is seen could be a shooting star that he has never seen before. The feeling he has is new and exciting.

The next part of the poem "a big rock weathered funny, old tree trunks turned stone, split rocks and find clams. all that time loving;" This is showing how things have been aging or have already aged. A big rock weathered funny, old tree trunks turned stone, the objects symbolizes something in this poem. By the author using the word weathered it puts an image in your mind creating a stereotype. An old rock that has been through a lot outdoors, like storms, or like someone growing old with perhaps some wisdom.

"Two flesh persons changing, clung to door frames, notions, spear-hafts in a rubble of years." This line means that two people are changing in opposite directions, the couple could be getting farther apart from each other and they don't like that. That's why they clinging onto objects to try to pull them back to where they used to be. They want to take control over the past few years, maybe go back and change it so they could stay together. It's been rubble or broken for years.

"Touching, this dream, pops. it was real: and it lasted forever." These lines mean that the man had woken up from his dream, realizing that it was just a dream. Maybe he wished that it would come back to life, like it was in the past. He wants it to be real again, he wanted it forever.

Gary Snyder (the poet)

A Pen ~ Descriptive Paragraph

This object has a cylindrical shape, made out of a translucent plastic material. This being the main part of the object. There is black writing down the side of the pen, stating the company and type of pen. You are able to see the ink cartilage going down the centre of the object from one end to the other. There is a blue grip, which is a hollow cylinder placed over the other cylinder to place your fingers on while writing. It is positioned at the one end along with the tip of the ink cartilage and the metal point used to touch the paper and release ink. There is a removable piece that is also cylindrical with a straight rectangular stick going down the side of the cylinder and hanging off the end. This cylinder is only closed on the one end that the rectangular stick is not hanging off of. It can be placed on either end of the main piece, covering the metal tip that applies the ink to a piece of paper or on the opposite end to keep you from losing it.

The Lottery Ticket ~ Anton Chekhov (Page 198)

In the story, "The Lottery Ticket" the main character is Ivan Dmitritch. He’s a middle-class man and is used to living with little money, twelve hundred dollars a year. Ivan does not have faith in "lottery luck", and usually would never check out the numbers drawn for the winning ticket. He believe the odds of losing are higher then the odds of winning. Ivan loves his wife and just wants her to be happy, so he checks the numbers for her ticket. He finds out that the series number to the ticket is there but decides to make her wait, tormenting her and keeping her wondering if they actually won. If the lottery ticket was Ivan’s and he won he would like to buy a new property and properly furnish it. He would also like to go travelling and pay off his debts. Putting forty thousand dollars worth in the back to collect interest on it. For once in his life he would have a better life that he dreamed of, being well fed, warm and healthy. His wife agreed on the idea of an estate. Ivan seems to be selfish when it comes to how to spend his wife’s lottery ticket, and thinking she should not go along travelling with him. He puts himself before other people and seems to not care about his wife’s feelings and ideas such as when he says, "she knows nothing about money, and so she is stingy. If she won it she would give me a hundred roubles, and put the rest away under lock and key" states Ivan about his wife. The lottery ticket has came between Ivan and his wife, making them have hate feeling towards each other, even though they didn’t end up winning. They got their hopes and dreams up and will never be able to pursue them. Ivan references to killing himself at the end of the story, I think he wants to commit suicide because he got his hopes up over something he usually wouldn’t, and learning that his and his wife’s dreams are different.

Wing's Chips ~ Mavis Gallant (Page 204)

Adams Bros. That Stinkin' Deere

Cross Family. Double Cross

                                                          

Doug Ruston. Stray Voltage 



Many Friday nights all throughout the summer I spend travelling along many bumpy roads, all across Southern Ontario, stopping at 15 different locations over a course of a season. Touring in a big truck towing a fifty three foot long trailer behind it carrying two tractors a long with a crew of people, including drivers, a mechanic and family supporting them. You may wonder what I’m talking about, that is tractor pulling. Each event is totally different from the next, but some things are always the same. Some of these events have fairs with rides and all their colourful blinking lights on them but many don’t, they just have a simple food booth and the track. The roaring crowds cheering on their favourite kind of tractor from John Deere to Ford to International. The announcer repeating the same information about each tractor and its driver week after week. Yet the best thing about tractor pulling is the thick black smoke exploding from the tractor as it is departing from the starting line, towing the enormous sled behind it. The rumble from the engine over powering the noise of voices in the background. As the tractor reaches the end of the track, the crowd begins to cheer and shout. If the tractor passes three hundred and ten feet, the announcer shouts, "Full Pull" over the speakers, making the crowd gain enthusiasm.

The Boat ~ Ailstair MacLeod (Page 261)

Here is the link to Morgan and my prezi for our project: http://prezi.com/wvgkpb5xtwyk/english-the-boat/

                                                   

Here is a picture of the visual that we made to go along with our presentation.

The Leap ~ Louise Erdrich (Page 190)

      The mother is a sightless women, and even though she cannot see, she is more cautious then the average person. She never upset anything or makes objects fall to the floor. The mother has a cat like precision, and she is kind, caring, gentle, and graceful. The mother is very wise, and has a very good sense of everything around her and where it is because she never runs into anything and is always graceful no matter what she is doing. She must concentrate a lot on what she is doing to prevent herself from being clumsy and bumping into things since she is unable to physically see everything. She put others before herself and is not afraid to take risks to help others out, such as when the tent collapsed, instead of grabbing her husbands ankle and pulling him down to the ground with her, she allowed him to swing in his own direction to safety, risking her own life. The mother is illiterate, even though she could not read and write she was a very smart lady. In the early years of the mother’s life before she went blind, she was a trapeze artist. When she retired from being a trapeze artist she did not hold onto her past, not keeping old sequined costumes or photographs.

The mother’s daughter is the narrator. Therefore when she is describing her mother to us, its described in greater detail because the daughter lives with her mother on a daily basis and can observe her mother’s actions more closely then a different character tell the story.

Connections:
I can relate to this story because my aunt lost her house in a house fire. In the story the mother was able to save her child from the fire by climbing up the tree and going in through the window. My cousin was in her room sleeping when the fire started. The rest of her family  was able to escape, but could not get to her. She did not come out on her own, and when the fire deparment went into find her room to try and rescue her, they were unable to find her. It turns out that she had went into her closet. I may have not met this cousin, but I wish I would of had the chance to. All the stories I am told about her, she seems great. My grandpa on my dad's side also passed away in a fire, I am unsure as of what happened.