Writing Response to Toqueville

The poem that jumped out at me the most was On My Mind. I found it very interesting that the author thought that this woman, who we would consider "white trash", was so incredibly lovely. He speaks of her gold tooth and extensive cigarette smoking as if they were charming qualities. He even says that he loved her, but he knew that he shouldn't because she was the type of woman who would think nothing of him. I love the metaphor he uses to say this: "for she could brush me away like a curl of smoke."

I loved the structure and punctuation of the poem. My favorite author, Ellen Hopkins, structures her poems very similarly. I am currently reading her book Perfect and the flow of the poems from that book was fresh in my mind when I read Toqueville, so On My Mind stood out to me. Her poems are also only a page or two long, so i opted for the shorter poem.

The poem takes place in a factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Keeping that in mind when i re-read the poem, I realized that he must be in an area where many rednecks live. He talks about how she wants to keep a man around and keep her son in school and keep her daughter from becoming a teen mom, which means that they probably live in a lower income area. Pregnancy rates are higher among impoverished teens, as are drop out rates. It's difficult for a single mother to raise two teenage children on her own on a factory worker's salary, so that must be why she wants to keep a man around.

Writing Response two

When I first started reading the Goldberg book, I was nervous. Were my writing habits good? Was I doing something wrong? Am I a good writer? Apparently, I am doing something right. One of the chapters talked about setting aside a certain amount of time to write. I have a writing blog on tumblr and, since creating it, I force myself to write at least once a day; sometimes for an hour, sometimes for ten minutes. It all depends on how i feel that day.

She also talks about associating writing with chocolate chip cookies (i think we talked about this in class?) Recently, someone I knew passed away. I wasn't close to him, but I have still been very sad. I find it hard to put the words together to process my grief in my writing. Lately, I have been watching the show Skins and, in the season I have been watching, one of the characters dies. It shows how the other characters deal with the death, and that has helped me pour out my feelings. Skins actually helps me feel my sadness very intensely, which helps me write and process through it.

My favorite part of the book was when she talked about how we are not the feelings that we write about. It really hit home for me because for so long I have felt that I am my sadness. I am my depression. I don't know how to live without it, which is why I was afraid to go on antidepressants.

Writing Response

I throughly enjoyed the poem "Lens" because it brought up so much imagery for me. I love the idea of glass being a metaphor for how fragile people are. To me, the phrase "blue into white" reminds me of how i have heard someone describe bipolar disorder. "Air full of unfallen rain" is an amazing way to describe waiting.

Introducing Me

My name is Hayley. I'm 20 years old and I am currently in my second semester at Eastern Michigan University. I came to Eastern for their teaching program originally, but upon further investigation, I realized I do not want to teach anymore. Instead, I want to look into the Creative Writing Program. 
I have loved reading and writing since elementary school. As I got older, reading and writing became therapeutic. I was lonely and sad and no one wanted to hear what I had to say, so writing allowed me to talk to the page.
When i was 16, I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. I did not have a support system; I had no one to help me besides my therapist. 
Recently, I created a writing blog on tumblr. It forces me to write at least once a day and it is extremely therapeutic. 
I took Intro to Creative Writing as a test; if I can do well in this class, maybe my writing is good enough to make it a career.