Poetry Padlet by Kimberly Avila

confronted with the terror and wonder of the universe.” This means that poetry helps us explore our emotions and is made to evoke emotional responses from the reader. However, the poem's style, theme, or idea is expressed it brings emotions out of us somehow. It also means that we can interpret poetry however we may please because emotions sometimes do not have meaning they just come out and all of us may experience it differently.

This poem is a poem that evoked a lot of emotions out of me. I read this poem when I was in the sixth grade. It seemed like a cheerful poem at the beginning with the nice description of the children playing and having fun in the sun. I was until the author mentions the word “goat-footed” to describes the balloon man that played with the children. After that I was kind of appalled and quite freaked out that the poem had taken quite a turn. I took the meaning of goat-footed as like the phrase “you old goat” which I see as a lecherous man who is older than the person he is attracted to. It evoked from me various conflicting emotions that contradicted themselves. Which is one of the main reasons I really enjoy reading this poem even to this day. Not everything as it seems and there can be a dark interior to a seemingly nice exterior.

I really enjoyed this poem because it was a quite funny one to me. It is basically about a Martian sending an update to other Martians on what people on earth are like. It makes us see how bizarre the things we do every day really are. I also enjoyed how it describes things, especially how it describes the baby or child. It evokes a cheerful and playful emotion from me and it's one of those poems that are light and really shifts your view on how we do things as humans. It also leaves with me the impression that every human is similar in a way, regardless of race and gender we do various things in the similar manner that can be identified with every one of us.

For me “White lies,” is a very intricate poem. On one basis, it speaks about white lies that children say, but twists it in a way where there is lies on being white or feeling as if white is better. This poem makes me sad because the girl in the poem seems to be brainwashed into believing that it would be better if she were white. I think the Ivory soap symbolizes the ideals of beauty and all the things people believe as beautiful. Ivory obviously being light and white tones and it is usually used to describe skin, are crammed down her throat to feed off. She’d “swallow the suds” as representation of her falling for those lies, the lies of media and other outlying things that keep her from believing that she could be black and still beautiful.

This poem is another light poem I like. It is about a dirty man who hates taking baths because the water is either too hot or too cold. I really like this poem because the description is ridiculously beautiful. Not beautiful in the sense that it makes you imagine beautiful things, but beautiful of how much description there is and how vividly you can imagine it. It evokes obviously, a sense of disgust but I always enjoy reading it nonetheless. It's a fun poem that stimulates most of my senses. I also think of it in the terms of how fussy people can be and end up ruining things for themselves. The man didn’t want to get in the bath because it was either too hot or too cold and lived his life in filth. He wanted a girlfriend to have all these redeeming qualities but also be as dirty as him. His pickiness is humorous due to his situation.

This poem is a very real one. I connect to the narrator immensely because that is how I feel about America all the time. America can be quite terrible at times, but there is no doubt that I like to live here because of most of the freedom we do have. It is better than living in any other places with restrictions on their liberty. It evokes strong emotions of anger and of passion. Anger because there are still some injustices prevalent in America but passion because I do prefer living out of other places.

This poem is about a student taking an English class in which he must describe himself in his paper. The teacher asks everyone in class to do it and the narrator expects his paper to be different because he is black in an all-white school. I can see how his point of view may be different than the others in his class. It makes me feel proud that he would describe himself with pride in his race to tell him the reality of being himself. It evokes empathy from me when he makes it somewhat clear that we as humans are very similar despite race. Theme for English b is a good view into the mind of an average boy from Harlem.

This poem creeped me out. I liked it because it’s different and gives you another mood to explore. This poem is about the lover of a woman named Annabel Lee who was killed. He loved her so much he would sleep in her grave. In a sense, he makes it seems like if he were Annabel Lee’s stocker. In the third stanza, he says something like someone wanting to steal Annabel lee from him and he was sad. It seems as if though the narrator is looking at her from afar and can only be near her in death. This really does make me get chills it also makes me sad that he never had a chance to be with this woman he loved so much. This makes you think of all the chances you miss and all the what ifs in your life.

This poem to me has a deeper meaning than what it literally means. The first lines to me symbolize like the wrath we keep to ourselves keeps growing and festering into a long and unnecessary issue. As compared to when the narrator got his wrath out in the beginning where it was just 2 lines long and didn’t continue from there. The anger we build up can be disastrous and may affect everyone in a negative way if not controlled. This poem made me want to be really open with my emotions and speak up when I feel uncomfortable.

When I read this, I felt complete encouragement. I wanted to be like the woman in the poem full of courage and self-love. I could relate to it and I really love this poem. It is basically describing what makes a phenomenal woman and why they are so phenomenal. I could see myself in this poem and every time I need to be reminded of what a phenomenal woman is I refer to this poem. This poem fills me with the pride of being a woman and encourages me to be the best woman I can be. I enjoyed this poem immensely and always keep it with me. I believe Maya Angelou meant to do that with her poem to inspire and create the fire that fuels us women.

This poem is one that everyone should read. It inspires you to rise from any perils life may throw at you. “Still I rise,” I believe was meant for the people who are more sought out in the community whose odds are very against them. She is saying that no matter who you are, what you are you have the will to fight and continue living. With anything life and people may do or say to be unfazed. This made me really want to show this to people who needed it. People who may seem sad or discouraged. It also made me feel pride for Maya and her amazing poems. It made me feel pride in knowing a woman could inspire and has inspired many strong women as herself.

A thing that really fuels me and evokes a strong emotional response is music. I love almost all types of music and it really affects me immensely. There have been songs that have driven me to tears and songs that I dance uncontrollably to, (even if I don’t know how to dance). I need to express these emotions somehow and I do it the most natural way I know how. A song that lights my fire would be, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” by the Beatles. That song evokes a ton of emotions from me. It confuses me in a good way, it can bring joy, sorrow, and disbelief. I enjoy this song very much because it's so confusing but beautiful.

My favorite of all would really have to be A Martian sends a postcard home because it is so well written. It is a poem you can really follow through with. The title matches exactly on what it is saying and the metaphors are well processed. I like how it makes the reader reflect on the odd things we can do every day and see how similar everyone is. Most of the things that are described in the poem are shared by almost all of us.