INtheMIDDLE

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” I wonder what season am I? Am I a summer, mature, responsible, and established? Or maybe I am more of a spring, playful, oblivious, and careless. I think I’m more in the middle. Not yet done playing around, but I also have responsibilities, and worried about my future. I like to make jokes at the dinner table, but at the same time I can clean the dishes, and when that’s done I can sit down and study.
Play fighting with my little brother, cracking jokes at the dinner table, and playing pranks on the neighborhood homeless man are ways I have fun. “ Dyneisha you are to old to be doing that!” I remember my mom yelling one afternoon as my little brother and I ran up and down the block playing Frisbee with the neighborhood homeless man’s hat. He yelled for help but we continued to laugh and taunt him. Later on that night I remember feeling the same way Lizabeth felt in the story “Marigold” after ruining Ms. Lottie’s garden, ashamed and embarrassed about my actions. Being so playful keeps me in my spring season. No matter how old I get I guess I’ll always be a child at heart.
With spring ending and summer starting more responsibilities are coming along. When I was younger I was carefree. I was so oblivious to problems around me. My mom being a single parent trying to raise two kids, there were many things we had to go without. Seeing my mom try so hard to take care my little brother and I, I felt obligated to help. Getting a job, I began to help out with the bills. Cleaning the house, cooking dinner and helping my brother with his homework were ways I’d help my mom. Noticing the change in my behavior I realize I was really growing up and entering the summer of my life.
During my elementary and middle school years of my life, I rarely took school serious. “Dyneisha did you finish your homework?” My mom would ask me when she came in from work. “Yes.” I’d lie just so she’d let me go outside or play my game. When I got in my last years of middle school my mom stop asking. She felt I was mature enough to do my homework with out her asking me. I took this and ran with it. I stop doing my homework and studying altogether. When I received my report card I saw the decrease in my grades. I remember thinking “I can bring my grades up next report card period” but I continued to fail. One day a lady had visited our school. She talked about college and life as an adult. The way she described college life made me realize I wanted to get there, but, I wouldn’t be able to do so if I continued to not do my homework and study. Going straight home from school I would study for an hour and read for half an hour. My preparation for the future shows I am in the summer of my life.
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” I wonder what season am I? Am I a summer, mature, responsible, and established? Or maybe I am more of a spring, playful, oblivious, and careless. Maybe I’m both. I like to play around, but I have responsibilities, and am worried about my future. I’m not really sure what I can call myself at this point in my life. This is the hardest question I’ve had to answer yet. What do you think?

What is a GOOD poem?

When asked to define poetry, Robert Hayden said it is “the art of saying the impossible”. When asked to define a good poem, I say a good poem must have images, must be engaging, and, must make a personal connection. These are all the qualities of “The Whipping” by Robert Hayden. Images in the poem were vivid; I could see almost every action. Having read the poem I found it to be engaging, making me think, and making a personal connection as well.
Reading “The Whipping” I found it to have lots of images and visuals. As Robert Hayden described the violent scenes happening in the poem I could see it. “Wildly he crashes through elephant ears pleads in dusty zinnias, while she in spite of crippling fat pursues and corners him”. This is a quote from “The Whipping”, it gave me goose bumps as I imaged a young boy falling to the ground, his mother standing over him with sweat rolling down her forehead, breathing heavily trying to gather much needed energy so she can continue her brutal acts. Descriptions, in the “The Whipping” are one reason why it is a good poem.
Good poems should also be engaging. Starting the poem I thought the poem was about a mother beating her son for his wrongs. Reading on my opinion was changed. Ending the poem Robert Hayden said “ the women leans muttering against a tree exhausted, purged, avenged in part for lifelong hidings she has had to bear”. Based on this I was now lead to believe that the poem was focused on a mom beating her son out of frustration and anger not because he did something wrong. Poems should make you think and make you ask questions, “The Whipping” did this for me and this is another reason why it is a good poem.
“She strikes and strikes the shrilly circling boy till the stick breaks in her hand”. Can you imagine a beating so harsh, I can. Reading this quote made me shiver causing a chill to run up my back. I witnessed one of my family members receiving, from his mother, the same harsh whippings as the character in the poem. The pain Robert Hayden expressed was like a flashback of my own experience. “Head gripped in bony vice of knees, the writhing struggle to wrench free, the blows, the fear”, I could see my family member in this same positions begging for her to stop. A good poem should make a personal connection and “The Whipping” did this for me.
In conclusion, the poem “The Whipping” by Robert Hayden is a great example of a good poem. “The Whipping” has vivid images, it’s engaging, and made a personal connection. What do you think a good poem should be? Funny, sad, makes you smile, have a catchy title, or do you agree, that a good poem should have imagery, be engaging, and makes a connection. The answer is up to you!