Category: McCoy Fall 2018

Alexis Doanhue’s blog post about page poetry inspired my to write my own piece using the same literary technique. I distinctly remember as a child my eyes glazing over the page “reading” about this technique from my older brother’s college literature textbook from St. Johns University but, for years I couldn’t remember exactly what it was called; granted I was only 8 years old at the time but the thought genuinely haunted me for years on end. So after seeing Alexis’ post: https://readerandtext.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2013/10/01/page-poetry/ I couldn’t wait to try this technique properly. The idea of creating a new piece of art with a completely different meaning is honestly what I believe what the true essence of art in all facets is, whether it be writing, drawing, filming or otherwise. As an artist it is one’s responsibility draw inspiration to from life itself and then to leave their art to the ether of life for others to draw upon. Here is my piece of page poetry I hope you all enjoy it.

Do More (take from “The Teacher” by Luis Cernada)
class rhetoric
short chubby with glasses
Schubert
breviary in hand, hands resting in his coat pockets
cap pushed with thick gray hair
read his verses
voice aglow with heartfelt enthusiam
hard for him to understand the mockery
in a pedantic way, naturally
he encouraged me to write
critiquing them, until a graceful hold on the material
“Go to the chapel and pray
give your courage”

one gold morning
without hearing from anyone else
saw a poor little funeral turning the corner
it was my heart that told me so

In Percival Everett’s re:f (gesture), Everett hides the meaning of his poems with convoluted descriptions of the human body. Instead of using common terms, such as the nose, Everett uses the scientific name, such as the “nasal fossae” (51). Claire Corbeaux mentioned that by using scientific terms Everett removes the romanticism because the reader is unable to discern Everett’s intent. However, I clearly saw the sexual romanticism, but this may be because I have some predisposed knowledge of the human body, as a Biology major. I understood the terms Everett was using and I believed that Everett was able to romanticize the human body even more than if he did not use them. This idea attacks New Criticism advocates because objectively there would be no value in Everett’s work without knowledge of those terms, but when known, there is more meaning then there could have been.  Continue reading “Look closer”

Making art or writing something is truly a magical process—I’ve always been astounded by the ability for something to seemingly come out of nothing. In both drawing and in writing you start with a blank page, and then just by layering some values or stringing words together it can become a full-blown piece of art or a book. For example, when working with charcoal  you begin by shading the paper with a layer of charcoal and then you can start pulling values out by going in with an eraser or by adding more charcoal. After some time of reworking that original layer of charcoal (time to complete depends on the size of the paper), it becomes a finished piece of art. It reminds me of the fifth stanza in Everett’s poem “Logic”:

“From rags and dust, a rat is formed in the cellar. It was not there before. Only rags and dust.”

Continue reading “Putting in the Work”

In the Bedford, satirists “debunk and deflate their targets, whether persons, groups, ideas, or institutions” (Murfin 457).  There is a similar term used today that is much more controversial and vague, trolls. Can a satirist be a troll and can a troll be a satirist? Continue reading “Satire or trolling?”

(Image credit)

I have been reflecting, of late, on my blogging experience throughout this class. When looking back at my blog post arch over this semester I could not help but cringe just a little. Looking back at all of them,  I was not proud, especially of my first two posts. I wrote them not knowing how to write on a blog nor what to write about, but before I delve into my growth over this semester, I need to go further back in time.

Continue reading “Growing Pains”