Here a power point to overview Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried":

Tim O’Brien

The Things They Carried

Soldiers who fight together become close in many ways.

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was the leader of the pack.  He was so distracted by the love of his life, Martha.  The problem…he hasn’t told her that he loves her and she hasn’t told him that she loves him.  He is in the middle of a war with thoughts of her and not knowing if he’ll ever be able to tell her.  He keeps her letters neatly folded in his pocket so he can reread them anytime.  She sends him a pebble that he keeps in his mouth.  His love for her is deep and serial. 

Their journeys together are tireless

Walking aimlessly for miles with the weight of all their gear can weigh a person down.  They walk because it’s an order.  Up and down and then again up and down. 

 

Ted Lavender was shot in the head and died instantly.  He was a friend of Jimmy Cross.  He Cried which to the other men thought he was faking.  The lose of Ted Lavender hit Jimmy Cross so hard because he blamed himself.  He was thinking about Martha and that’s why he wasn’t on his game.  In reality there was nothing that Jimmy could have done to help Ted.  Ted was shot in the head from over ten feet away. 

 

The men would wrap Ted’s body in his poncho and wait for the next resupply helicopter to come.  The resupply helicopter came by every two weeks.  They carried various supplies for the soldiers.  Tobacco, hot chow, grenades and gun supplies.

The Pictures were taken from the Following sites:

*http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.army-technology.com/projects/uh_1y/images/UH-1Yhuey_10.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.army-technology.com/projects/uh_1y/uh_1y10.html&usg=__WpIelaUgu7SOn23n6iRMRpQcmTQ=&h=379&w=580&sz=45&hl=en&start=76&zoom=1&tbnid=AmMfKG6RfYEPWM:&tbnh=125&tbnw=192&ei=lNthTYzWJoqCsQOz_azDCA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwar%2Bhelicopter%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1199%26bih%3D639%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:10,2399&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=885&vpy=264&dur=2415&hovh=181&hovw=278&tx=118&ty=119&oei=jdthTdeuK4--sAOC58TECA&page=6&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:76&biw=1199&bih=639

*http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://messengerandadvocate.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/iraq-war.jpg&imgrefurl=http://messengerandadvocate.wordpress.com/2007/03/&usg=__ARJTx0UNR1tusBcXwoZGkTKjHJo=&h=400&w=321&sz=23&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=0iWC_A68djopXM:&tbnh=154&tbnw=124&ei=rdthTczAFor6sAOu2a3UCA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwar%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1199%26bih%3D639%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=283&oei=rdthTczAFor6sAOu2a3UCA&page=1&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0&tx=82&ty=119

*http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.defenselink.mil/dodcmsshare/photoessay/2009-11/hires_110917-N-5145S-002a.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.defenselink.mil/PhotoEssays/PhotoEssaySS.aspx%3FID%3D1494&usg=__skuKWdETuMRZBJBChSK-rLoN2tk=&h=2761&w=4142&sz=8686&hl=en&start=989&zoom=1&tbnid=peokaTmq7u9XxM:&tbnh=157&tbnw=209&ei=PdxhTdz5DoissAOyoYDVCA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwar%26start%3D247%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1199%26bih%3D639%26gbv%3D2%26output%3Dimages_json%26tbs%3Disch:11,29847&chk=sbg&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=727&oei=9dthTfGgKo_6swPPgrS6CA&page=60&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:989&tx=152&ty=102&biw=1199&bih=639
LINK:http://www.illyria.com/tobsites.html

Responding to a Poem

Karie Lake

11 Feb 2011

Laura Cline

Eng 102

Responding to a Poem

There are two poems that intrigued me.  In Joy Harjo’s “The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window.”I think from just the title that she is going to be talking about a woman hanging from a window.  The poem starts off with a woman hanging from the thirteenth window and it’s not until the end of the poem that I realized she wasn’t just talking about a woman hanging from a window.  The poem has much more meaning than just a woman hanging from a window.  “She thinks she will be set free”(Harjo line 7) is where is starting to think more about the woman’s feelings and less about a woman hanging from a window on the thirteenth floor.  To me Harjo was talking about this woman’s feelings.  “She thinks she remembers listening to her own life break loose, as she falls from the 13th floor window on the east side of Chicago, or as she climbs back up to claim herself again”(Harjo lines 64-66).  This is the last sentence in the poem and it moved me that the whole poem is about a woman that has lost someone and is having a hard time dealing with it.  I think that the person she lost was her husband.  It’s very and moving.  This was a great poem. 

“Letter Composed During a Lull in the fighting” by Kevin Powers was also a very moving a well written piece.  “I tell her I love her like not killing”(Powers line 1) is the first line and in that line he has said more than I think I was expecting.  Going through the poem there are many analogies of love and war.  I was moved by this poem, he was writing to the love of his while deployed for war.  The last line said more about war than I think a lot of us could put into logical words.  “I tell her how Pvt. Bartle says, offhand, that war is just us making little pieces of metal pass through each other”(Powers lines 9-12).  This is a poem gives the reader both a feel of war and love and to me it was a great way for Powers to tell his love to his significant other. 

Work Cited

Harjo, Joy. “The Woman Hanging From the Thirteenth Floor Window.” Poetry      Foundation.2006.11 Feb.2011.Web.

Powers, Kevin C. “Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting.” Poetry Foundation.11 Feb.               2011. Web.           

http://www.google.com/imgres?

imgurl=http://www.louderbacks.com/home/images/POETRY.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.louderbacks.com/&usg=__T-PdU1qgSB3jdKAO2ZLoSNiwSck=&h=558&w=534&sz=65&hl=en&start=4&zoom=1&tbnid=ATqbG8HZAXRbjM:&tbnh=133&tbnw=127&ei=qhZYTf3xHonmsQOVgrWxBQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpoetry%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1199%26bih%3D675%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1

 To find more poetry please check out the following:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/

Sam Hamill "The Necessity to Speak"

Karie Lake

Mrs. Cline

Eng 102

6 February 2011

Sam Hamill

            The poem “The Necessity to Speak” was an eye opening poem.  It was full of information that I had never heard of before or even given that much thought to.  Occasionally when watching the news it is brought to our attention that woman and children are battered.  Nothing can prepare us for what really goes on; Sam gives us a look into that life and what can happen.  The poem was so full of information it seemed to jump around a lot.  It was very education for me while reading that it didn’t bother me that it seemed to jump around. 

            Sam expresses his own life experience while he was in prison and it just makes me sick that people actually could gang rape and beat a fourteen year old little boy.  Just think about when you were a fourteen your old and you thought you knew everything.  You did anything to fit and it seems like Sam did things to fit but they were not good choices.  He was a little boy who was battered by his parents.  To be thrown in Prison doesn’t seem like the right thing, I don’t know what he did to get into prison.  Sam later goes into talking about the woman that came to the creative writing class and it moved me.  It was amazing how many lives were touched.  It’s truly amazing the live that was changed by attending the class.  This woman that managed to take what Sam tout her and get out of a battered situation should be news headlines. 

            The time of the poem that was spent talking about the war and innocents that sign up to fight our battles was an eye opener.  We hear about the war and soldiers that die fighting but the details of how the sign up and they are so innocent is just disgusting.  How at the age of eighteen is younger is a man or woman capable of knowing what they are getting themselves into by signing up for that armed forces.  These men and woman are promised the world and most give their lives to something that we can’t understand.  Do they even understand what and why they are fighting? 

            Overall this poem is another example why I have changed my outlook on poetry.  Poetry can be so complicated and confusing.  It makes it boring; I tend to shut down with that kind of poetry.  Sam moved me and opened my eyes to the realness of poetry.  It doesn’t have to rhyme or use fancy big words.  The poetry that she wrote was simple and gave great knowledge for those who are blind to the world.  The poetry that she wrote was simple and gave great knowledge for those who are blind to the world. 

The link below is a great place to go to learn more about Sam Hamill: 

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/733
The link for the Picture:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.enduringamerica.com/storage/blog-post-images/IRAN%2520PRISON.jpg%3F__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION%3D1293012367983&imgrefurl=http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/tag/sakineh-mohammadi-ashtiani&usg=__yEc0lAm1rFeG4b1Lo6INWZ5Sv4k=&h=361&w=519&sz=52&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=tKxp47kwsw3WcM:&tbnh=168&tbnw=232&ei=M-5OTd2QG4zCsAOE3_mWCg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dprison%2Bbars%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1199%26bih%3D675%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=536&vpy=399&dur=1119&hovh=187&hovw=269&tx=174&ty=155&oei=M-5OTd2QG4zCsAOE3_mWCg&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:0