I Found Out Today...

I found out today

That I could not run away

I could not wake up late

Or tell life to wait

I found out today

That I could not go and play

I could not enjoy the sun

Or go have some fun

I found out today

That I had bills to pay

I could not put food on the table

Or buy my kids cable

I found out today

That my mother had passed away

When I slipped and scraped my knee

There was no one to help me

I found out today

That my hair had turned gray

That I had gained twenty pounds

And my smile was a frown

I found out today

That my son made it to Broadway

I haven’t seen him at all

Except in a box 2 by 3 feet tall

I found out today

That I could not remember the day

I could not lift my feet

Or walk down the street

I found out today

That my life had passed away

And I did not have the time

To say a proper goodbye

Explication:

This is a standard rhyming poem I wrote about a man waking up to find that he has grown old and lost the gifts of youth. It fits in with my theme of youth perfectly - the message being the transience of youth.

The tone of the poem is troubled, heavy, and melancholy, to emphasize what time and age has done to this man. The repetition of "I found out today" adds to the dreary and weighed down tone, while also giving the reader a simple structure to follow the old man's thoughts. The repetition of "I found out today" also touches on the shortness of youth, as it seems the old man just woke one day realizing he's old and unloved. The poem has stanzas of 4 lines, with 2 rhyming couplets for every stanza. Each stanza aims to portray a trouble the old man has that in his youth was not present.

Behind the Camera..., by Orlando

My Child
So beautiful, so innocent
His head is a marble
His hands small as a kitten’s paws
His movement curious
A whole world to explore

I cannot remember when I was my child’s age
But it was no doubt a happy time
Serene, fresh, right
How clear my mind must’ve been
Unsaddled by tomorrow’s bill or delusional promotions
Living in a clear bubble of blissful ignorance
Where the only problem was in the diaper
And the solution the nearest trash bin

My Child
Always smiling, always laughing
His lips pull into a smile
That melts my heart like a snowflake landed on a child’s tongue
I long to hold him
And keep him in my arms forever

I look forward to all my days with my child
Holding his hand on the first day to school
Teaching him golden rules
Skimming my finger across the lines
As he reads his first book

My Child
Forever young, but always growing
He runs over to me
And falls clumsily into my embrace
Through good times and bad
He is now my world

I don’t want to leave the present
But the future is imminent
They truly do grow up so fast
And many years from now, when I grow whiskers like the farmer’s cat
And lose my knees to time, will he hold me?
Will he find a way to let me know
That although I’ve grown old, I will forever remain
In his heart.
Until then, I’ll spend every moment for him
My Child


Explication:

This is a free verse poem I wrote from the perspective of "behind the camera". When we look at pictures, we are so often caught up in the images and colors that we never ponder on what the person taking the picture was thinking. With that in mind, I wrote a poem in the perspective of a mother taking a picture of her baby son. It fits in with my theme of childhood and youth in numerous ways: by paying tribute to our mother's love in childhood, by painting imagery of an innocent baby, and delving into the idea of past generations and new ones.

Free verse is a form of poetry that has no set meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern. However, some poets have explained that free verse must still retain some level of form. The "form" in this poem can be found in the repetition of "My Child" every other stanza. The effect I am trying to get here is to have alternating stanzas of the mother describing her son and then her own thoughts about life and new generations. Poetic devices in this poem are scarce but are present, especially in describing the son. For instance, "his hands small as kitten paws" and "That melts my heart like a snowflake landed on a child’s tongue" are both examples of similes.

The Credo, by Robert Fulghum

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don't hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don't take things that aren't yours.

Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life — learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.

Wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup — they all die. So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned — the biggest word of all — LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all — the whole world — had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are — when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.


Explication:

This poem is a list poem by Robert Fulghum from his book "All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Kindgergarten". A list poem is one in which the writer starts his or her brainstorming for the poem by making a list and writes the poem from the list. The list poem is a very old form of poetry. It itemizes things or events. List poems can be of any length, rhymed, or unrhymed. In this case, "The Credo" is a standard list poem without rhyme.

His poem fits in nicely with my theme: childhood and youth. Robert Fulghum's "The Credo" is really the equivalent of an ode to youth. He finds many witty ways to personify youth and childhood and glorify it. For example, "Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School." When he lists "the things he learned", every item seems to echo a more innocent, peaceful time in our lives, when the rules were as simple as "play fair" and "put things back where you found them." As a result, the tone is generally humorous and playful. But nearing the end of the poem, Fulghum touches on a more serious message, to enjoy our youth and embrace others in our lives. That message is summed up in the last line, "And it is still true, no matter how old you are — when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together." "Hold hands and stick together" is repeated twice throughout the poem to emphasize the message.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this poem. Although it is at times silly and childlike, many lines are sagacious and enduring. My favorite line is "Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup — they all die. So do we."

Theme

The theme is: Childhood and Youth

An Elegy to Food, by Orlando

I pity you, tiny morsel;
Indeed, you live a life of strife.
You trivial piece of cheese
You innocent crumb of bread
You harmless chicken’s egg.

I pity you, tiny morsel, for you lead
A lonely life, with none a friend
Because once the leviathan sees you
It’s goodbye, adios, the end!
Cheese, I’m sure the others have told you
Cheddar, Monterey Jack, your beloved spouse, Macaroni
That the human nose can detect eight hundred smells
Of which includes the odour, cheesy.

And you, Tiny Crumb, hasn’t Mama Loaf told the tale?
Of the human mouth, said to contain
Rows and rows of teeth sharper than the corners of a Graham cracker
And molten saliva
Hotter than a Caffe Mocha at room temperature

And, alas, my beautiful chicken’s egg
I mourn for you the most
Even you, in all your curvilinear glory and immaculate whiteness
Cannot be revived
For the only thing the human mind computes upon seeing you is
Boiled, scrambled, or fried?

Oh, how I pity you, tiny morsel
But I beckon you, do not lose faith
There is always hope you see –
A promise land, a life with at least average dignity
Once you have traversed the human esophagus
Become compressed by peristalsis
Thrown around in the stomach
Showered down with acid
Completed the six meter intestinal route
And endured tickling under the forearms by pancreatic enzymes
Until you reach the end line and become rectum-ified
There, you will be greeted by the Angel, Anus
A most charming fellow

And then, I promise you, tiny morsel
Everything will be okay
For your Heaven is only
A gentle flush away


Explication:

This poem is about food! Everyone loves food, but as a teenager myself and a witness to the tremendous appetites of some of my peers, its safe to conclude that food is a frequently reoccurring thought in the teenage mind. This fits perfectly with my theme, the theme of growing up and going through different stages in life.

This poem is, in essence, a mock elegy (in my own words, a play on an elegy with characteristics of a mock epic). Several poetic devices are used throughout the poem. There is no set rhyme scheme, but I used rhyming throughout the poem to add to the playful humor and tone. I also used similes, imagery, and inflated, bombastic language to add to the effect of a mock epic. An example of this would be, "Of the human mouth, said to contain rows and rows of teeth sharper than the corners of a Graham cracker and molten saliva hotter than a Caffe Mocha at room temperature".

I also alluded to the idea of Heaven from the Bible near the end of the poem, where the food has met the Angel Anus and flushed to its "heaven".

School, by Orlando

School. Is it necessary?
Is it reasonable, is it practical?
What does a ten year old get from learning about non-real numbers

That exist in a world of their own?

Will algebra help me fry an egg?

Will knowing that E=mc² get me to the supermarket any faster?

Will learning about Social Darwinism really help me find my soul mate?

Perhaps…

But the question remains.

School. Is it necessary?

Is it reasonable, is it practical?

Does a sixteen year old teenager really care whether he is preached evolution or creationism,

When all he can think about is reproduction-ism?

270 days of the year, give or take

1600 hours, take or give

And for that matter, is it “taking a crap” so much as “giving a crap”?

These are the questions the school board can’t provide textbooks for!

So stop cutting the budget and start cutting to the cheese!

But really, at the end of the day

Who needs science, when we have cars, trains, airplanes?

Who needs math, when we have calculators?

Who needs literature, when we can express our happiness with a smiley face

And indicate our laughter with three letters?

Who needs history, when the new generation lives for today, and today only?

School…

Is why this poem is due tomorrow.

Explication:

This is a free verse poem that follows the thoughts of a teenager contemplating the value of school. He is ambivalent because he doesn't understand why school is so important but he is constantly told how significant a good education is. My theme is childhood and obviously school is a big part of that.

I tried to make the tone informal enough to fit the voice of a teenager and at the same time hint at a more serious issue being touched upon in the poem. The last 5 lines presented as open ended questions serve to suggest that although the boy questions the value of school, in the end he acknowledges the significance of a good education. There's a reason so many of our enlightened forefathers pushed for free education for all. The last 5 lines play at sarcasm.

There are really no poetic devices here, other than the repetition of "School. Is it necessary? Is it reasonable, is it practical?" In essence, the poem aims to poke fun at the reader and approach school in a different, refreshing perspective.