Michael+Kelly

Michael Kelly Science Leadership Academy English, Mr. Block Poetry Portfolio


 * __Favorite Poetic Quote:__** "There has never been a day when I have not been proud of you, I said to my son, though some days I'm louder about other stuff so it's easy to miss that." - Storypeople

Compact, but yet complicated. So tiny, but acts as nexus for worldwide information. A directory, connecting and uniting man with society.
 * __Original Ode Poem:__** //My cell phone//

I share information with the world, thru this little device. I hear stories, and gather information just from a push of a button.

Something so common, but highly valued and treasured amongst mankind.

I imagine how life was without cellular phones. Communications consisting of redundant letters and personal converses. Oh how I am grateful for living in a society in which, cell phones are constantly present.


 * __Riff Poem:__** //Music Artist, Every Time I Die//

The World is too incredible, to bring such ugliness into it.

Families, separated by divorces. Brothers, torn by deaths. Sisters, hurt by dramatic events. Fans, hopeless, by idols cheating. Mothers, disappointed by child's mistakes. Fathers, upset by daughter's actions. Grandparents, hurt, due to isolation.

So much negativity in this world. People strive for happiness, but are pulled down by actions commited by people around them.

Why can't everyone just remain a family?


 * __Sonnet:__**

I am an individual, preparing myself for the world. Taking risks, and adventures, my life is in a twirl.

I go out and explore, one section at a time. My brain is filled with new ideas, everything is on my mind.

I am influenced by society. Everything just seems to contribute to my anxiety.

I walk, and tour my surroundings. The world is amazing, my heart is pounding.

New places and people. Homes, parks, schools and steeples.

I hope one day I'll get to see and understand everything, I will one day be a bird, exploring the world, flapping my wings.


 * __Statement about my poetry:__**

I do not really consider myself a poetic person, though I do really enjoy writing. I enjoy researching and learning more about things, and how things work. I enjoy expanding my mind, and examining different perspectives on issues. I mainly enjoy writing informative papers, and I also like writing non-fictional stories about events in my life. My aspirations defiantly include writing a book one day. In my writing you will notice a lot of vocabulary, or so I believe. I really love words and language, therefore I always try to find the most descriptive words to use in my writing. A technique I always use in my writing is making sure I use all sensory observations to describe people, places and things. To me, it is really important to allow your audience to really visualize what you are describing as a writer.


 * __Fishing on the Susquehanna by Billy Collins__**

I have never been fishing on the Susquehanna or on any river for that matter to be perfectly honest.

Not in July or any month have I had the pleasure--if it is a pleasure-- of fishing on the Susquehanna.

I am more likely to be found in a quiet room like this one-- a painting of a woman on the wall,

a bowl of tangerines on the table-- trying to manufacture the sensation of fishing on the Susquehanna.

There is little doubt that others have been fishing on the Susquehanna,

rowing upstream in a wooden boat, sliding the oars under the water then raising them to drip in the light.

But the nearest I have ever come to fishing on the Susquehanna was one afternoon in a museum in Philadelphia

when I balanced a little egg of time in front of a painting in which that river curled around a bend

under a blue cloud-ruffled sky, dense trees along the banks, and a fellow with a red bandanna

sitting in a small, green flat-bottom boat holding the thin whip of a pole.

That is something I am unlikely ever to do, I remember saying to myself and the person next to me.

Then I blinked and moved on to other American scenes of haystacks, water whitening over rocks,

even one of a brown hare who seemed so wired with alertness

//I believe this poem has a more deeper meaning than what is actually presented. I believe that "fishing on the Susquehanna" is symbolic to "things that society contributes to." I believe that Billy Collins is talking about how "just because a lot of people do it, and find pleasure in it, he does not feel the needs to do it." I could be wrong, but this is how I interpreted the poem.//


 * __Some Days by Billy Collins__**

Some days I put the people in their places at the table, bend their legs at the knees, if they come with that feature, and fix them into the tiny wooden chairs.

All afternoon they face one another, the man in the brown suit, the woman in the blue dress, perfectly motionless, perfectly behaved.

But other days, I am the one who is lifted up by the ribs, then lowered into the dining room of a dollhouse to sit with the others at the long table.

Very funny, but how would you like it if you never knew from one day to the next if you were going to spend it

striding around like a vivid god, your shoulders in the clouds, or sitting down there amidst the wallpaper.

//This poem was my favorite of the three. I believe Billy Collins is talking about he doesn't really know where he is in life. Whether he is a proper man, or a laid back person. He doesn't want to be consistent it seems. It tells the audience that every day is different than the next. Some days he is a man who tries to make everything and everyone around him perfect, and there are days where he is a man who lets things go and is motionless when it comes to "proper etiquette."//


 * __Introduction to Poetry__**

I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.

//We actually evaluated this poem in class. We figured that the poem meant that poems are ripped apart and analyzed from all angles. Which isn't a bad thing, by the way. He tells that you can take a reader (the mouse) and make him read a poem (the maze) and watch him find his way to end (relating to the poem). I believe Billy is mainly talking about perspective, and how a perspective on a poem differs from person to person, and all poems may mean something else to someone else.//


 * __Billy Collins__**

Billy Collins is one of my favorite poets, out of the poets we talked about and analyzed throughout this quarter. His style is very unique and faceted. To me, he takes an average situation (going fishing, eating at a dinner table, etc) and turns it into a much deeper issue (following society, being unique, not following the "norm"). He also uses a lot of metaphors and is also very descriptive in his writing. Something I also noticed is how he breaks sentences apart, and how he structures his poems. It's very different and also interesting to follow.

//A photo by Michael Kelly//
 * __Art Work__**