Poetry

                       Blocks of Poetry

                                                     By: Radicalroy         June 2000, Philippines

I’ve been in love teaching English language and English literature for sixteen years. By applying so much creativity caused my class lively, joyfully, and sentimentally. Most of my students wanted to learn how to build blocks of poetry. Here, it goes… Myth, metaphor, and images are the resource materials by which a poem achieves the structure and thought necessary for its existence.  Poem is a unit of utterance with specific elements, it manifests the pattern, a design, hidden or obvious, by which the relationship of its parts can be determined. Because it is also a semiotic code a way of saying something and meaning another-that patters must work for the verification of the meaning of the code.

The element of myth constructs the foundation of the poem, the ground of its meaning. It is the narrative structure that holds together the poem’s literal and metaphoric frameworks. The literal provides the entry into the poem and enables the readers to begin communicating with consciousness behind it through a consideration of its grammatical and compositional levels.  “The Raven,” by Edgar Allan Poe, is giving us an entrance into the story of the poem by revealing its situation or setting. All poems have stories because all poems have personas, or speakers, who make us aware of a particular reality. Often we mistake the persona for the author of the poem. The author writes the poem but is not necessarily the one talking in it. We get the knowledge of the speakers by the configuration of their words-their phraseology, terminology, and imagery. Their sense and personality show through all these, helping move the main idea of the poem along the line of its argument.

The metaphoric framework contains the code- deeper meaning of the composition. It depends of the figurative language to make its point. By analogy, comparison, understatement, exaggeration, and symbolism, for instance, an utterance provides clues to a hidden meaning. We decode it by applying our knowledge of the nature of tropes to the linguistic message. The song of R Kelly which is one of my favorite songs “I believe I can fly. I believe I can touch the sky…” we know the utterance is not on the literal level. So we try to see its meaning in the context of the fly of fancy of someone in a state of strong emotion. The poem is nothing if not a figurative rendition of a practical situation. By elevating speech to its highest possible degree, it alters our perception of things. We see through the figure of speech, and we are enlightened and instructed.

In most cases, poets depend on their situational reality for their story. Their own personal experience and the experiences of the people around them are rich sources of materials on which to build the foundation of the poem. The myth is a code, and the code relies for effectiveness on the strong application of the imagination and figure of speech. When the proper relationship between myth, image and metaphor exists, the poem can be said to be built on the strong materials, and it can produce many interrelated meanings for delectation. The poem then becomes not only a unique composition but, more importantly, a cultural item. It will inspire those it reaches and touch their sensibility.

Photos: Google

EID MUBARAK

                              to all my Muslim students and friends.

                                        by: Radicalroy September 2009, Tajikistan 

God, You never promised to keep us from life’s storm, but You will keep us through them. 

God, thank You that in every trial, challenge, and difficulty, You are behind the scenes working things out for our good this Ramadan month. Help us to see your hand God always working in everything.

God, we confess that we are not always thankful for all You have done.  We owe our very lives to You! Help us to be filled with your praises, and then go out in obedience to serve You.

Oh God’s love! So rich and pure! So measureless and strong! So shall forevermore endure-your people and angels’ songs.

Photos: Mr. Salih Erdem & Google

School Time Again

School Time Again!

By: radicalroy/ Sept. 30’07 Indonesia

Summer is over! Back to school again. Surely, students feeling excited, having new shoes, notebooks, bags, hair style, new friends, and new teachers and many more.  Meeting new students or getting reacquainted with classmates can be overwhelming, especially the shy or reserved type of students. 

Students get nervous on the first day of school due to self introduction, telling about what their expectation, and bringing mountainous homework. It's perfectly normal to feel nervous on the first day of school. Getting back to the school routine and adjusting to new workloads takes some getting used to after a long summer break. 

Kids have a hard time to adjust after a summer of sleeping in or doing things on, the alarm bell will once again announce the first day of school can be a rude awakening. Most of them are anxious heading back to school signals a time of transition: new classes, new teachers, new schedules, and a new social scene.

Best actors and actresses none other than the “teachers” pretending to be nice on the first day of classes. Some teachers let you pick your own seat on the first day, but by the following days, they'll have mapped out a seating plan for the students to be organized. It's a good idea! New teachers will probably give you an overview of the course syllabus, class rules, what the semester will be like, what supplies you'll need, and expectations of your performance and behavior. Some teachers will jump right into their first lesson, while others may have non-coursework activities planned. It all depends on the class and teacher.

School is one of the best places to make friends and learn ways around is by joining school clubs, sports teams, activities such as; soccer field goal, sing a solo, getting involved in other ways — going to a school play, helping with a bake sale, or cheering on friends at a swim meet — can help feel like a part of things.

School is a time to make friends and try new things, but it's also a place to learn skills like organization and decision making that will come in handy for the rest of your life.

SORRY GUYS! I love you all! Thanks for all the messages. School principal told me a lot about your request. Again it's my decision not to renew due to the snow (weather). I beg your understanding. Most of the airport policemen asked me if I am a celebrity because most of you came to the airport just to say bye bye… I thought what you told me was like a joke the day before leaving, I didn't pay attention to it. I was busy that day. I didn't sleep and got tired going to the airport. I gained strength when I saw all of you there. Yes, I’m quiet flattered because 99% came from grades 5 to 11 and you never did this to other foreign teachers as the principal told me. You made me cry. Always give respect to all local and foreign teachers. They are gift from God to you. I LOVE YOU ALL!

DRAMA

DRAMA

                                                              By: radicalroy Sept. 1’95 Philippines

Drama gives the real meaning of my life, and it speaks volumes. It cautions and counsels, 

teaches justice and keeps alive pity. It celebrates man’s liberty and his struggles, and all that is noble wanders into it. It enlists the sympathies to such an extent that the listener is his own poet. It analyzes all motives, withholding nothing, lays bare everything. It is in fact the plainest, most direct of all forms of teaching. It does not formulate morals in words, but in deeds; and if life, which is the drama, is not a constant mentor, unheeded also in its teachings, what is it? 

Logos designed by the professional founder of MASK & LB Performing Arts Director, Scriptwriter and Choreographer - Radicalroy

Mirror Yourself

                Mirror Yourself  

                                                                                     By: radicalroy

                                                                                February 10’09  Tajikistan

God speaks to us about ourselves, about what God wants us to do and what God wants us to become; and this is the area where I believe that we know so much more about God than we admit even to ourselves, where people hear God speak even if they do not believe.  A face comes toward us down the street: do we raise our eyes or de we keep them lowered, passing by in silence? Somebody says something about somebody else and what he says happens to be not only cruel but also funny, and everybody laughs. Do we laugh to, or do we speak the truth? When a friend has hurt us, do we take pleasure in hating him, because hate has its pleasure as well as love, or do we try to build back some flimsy little bridge? Sometime when we are alone, thoughts come swarming into our heads like bees-some of them destructive, ugly, self-defeating thoughts, some of them creative and glad. Which thoughts do we choose to think then, as much as we have the choice? Will we brave today or coward today? Not in some big way probably but in some little foolish way, yet brave still?  Will we be honest today or a liar? Just some pint-sized honesty, but honest still. Will we be a friend or cold as ice today?

All the absurd little meetings, decisions, inner skirmishes that go to make up our days. It all adds up to very little, and yet it all adds up to very much. Our days are full of nonsense, and yet not, because it is precisely into the nonsense of our days that God speak to us words of great significance. 

                                                 photo by: Mumtaz Salih Erdem // Flickr

Salih

                                             by: Radicalroy  

                                       December 26'09 Tajikistan

Salih drew a beautiful Tulip flowers sticked on the wall

Full of surprises and grace I behold

The paint looks real blossom which slowly unfold

A blossom like a treasure of gold

Salih is full of gentle, love and story untold

Tulip’s colors were your story showed  

Hiding your pain and sorrow bestowed

Speak, speak! The only flower that thrive

Multiple suffering, you have survived

Regardless of dullness, you kept smile alive

You look-alike a peculiar tulip, always bright

Your humbleness, sincereness

made your candid friends raise you high

Pleading you Salih much with sincerity 

Careful, careful because the world is fool,

You might bleed like Tulip pruned

Tulip you drew always comes alive

When I see your pain, I feel it too…

Your friendship is forever strong and true.

Like Tulip’s beauty full of grace for eternity

That affects your colleagues’ life through.

                                                    Photo by: Mumtaz Salih Erdem//Flickr

A New Kind of Relationship

A New Kind of Relationship

by: Radicalroy   
Sept. 5'09 Tajikistan

Poems are all about life, but about 

things as they are perceived. The language of the heart meant to carry meaning across the nature of facts to the wonderful world of tropes where reality waits for sanction and mandate to emerge brand new. Poem’s meaning harmonizes with the poets’ understanding and interpretation of his social and linguistic ecologies, the search engines by which he determines the new spin on an old world. The creation of poem is closely to insight that sometimes an intense innocence may result in a masterpiece, without resource to linguistic regulations. But that is just the exception; in the normal course, full expression necessitates a good awareness of the ways and means of configuration. 

 

Because the conquering mover is our imagination, influences the world of the future poem. Imagination creates the scale of excellence by which the poems properties are measured, and ensures that the poet’s perception is strongly established in the context of rhyme and meter, or meter and metaphor. Without imagination, the figure of speech will not join together for a pleasing expression, whatever the subject maybe-politics, love, war, or faithfulness. 

It works closely with memory-in fact it is sometimes confused with memory to-authenticate an allusion or an apostrophe. The remembered face, the haunting incident of love-they flourish because memory enshrines them in new bowers, in new garden patches. They achieve luminosity only art can give, and meaning only the heart can fashion. To imagine is to know the origin of an idea or a feeling at the moment when it is still hazy in the mind but, for the poets, it is already on the way to fulfillment. It is history on the move, with all its frailties and strength open to frustration. 

The mother of literature is memory, and imagination is it front line. Between the perception of things and the naming of things lie in the gulf of creativity which the imagination must rid of illusion and falsity. With technical skills, the poets determines the composition and style of utterances; with artisanal skill, they shape them into perfection through patience and correctness. 

The art resides in the suggestion that only the language is capable of, a hinting at the edges of truthfulness without sacrificing the factors of delectation. I see a rose, my mind searches for way to build a poem around it, the rose ceases to be a rose in the workshop of my imagination, the tropes and imagery construct the scaffolding for the monument to the rose which is no longer a rose but what a rose should be-is this not the syllabus, the format of the poem form the beginning to completion? The poem of history and the poem of memory merge in a new kind of relationship.