Response to question at: http://christina34.blogspot.com/

 Little League Haiku


7.) What literary device is used in the following quote, and how does it affect the story? "I was in love with the air, the smell of the grass, the warm light in the cottonwood trees at the edge of the field."


            In this quote, Scott Carrier uses the literary device imagery. Using imagery paints a picture in the reader's head and really draws the reader into what it is they are reading. This imagery had a great impact on the story in which he was telling because not only does it lay out the setting, but the words make the reader feel like they are in the story with the author. When using imagery in this quote, Carrier put more emphasis on the story and got the reader truly involved with the book. When an author puts imagery into his story, it changes the story to something interesting and it gives it a sense of importance.

Running After Antelope- The Test

1. What is the test and what does it symbolize?

2. What is the significance of the author telling about his different interviews?

3. Explain the simile, "A person's soul should be like an ocean, but a schizophrenic's soul is like a pool of rain in a parking lot." (41)

4. Why did the author get so emotional with the man he interviewed with the crystal? (41-42)

5. What is the significance of the slice of pizza lying upside down on the carpet? Why does the author refer to it a second time? (42-43)

6. Compare/ Contrast these two people interviewed: the man with the crystal and the woman with pizza on her carpet.

7. Why does the author start to doubt himself half way through his interviews? (41)

8. Analyze and explain why the author took the test himself.

9. Explain why he analyzed himself three different times with each time having a longer period of time since his wife left him.

10. What is the significance of the last line of the chapter? What does it tell you about the  authors' mental state at that time?

Creative/Literary Nonfiction

I am going to add the Creative/Literary Nonfiction Hang 'Em High by Phillip Gerard to my Anthology.

          "It was back in the days when every little boy in America owned a toy six-gun and our national character was formed in half-hour TV episodes."

I find this example of creative/literary nonfiction meaningful because the children of today's society are polar opposite to the children of the baby boomer generation. The children of today's society are so dependent on technology and the children of the baby boomer generation had only television and not much to choose from. They had to use their imagination more often and played outside. This exemplifies the slow downfall of society. Children do not play the way they used to. They have become co-dependent of technology to entertain them and have slowly drifted away from their imagination and virtually their own independence.   

The Full Moon

When i look at this full moon, I loose myself. The bright aura surrounding the King of the night, draws my attention to the dark shadows of it's craters. The shadows jump of the moon forming the face of a man in pain. A man troubled with sorrow like a widower who never got to say goodbye. Destined to forever watch the lovers of the earth. As i gaze at the lonely soul of the night the realization of my biggest
fear sets in. I'm scared to die alone.

A Winter Walk

      I woke up in a haste. I opened my eyes and observed my surroundings. Snow covered trees glared down on me and they stretched as far as the eye could see. I had no idea where I was or what had happened to me. All I knew was I felt odd and extremely cold. As I rose to my feet and tried to gain my balance, I stumbled to the nearest tree for support. I felt like a baby learning to walk for the first time. While leaning on the tree I saw an old man walking the same path I suddenly remember walking on myself. I waved to get his attention and tried to speak, but nothing came out. He walked right by me as if I was air. At that moment the realization of my surroundings filled me. The old man was headed toward the same fate as my I. I was traveling back to the village, just past the forest. I was growing weary and suddenly, I came upon a lit cottage with smoke barreling from the chimney and I felt drawn to it. I knocked and a beautiful women answered the door and offered me shelter for the night. She filled me with food and spirits until the late hours of the night. In my drunken state the woman told me she possessed the kiss of death and her kiss maintained her beauty. She told me I would receive her kiss for the kindness she bestowed upon me. She leaned in and with the touch of her lips I felt pain' as if I could feel my pain separating from my body. Then, I woke up in this frozen place to forever watch other men march to their deaths.

Song Lyrics

Radiohead- Nude

Don't get any big ideas,
they're not gonna happen.
You paint yourself white,
and fill up with noise,
they'll be something missing.
Now that you found it,
it's gone.
Now that you feel it,
you don't.
You've gone off the rails.
So don't get any big ideas,
they're not gonna happen.
You'll go to hell
for what you dirty mind is thinking.


I chose this song because it is my favorite song of all time. I also chose this song because to me, it could be a poem. It doesn't have rhyme or any repetitiveness but it does have synaesthesia in the line "you paint yourself white and fill up with noise."

Poem for Anthology #1

I will be using the poem The White Rose by John Boyle O'Reilly because I like that it is a short simple love poem that packs a big punch behind it. This poem is only two stanzas, but it has plenty of meaning and I plan on using it in my Anthology.