Category: English 12

Poetry Pairing: Opening the Bag of Persistence

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https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/24/nyregion/public-lives-not-a-good-day-to-be-the-mailman.html

For my poetry pairing I used an article from the New York Times titled PUBLIC LIVES; Not a Good Day to Be the Mailman written by Corey Kilgannon and wrote a poem titled Consuming Success. What my poem, the picture, and the story have in common is the theme of hard work and persistence. In the story about the mailman, the odds are against him everyday that he goes to work. He does not get down about having to work through “the coldest route in New York”, yet he just powers through each and every day which shows how persistent he is for supplying for his family. Every day for work Mr. Kalmanson would simply dress warm and brave the elements outside in NYC without complaining. This story was where I got inspired to write my poem about hard work and persistence. It really brought to light the struggles and obstacles that some people have to go through and the ways you can deal with it. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a high paying job with great benefits, so you have to work with what you have. You can either complain about not having what you want or suck it up and work hard like Mr. Kalmanson. My metaphors come straight from the themes of hard work, persistence, and dedication shown by Mr. Kalmanson. I tried to make my metaphors as relatable as possible to readers, so people can understand the type of struggles Mr. Kalmanson has to deal with every day at work. The quote I chose from my article that highlights persistence is ”What can you do? Life takes you where it takes you.”  This shows that you just have to keep powering through the hardest obstacles in life to become or stay successful because there is no giving up when it comes to supplying for your family.

The image I chose represents persistence because it is a woman knowing she is failing to achieve her goals but is staying persistent and not giving up. This woman could be in any situation like she is now, but she knows that persistence and hard work is all she needs to be able to achieve her dreams.

 

Consuming Success

 

What is persistence?

Persistence calls into your soul

And settles down right in front of you

On a gold plate for anyone to eat

 

Persistence is the fuel to your dreams

You don’t need any fancy utensils to consume it

Nor do you need a microscope to find it

It is available on everyone’s plate

You simply just need to stab it with your fork and eat it

 

What is persistence?

It is a dog trying to get its ball from under the couch

It is a newborn baby learning to walk

It is NASA attempting to launch its first rocket into space

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

African storm and Gandalf

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Gandalfs quote is supported by Alisons thesis because they both relate to the same idea. The idea is that big societal changes do not occur instantly and they come from people with little to no power. The changes do not usually occur from someone with a big platform already, they occur because a regular person has an idea that they want heard then it gains traction and eventually you see change. In Gandalfs quote it mentions the “small everyday deeds of normal folk” which relates to Alisons story because she knows she is considered a “normal folk” but also knows she needs to contribute to the everyday deeds and movement for change. After she hops into the van instead of walking into the rain she realizes that it’s convention and people like her that do not help with the change of ordinary ways and on a bigger scale, racism. Alison knows she could have created a small start to something bigger by not getting into the van but she followed the convention that she said “compels us to do so many things that don’t make sense at all”. One connection that I can make with this idea to real life is the Rosa Parks incident. At the time of the bus incident she did not have a major following nor was known by many people. She decided to do what she thought was right and stand up for herself which turned into much more. After Rosa’s incident she became known nationally and with that change occurred. The change occurred all just just from one little idea, just like Gandalf and Alison’s idea states.

 

 

Your Job could be worse….

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This article interested me because it looked like the author wrote an insightful story on a mans life and his job as a mailman. I wanted to read the story because I always like to hear what other peoples lives and jobs are like in detail. Every human has their circumstances and problems that they deal with in life and in this article it showed what this mailman’s life is like on the job on the coldest route in New York. It also showed how he ended up getting the job in the first place. The author made this article very insightful by showing the exact key details of how the mailman became a mailman and what circumstances he is living with while working. In one part it is shown that he has 3 daughters and one of their college tuition’s for a year is just five thousand dollars less than his yearly salary. After, the mailman explains how grateful he is for scholarships and such so that his children are able to go to such highly ranked post secondary schools. By the author including elements like him showing his gratitude because of his circumstances, it illustrates the real world problems people deal with that you may not experience or see. This makes me feel sympathetic for the man that he does not have a job good enough to fully support all 3 of his kids but he wants to do his best to make sure they are well educated. He shows that by going out everyday all “armored up” to brave the cold and deliver the mail. Even when the author compares his 2 brothers to the mailman which are both successful, it makes me feel sympathetic that this hard working individual does not have a better life/ job. The article exemplifies that even though you may not like your job, if you work inside during the cold months you are already way better off than the mailman and you should not be complaining because you could be in his shoes.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/24/nyregion/public-lives-not-a-good-day-to-be-the-mailman.html

Russian “Tourists” visit a British Town to see the “Architecture”

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This article particularly caught my eye because of the topic of Russian assassins. Any news about top secret ordeals that involve spies and or the government always interest me because they usually have interesting stories to go with them. What intrigued me to keep reading this article was that the author demonstrates humor to keep the mood light and funny. Usually news outlets would just state the facts about a certain story but here the author put his own spin on it to keep the reading relatable for the reader. He kept the story funny with humorous questions he answered himself but also made fun of the Russian government. These quotes from the story indicates how his writing had humor. “And their story is, uh, let’s go with “interesting.” And “They seem to be getting around in that massive blizzard pretty well.” These quotes were clearly making fun of the two assassins fake story of why they were where they were in the first place. Most of the time the news would not spin a personal intriguing touch onto a story of this altitude but here they did which made it interesting. There was also a lot of use of satire where the author would make fun of Russia and their “cover up story” for this matter. This article reminds me about movies I have seen such as James Bond and Mission Impossible. It shows what modern day spies are actually like (without all of the flips and tricks) and that they do actually get caught maybe unlike in the movies.

 

https://www.vox.com/2018/9/13/17855222/russia-rt-skripal-poison-novichok