Damian

Graduation

A time to say goodbyes A time to let go A time to become independent A time to grieve A new chapter A fresh start A time to say hello A time to ponder A time to reflect A time to bloom

My New Neighbor He came off the plane like I did Seemingly blind and deaf He’s thirteen, still only a kid America does not bother him As much as it did When I in this land was still learning to swim I can tell he knows about a lot of junk He teaches me about wrestling And the ways of CM Punk* His parents still preach about roots But he mostly talks in English And now they are in cahoots


 * CM Punk- a professional wrestler on WWE. I chose to include this here to maintain the rhyme scheme and show how my neighbor has Americanized.

Fresh off the Plane I was five, fresh off the plane In an unknown land That might as well have been Ukraine I yearn for home And beg to return To where I would once roam I try to listen I try to understand But they don’t know what it is that I demand Ten years have gone by And I am no longer an alien Today, I no longer want to say goodbye

Growing Pains As my pick strikes the strings of my guitar I await the sound of my first clean chord I pick each string one by one Only a few strings are muted this time A minor success Lately, my mood had turned sour due to the excruciating pain of steel hitting soft flesh After brimming with confidence just a few days ago The pain is quite a shock I strum on hoping for thicker fingertips But what I really needed was a different type of thicker skin.

Waterfall

Wading in the cool Lake Michigan water I anticipate each wave as it drifts toward shore I jump up half expecting to be drowned by each one I avoid the various trinkets that others had left Seaweed shackles my legs as I try to break loose My sister heads deeper but I am reluctant to go Fearing that I will be washed up by the tide I hear my sister egg me on from five feet away I walk further up now feeling the water reach my neck Until I am greeted by a group of hands and a waterfall of water reaching my eyes

'**__My favorite poetic device in literature__** "We walked down tree-lined streets of soft gray houses leaning like tired ladies... The streets changed; houses looked more sturdy, their paint was newer, porch posts straighter, yards deeper. Then came brick houses set well back from the street, fronted by yards edged in shrubbery clipped into smooth cones and balls of velvet green.(105)

This is the scene in The Bluest Eye in which Frieda and Claudia walk to Mrs. Breedlove's workplace where she takes care of the Fishers' house. It's my favorite example of imagery because of the clever use of descriptive adjectives to turn a simple scene of a neighborhood into a vivid painting in the reader's mind. **__My favorite characterization in literature__** "In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting. It is like the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing."

This quote is my favorite example of characterization because it conveys the personality of Esperanza through her name. Here, the narrator Esperanza uses several effective literary techniques including parallel structure,metaphors, and diction to show how Esperanza generally has a negative perception of her name. **__My Favorite Dialogue in Literature__**

"They told Hassan they would be moving in to supposedly keep it safe until I return. Hassan protested again. So they took himto the street--" "No," I breathed "-- and order him to kneel--" "No,God,no." "--and shot him in te beack of the head." "No." "--Forzana came screaming and attacked them--" "No." "--shot her too. Self-defense, they claimed later--" But all I could manage was to whisper "No.No.No" over and over again"

Khaled Hosseni does a good job here of incorporating suspense into his dialogue while also showing a contrast in emotion between the two characters.Rahim Kahn's speech seems cold and devoid of emotion while Amir's tone is one of shock and disbelief. **__My Favorite Theme In Literature__**

 My favorite theme in literature is in the novel "Crime and Punishment". Raskalnikov, a vigilante, doubted he would feel guilt for his actions when he had killed his landlady and stolen her pawned goods. After the murder, Raskolnikov's mental state deteriorates and he becomes very paranoid by choosing to isolate himself from his family. In the end, Raskolnikov realizes that the mental anguish he endured was much worse than the physical torture he will endure in prison. "Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here And fill me from the crown to the toe top-fuirest cruelty. Make thick my blood, Stop up th' access and passage to remorse ... Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark to cry 'Hold, hold'--" This quote is a good soliloquy because of the clever use of strong metaphors and diction to show the transformation of the character of Lady Macbeth. A conflict I would write about is man vs nature. Often times, it is prevalent in survival stories in which characters are stranded in a deserted location. __**A favorite line of my own writing is...**__ " Lately, my mood had turned sour due to the excruciating pain of steel hitting soft flesh". This sentence comes from one of my college essays and describes how I had initially felt when learning how to play guitar. It's my favorite sentence because of how my emotional and physical state is portrayed implicitly and not explicitly. The ambiguity in the words "steel" and "flesh" is designed to grab the reader's attention and emphasize my growing pains while learning to play. __**A setting I would write about is...**__ A trip to the beach. Whenever I think about the beach, I get nostalgic about the good times I spent with my friend when my family used to make our annual trip to Indiana Dunes. A story I would write in relation to the setting is one year when I ran off from the group and felt lost for the longest 10 minutes of my life. "I avoid the various trinkets including plastic water bottles, flies, and the seaweed which sticks to my feet, acting as shackles which are slimy and slippery. The bottom is a bumpy road, with the lake becoming more shallow as I walk further before becoming deeper again even further ahead." __**A theme I would like to address is...**__ that truth is rarely absolute and that it's often relative to someone's point of view. I first encountered this theme last year in my English class last year and I remember comparing several different news articles and realizing that articles which seemed very neutral were actually slightly skewed. I felt very foolish when I noticed that articles which I believed were absolute truth or facts were actually examples of relative truth. I encountered this theme again this year in "The Bluest Eye" when society determined the truth of whether or not the Breedloves were actually considered beautiful.
 * __My Favorite Quote in Literature __**
 * __A Conflict I would write about is__**
 * __My favorite characterization of my own is...__**