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Post by Mr. Vitale on Jul 7, 2015 16:48:58 GMT
Write your responses to the essay "Lying in the Tall Grasses, Eating Cane" by responding to this thread.
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Post by sylvia on Jul 14, 2015 3:03:30 GMT
“Writing was just for me; it was my secret, like my favorite places to go off to be alone.” When I open up my journal, document my excitement, aggravation, love, sadness, and all other emotions that come with the crowd, I feel relieved. Even though they are simply just my thoughts on paper, only apparent by the ever colorful, ever vibrant and sticky ink of my pen, it’s like a weight has been lifted off. Writing is a place of paradise for me, just as well as to Adisa. There are so many ways to relieve any form of pressure and insecurity. For some, it is by working out, whilst to others it is to eat; to some it is by talking, and to some just the simplicity of a word on paper can make all the difference. Is any way better? Yes and no, we all function differently and yet similarly. There is so much in this world that cannot just go by undocumented. “However, the abundant glee of the wind rustling through trees, flapping clothes on lines, swirling dust into the air, and awakening my skin, also resonated throughout the poem. I was attracted to sounds…a cinnamon-toned face regaled in a golden hat.” This is a colorful world, a beautiful world that we live in. There are so many memories, the good, the bad and the ugly. Would life be better if everything were to be recorded? One may never know, there are pros and cons. History is a mass collection of thoughts, experiences and observations, not a bunch of old, grumpy, aristocrats signing documents and fighting wars. We learn from the past every day! It is the life someone once lived, a life we’d probably never come across. I don’t want to just fade into history like the countless passing faces I want to make history. With change and continuity of time, Adisa saw the limitation of her knowledge of other poets and writers of higher caliber as a wall to her progression in becoming a better writer. Like one that is hungry for knowledge, Adisa was a little irate to find that such an amount of knowledge had taken her numerous years to encounter. I love the language of the author because it is so vivid and easy to comprehend. With the lucid expressiveness of words on a broad canvas, she paints a picture so soothing and real. It is like an instant vacation to colonial Jamaica right in the inner of one’s own imagination. There were two events that set this writer on her course in life. No opportunity is a useless opportunity. The most should be made of every opportunity. Should one forsake their heritage, the very roots of a person, when he is promoted to prestigious positions? Why would someone desire to abandon the true person inside for another fabricated life? In my opinion, one must always stay true to their roots. Every crook and cranny of our lives and circumstances shape us and are meant for a reason. “Studying Bennett’s work for the first time strengthened my resolve to incorporate the Jamaican language into my work, me could labrish and write fi we yarns.” Variety and diversity in writing is what makes it so unique. The weaving in of the Jamaican language makes the writing sophisticated in its own way.
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Post by jaswest on Aug 1, 2015 3:49:43 GMT
"Writing was just for me; it was my secret, like my favorite places to go off to be alone." Adrias use writing to escape the world she was living in. Her life was not incredibly difficult, but like most people, she needed time to tune out her surroundings, focusing on what she truly loved, or to dig deep and figure out ones self. For me, bike rides are my escape, my time to be alone, nothing but the road and wind whipping at my face. Vigorous biking is a work out, forcing all, if any, troubling thoughts aside, clear mind on a seemingly endless street. In a sense, that is also my secret. Going out gives me freedom and peace of mind. Whenever I have a lack of motivation, biking tends to do the trick, just like sitting in the grassy fields, eating cane, helped Adrias express herself through writing. "I always rested in some corner, being seen and not heard, taking in the talk of the "big" people." Based on my understanding of the story, Opal Adisa, was shy as a child, free to express herself through poems and short stories. She used to sit and watch people, listen to how they spoke, and try to achieve a better understanding of the world she lived in. In that regard, I am the same way. The author studied the adults to further expand her writing style, word choice, and technique because she lacked the cultural influence of writers of her heritage. Myself on the other hand, silently observe people to get a better understanding of human interactions and relationships. Taking the information from their actions, I gain a broad perspective, enabling me to quickly adjust myself and how I react in different situations. As I stated earlier, the author was not exposed to her Jamaican culture as a young girl. Up until the age of 18, she had never once read a book by a black author, thus discouraging her even further from attempting to become a writer herself. "In fact we were presumed to lack history and therefore had nothing worthwhile to write about." Imagine, before you were old enough to truly experience and understand the world you live in, you are told to abandon your passion because you lack the capability as a person, not mentally, but because of where you are from? If that is not a smack in the face, I don't know what is. I admire Olga Adisa for continuing to write even though she was continuously told she was not good enough because of her ethnicity early on.
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Post by sammycrossley on Aug 30, 2015 15:08:30 GMT
Lying in the Tall Grass, Eating Cane is by far my favorite essay that I have read. Adisa is clearly a natural writer. In the second paragraph of the essay she states,"I was just beginning my dance with words; they were as sweet and sensual as the chocolate bars I held in my mouth until they were melted..." I've never been a great writer. I seem to have problems with jumbling my words and not being able to get my thoughts down on paper the way I would like to. Just reading that quote in the beginning of the essay had me hooked to this essay. I think my lack of writing ability has strengthened my love for poetry. It really fascinates me how people can put words on paper and make them come together to form something beautiful, something that you can almost feel inside. Adisa calling her start of writing the beginning of her "dance with words" caught my attention because it was just beautifully stated.
Adisa also said,"I call myself a writer, but sometimes I question whether or not I am a full-fledged writer...my full attention." I think this quote speaks volumes. Adisa loves writing and has spent her whole life doing it for herself. Although she has many other responsibilities such as a house, kids, etc., she still finds time to write, because she loves it and it is her passion. To me, this makes her more of a full-fledge writer than those who do nothing except write. The fact that although she has many other things to do, but comes back to the thing she loves, proves to me that she is 100% a dedicated writer.
Her poem at the end of the essay was really interesting. The way she refers to writing as a lover who she didn't choose, but in the end ends up letting him engulf her. This shows that she didn't find the art of writing, but instead, it found her. Once she caved in to her want to write, it became everything to her for the rest of her life. "should i allow this lover to get hold of my hand to gaze into my face that i would never be able to free myself from him," This quote proves that writing is her everything and once she begins to write, she can't stop. Once you begin to give in to your passion, it becomes everything you are.
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Post by kadindonahue on Aug 31, 2015 0:29:34 GMT
"Writing was just for me; it was my secret, like my favorite places to go off to be alone." Ever since Adisa has been eight years old she has found a love for writing. Everybody has something that they love to do and for Adisa that is writing. She even describes her beginning to writing as a "dance with words" which tells me that she finds happiness and excitement from writing. It amazes me that at such a young age she was able to discover this passion because I am sixteen years old and still have no clue what I am passionate about in my life.
Adisa also uses writing as an escape from the real world. It is a way for her describe and see the true beauty of all of the things around her. Writing has a way of giving people the opportunity to go beyond what is real and allowing them to capture their thoughts and truly see the beauty of them. Sometimes she found herself recording what she saw and storing the rest in her memory. Throughout this essay Adisa describes what it was like discovering the beauty of writing at a young age to adulthood.
When Adisa would write she could go anywhere she desired which is what makes writing so beautiful and boundless. Writing can take you places that you only dream about, the only limit is your imagination and what you can think of. After reading this essay I learned from the language of the author how limitless writing really is and the ways word can impact a writing. She shows how passionate she is about writing from an early age and has been sticking with it her whole life because it is what she loves to do.
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Post by Zaclambert on Aug 31, 2015 1:13:36 GMT
"I always nestled in some corner, being seen and not heard, taking in the talk of the "big" people. I was greedy for their stories; my hunger was never satiated." Adisa explains how she was eager to write and do what she loved at a very young age. She started to write stories and poems on paper at he age of eight and has loved it ever since. I can relate my self to Adisa because I was always eager to hear the stories the "big" people had to tell and always wanted to put my 2 cents in.
Adisa explains how Toomer's Cane sparked her as a writer and gave her the confidence to share her work with others. Adisa didn't only use writing to satisfy readers, she used it to escape from the world she knew and travel and explore into new worlds. She could go anywhere she wanted to and be anything she wanted to be and that was what Adisa loved. Writing shows the true colors of people and things around her and shine light on everything.
Writing to me is not very easy to do, but can be valuable and important in everything we do in our everyday lives. I enjoy to write and explore new places like Adisa and will do it for the wrest of my life. From this essay I have leaned the true meaning of writing and how it can bring out the beauty in everything around us and shape the way we look at things differently.
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Post by BridgetM on Aug 31, 2015 5:16:03 GMT
Opal Palmer Adisa explained to her reader in Lying in the Tall Grasses, Eating Cane what writing truly meant to her. At the start of the essay, Adisa began to form an image of her surroundings, where she felt most comfortable creating her writings. The specific imagery that she used really helped me understand what this specific place did to her as she transferred her bare emotion onto paper. "I was just beginning my dance with words; they were as sweet and sensual as the chocolate bars I held in my mouth until they melted, gluing my tongue to the roof of my mouth and leaving my fingers stained a sticky brown." That statement really helped me picture what Adisa was feeling in the early stages of her writing career. I really love the simile that she uses with the chocolate relating to the sweetness of her text and the way it 'stuck' with her.
When Adisa started talking about her attraction toward sounds, it was something that I could really relate to, and helped me feel closer to the author. Her depiction of the sounds of the ocean as she explained her first poem The Sounds I Like to Hear were really easy for me to understand, due to the fact that I have grown up at the beach and I really enjoyed reading that part. Another part that I liked was when she discussed what she saw within the working class and the middle class. Much like Adisa, I enjoy sitting back during family and adult gatherings and as she said "being seen and not heard" is always my preference. Just hearing the stories the adults have to share even after a simple day of work is so intriguing that I always look forward to it. When Adisa pointed out the difference between the middle class who "sucked in the pain until they became bitter" and the working class who lived with "a robust intensity that tingled me to the core" it really opened my eyes to the differences between the two classes. This difference between the two groups was one that I had never really picked up on before, and after having this realization has ordered me to call back on a lot of my memories and separate experiences between the two groups.
This simple essay is probably my favorite. I love how simple and almost soothing it is to hear about this woman's experiences not only with writing, but just living in general. I would certainly re-read this just to go through the images it placed into my mind and rediscover what Adisa's journey through writing brought her to.
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Post by tydodd on Aug 31, 2015 17:33:58 GMT
Opal Palmer Adisa's "Lying in the Tall Grasses, Eating Cane" was in my opinion, a fantastic essay. Reading it was just exciting for me, I was able to see a hear the world through her eyes and ears. And I must say that she experiences the world in a much more exciting way than I do. The whole essay just flowed together and was appealing to my senses. Opals use of similies really helped me to understand her thought's and feelings. Like when she says, " I was just beginning my dance with words; they were as sweet and sensual as chocolate bars I held in my mouth until they melted". Opal says, "I call myself a writer, but sometimes I question whether or not I am a full-fledged writer". I felt like I could relate to this statement. I call myself a musician, but there are time where I doubt myself. I wonder if I am good enough to call what I create music, I question whether or not I have given music enough attention in my life. Opal's writing made me question myself and i like an essay that can do that. I found it interesting that even though Opal had such a love for words and emotions during her childhood, she did not consider herself a writer until much later in her life. This was a result of her growing up thinking only dead white men could be writers because she grew up only reading things written by dead white men. This made me look at my life and what kind of career I want to have. I am not yet sure what I want to be, but maybe that is because I have not even considered my future career to be a possibility. I am only sixteen years old, it is quite possible that I could discover a career tomorrow that I have never even heard of before and find passion in it. There are so many new things to learn and discover, I look forward to that.
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