another found in class poem, this time from english literature III

connected by the same vessels,
eulogy is parallel to musing
within the context of funerals.

on an average day, an open-endedness
is where you are headed.

the framework is a little confusing.
why am I writing about this now?

go somewhere and write about it.
why am I exploring this now?
a genuine quest - who are you?

two models of beauty and the possibility of humor.
are you scared of it?

one of the best insults is a joke.
reach for the easiest word and use it.

we have to see your eyes, your eyelashes, your lips.
realization: you don't have to answer to insults.

yes, I did completely ruin this process.
and it will be handed down from mother to daughter.
thank you, inner turmoil.

nothingness can be overwhelming,
but set up your point of view.

you are bit at ease in the world,
which is a reflection of you in the deprived landscape.

interspersing of really sensitive moments
with mundane bar troubles.
ambivalent aesthetic sensibility is fine.

finding out in a public atmosphere that people actually care about you.
but you're giving it away, looking at the landscape, trying to fall in love with it.

this is not a linear narrative.
why am I asking this question now?

all of these poems are composed of words spoken in my classes selectively edited

CLASS POEM ONE: Japanese literature
falling into his own trap
did you catch what I just did?
drastic:

contrast aware of contrast
toe any party line, imperial in-between.
I cannot do this and I cannot do that
and it is creepy, image of distress.
choose to climb out if you could
and then five and then ten
and then thirty.

directly in the imagery,
he has a flag and he stands out (in his imagination)
distanced and elevated - insignificant refrain
of smoke, visible and invisible.

permanent stasis is the idea of death
as forever, not single moment remained.

no, skeptical Ko-san, you don't have to
stand out from the crowd of flag-carrying other folks
that represent the purpose of what we are fighting for:
opting to end our lives for the greater good.

CLASS POEM TWO: Japanese literature continued
he would stand on War
if only he knew more about it.
inconsequential details don't separate this reverie from this brutal reality.

dogs of War, no one can tell what I was thinking.
why would I be afraid?
they can't see what I'm thinking.
transparency doesn't exist.
tease until our intentions are made real.
no one will pick up on the little things.
total purging of our private intentions
a more complex figure if he were not to debate.

is this selling it short?
john mccain for president.
a lie.

aaaaaarrggggahhhhhhhhhh. universal suffrage.

suffrage. the right to vote.
that has nothing to do with what i am about to write down here.
sometimes i feel like, emotion.
it is a strong one. it envelops me. swallows me whole.
like a weight in between my shoulder blades, pushing me towards the earth.
a heavy weight champion on my back. a boxing title to beat me down.
i get so close to falling sometimes. but i've managed to stay on my feet, stumbling.
my toes digging into the soil to hold their ground, maintain balance.
the only problem is, then, that i get muddy feet. grit coating them, eventually drying and caking.
like atlas i try to keep my head raised, my arms stretched out above my head, holding it there. trembling.
sometimes i get an itch somewhere on my body. that's when it's really hard to do.
but i try, anyway.

what is happening to america

what exactly is happening to the old united states of america? a black man is about to be elected president? william buckley's son endorsed barack obama? seven years have passed since 9/11 and the terrorists still haven't let off a nuclear device in one of america's metropolitan area?

i cant tell if america is getting better or not? i want a black president. i want conservatives to have no idea what is going on with their political party. my dad is a lifelong conservative republican and he thinks he might vote for barack obama. christopher buckley (son of the godfather of the conservative movement- william buckley) endorsed obama. this is a guy who wrote for his dad's ultra conservative magazine, the national review. next colin powell will endorse obama and we will finally be out of iraq.

the iraq war has been the big event that has marked my slow but steady decline into adulthood. everyone thought iraq was an amazing idea in 2003 and then 3 years later we decided it sucked but we stayed there anyway. over 4,000 of my fellow countrymen have died, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of iraqis who have died (funny how we always forget about them). and yet no one seems to really give a fuck, we just keep spending billions and billions of dollars on the war and killing more and more people.

supposedly things are working out in iraq now. the "surge" has worked, from what they say. i dont really give a fuck. john mccain seems to think it was so great that we stayed there and killed more people and that he seems willing to claim all responsibility for whatever victory there appears to be to some people. i think we should leave.

and when the first black man gets elected president thats exactly what will happen. we will get the fuck out of there. thats why i liked obama from the beginning, because hes the only big-time, running for president politician who had the balls to be against the war back before it started. i feel like i can trust him.

but i still dont know whats happening to america? is it getting better? or are the good old american values still there too? we still seem to love capitalism and imperialism and patriotism and all the other isms. we just call them all different names.

maybe we should call america by a different name now.