Response to "Graceling" By Kristi Cashore

This reading response is about the book Graceling  By Kristi Cashore. In general I thought that personally the book was great! The fantastical visions of Evil Kings, an unwanted love, and a red herring for a hero, makes this book one of my ultimate favorites.  Kristi Cashore starts off Graceling, already in action, no time for the whole "life story" simply: 

In these dungeons the darkness was complete, but Katsa had a map in her mind. 

 So already our Main Character has found herself in a dark dungeon, who wouldn't be into that?

An important observation to support why I believe this book has a more passionate love and a fantastical genre relief after the epic failing plunge of Twilight is, Twilight by Stephanie Meyer had its romantic scenes and its glorious settings, but the passion in Graceling is true, Kristi Cashore was able to create an unstable, headstrong,and intelligent girl and have her fall in love with out turning her into a reckless, brain of mush, ninny who basically had no idea of what she was dealing with. Katsa our main character and her lover Po remain equally balanced so that Po is in fact not the only one in shinning armor.  Edward from Twilight always had to defend Bella because she was a fragile human, Katsa actually has more power than Po coming from her Killing Grace*.  "And took her breathe and her pain and her mind away from her body, so that there was nothing but her body and his body and the light and the fire they made together."   this quote is used in terms of separating the "END OF CHAPTER" from Stephanie Meyer to the passionate love that fills the pages of Graceling with wonder and excitement.  
 *A grace is a special gift or talent that one is born with, it can either be completely useless or it can be admiringly serviceable like one could be born with a grace for killing, or a grace for gutting fish. But you know you have a Grace when your eyes are of two different colors, for instance one black and one sky blue.


I think that Graceling made a much more filling and respectful book than Twilight because the people surrounding we so much less... pinning for attention, Charlie from Twilight NOT IMPORTANT, though for the brief pages of the end Princess Bitterblue makes it so easy to believe that its only Po and Katsa there in the story. Though Bitterblue does let us know she's there. 
Bitterblue is one of my favorite characters because she's quiet but so willing to learn that it's admirable....


This text does relate to me because like Katsa I'm as unsure as Katsa, though if pushed to far or treated as a servant or thug we'd both separate from whatever group we were in. This text also relates to the world because it shows that no matter how powerful or influential you are you'd still use your family to gain more power. (Yassar Arafat's Wife.)  I really enjoyed this book and hope that the readers who read it as well have an open mind for change and don't hold grudges. 




-Raindrop

Incident Poem

Incident

Once riding in old Baltimore,

Heart-filled, head-filled with glee;

I saw a Baltimorean

Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,

And he was no whit bigger,

And so I smiled, but he poked out

His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."

I saw the whole of Balimore

From May until December;

Of all the things that happened there

That's all that I remember.

Countée Cullen

                                                            Response

When I started reading this poem, the first two lines made me think of a confederate soldier, why? It could be that I have gotten use to reading sentences like “driving through” “going through” “on the train to” -but never - Once riding in old Baltimore that conjured in my mind, a man on a horse. I was very surprised when I read the second stanza; I realize that this was the poet, speaking and remembering through the eyes of a child. The words made me feel small and sad.  The third Stanza made me ready to cry for the child that experienced such cruelty from another child who was taught that his behavior was normal.

In response to this poem in a more modern fashion I was greatly angered at the idea that such behavior was used against an innocent brown skinned child. A couple years ago I saw a news report were surrounding a coffin were several African American Women and Men; they were burying the word “Nigger” and hoped that once and for all this word would never be used for harm again. I know that many teens my age use this word as a greeting or nickname and they don’t mean it in an offensive way, but to use this word is still a disrespect and I hope that we can all refrain from using it.  

Incident by Countee Cullen is a very important poem because it shows us that there are still some people out there who’s minds aren’t “Colored-Skin” friendly and it sends us a warning to say, if you do meet someone who has been hurt by racism don’t try to imagine the pain they go through in remembering the word but offer them a smile instead of a harsh unnecessary word. 

Sonnet (Summer)

Sun kissed drops slide through my window by day
Nights Iridescent breathe becomes a fog
Waking up to Misty water drizzles
The first glimpse of Summer  becomes a truth
With eyes of a Summer Queen the sun stirs
The true form of Summer has arrived here
The queens hair flows like a rippling pond
And her her smile offends the light moon
The King of Winter now at her mercy
and bows as he regards her strength and grace
Though for centuries they have fought she wins
Not gloating in victory but a mute truce
The Winter King extends his chivalry
As he and his now consort walk as one.

 

Hide and Go Seek

Smaller than a Dormouse
You can't lock me in a cage
I can get out really easy
and escape into the maze

No more jurisdictions
No more love to share
You and me are over.
Leave me i don't care

You were gone out of my window
Nothing left
not a hair
You left me standing
On a hill
Somewhere oh Somewhere

In my dreams you stalk me taunting me with your smile
And every time i see you
I get smaller
like a child

The gypsies come and go
but you will never stay
The love we shared before

Has finally peeled away

But again every time i see you
I still feel the same

I love you please come back
i don't like this game

Martin Luther King JR. I have a Dream Revised by Raindrop

A Great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand
Came as a great beacon of light seared in the flames of withering injustice
Came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity
to which every American would fall heir


Now is the time to Rise Up from the dark and desolate
valley to the sunlight path of racial justice
the time to lift our nation from quicksand of
injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood
The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake
the foundation of our nation and the sweltering summer
will not pass until there is an invigorating Autumn of Freedom And equality guaranteed to the unalienable rights of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Midst of a vast Ocean of material prosperity
in the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.
Conduct our struggle on the high plane of discipline & dignity.
Their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom
Their destiny is tied to our destiny
Let us not need to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness & hatred

We will never be satisfied as long as the victim of unspeakable horrors is satisfied
We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like water
And righteousness like a mighty stream
And is transformed into an oasis of freedom

Veterans of creative suffering, let us no wallow in the valley of despair.
I still have a dream it is a dream deeply rooted in the dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out
The meaning of it's creed.

"I have a Dream"

My Poetry response to Starry Night

                                                My Thoughts

Looking at Van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” Anne Sexton wrote ‘The town does not exit…” Van Gogh painted a town on a starry night. The town does exist but the poet, who later killed herself suffered from maniac depressive syndrome. It seems to me that seeing the bushes as a drowned woman was really about how sad and depressed the poet felt about herself.

 On the one hand she is feeling good about the starry night because the painting is so alive to her, but on the other she thinks the stars “boil.”  Although she feels that the town does not exist, she obviously feels it’s calm. The calmness of this town which couldn’t possibly exist for the author; which is perhaps what she longed to be; calm and non-existent

If I wanted to describe Van Gogh’s starry night, I would see the quite homes under a starlit sky.  In this painting I also see a big golden moon in this eternal night. When I look at the painting I also see a church steeple, full of swirling clouds. It seems to represent hope and spirituality. When I read this poem, I believe that the poet felt despair from looking at the starry night. Perhaps she felt despair because she could not feel the stillness of the starry night.

The Accident

           My Love

Spiraling up my body
Like a sly fox sending currants through
Without any warning
The pain shattered through my aura of tough

Not physical

just heart break

leaning down to me smirking
Whispering back-biting  gossip
Burning my ears
And then like a broken down house
i leaned forward and cried

Tears filling my eyes
like the Ocean at its high tide

Never again would i leave my affection to anyone.

Not a Fox who would kill for me
Not a Bird who could set me free with the flight of its gentle wings