"My hands get excited when my Heart wonders and my Mind runs words through my Mouth till it matches my Heart and satisfied my Mind." ~Coua Yang
Before I dig in deeper with my blog, I would like to start out with my "Where I am from" poems that I had wrote. The first one below is my most current poem that I've wrote about "Where I am from". After writing my second one, I started to wonder where I had placed my first poem and finally found it. Therefore, I wanted to showcase both of them. My purpose is to show how different I am now and how I approached this poem than I did two years ago when I first wrote it in 2018. Can you tell the differences in me then vs me now?
My "Where I am from" poem
My Something Beautiful
"My hands are able to pick up a pen and make changes to SOMETHING."
I really enjoyed writing this, and this was actually a piece that I was very proud of. I don't like to brag or show off my work usually, but I was really, really proud of this piece that I really wanted people to read it. I do! I want people to know what my something beautiful is, which are my hands. I'm not a great writer, but I do believe that when a writer is proud of their work, it's good to share those ideas and words to the world, which is what I really want to do with some of my work. I chose to write about my hands because I wanted to find something beautiful about myself that I really appreciate and see that is beautiful. I thought about writing about my nieces and nephews, but since this is about "my something beautiful", I wanted to write about something that can show other's beauty through my beauty.
I also really like this writing because I can see students get into this from many different perspectives, and it's awesome! I think this would even be a good writing activity to "get to know" each other or to "introduce" yourself other than the "Where I am from" poem. Having students write about their something beautiful and then having them share in small groups would be a good way for students to "get together to talk about their stories and share their thinking as writers" (Dorfman & Cappelli, 2017). This will provide the perfect opportunity for students to get to know the other students in their classrooms as writers and as a person.
"They say your hands are the dirtiest things on your body, which is true, but they are the most Beautiful because they allow you to touch something dirty and still let you see and feel Only the beauty of it."
~Coua Yang Brown Girl Dreaming...
A favorite page from this book was page 73 titled "south carolina at war". I felt like this page had the most spirit and power on what they were going through then. This page alone can be used to help explain or describe the perspective of a "brown" person who was living during the Civil Rights Movement. I think it helped showed that perspective or side to me a bit more than learning it through history class. I think it's a different experience when you learn about their struggles than seeing it from their perspective, in my opinion. This allowed me to SEE from their perspectives that they were always ready to die just for what is right. That takes courage and determination to do that. Not everyone can be prepared to die fighting for something that is "right" for them, so for the grandpa to "train" them into preparing for their deaths is kind-of inspiring and speechless. However, I can sort of relate to this because my grandparents probably said the same, and maybe my parents did as well. When the Hmong people stood up and fought for what they believe was right for them, they were slaughtered and treated like animals for years. They, too, were ready to die for what is right and for everything that they believed in. When I read this, it made me think about my parents' and grandparents' strength and courage for doing something that they were ready to die for because they simply believed in it. That's the power of believing, I guess.
Another page in this book that I really liked was page 104 titled "halfway home #1". Reading this made me felt sad for the kids, and made me think about students who do live a life where they are always on the move. It made me think of the word "home" and what it really means. What does "home" mean to you? A house? A family? A place where you grew up in? I think it's hard to define it exactly because "home" has so many different definitions and meanings to it. In here, I can feel that the kids are a bit lost and aren't really sure where "home" is for them. They were born in a different place, but lived and raised in the South with their grandparents whom they adore. Now they are moving to yet another state. When one plants the roots of their heart in a place, one can never truly be whole again after pulling it away. I know this because I was born in California, but raised and lived in a small town up north in North Carolina. That town was all I've ever known, and it was where I planted the roots of my heart. So when we had to move away after high school, I was heart broken and homesick. Home is where my family lies and my heart knows that, but it doesn't change the fact that the little, small town I grew up in was the home of my heart. All my childhood memories were there, and they still are today. I still miss it, but it's all part of growing up and really adding to your definition of what "home" means to you. So, what about you? What does "home" mean to you?
Shortcut
|
AuthorI enjoy to write a lot during my free time. Writing is a stress reliever for me. Archives
May 2021
Categories |