Maps To Anywhere

Well first  the fore word says a lot about the premises but it did not prepare me for the fantastic experience that was this book and I can say without a doubt this was the most enjoyable reading piece by far to myself and I'm going to guess a lot of the other student in the class.
Bernard Coopers playful yet calculated use of words never stopped intriguing a reader I always wanted to know what he was going to bring up next. I especially liked his personal and self proclaimed comments like on page 33 'No one to my knowledge has ever been killed by a replica of the Jefferson memorial made out of toothpicks or a snowflake made cut from folded paper or a poodle composed of pink balloons' even when he calls out his teacher on the bottom of the same page it just feels like the author is having a good time from beginning to end I laughed and enjoyed myself the same.

Thoughts on Writing outside the classroom

When I came inside from the 20 minute exercise I was walking up the stairwell and I noticed a girl that was coming down and she was cute but I saw that she was walking in a strange manner. She was holding the railing and sorta limping in an odd fashion, almost like throwing one of her legs to the side every stair she descended. I looked at the leg she was doing this with and saw that from below her kneecap she had around a 4 inch scar in a line that was clearly the result from an operation and definently the reason for her limp. When i saw her I was listening to headphones,when i saw the scar I completely forgot about the music then started wondering how she got it, If it was some crazy accident,What effect it had on her life,if she played sports before it happened,If something like that happend to me how hard would it be to deal with? When I reached the third floor I pulled out my notebook turned to my section on the writing outside the classroom and wrote-'A girl limping down stairs,A four inch scar below her knee, a direct result from the surgery'. I looked at that again then I realized almost every note that I took from the exercise I wrote in a Poetic fashion Without any intention of doing so. As much as I dog poetry I have learned a small amount about it and I'm not going to say I'm in love with it ......But I definently dislike it less.I thought about this and about the girl for awhile after class so the end result is I decided that I am going to turn my notes from the exercise into a poem because it makes sence and it just happened by itself.

Juice-Response

-Translation-
 The intro statement I am still somewhat confused by the line 'in the ways animals improve
themselves by licking' altho i can defiantly relate to the wanting to improve myself to be sharp and
clean, a few years ago i was far from what I am now. I was thoroughly pleased by the intense
visual description of the characters home place in the mountains as well as her excellently placed timing
of adding new characters. She is saying a lot well without using a lot of or wasting words.
The perspectives are mostly 1st and 3rd yet really only using 2nd lightly to draw 'you' in more.

-Proportion Surviving-
 This section hmm what can I say?... Juice um Juice and more Juice. I was very
curios why the title of this book was Juice well besides adding 'The Fresh Apple crisis' which from my
perspective at the moment is a self created problem but it is clear that this character is quite
dependent on this stuff or at least uses Juice as a source of inspiration, a vice or even drive to be with
lovers which clearly do not mean all that much to this estranged yet semi productive character. I say
estranged because the person is relating a lot of life aspects to juice in the mind and general thought
process. I noticed a much heavier 1st person influence as well. In the end I thought it was cool weird.

-No Through Street-
Their is a lot going on here with switching up the presentation with the girl and her sisters tale of their
upbringing on Hershey street was not presented to me that clearly, I actually did not even realize the
lead girl was a bum traveler until I reread it mostly due to the timeframe seemingly being thrown around
and page 40 - the man in a black coat with a briefcase- this whole metaphor or whatever the hidden
meaning is did nothing but distract me. On the second reading it became more clear how personal this
story seems with the town evolving and painter sister completely rejecting her when she go's to the
museum. Overall I feel what the writer was trying to do with this but the pacing is not smooth, their are
vague references that throw the reader off and I really struggled to keep interest.

-First Sleep-
Ok so out of this I'm thinking she is stating her livid thoughts of her day to day experiences while
struggling to fall asleep, I also don't think she has slept in a long time and or very much at all-page 50
"Their is a new climate outside , some showers. She wakes and goes for a drink of water,then sleeps for
an hour". This is followed up by a strange entry-Her lover draws nearer. The lover has to pee and
stumbles down the hall. What on earth does this imply? Is she the lover? Does she have to pee?
I have no idea but if she is trying to portray an insomniac with scattered thoughts I would say that was
pulled off. I was hoping for some thing at the end that ties or pulls theses tales together but no,It feels
like the writer had gusto in the first two parts of the book then things "for me at least" lost that
descriptiveness and intrigue which drew me in.

Matts Blog of awesomeness: Fluorescence-Four

Matts Blog of awesomeness: Fluorescence-Four: I had a difficult time getting into one and two so I skimmed three then stopped at this one.  The first two lines promised intrigue... sadly...

Fluorescence-Four

I had a difficult time getting into one and two so I skimmed three then stopped at this one. 

The first two lines promised intrigue... sadly my interest in money,sex and war were quickly dissolved into what seems like a list of excuses to get one's self depressed then commit suicide all of which are self created and self derived.

I think the person being portrayed in this is how the author feels when she wants self loathing.

Premeditated,A sense not totally foreign,Sometimes it returns, all these passages lead me to believe that at times she makes herself depressed to the point where she mentally contemplates suicide by jumping. 

I base this jump theory on the final words "over the tightrope,the toe's balance is    lost    pitched          white line in darkness" .

Don't let things you have no control over get you down,Stay away from depressing thoughts they only get worse and be happy with who you are. This is what I got out of this or at least what i walked away from it saying to myself.

Creative Writing 201 Summer 2013

Hello my names Matthew Phillips I'm a first year student majoring in General Business. I chose Creative Writing because poetry is something out of my element and I know almost nothing about it but I like learning anything that can help me understand anything better.