Sushi Burritos and Chicken Kurma

Before I get too sentimental or start bearing my testimony, I just want to sum up all that I have learned in this class during this semester in just one word: details. What I have appreciated in this class and another class I took this semester was the emphasis that was placed on paying attention to the details in both works we studied and the pieces we created.

Poetry 101: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Poem

• Intro / Thesis
• begin by introducing "Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins.
• present my claim:
• My claim is as follows: Even though this poem could be interpreted as Collins lamenting the relentless scrutiny of literary critics, there is more evidence, both within and out of the text, to suggest that the "they" referred to in "Introduction to Poetry" are actually students of Collins, not his critics."
• I think this is a unique take on this poem and one that can be argued for and against because of the ambiguous nature of the poem.

Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins: An Introduction to Poetry?

Found at https://hawaiiwatersportscenter.com/wp-content/
uploads/2015/02/HWS_Waterski.jpg

Introduction to Poetry
By Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
__________________________________________________________

Finding What She Wants in "What I Want"

What I Want

What do I want?

Well… besides such and such.

Just someone to spend eternity with, that’s all.

Is that to ask too much?

Imagine, if you will, a small pudgy white boy alone in a small house, on a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I was serving a mission for my church in the small island Kingdom of Tonga. My companion, or as I called him my com-pain-ion, was asleep in the other room suffering from puke faka-ngaue (the sickness that conveniently overtakes a person when work is to be done). Like all of the other young men I was paired up with, I was assigned to work with him. He was a local kid who had very little work ethic and liked his sleep.

Finding What I Want in "What I Want"

What I Want

What do I want?

Well… besides such and such.

Just someone to spend eternity with, that’s all.

Is that to ask too much?

Imagine, if you will, a small pudgy white boy alone in a small house, on a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. My companion, or as I called him my com-pain-ion, was asleep in the other room suffering from puke faka-ngaue (the sickness that conveniently overtakes a person when work is to be done). I was doing all I could do to stay busy. I had listened to the past 5 years worth of general conference, translated "Any Dream Will Do" into Tongan, and I had even counted the number of rules in the missionary handbook.  

I want someone patient and smart,

someone who is strong and brave.

Someone kind, someone bold,

someone whose presence I crave.

It was during this time that I figured I would try my hand at poetry. My com-pain-ion was a well known songwriter and a good poet and I thought I could give it a try.  

What do I want?

Just an eternal companion.

An eternal companion who loves me,

With a love with of no comparison.

I took inspiration from the lists they made us write in primary about what we wanted in a future spouse. I realized that our primary aged brains could only come up with superfluous attributes like "My wife will be a good cook" or " My husband will be a doctor" or "My spouse will have a super hawt bod." 

I want someone that helps me be better.

Someone who speaks honestly.

Someone who isn’t scared to talk,

someone who loves Him more than me.

I had come to realize on my mission that there was way more to a person than just their looks or skills, so I had made a list of real attributes that I thought were important to have in a spouse and What I want was born. 

Who do I want?

I want a beautiful daughter of God

Whose virtue radiates from her soul

and who keeps her hold to the Rod.

It turned out decent. I should have focused less on the rhyming and more on the flow and meter, but for my first foray into the world of poetry I thought it went well. 

So, who do I want?

Well, let me see…..

I want an eternal companion

who also happens to want me.

At this point I put it away, never to be looked at again until I had returned home from my mission. 

I don’t want an eternal companion,

I simply just need one.

That is the whole point of life, right?

Just find her and I’ll be done.

I pulled it out one day when, after a few weeks of dating this girl, I was thinking about marriage. I was amazed to find that she surpassed all of my requirements. I could see myself marrying this girl, but I felt like I was forgetting something. 

But there is more to it than that.

There is way more to it than finding.

Not only must I find, but while I look,

I must work on my becoming.

I couldn't figure out why I felt so weird, but then I had a thought that maybe she also had a list that she was comparing me to. Was I passing all of her tests? Was I all that she wanted? I thought. 

Becoming the one that she wants,

no, becoming who she needs.

Becoming better than I was yesterday.

And pulling many of my life’s weeds.

It was only fair that if I was going to hold her to such a standard, I had to hold myself to a high standard as well. 

So the day comes that I find her.

Hopefully that’s sooner than later.

The hard part is, now here’s the kicker,

Will I be the right one for her?

So I continued to write on What I Want until I found that it was not only a fair statement of my feelings, but I also had more accountability on my part. 

That’s what it boils down to.

This is not a one-way street.

We must study each other out

To see if we’ll compete or complete.

I continued in faith that she would be all that I needed and wanted, but I also tried to emulate the same traits. 

I’m not looking for perfection,

hopefully she isn’t either.

If that is all we really wanted, we’d search forever,

but never find each other.

I figured that we had the same desires: a temple marriage, a family, happiness; so I assumed that she would expect the same things that I expected from her. 

I’ll never ever find perfection

Because I will always be far from flawless.

So we will look for, and be, who we need,

And hopefully find never-ending solace.

So I put myself to the test. 

So, who does she want?

Nothing too much.

Just someone to spend eternity with.

Will I be worthy of such?

I tried my best to be my best. We continued to date and the more we dated, the more I fell for her. 

Am I patient and smart?

Am I strong and brave?

Am I a kind and bold person?

Am I someone that she craves?

I soon found myself in love, and to my delight the feelings were reciprocated. 

What does she want?

She wants an eternal companion.

An eternal companion that loves her

With a love without comparison.

I found myself being a better person. I was kinder, more focused, and I grew more during that time than any other time in my life. 

Am I someone who helps her be better?

Is honesty what I prefer?

Am I someone who isn’t scared to talk?

Do I love Him more than her?

I also became closer to God, which actually brought me closer to her as well. 

Who does she want?

She wants a handsome son of God,

Whose virtue beams from his soul

And who keeps his hold on the Rod.

And so after a while, I knelt down in a puddle and asked her the most important question I have ever asked anyone. 

So, who does she want?

Well, hopefully me.

She just wants the eternal companion,

That I am trying to be.

And then I read this poem to her at our wedding. 

Silence is golden in "The Silent Child"

The most recent Oscar award-winner for the best live-action short film is "The Silent Child," a very powerful piece showcasing the struggles of a deaf child in a world of silence. We see a young girl by the name of Libby overcome years of neglect through the help of a caretaker who teaches her how to sign and gain some confidence. By the end of the film, however, we see Libby's parents decide, against the pleadings of Libby's caretaker, that she doesn't need to know sign language and that she should just learn to read lips to get through life and be normal. This proves to be devestating to Libby and actually makes things much worse for her. The call to action of the film was to advocate for the rights of disabled people and that just because people are disabled, doesn't mean that they can't function in society, they just have to be taught different.

I loved this film and I loved the message that proper teaching can bring people out of isolation and imprisonment. These selfsame themes are even found throughout the production of the film, from the lighting and sound design to the set design and the framing. For example, at the beginning of the film, the entire landscape was filled with fog, giving a feeling of veing cut-off from the world-- the same thing Libby felt. Libby's house also felt dark and not very colorful.  After Libby started to learn more signing, things got more bright, colorful and less foggy. It gave a much needed hope for Libby, but it wouldn't last long. After her parents ended her signing lessons, things returned to the dark and gloomy, perhaps worse than before. Libby was again trapped in the dark and lonliness of her deafness as signified by the lighting and color.

There was a really cool bit of set design that also signified Libby's entrapment. Towards the beggining of the film, there is a shot where it shows Libby on the second floor playong by herself. The way the camera is set up makes it look like the balusters of the stairs look like prison bars, indicating that Libby felt trapped in her own home. The same image happens at the end of the film where Libby's now unemployed caretaker is signing to her through a gate at Libby's school. However, this time the camera's placement makes both Libby and her caretaker look like they are behind prison bars. Libby is trapped in a school system that won't cater ti her needs and her caretaker is powerless to try and help her.

This was a beautiful and poignant film that I think more people need to see. It definitely deserved it's Oscar.

Lit-con: The BYU English Symposium

This past week, the English department of BYU hosted an Symposium to showcase the work and research of BYU English students (and a couple honored guest). Like most symposiums, there were many different sessions covering a variety of different topics from Joyce's "The Dead" to book signings. This is the second year that I have attended and I find it a real treat to attend. I was only able to go to 2 different sessions and each one was really interesting.

I first watched a showcase of winners of a writing contest. These students had recently taken the writing 150 class and entered their papers into this contest. The pieces ranged from personal narratives to research papers. They only had 5 minutes to present their papers, but I was impressed with their topics and how well they were able to articulate their thoughts and the complexity of their subject material. Speech impediments, sexual harassment, and nuclear war were just a few of the themes the students chose to write on and they were all compelling.

The second session I viewed was a number of different presentations on new  contextual findings in "The Book of Mormon." These students either took, or were currently taking, the "Literature of the LDS People" class that is provided on campus, a class I took last year (I highly recommend it). These students presented on different things that they found while studying "The Book of Mormon," including how hardening and softening of hearts are not opposites, similarities between Enos and Alma, and comparisons between the dream of the tree of life and Christ's death. I love this type of research and I am thinking about doing more of it, maybe making a career out of it, so it was really cool to see their research. With each presentation, the thought kept coming to me that Joseph Smith was not the author of "The Book of Mormon," and that it is a divine book.

I enjoyed my time at the symposium and I came away with a stronger desire to keep writing and studying, because there is no end to what you can find in the written word.

Romeo and Juliet: The Telenovella

BYU Arts' latest installment of the "Theater for Young Audiences" series is Romeo Y Julieta, a shortened, Spanglish version of Shakespeare's classic tragedy  Romeo and Juliet. This hour long rendition of the infamous love story took the original source material and, with some clever tweaking, turned it into a rom-com that goes terribly wrong. The main tweak of the production was the idea of having all of the Capulet family be of Hispanic descent. This caused quite a bit of funny moments of miscommunication between the two families, especially between Romeo and Julieta (Spanish for Juliet)

As mentioned before, this is a production geared towards younger audiences, specifically those in elementary or middle school. The actors implimented many techniques that may be distracting to older viewers, but would keep the attention of those not so mature. The play was also shortened a bit to help keep the attention of the younger ones in the audience (and for people like me who may not have the best attention span for Shakespeare).

The set was very minimalistic. Strategically placed flags were the only means of knowing the setting of each scene, the actors kept their own props in boxes on stage, and no one ever left the stage (costume changes were done in front of the audience). This provided the actors all the attention they needed and made it very easy to not be distracted. The actors did a well enough job, and their Spanish was very good. Even the non-native Spanish speakers were good for this gringo's standards. The actors also provided the show's music and they were very well directed.

Overall, I enjoyed the show. My only complaint about it is the show's length. I am aware that it was meant to be short, for the cjildren's sake. Butt with the unique rendering of the story, I feel that deserved a bit more time to percolate. What felt like a really cool way to tell Romeo and Juliet felt more like a gimmic because it didn't get much stage time. I also didn't get much time to really get attached to any character, and with so many people dying, I felt bad for not mourning for them more.

Them:
Oh no! Mercutio died! How sad!

Me:
Not really. I literally met him 10 minutes ago. I didn't really even get to know him.

All together, however, I enjoyed the show and it is another great addition to the "Theater for Young Audiences" series.

The Hills Have Eyes

The events in "Hills Like White Elephants" rang familiar to my ears. My wife and I are expecting our first child, and although my wife and I never had a conversation like the man and woman did in the story, the anxiety of expecting a child, or even being in a serious relationship, is all too real. Any argument a couple has can be tense, but throw in a baby and things get complicated. Hemingway is successful in creating that anxiety through a unique, dialogue-based story and complex characters.




It’s not often that a short story contains a lot of dialogue, but “Hills” is made up almost entirely of it. This creates not only a more realistic and dynamic story, but one that is more personal. It’s almost as if Hemingway had this conversation himself at some point of his life. The conversation garners sympathy for the couple, but with those readers with more conservative views, it also causes a bit of contempt as well. This juxtaposition of sympathy and contempt, causes some readers, like myself, to feel conflicted and unsure in how we feel about the situation.




It would help if the characters were more sure in their life decisions, but they are just as conflicted as the readers are. The woman wants to prove her love for the man, but also knows that he isn’t too keen on the baby. He doesn’t want her to do anything she doesn't want to do, but he just wants them to be alone together. Whether you believe that their objectives and tactics are ethical or not, it is upsetting to read because no matter what decision is reached someone will get what they want and the other won't be as lucky.




Win/lose situations are abound in this story, which makes it interesting, but ultimately upsetting. It does however make me more aware about how I can sometimes orchestrate situations like that in my real-life relationships and that I need to be more empathetic to those around me, because all negotiations should be win/win if we can help it.

A second opinion

Looking at this clip again, I see that we can also gather information about the story, and more specifically the setting, from the music in the background at the beginning. It has a slow, bluesy jazz feel, with trumpets playing in fifths over the rest of the ensemble. This is pretty indicative of both a time and place: 1940's New York. New York was one of the centers of Jazz music at the time and it heavily influenced by big bands and blues quartets. The trumpets give the music a very militaristic feel that perhaps mirrored the world war happening at the time. Just goes to show how expressive music can be.

The Scenic Design of "Death of a Salesman"

In our discussion the other day about drama, we talked about how the scenic design of a production can influence how the audience receives the book, or script, of a play. In this 1999 revival of "Death of a Salesman", we see how the decisions of both the director, scenic designer, and the lighting designer can greatly affect, and enhance a performance. In the script of this play, it says that the stage should be yet as a whole house and yard, leaving every room open for the audience to catch a glimpse of the Loman family. Yet in this opening scene, the directors felt to not follow the script, but only have one set piece on the entire stage: a bed. Fitting how a bed, a symbol of rest and companionship, is the only set piece for a scene between an anxious man and his worrying wife. With this focus on the couple with the bed, we get a more intimate look at this relationship and how it is at the beginning of the play. This is an example of how an artistic decision can add depth that isn't necessarily found in the script, but in the mind of the director. 

This is me:

This is me. Josh. I am a Junior studying English Education. I have been married for just over a year and we are expecting a baby boy in June.