Dennis+Mawson

= "You can't change the wind, = = but you can set your sails." = = -Billy Joe Armstrong =

__**My Brother**__
We leave certain things in the past for a reason There are times we'd rather forget. Can one really get over the pain that is felt And they cant be conveyed by means of paper and pen. When a loved one leaves, its something that sits beside you Something you try to get over, and try to forget But the blackness never comes. The memory is never erased. When a loved one is no longer there, it isn't something you can leave behind. Because the ones you love are tattooed to the inside of your heart. Even though they are gone, they never truly leave. And though the pain of losing a sibling is great, and can never be forgotten, Its even harder to deal with, when that sibling is still alive.**
 * This is a poem, and these are the words, The words that i write.

__**My Brother (Revised)**__
**This is a poem, and these are the words, The words that i write. We leave certain things in the past for a reason They cant be conveyed by means of paper and pen. When a loved one leaves, its something that sits beside you a haunting, that takes control of your mind when you least suspect. Something you try to get over, and try to forget But the blackness never comes. The memory is never erased. Flashes of white awaken the face that so longed to be at peace The ones you love are tattooed to the inside of your heart. And pulse with your mind as time fly's bye. Even though they're gone, they never truly leave. The pain of losing a brother is great, and can never be forgotten, It is even harder to close your eyes, when he is still alive.**

__ Written Analysis. __

 * I wrote this poem with my brother in mind. The thing I had on my mind most was the day that he left to go live with his father, and left me to live my mother. When I was younger, I always thought about how afraid I was, because I was little, and I felt like my mother and I were all by ourselves. I tried to write a poem that not only reflected this through the words that I used, but also the tone and pacing of the poem. I tried to write lines that were longer than normal, almost to the point where it felt awkward, to show how long the time I spent thinking felt like. I placed the lines “But the blackness never comes./The memory is never erased.” Where they were for a specific reason. I wanted to show how even in the calm, short parts of my life, when things didn’t seem as long; it was still sad and confusing. I also used the line “This is a poem, and these are the words, The words that I write.” To symbolize how obvious some things can be to some people, but not nearly as clear to others. The poems main focus is the turmoil felt when my brother left, and it was in some ways clear to me the way I was feeling, but to other people might have trouble understanding, and it is something that sometimes has to be explained. Other times, I felt like I didn’t even know what I was feeling, and I had to explain it to myself, so the obvious, wasn’t even always so obvious, and had to be stated, whether in my poetry, or my life.**

__**Two wheels**__
Rolling straight Straight, and slow. Another out in front Manipulation at my young fingertips. Left to right, and right to left again, the wheel carved a path I tilted sides and grasped for balance as my feet left the ground. Finally, i coasted. The wind seared against my face as i rode down hill. The ground rushed by faster than i cared to see. Finally, i looked up. A wave of panic hit me, as branches suddenly approached. The sky became my ground and the ground my bed As the wheels rode off without me.**
 * One wheel sat beneath me

__**Ode to looking forward.**__
It is only something that come backs to haunt us if we let it. The past is never scary. The future is where fear lies. The great unknown provides a wall of darkness. The light of our eyes is swallowed eagerly. Consumed and used to fuel the fear that dwells within. Standing up against this fear is what makes life worthwhile. Pressing our chests into the cool wall of questions. Slowly scents leak, small warnings of what is to come Filling our nostrils, painting our brains. Releasing refreshing waves that cool our body As they slowly glide across our tongues. The wall slowly creaks and groans backwards. We inch forward.**
 * The past is something that stays behind.

__(Riff Poem)__
I understand myself when no one else can. Because the point of our lives Is to live and let live. To watch your life through the glass from outside Leave your mind and follow through. Because when you're bleeding Everyone can see. But when its on the inside Only you can let it out. And the only way to drain the pain, Is to open the wound, and release the pressure. Forgetting**
 * I learned to bridge the gap in my mind,

(sonnet)
**I've Wished a wish upon a star And then again upon the time. I found a penny. No good luck I blew a lash t'was from my eye. Blew out the candles on my cake, Yet still my hearts desire suppressed My deepest dreams, are still just that. They twirl within my daydreamed thoughts Sit idle beside me at rest. Chase me until i cannot stand. Sometimes i feel i'll never taste The sweet taste that is victory The feeling of a dream fulfilled A weary heart, soon given rest.**

__**Detailed study**__
During her early life, the Second World War broke out, and she was forced into labor in order to avoid being deported to Germany. Wislawa’s thoughts are extremely political. In the poem “Children of our Era” she says, “All affairs, day and night, yours, ours, theirs, are political affairs.” She even goes as far as to say “Even a-political poems are political.” This shows her working with puzzling logic. She says things that seem not to make sense, that make us think. She also says that you don’t have to be human to have political significance, and incorporates objects into the poem. At the end, she says “Should we negotiate life and death at a square table, or a round one? Meanwhile, people were dying.” Through this, she shows that people act on things that don’t need to be acted on, while pressing issues go unnoticed. In Wislawa’s poem “Some People” she talks mainly about oppression of people in some other country. She is always very uncertain about everything she says in the poem, using words like maybe, and some people somewhere. She says something will happen, but when? Through these literary devices, she makes the reader draw a conclusion about what is happening. One of the lines that stands out the most is “On their backs are pitchers and bundles, the emptier, the heavier from one day to the next.” This seems to be another contradiction, which she commonly uses in her work, but can be interpreted in many different ways, depending on how the reader chooses to read the poem.**
 * Wislawa Szymborska is a polish poet, essayist, and translator. She has only written around 250 poems, and was not widely known until she was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize for literature. Some of her most common literary devices are paradox, irony, and understatement. Most of her work focuses on issues of ethical or moral importance, and they tend to make people think about larger issues, humanity, and the world in general, including how people act and treat one another.