Ashley+Etheredge

=POETRY =

" Poetry is the doorway to the soul"

Hello there and welcome to my page the following poems are some that I, Ashley Etheredge have written I hope you enjoy them. Please comment so that I can improve. Thanks :D

memorie's kiss

walking, walking, walking No climbing, climbing climbing Yes the cool breeze swimming through the tree tops shhhh, listen leaves colliding with with each other making a //soft// shhhhh sound rustling leaves through the trees then floating, floating floating No dancing all around me caressing my exposed skin now wet from the heated warmth, glistening in the sun we continue on up ,up, up the steep hill and are met by singing humming birds welcoming us into their home following walking, walking, walking No climbing, climbing, climbing Stop We had arrived the place for talking and starring sitting and waiting then Bam there it was at first in awe of its beauty then intimidated by its power Yet still feeling a sense of comfort and agility like adrenalin rushing through me from this embrace the smell of sweat, the nectar of birds of paradise perfume colone fill the air walking, walking, walking No climbing, climbing, climbing Yes, it was time to leave I blow a kiss Goodbye and wish that this could never end Ode to my lip gloss

You came to me through a rather unusual journey You did not come to me by truck nor package You did not come to me by store nor sent over land and sea You did not come to me by coincidence nor did I have to pay for You no dollars or cents You did not come to me from a friend nor a foe no She took me by surprise when You were given to me by none other than my sister for she is one who does not usually lend For that reason i did not question this random display of compassion without a word i took a step, took it from her hand and smiled

Now you are mine i would never be without You always in my pocket in my purse by my side Helping me sparkle shimmer shine

Although we have both changed over the years clear sparkles pigmented and back again You and I will forever be You my secret weapon **

__ Perfectly fine __

Perfectly happy As a women on her wedding day Perfectly genuine As a baby looking up to the sky Perfectly self-conscious As an awkward teenager Perfectly scared of actuality Feeling Seeing Believing Loving Perfectly Not Perfect at all

To be perfectly happy Perfectly fine takes confidence Skill Versatility It takes a perfectly manicured face Lips with exactly two and a half coats of gloss The first base vibrant The second has no color only shine only Shimmer the eyes one light coat of midnight black on the top lid just under the lashes make a heavier coat on the bottom lid connect the line to the crease of the lids if using false lashes Paint black eyeliner on tape and entire lid Do not cry Or the make up will run

__Detailed poet study__ Of Janice Mirikitani By Ashley Etheredge

Janice Mirikitani, an Asian poet, visionary, community activist and leader in 1941 she used her poetry to speak for those who felt that they had no power to do so; that their words had no strength behind them and would not make a difference. She said, "I found that my wounds begin to heal when the voices of those endangered by silence are given power. The silence of hopelessness, of despair buried in the depths of poverty, violence, and racism are more deadly than bullets. The gift of light, in our compassion, our listening, our works of love is the gift of life to ourselves." She had written many books, graduated from UCLA and her and her family were incarcerated in Arkansas during WW2 when the Japanese people were being put into concentration camps. Which for many people seems like a place where a writing frenzy would begin, and they would write great poetry about the war or that battle behind the battle. But instead she subtly wrote about how she did not like being Asian.

Her poetry went on into giving rather direct examples of her Japanese heritage by talking about a tradition with her grandmother in her poem “Why is preparing fish a political act?” and some of the things that are not as stressed but is known of. She indirectly shows how much pressure she feels to impress her parents and other family members that is common in some traditional Asian families. Moreover she uses her feelings of her influences of how she was raised to show a sort of interracial dislikes (yet hatred); she shows that she does not like being Asian or a woman in her poems “Recipe to Round eyes”, Why is Preparing Fish a Political Act?” and even in her poem called “Suicide Note”. She talks about how she felt unconditionally inadequate to meeting her parent’s standards or worthy of having their affection. Whether it were because she was a girl and they wanted a hard working boy or because she could never do anything right and everything about her was wrong.

"Each year, a respectable fish that does not satisfy (hard as I try)" - Why is preparing fish a political Act? " Ingredients: scissors, Scotch magic transparent tape, eyeliner — water based, black. Optional: fake eyelashes./Paint black eyeliner on tape and entire lid. Do not cry."- Recipe to round eyes

"not good enough not pretty enough not smart enough  dear mother and father.  I apologize  for disappointing you. " -suicide note

Many people that have read her poetry can see that some of her poetic rhythms are repetition, metaphorical examples or comparisons as well as imagery. But there are a few that may not have been noticed such as the fact that she almost never says “I” in her poems. In fact in one of her poems “ Why is Preparing Fish a Political Act?” she mentioned “her” representing her grandmother that is stated in the poem eight times but only says “I “ twice and one of the two is mentioned in a subtext sort of manner. She does not use Iambic pentameter nor does she like to rhyme. She did not rhyme a line after another not once in her poems, she may have made them rhyme but only after many lines have passed to keep a sort of consistency and repetition in her writing. The most interesting thing about the poem Suicide not to me was not that she was talking about how she wanted to die and why, but the fact that she used “I” several times and not only that but she also capitalized them which is not something that she does with most of her sentences. What her poems show us beyond everything that her biographies say is that she was a very talented woman but like many poets she was also internally troubled. If you were interested in reading these poems for yourself here are some links: -The link for "For a daughter who leaves": [] - The link for " Round Eyes" and " suicide note" plus much more: []

Here is my picture inspired by a line from Janice Mirikitani's Poem "Suicide note"  True expression

Expression is more than a movement between multiple feet, arms, legs, bodies It is more than a simple fluid sound in a Conversation Expression is more than compiled documents or common commodities More than the flexing or relaxing of ones muscles to create an expression Expression is a Connection, a link, a bond a what?

Expression is how some do, some should and some wish they could live How some survive, thrive and strive for only the best in this Life Living through expression, breathing it in, digesting it with in, using it To prevent harm and giving it back for someone new to Revive Who knew of such retained power, retained strength, not generated by Strife Not generated by loathing but Loving, not animosity but harmony in Life Expression should not be weakness however mine is My Voice will not come out of this body not through these pursed lips They are caged by the unpredictability about what he will say next You cannot live Life knowing what they will do next, for Life is not choreographed __Analysis of my poems__ My writing appears to have little similarities, besides the way that it is written giving it a sort of cohesive beat/speech pattern. I used lots of repetition to help with the flow and cohesiveness of my poems. In most of my poems I did not capitalize the first letter unless it was a word or sentence that I wanted to particularly stand out to the reader in some way.

I noticed while writing and then also when looking over my poems that there is a lot of spaces in all of my poems. I did that because I wanted them to come off relaxed or relaxing, not rushed. I believe that you shouldn’t rush art or the art of expression because what you will get is not created from the heart it would be created from the mind. Because it was rushed, your mind would take over minimizing the creativity that could have been put into that piece of art. So I wanted to express a sort of consistent relaxation through my poems.

I also notice that I tend to list things, I would give a vague sense of what I’m talking about and then give examples about what I actually mean to show the reader in a deeper sense about what im talking about, so that it doesn’t just end there.

I wrote each poem a little differently to give contrast, because I didn’t want the reader to know what I would write about or how I would right it each time they would read one of my poems. But I made sure that each one had a deeper meaning or a hidden message in it, how clear they are to people is unclear especially because each reader takes something different from a piece of art (specifically a poem) and will say “ Oh that’s what you thought it meant, hmm I thought it was talking about this and how that happened”. So I don’t know what message the people would get, as long as they find a message and learn something from it or see something in a new way then my deed is done. Art is all about seeing things in new ways, or trying something different so I wanted to bring that to my poems.

All of my poems are talking about life in one way or another, because life is important and I want people to want to live life and have their own flash backs or even “kisses” from their memories. For example in my last poem, which is a sonnet, I wrote it a little differently from my other poems. By following the Iambic pentameter rule, and I don’t usually rhyme in my poems. The way that each line has at least eight words or up to at least fifteen in just about each line; in my other poems each line is a small amount of words but there are many lines (more than fourteen). In this specific poem, life was the main point, and I again capitalized the words that I thought were most important. I also tend to change the color of what I would also like to stand out to the reader incase they missed my other subtle hints through out the poem. Poems are all about telling somebody else something, important, meaningful, without a message or some sort of importance to their poems I feel that they are not using the power of their expression to the highest of its abilities.