Sasha+Sapp

"A poem begins in delight, and ends in wisdom"- Robert Frost

Sasha Sapp's Poetry Space:
 * Hey!! You have now entered my poetry stuff. My poetry is a lot about feelings, and people, and events. When I write poetry, I usually type from the top of my head, and I usually don't follow a specific pattern or rhyme scheme, and I also don't use rhymes. I usually keep my lines short, and sometimes they continue onto the next line. I'm a big fan of line breaks :). As for my poems here, they're mostly free verse, and use a lot of imagery. I feel that poetry should be very free, without too much structure or formality.** **I feel that poetry is what is inside your head, and my head head is full of informal statements.** **I tend to focus on how things look, feel, and sound. They also tend to be either really soft, with intense lines, or vice versa. My second poem follows a sonnet, and third poem tends to have repetition, and plenty of lines breaks for emphasis. My last poem, I actually tried to follow a structure. It includes a single line, followed by either a 4 or 5 line stanza that describes that line.**

__Wind__

No boundaries, No barriers, Free. Fierce as thousands of tiny needles dissecting your flesh. Yet it can sometimes barely be heard above a whisper sweetly and softly chiming in your ear. Moving miles of plains to its' rhythm, causing them to dance to its delight. Shredding precious terrain, pounding, demanding, scarring the earth. Causing the remains to trail its' path of destruction, dark, barren and dead. Nonetheless, it tussles the strands of your lover's hair, emitting the sweet scent of purity around you. You drown yourself in the blanket, you choke on its strings, and suffocate in its patterns of yarn while you squint your eyes at the sun.

__Lie to Me__

Gently play in golden locks of his hair, search for the light hiding through his dark eyes. Cover up the imperfection they bare, Caress the faults and feed the hungry lies. Follow the path of blood you shed through tears, while you replay scene of happier times. Like the sweet the sound of laughter in your ears, cries begin to ring and screams mimic chimes. As if time itself stopped to witness this Intertwining bodies, breath short and thin they only press their lips they do not kiss while a foul odor lingers on their skin. The sensation is not foreign, but known Dark eyes did not lie, light was never shown.

__Raised by a Pair__ I was raised by a Woman. "Sasha, go to the store!" Woman, "What do you want on your plate?" Woman. "Ew, ya'll kids are hard-headed!" Woman.

A "Clean up if you wanna watch tv" Woman, Light-skinned, wig-wearing, to lazy to do her own hair, never does "food sharing", "Get the hell out of my house!" yelling Woman.

An ugly boot buying, put her kids before everything, "I don't care what the neighbors will think" Woman. Terrible music playing, "No rap or rock, its a sunday!" saying, Knows damn well her laugh was fake, but she'll do it anyway Woman.

I was raised by a Man. "What do you want for breakfast? asking Pancakes, bacon and eggs making Man. "Call me when you get there!" Man.

A jet black hair having Man Short enough to peer over, "I'm not tall, but I'll still kick anyone's ass" Man A chinky-eyed, pointy nose flaunting, "Your still my little girl" taunting Man.

I was raised by a Pair. Some loud mouthed, "Dare you to oppose me" "I love my kids" stating Pair.

__ I almost didn’t recognize that hand __

 <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #eeeeee; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 15.2pt; margin-bottom: 0.1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0.1pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;"> Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrists? And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists? And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air? Oh they're taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.

'Tis a shame to human nature, such a head of hair as his; In the good old time 'twas hanging for the colour that it is; Though hanging isn't bad enough and flaying would be fair For the nameless and abominable colour of his hair.

Oh a deal of pains he's taken and a pretty price he's paid To hide his poll or dye it of a mentionable shade; But they've pulled the beggar's hat off for the world to see and stare, And they're haling him to justice for the colour of his hair.

Now 'tis oakum for his fingers and the treadmill for his feet And the quarry-gang on Portland in the cold and in the heat, And between his spells of labour in the time he has to spare He can curse the God that made him for the colour of his hair.__

“And who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrists?” By A. E Housman, is a bold poem about a young man who is being thrown into for the color of his hair- and the speaker seems to agree. Through out the poem, Houseman bashes the color of the man’s hair, while painting a picture of the man and everything that he’s been through because of the color of his hair. He leads to the reader to a point of disbelief while they picture a man being thrown into jail for the simple color of his hair, while the world around him watches, and agrees. This is showing humanity in a darker light. The first line of the poem, “Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrists?” Already gives some insight on the personality of the speaker. The speaker chose to describe the man as “young sinner” meaning that the speaker could be an older, religious person. He continues through the first stanza questioning what the man had been after and writes, “And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience stricken air? Oh they’re taking him to prison for the color of his hair.” What’s interesting is the last line of the first line. This line has a calm tone as if the speaker wasn’t surprised about the fact that the man was being thrown into jail for the color of his hair. The line of the next stanza then lets the reader know what the speaker thinks of the man’s hair color; “ ’Tis a shame to human nature, such a head of hair as his.” At this point, the reader maybe shocked as well to believe that the speaker agrees with this act of error. A.E Housman describes his hair a “shame to human nature” showing his absolute disliking to the man’s hair. He repeats the process of criticizing the man’s hair, while repeating the phrase “color of his hair” in the last line of every stanza almost as if reminding the reader over and over of the absurdity of it. Interestingly enough, the entire poem has a very calm tone to it when addressing the seemingly hideous hair color. The punctuation used is only question marks, periods, and a single use of a semi colon, but not one exclamation mark was used though hatred of the hair color is obvious. This shows that just how absurd the entire situation because the speaker casually agrees with taking him away due to his hair color. Housman is showing an ugly face of humanity through this poem. The situation is symbolism for something bigger; basically how the world operates, but on a smaller scale. Through a scarily calm and agreeing tone, Housman delivers his message about the face of people.

“The Loveliest of Trees” By A.E Housman

// Loveliest of trees, the cherry now // // Is hung with bloom along the bough, // // And stands about the woodland ride // // Wearing white for Eastertide. // // Now, of my threescore years and ten, // // Twenty will not come again, // // And take from seventy springs a score, // // It only leaves me fifty more. // // And since to look at things in bloom // // Fifty springs are little room, // // About the woodlands I will go // // To see the cherry hung with snow. //

“The Loveliest of Trees” is an eerie poem by A.E Housman that is visually and emotionally stimulating as it takes you to a peaceful setting of a cheery tree in the wintertime. Housman vividly describes a cherry tree in comparison to the years of his own life, ultimately stating that times waits for no one, and that life is too short. The first four lines the poem opens with: “ Loveliest of trees, the cherry now  Is hung with bloom along the bough,  And stands about the woodland ride  Wearing white for Eastertide.” The second line provides sight of “bloom”-which is flowers- along the “bough”, which is the main branch of a tree. The 4th line provides a captivating and contrasting line to the second. Several things can be picked up from this line. The first thing being that Housman personifies the tree and describes the tree as wearing white. Personifying the tree adds even more prestige to it, seeing as though it’s already describes as the “loveliest of trees”. The contrast found in this line is “wearing white” where in the 2nd line, the author speaks talks about flowers growing on the trees. Now you have an image of a blossoming cherry tree covered in snow. The last insight you get from this line is “Eastertide”, which could be that the speaker is religious, since it’s a religious event being referenced. The next four lines are: “Now, of my threescore years and ten,  Twenty will not come again,  And take from seventy springs a score,  It only leaves me fifty more.” These lines basically give you insight on the age of the speaker. A score is 20 years, so it can be assumed that the speaker is 70 years old. The 2nd line of these four, “Twenty will not come again,” basically states that he speaker recognizes that his time left on earth is dwindling lower. The final 4 lines, “And since to look at things in bloom,  Fifty springs are little room,  About the woodlands I will go  To see the cherry hung with snow.”  Throughout the poem, the tone was very relaxed, and as if the speaker was content with the surroundings at that very moment. Through these last lines, the main idea shines through. From the first two lines, “And since to look at things in bloom, Fifty springs are little room,” To look a things in bloom means to watch things grow, so the speaker is saying that even in his or her lifetime, they haven’t seen all they could have. The final two lines have a determined tone to it, as it makes a person visualize going out to gaze at a cherry tree dressed in white snow. This poem cleverly uses a cherry tree to show the value and appreciation on ones life, while they see that it is ending, and keeps a formal and relaxed tone al at once.

<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #eeeeee; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 1pt solid #cccccc; display: block; padding: 8pt;"> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #eeeeee; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; line-height: 15.2pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;"> He would not stay for me, and who can wonder? He would not stay for me to stand and gaze. I shook his hand, and tore my heart in sunder, And went with half my life about my ways.

“He would not stay for me, and who can wonder?” by A.E Housman is a short and concise poem that seems to be about the pain of someone leaving another, though the relationship of the two isn’t clear. The poem seems to be addressing a man, and that man is being referred as leaving the speaker. The reader does not know the gender of the speaker, so that keeps he or she wondering the relationship of the two. The Rhyme Scheme is: ABAB. The 4 line poem has a repetition of “He would not stay for me…”. This line is so pain filled that it basically grips the reader by the neck, and reels them in. Also, each line is around 14-15 syllables, so this poem is every attentive to what is getting across each line; the speaker doesn’t want to be too wordy about message. As said before, the line “He would not stay for me” is repeated twice, but in the first line, the speaker addresses this, but then asks “and who can wonder?” as if so in shock, that she had to ask you, the reader. That is the only instance that the reader might be addressed the reader, and the rest of the poem’s attention is sternly imagining the person who has left the speaker. The third line “I shook his hand, and tore my heart in sunder,” is obviously stating that the speaker is broken hearted from the man’s departure, but what’s interesting is the first half of the line. “I shook his hand…” confuses the reader even more because of this type of interaction is in no way intimate, but could be more thought of as mutual.