Sunset (Poetic response to photo below)

I come here every night

same place, to sit

on the same fence

yet there’s always a different sunset behind me

always beautifully breathtaking

So I go sit on the fence

at sunset

and make shadows

Reflection

This poem is about how nature is always changing, and always beautiful. The narrator is stuck in a routine sitting on the same fence in the same place every night, and she seeks comfort in knowing that the sunset is forever changing, and it will never be the same again.

Silence

Silence follows me

everywhere I go

I glance at people, mindlessly talking but

no noise comes out

words with no meaning

no thought
I don’t listen

to people who speak words of numbness

so silence surrounds me

everywhere

everywhere is silent

if you stop listening

Reflection

This poem is about the narrator, who doesn’t listen when people talk. They think that what other people say is insignificant, so they get lost in their own thoughts and their head in always in the clouds.

Sonnet

We sailed on the bay towards the island

The wind in our faces, blowing our hair

The boat began to scrape against the sand

No where I would’ve rather been but there

with you, in the best summer of my life

Loving every moment, but now its gone

Getting over you was my hardest strife

I think about you everyday at dawn,

and every sunset as I go to bed

Thoughts of the perfect summer and other

memories always in my head

Forevermore, one after another

I thought we were in love, but I guess not

Maybe I was wrong, now I’m overwrought

Reflection

I think the hardest part of the sonnet was making every line exactly ten syllables. I would think of a line, then realize it was only 8 or 11 syllables and have to change it. Having a specific rhyme scheme helped me a lot. I could find a word that had to do with my poem and then build the rest of the line around that. This also helped the story of the poem develope. Even after the first four lines, I had no idea what direction I was going in, but I kept writing and was able to make a story.

Heart Poem

Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

There is a place where the sidewalk ends

and before the street begins,

and there the grass grows soft and white,

and there the sun burns crimson bright,

and there the moon-bird rests from his flight

to cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black

and the dark street winds and bends.

Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow

we shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow

and watch where the chalk-white arrows go

to the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,

and we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,

for the children, they mark, and the children, they know,

the place where the sidewalk ends.

Reading Response

I chose this poem because when I was little I had the poem anthology from Shel Silverstein called “Where The Sidewalk Ends”, and I had it on audiobook. I used to listen to so many of his poems over and over again. I chose this one because I feel that I can relate to many of the themes he brings up in the poem.

One of the themes I relate to is the theme of pollution, and how dirty the world has become. The poem describes the place where the sidewalk ends as a very clean and fresh environment. Shel Silverstein uses phrases such as, “the grass grows soft and white,” and “peppermint wind” to paint the picture of the clean and fresh place. I hate how dirty the world has gotten, and how we have caused global warming and climate change, and lots of species to become extinct. It makes me sad that we as humans don’t clean up after ourselves, and most people don’t even care.

The second theme that I found in this poem that I relate to is described in the third stanza when She Silverstein says that the children will lead the way to the land with no pollution or and problems at all. He is implying that childhood is a very simple and happy time in a person’s life, because children are oblivious to a lot of the world”s problems.This lets them lead lives that are happy and free of responsibilities.

All in all, I chose this poem because I love Shel Silverstein and I can relate to it on many levels. I connect with theme of pollution and the idea that children live in a different world than the rest of us.