Poetry
The poetry project was argueably my favorite project of the year, with the topics of peace, violence, war, and enlightenment at the center of the poems.
Darkness
James Shahan
In the dark I must drink my fear,
Never wishing for it to reach another’s ear,
I Scream my anger,
The scream never escaping the recesses of my own mind,
I hear the sound of tears splashing on the floor,
As my attempt to hide my pain closes yet another door,
The bitter taste of confusion never leaves my pallet,
My emotions leave nothing but echoes in my mind,
I must walk the tightrope that is my life.
A slip and I could fall into even more chaos.
I live a life of opportunity,
A life that may take me to heights I could never imagine,
But I have never seen light.
I have heard the stories,
And I long for its warmth and grace.
Wishing and whirling,
Twisting and turning,
I am but a traveler at sea,
Each wave being a new stage of life.
The rises and falls bring a dizziness that would fall an elephant,
Questions and doubts only intensify the rising and falling.
We are a people who are often ignorant of ourselves,
We are often happy,
But there is so much suffering in our world,
Many people do not know themselves.
We struggle for a grander purpose that we do not know.
That is why I am in the dark,
And why you are in the dark.
Of all of the many feelings in the dark,
One is more feared,
More desired,
And more.
The feeling when a wave crashes on the shore,
The feeling of when a painter first lays her brush on fresh canvas,
Of lips locking,
Of a child who turns his eyes to the stars and thinks,
“I will go there, I will go there and beyond.”
This is the feeling of love.
Sure this sounds very sweet indeed,
But there is much, much more to heed.
Screams of violence,
The crying of a child,
To feel a touch away from freedom,
To love and never receive love back,
The bitter sting of not knowing who you are.
Who could love this?
Of who could,
I can think of none,
But my mind is a paintbrush,
Waiting to dance across the canvas,
Yearning to paint a different color but black,
Maybe, just maybe, I will learn more,
Go farther,
And see a world that is clearer than all of the darkness that engulfs me.
Never easily,
I try to reach out to the world,
To put what I am into what is around me,
I put my love not into the screams of pain.
But to those screaming,
With the hope that they to will try to see more than brushes their eyes.
Now as I travel,
I open my arms to all that I see,
Embrace all of the wonder and the beauty.
And when I cross the path of fear,
Of pain,
Of sadness,
I embrace with even more strength.
I embrace with the hope that those swimming in a sea of the darkest darkness may soon stand tall and reach for light.
To find the light is like finding the horizon line and standing on it.
I have walked for years and I have found many wonders,
I have learned so many things about my world.
And have I seen the light?
Well yes, I suppose I have,
I see a flash here and there.
Occasionally a brush of its magical warmth dances past my eyes.
Impossible to dance in eternal light,
I will dance along hoping for the light,
Expecting the dark,
Loving the moon and the stars,
Laughing as death creeps towards my heels.
The darkness may hide the light in many of its corners and cracks,
But I do love to play hide and seek!
James Shahan
I started my poem by spontaneous inspiration. I had just recently figured out my perspective statement, and I was not exactly sure how I would carry it out. My perspective statement at the time reads, “ The path to enlightenment is paved with love.” Relatively simple but I am happy with the places that it led me. I spent a fairly small amount of time reading various poetry related to love. After experiencing writers block for a long time I was able to sit down and throw my raw ideas onto paper, I ended up writing about a page and a half in twenty minutes. And from then all that I did was revise that draft I made in those twenty minutes. That was the difficult part, in some places my story didn’t flow, I could use better imagery, and my poem was scattered and I lacked inspiration. At the beginning the two poets that I looked to the most were Jelaluddin Rumi, a love poet, and Lewis Carroll, as many of you know, Carroll focuses on surrealism and figurative language. At first surrealism was something that I was very into, I wanted to make every line a metaphor, nothing was to be literal, As time went on I realized that I would be able to make a more beautiful final product if I were to able to relate my metaphors in a slightly more literal way. Rumi related to love in many of his poems, but not in a traditional way, he goes deeper. “The way you make love is the way God will be with you.” In my poem I try to look at love in a not traditional way. Although reading and revising were very important, by far the most helpful thing in revising was the critique of my peers and from my teacher John.
At our exhibition, I presented my poem as a slam poem, and for those of you who don’t know what that is, slam is spoken word. The main reason that I chose to do a slam poem was just the inspiration that watching You tube videos of slam poetry gave me. I spent time watching videos of poems by Anis Mojgani, Common, George Watsky, and even Kanye West. Although my poem is not much like any of these people’s poems the way that they presented their poems and their selves was very inspiring. Their poems had such passion, and moved the audience so much, I wanted to be able to do that. In class one of our assignments was to memorize a poem and recite it for the class, I chose to recite “Here Am I” by Anis Mojgani, which I found to be an exceedingly beautiful piece of literature and very challenging to memorize. When I recited my poem, it was not perfect, I made some errors, but I could tell that it was something that I wanted to spend time doing in the future, and “Darkness” Is my way of doing so.
Poetry Reflection
This latest project a poetry project that can be relatable to any of the other content we have learned here, with all the main ideas being peace, enlightenment, violence, and war. People have had projects that have related too Siddhartha, Into the wild, the Vietnam war, and many various things that were presented to use in class during this project. A common type of poem was a Shakespearian sonnet, and there were many others, such as free-form slam poems. Ultimately this project was a way for us to artistically express our feelings and our philosophies in the form of poems.
My poem was a free form poem that I presented in slam form, I originally wrote it in about fifteen minutes in class one day and spent the remainder of the project revising. Entitled “Darkness” My poem was about enlightenment, and the importance of love in enlightenment. Towards the end of the poem, I conclude by saying that enlightenment may not be a state that can be reached indefinitely while we are on earth. I had the opportunity to present my poem at a poetry slam a few days before exhibition that was put on by DHS, which gave me good practice for my final graded performance and for my exhibition performance, which I was proud of. One of my biggest take always from this project, was how similar the crafting words can be to painting or any other art form, words can be art just as much as anything else.
In terms of writing, I have learned a lot about different styles and poetic devices, although I did not use a very strict format in my poem, I am very interested in sonnets and the up and down poems, which can be read backwards to gain a different effect from the normal poem. Throughout this project I have developed a new perspective on the value of writing, I now see it as a form of art as pure as painting, music, or any other. I have always had a fairly good eye for good writing, but I never quite realized the depth of great writing, the time that poets and writers spend crafting their sentences and making it perfect. This attention to detail is something that I have a lot of respect for and aspire to make my work in such a way.
As I have already mentioned, I performed my poem in the form of a slam poem, which is another thing that have gained a large amount of respect for over this project. A large amount of the reason I chose to do a slam poem was Anis Mojgani, a poet who specializes in slams. Watching Anis’s poems was a very touching experience for me, the passion that he puts into his words and the way that he presents those words. When I was younger I actually took some acting classes, which I think helped me be open to putting myself out there, and attempting to put a lot of emotion into what I was doing. Poetry slams are something that I would really like to continue doing, even if we are not doing a project on poetry.
Vietnam War Project
The Vietnam War Project delved into the violence of the Vietnam War and the potential wrongfulness of the government's justification of the war.
Vietnam was a war that sparked controversy like no war ever had in the past. It started a movement that shook the youth of the nation, and in turn the nation itself. This movement was the hippie movement of the 1960’s and early 70’s. As is commonly known, a hippie is a person who is a part of a subculture that stands for peace, music and is in a sense a revolutionary. They were primarily a group of young people who decided that the current system was not to their liking and that they would no longer live by it, they were the vagabonds of society, the outsiders. Many thought that the hippies were just a bunch of no good drug using punks, but I think that is goes deeper than that.
On August 4th 1964 the USS Maddox was allegedly attacked by North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats. The only witnesses were men aboard the Maddox. In the days that followed congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, a resolution that dictated that President Johnson could strengthen forces in Vietnam. “The resolution gives prior Congressional approval of “all necessary measures” that the president may take to “to repeal any armed attack” against United States Forces and “to prevent further aggression”” (New York Times, August 7th 1964.) At first a confusing document, the resolution gives President Johnson power to start a war. The way that the gulf of Tonkin incident was portrayed to the people was of complete American innocence, though that may not have been totally true. At first there were very little details of the actual events in the gulf of Tonkin, but many Americans trusted that it was a valid reason for war. From the start of the war the hippies saw the Americans as the aggressors in Vietnam, and they saw it as their responsibility to stop the war, valid reason or not.
“The Votes prove that our determination to defend our forces, to prevent aggression and to work firmly and steadily for peace and security in the area.” (President Johnson, Gulf of Tonkin Resolution) The aggression that was Johnson spoke of was the spread of communism, and the hippies they stood for the freedom of a people and felt that the American interference with communism was wrong. They did not see that Communism as a form of aggression, just a people with a different view on society. During the Vietnam and cold wars there was a large amount of anti-communist propaganda and a general anti-communist tone among Americans, but to the hippies communism seemed much less of a threat than the threat of war.
“LBJ, LBJ, How many kids have you killed today?” This was a common chant at anti war rallies by the hippies, regardless of their conspiracy theories about the government’s motives in Vietnam, the hippies just wanted peace and love, and in their opinion the war defiled both peace and love. They accuse the deaths of many Vietnamese on the policies of President Johnson, and believe that his policies caused the My Lai Massacre, an event in which a group of US troops murdered and abused around 500 South Vietnamese citizens including women and children. The My Lai massacre was just about most brutal it can possibly get in war, and it gave the hippies more fuel for their protests. During their anti war protests they solicited free love and understanding. The age-old hippie mantra, “make love, not war.” Is a great description of the hippies goals for society, they did not necessarily need a good reason to protest war, besides that it violated what they believed in, and that was peace.
Now not all of their messages were so loosely based, saying just that war is wrong and that there should be no war, there were many well crafted anti war songs that generally focused on the suffering of young American soldiers. One such song is Clean-Cut Kid written and performed by Bob Dylan.
“They took a clean-cut kid
And they made a killer out of him
That's what they did.
They said what's up is down, they said what isn't is
They put ideas in his head that he thought were his.”
This song is a beautiful example of a young man who goes to Vietnam because of patriotic pride, “to serve his country”. But when he gets into the field he realizes that the war was something that causes suffering to all and that all of his life he has been fed a sense of false patriotism. It brings out the irony of war, the sense of loss that the hippies wanted to bring to the public’s attention.
There were two events that capitalized the hippie movement, the summer of love on the west coast in 1967, and Woodstock on the east coast in 1969 Woodstock, being one of the largest and most successful concerts in history, was a crowning event for the hippies. The summer of love was an entire summer when a large group of young hippies converged on the Haight-Ashbury District of San Francisco and for the entire summer they lived there and expressed themselves, shared their beliefs, and experimented with mind expanding drugs such as LSD, “According to the hippies, LSD was the glue that held the Haight together. It was the hippie sacrament, a mind detergent capable of washing away years of social programming, a re-imprinting device, a consciousness-expander, a tool that would push us up the evolutionary ladder."(Jay Stevens) Now to me this quote is very interesting because of how contrary to modern view on drugs are, to many people the idea of an entire group of people putting such faith in a mind altering drug immediately discredits their mission. But in my opinion LSD may have helped fueled their peaceful ideals and that is a positive thing, in the end it was the hippies demonizing of the war in Vietnam that played a major part in the ending of the war. Would they have had such an outgoing flag of peace if they did not use LSD? The answer to that question is a thing that we may never know.
If there had never been any Vietnam war, I think that the hippies still would have had a culture, maybe smaller, but still present. They probably would have still had music and LSD and preached peace. If it had been for the Vietnam war, I do not think there would have been a grand purpose for them, they would have just been the no good drug using punks. Vietnam legitimized the hippies, it made it so that the hippies could scream and yell about something important, it made them want to make a difference in the lives of others and in the world as a whole. It was a revolutionary time in America, it was the first time that American patriotism had been questioned on such a large scale, the first time that a large group of people stood up and refused to blindly approve the wars of their lawmakers, without a doubt the hippies were a valuable and unique part of our American history and in the history of Vietnam. Without them the war in Vietnam could have lasted longer and killed exponentially more innocent lives. We may or may not see another movement among the people of America again, if anything the hippies can teach us, that if we see something that we want or need on a national scale, we need to gather together as a people and voice our opinions in a peaceful and intellectual way, with that as a model we can achieve a more peaceful and equal world.
"BOB DYLAN LYRICS - Clean-Cut Kid." A-Z Lyrics Universe. Web. 24 Feb. 2011. <http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bobdylan/cleancutkid.html>.
"Famous Hippie Quotes - Hippyland." Welcome to Hippyland - Home of the Hippies! - Hippyland. Web. 24 Feb. 2011. <http://www.hippy.com/quotes.php>.
African Imperialism Project
This was a project in which we spent our time researching the ways that imperialistic governments have hurt africa, and we each then chose an individual country, mine being zimbabwe.
Originally a land area comprised of different native tribes, Zimbabwe has gone through colonialism, freedom and a great deal of modern strife.
The event that Zimbabwe into the modern world was its colonization by Cecil Rhodes of the British East Africa Company. After the initial colonization it became a part of Britain’s sprawling empire. Zimbabwe(then Rhodesia) was a country that was made up of many different native tribes including the Zulu, the Ndebele, and the Shona. There were multiple attempts to rebel against the British occupation by these native tribes, resulting in the first and second Matabele wars. Both were unsuccessful and the British remained powerful until 1980, when the native Africans regained control of their land. Since then there have only been two ruling presidents, Canaan Banana, and Robert Mugabe. Mugabe has been in office since 1987, and since then Zimbabwe has gone to shambles to the surprise of many.
Zimbabwe is a country stricken with poverty and corruption, from its days of colonialism to the ways of its current government. A major issue taking place in modern times is the seizing of land from white farmers; it is being illustrated under president Robert Mugabe. The “land reform” project started with the signing of the Lancaster House Agreement in 1979, which dictated that Zimbabwe would be an independent country and that farmland would be evenly distributed among the newly powerful blacks and the minority whites that has previously led the country for over one hundred years. It started out as a partially functioning operation but in the year 2000 it turned brutal. Farms were being taken from white farmers at exponential rates, and although Mugabe said that the land would be returned to native Africans, but according to a British Newspaper called the Guardian, almost all of the land was taken by the Mugabe family or members of his parliament. This is just one of many issues in Zimbabwe, some examples of others are the poverty and poor living conditions, Zimbabwe is the poorest country in the world. Something that is commonly attributed to the reign of Robert Mugabe, since he has been in office the average life span of a male in Zimbabwe has dropped from 64 years to 44 years, the Government and it officers have become impossibly corrupt, and Zimbabwe has become the most impoverished country in the world. There has not been any one event that has cause this but many of Mugabe’s actions including attempting to invade the congo, destroying productivity of the white minority, and lying to the people. All of these actions have lessened and lessened the stability and strength of the country. The poverty and lack of resources has led to significant deforestation and abuse of the landscape, therefore making it harder for people to find food in the forest and hurting the tourist industry. All in all, Zimbabwe is a country in need of reform.
A prime example of the corrupt government is the ZCTU(Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions) beatings. The ZCTU is a part of government opposed to the rule of Robert Mugabe. One day some of the more important members of the ZCTU went out into the street to demonstrate against Mugabe’s regime. As soon as they were out in the street they were rounded up, thrown in the back of a truck and then systematically beaten in groups of two. In a internet video a man who supported the ZCTU explained the mission of their demonstrations that day, “We want to show the world at large, and the leadership of Zimbabwe, that the Zimbabweans are suffering. The money that the make is peanuts, it does not take them anywhere.” The reason that I though that this quote so interesting is that if a group in the USA or some other country with a similar governmental style, they would be allowed to demonstrate, and would most likely gain support from others and the issue would be dealt with. The way that this demonstration was dealt with was so contrary to the way that it should have been that it appalled me. Although the actual demonstration failed, it got word out to the outside world of the struggles of Zimbabweans, and I believe that once other countries see things like this it will eventually lead to Mugabe being overthrown.
One in ten people in Zimbabwe are infected with HIV/AIDS, making it one of the worst aids epidemics in the world. Now of course AIDS is only one of the many things that people in Zimbabwe have to deal with. In the words of an un-named Zimbabwean doctor, “Put simply, people are dying of AIDS before they can starve to death”. Despite the governments hostility towards many other countries, the US, UK, and European Union give aid to the people of Zimbabwe. Although that foreign aid is very important to stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS, I believe that is the education and medical assistance that comes from the Zimbabwean government its self. The Zimbabwean government needs to focus on keeping the younger generation free of HIV/AIDS, and the only way that I for see this happening is if Mugabe is no longer in rule, and hopefully that will happen soon.
During this project I have come to see that Zimbabwe is a place that is in one of the worst current situations in the world today. But I also found hope for the nation, the government is facing more opposition from the inside and outside. Many foreign powers such as the US, the UK, the European Union, and others all around the world oppose president Mugabe, The Movement for Democratic Change is growing stronger inside of Zimbabwe and will likely become the ruling party someday. Mugabe himself is 86 years old and will soon be too old to rule. After he is dead I believe that the Movement for Democratic Change will take control and begin to progress Zimbabwe.It is my great hope that Zimbabwe could become a progressive and successful country in the hands of the native African.
Imperialism Project Reflection
During the project, I think I would relate my performance to that of a Cassowary. A Cassowary is a flightless, armless bird from Australia that is considered to be very dangerous. I think that during this project I was ambitious and I worked very hard. But in the end, I do not think that my slideshow was the very best possible, like the Cassowary does not have any arms. Even with that it is a very cool animal, and I think that that symbolizes how my project still had value.
To be an independent worker and learner, you have to have your own motivation, a want to make beautiful work. To be independent you have to act on your inspiration, not just listen to things that others say. I think that the culture here at AHS promotes this kind of mindstate. If one is truly and independent worker and learner you can hear the ideas of another person, agree, disagree, or twist what this person had to say, but not be swayed by it.
I think that during this project I worked well independently, one example being when I had a hard time getting the person who was supposed to email me back with my questions to comply, I simply continued to email him, but he never came through. Another example was when I decided that it was too late to wait on the man from Zimbabwe, so I found quotes, and when I did not think my quotes were good enough, I found new ones. Back when we read King Leopold’s Ghost, by biggest strength was my decision to read the whole book, something that I believe helped me to understand the topic a great deal.
On the other hand, There were some things that I would have done differently, the most important being that I would have begun to make my slideshow before I did, and make it with more attention to detail. Another thing that I would have done would have been to spend more time writing my script and include some more detailed history, if I had had a slightly more solid script I believe I would have had an easier time reading my script. Another weakness for me was my organization, when we were reading King Leopold’s Ghost, I lost my book twice, and my research notes once, setting me back considerably. I am happy to have done this project, and I am excited for the next one!
Untitled from Hank Stowers on Vimeo.
The Individual’s Enlightenment
By James Shahan
There are many philosophies that are considered to be doctrines of enlightenment, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Transcendentalism, and many more. The goal of all being to reach a higher state of being, or enlightenment. Frequently the question is asked, which doctrine is more enlightened? But I raise the question, is a specific doctrine for enlightenment necessary?
Although different people have different definition of enlightenment, it is generally perceived to be when an individual achieves a state of being in which they have reached a higher state of existence and are at peace with themselves and all that is around them.
I believe that as a species we need some stability in our beliefs, as many would say, that would be a doctrine. Undoubtedly if you have specific beliefs your beliefs need to be ones that you have found and fit your life. There are some beliefs that dictate your life and some that are dictated by your life. I think that for some people the generalization of the beliefs enforced by others can make it so that people stop seeking and blindly believe what they have been told. Regardless, a person will find happiness and security in firmly believing in a specific doctrine. The problem arises when the person does not firmly believe in the doctrine that they practice. Such happens when a person considers themselves a Buddhist or a Transcendentalist just to impress someone or for the image of the practice. Although you can lose yourself in one of these doctrines, I believe that the stability of a specific doctrine can be greatly beneficial to an individual because of the stability and the fact that others teachings are of influence. But be careful, make sure you are living to progress yourself, not to progress the way that others see you. Although it is not common, some people will adopt a doctrine to adopt the image that comes with that belief so that people will see them as exotic or some other foolish image that has nothing to do with actual enlightenment.
On the other hand, many people do not adopt a specific doctrine during their lifetimes, maybe because they cannot decide between the vast array of beliefs in world, or because they have never considered any. I generally see these people as living by cause and effect; one action of good or evil triggers them to make amends, get revenge, or sometimes to do nothing at all. There is no true name that I am aware of for this kind of lifestyle, although there are certainly a large number of people around the world who live in this fashion. I believe there are benefits to this lifestyle, depending on the person’s intentions, if the individual lives their live with good intentions, for their self and others, then I believe them to be at least a good person. If they live their lives with greed and malice for others then they are not good people and will have a much harder time becoming enlightened. Some negatives to living this way is that you may be hindered by lack of security and the fact that they do not have a specific goal of enlightenment. Mind you, this will only happen to some people, there are those who find comfort in the looseness of living by cause and effect, while others feel lost because of the lack of security. Now this is not a specific doctrine of enlightenment or a way to seek enlightenment, but just because someone does not have a specific doctrine does not mean they cannot seek enlightenment.
In the book “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse the story of a man who spends the good part of his life seeking enlightenment is told. Siddhartha grew up a rich Hindu, as a young man he became a respected member of the Hindu community. To the surprise of many, one night Siddhartha convinced his father to allow him to go out in the forest and become a seeker. In this time he left his Hindu beliefs aside to pursue enlightenment through whatever means. At first he lived in the forest with a group of people called Samanas, they practiced depriving themselves of food and pleasure. During that time Siddhartha learned many things about himself but did not achieve the state of enlightenment. After that he met the Buddha, immersed himself in sexual pleasure, became a gambler, and ultimately tried to find enlightenment in all forms of life. In the end he claimed no specific doctrine or walk of life, he made peace with the world around him, in his words, “The world, Govinda, is not imperfect or slowly evolving along a path to perfection. No, it is perfect at every moment; every sin carries grace within it, all small children are potential old men, all sucklings have death within them, all dying people- eternal life.” I believe that this unguided way of finding enlightenment is just as viable as finding enlightenment through a doctrine.
The point that I am trying to convey is that there is no universal answer weather or not a doctrine of enlightenment is necessary. For something as personal as enlightenment there can be no truth that fits for everyone, the individual must look within himself or herself and find what fits them best. Be it a doctrine they must choose it, not let someone else choose it for them. They must choose it to find their enlightenment, not for their image. And for people who in no form seek enlightenment, I encourage you to reach out and try to become enlightened, through a specific doctrine or by your own means, as Siddhartha did. If we lived in a world will more truly enlightened people, it would surely be a more peaceful, and therefore happier world. There will surely always be some people who do not seek enlightenment, and I believe that is acceptable as well. There are many who have so many trials and tribulations that they feel that seeking enlightenment is much less important than dealing with everyday life, which is often true. As for the people who do not seek enlightenment because the haven’t a care about it, so be it, if a person has no passion about enlightenment pushing them to be a seeker of any form would corrupt the purpose of seeking enlightenment. Enlightenment is something that is from within the individual, and so the specifics of enlightenment, or lack of enlightenment, should also come from the feelings and thoughts of the individual.
