This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 at 6:44 pm and is filed under CSS 8th Grade Interact. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Ms. Gutierrez's 8th Grade English
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Recent Comments
Jenn Gutierrez on Animal Farm Discussion Wk… Philip K on Animal Farm Discussion Wk… Matthew W. on Animal Farm Discussion Wk… Aaron W on Animal Farm Discussion Wk… Matthew W. on Animal Farm Discussion Wk…
February 14, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Hello again! Some of our classmates may be arriving late, but to kick things off, Aaron, can you tell us a little about what/who inspired you to begin writing?
February 14, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Reminder–please refresh your browser often to see new comments as they appear.
February 14, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Hello. When I myself was in 7th or 8th grade, I stumbled across an anthology of poetry in my house and started reading it. Much of the work seemed like a completely different language than I was used to, but something about those poems clicked for me. Later, I was fortunate enough to have an English teacher who encouraged my own writing.
February 14, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Hi im lilly, and i would like to now what gave you the idea to wright needleing???
February 14, 2007 at 7:37 pm
Hi my name is Keila
February 14, 2007 at 7:40 pm
Sorry I’m late!! Hi, I’m Samantha(SAm) Sloan. I remember you from the writers conference lat year, with Ms. Gutierrez. I really like your writing. My favorite peom of yours is “Man saves own life”
February 14, 2007 at 7:40 pm
Hi, Lily. That particular poem, a sectional poem, owes a debt (like many such sectional poems) to Wallace Stevens’s “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” a poem I’ve known and loved since I was about your age. Additionally, I find something fascinating about tattoos, which are, after all, a kind of writing.
February 14, 2007 at 7:40 pm
I really like your poem “man saves own life.”
February 14, 2007 at 7:41 pm
After you’re done with lilly’s comment, I was wondering what the inspiration for the poem Good morning.
February 14, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Thank you, Sam. I had a very fine time at the conference.
February 14, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Hi, my name is Cassandra. That is neat how you got interested in poetry and started writing. I would like to know where you like to write and which writers inspire you the most. Thank you for giving us your time!
February 14, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Hi, I’m Kelsey.
I personally enjoy writing poetry because it is nice to give a message and to write about my own experiences. Why do you enjoy writing poetry and what keeps you writing it?
February 14, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Hi I’m Lisa, I must say your work has inspired me to write more! I really liked your skeleton poem, which I cant remember the name right now.. I liked how you related it to a teacher commanding her classmate like peer pressure works.
February 14, 2007 at 7:44 pm
Hi, Zack. I honestly don’t remember what *exactly* inspired that poem, “Good Morning,” though I did for some time, for some reason, have this idea about a lost kamikaze, similar to the Japanese soldiers who hid for years on islands in the Phillipines, believing the war was still happening.
February 14, 2007 at 7:45 pm
I was also on the writting seminar last year and i enjoyed it.
Thank you for last year and for right now.
February 14, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Thats awsome, i love tatoos, although i do no not think i would ever get any. Well would also like to now why you enjoy writing poetry, and also reading it?
February 14, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Oh yeah!! That poem was amazing. I really injoyed the metaphors used in good morning!! It was really amazing to see how you could tie something so far back into today.
February 14, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Thanks for the insight, I have always been very interested in how japanese soldiers were so devoted to the war to fight for years on end and give up their lives so easily.
-Zack
February 14, 2007 at 7:47 pm
hello- my name is annie and i wonderingif its only me or if its really hard for you to write without inspiration? for me i have to have some sort of inspiration to write, i can just start writting, i mean i can but its nothing i would like to save, haha thanks! and i really like your poem neddling and man saves own life
February 14, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Hi i’m Paola
February 14, 2007 at 7:50 pm
OK: There are a few questions to address (and, in the meantime, my five-year-old is asking that I help with her Valentines cards!).
One of the things I love most about writing poems, Kelsey, is simply playing with words and the discoveries and happy accidents that happen.
Cassandra: I often work on poems at a table near my kitchen, but I’m always scribbling down phrases and lines when I’m out in the world. As for which writers inspire the most, let me type up a list after posting this…
February 14, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Aaron, do you have any funny stories about your experiences as a writer? I haven’t shared this with the kids, but I once went to a W.S Merwin reading and there was this little old lady sitting in front of me. She must have been near seventy–lips painted bright pink . . . and nervous. Finally she turned around and smiled at me. I too was there alone and so she began telling me about meeting him some twenty years earlier on a snowy evening–they had drinks because the snow made attendance thin. She was nervous he wouldn’t remember her. I enjoyed the reading immensely, but I have to say knowing their little connection made the reading that more vivid to me.
February 14, 2007 at 7:51 pm
i realle liked the poem, Man Saves own Life. it just has a great meaning fo how if something is wrong you jst cant live in self pity for ever, youy have to do something to make it better yourself
February 14, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Hi, Annie. Some poems do indeed seem to come from inspiration, but I find that inspiration is something I occasionally (OK: often) have to jump-start, often by reading other people’s poems (or, really, reading anything, whether the newspaper, of short stories, or etc.). Also, one of the reasons I sometimes work in forms is because the form gives me something to focus on other than “inspiration,” if that makes sense…
February 14, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Oh, I have lots of stories, though I don’t know how funny they are. I once fell asleep at a very crowded reading, so crowded that I was sitting on the floor, not far from the podium. I won’t name the poet, but she read in a very soporific, monotone manner. I awoke to the sound of applause and looked up to see one of my professors shaking his finger at me.
February 14, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Thanks Mr. Anstett… your poems have really inspired me! oh ya- that is cool you have a 5 year old daughter- I love little kids and I am working on Valentines right now too!
That is neat how you make time for writing (I’m sure you are busy!) thank you for your response!
February 14, 2007 at 7:57 pm
So do you mainly get inspiration from more random things or things that you are really intrested in. I feel like I can never write a poem on something That I don’t feel very passionte about, and then there’s lisa who wrote a poem about a potato (which I think is pretty cool)!!
February 14, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Speaking of siblings, my little brother and sister are also doing valentines at the moment. Mr. Anstett, I also liked man saves own life.
February 14, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Another time, when I was working as a grant-writer and attending a conference, I met a man at dinner who asked how I became a grant-writer. I explained that I had a writing degree, but I avoided and avoided telling him that I wrote poems (as usually that announcement ceases all conversation). Finally, when I confessed that I wrote poems, he said, “Oh, my sister’s a poet,” and then told me that she’d recently published her seventh book, had won a number of awards, etc. It turned out she’s a famous NYC poet, whom I’d met maybe a year before.
February 14, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Do you have any advice for people who would like to pursue a career in writting?
February 14, 2007 at 7:59 pm
So, did you always want to be a writer? Or what were your other career interests/choices?
February 14, 2007 at 8:00 pm
How quickly time flies! We have already been on for 30 minutes. Please feel free to wrap it up as soon as you need to go. We appreciate your time and understand the many other obligations in your life.
February 14, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Hi, Sam. It seems I often draw inspiration from pretty random things, but in the process of writing I discover what it is about those things that first drew my interest…
February 14, 2007 at 8:00 pm
So in class we have been talkin about poems with a music back drop, like reading poems toi music or even turning poems into music. Do you do any of that with your poems?
February 14, 2007 at 8:01 pm
I have to go work on an ancient paper, thanks for your time Mr. Anstett!
February 14, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Hi, Lisa. My advice for anyone wanting to be a writer of any kind is to read as much and as widely as possible. Read fiction, non-fiction, poetry. Read the greats and the contemporaries. And write. And write. And write.
February 14, 2007 at 8:03 pm
i know you are almost leaving Mr Ansett and i’m a little late but i want to ask what is it about writing that u find fascinating? Why do u enjoy writing so much?
February 14, 2007 at 8:03 pm
So you might start out with one idea and finish with a completly different idea?
February 14, 2007 at 8:04 pm
Hi, Lilly. I have a little experience with reading with music as a backdrop and lots of experience writing with music playing…
February 14, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Oh wow, time flies! Thank you so much for the advice, I would love to stay but I have to go to Soccer practice!! Thanks again!!!
February 14, 2007 at 8:06 pm
Hi, Sam. Absolutely, re: starting with one idea and finishing another. Robert Frost famously said, “No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.” Speaking of music and poetry, these files are lots of fun: http://billknott.typepad.com/billknott/2006/12/17/index.html
February 14, 2007 at 8:07 pm
Robert Frost is one of my favorite poets!
February 14, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Mine, too, Kelsey, along with about 200 hundred others…
February 14, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Hmm. Can I edit “200 hundred”?!
February 14, 2007 at 8:10 pm
On that note of a typographical error, thank you all for your questions and comments. I have plenty of cards to help address…
February 14, 2007 at 8:10 pm
I like too many poets really. My mini-library has a very wide variety of poet’s works. I’m actually quite proud of my little collection.
February 14, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Thats funny and cool at the same time! It’s weird how small of a world this is.
February 14, 2007 at 8:11 pm
Thank you for your time!
February 14, 2007 at 8:13 pm
. . . more than 200?
Thanks for the link. Today in class we put some of our own writing to music–some soft music, some very not so soft . . . it was fun to watch. If you check back at the end of the month their work should be up on our Wiki
February 14, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Have fun with those Valentines… Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it! Thanks for inspiring me to write poetry!
February 14, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Thanks, Aaron. Go help with those Valentines (and don’t eat all your daughter’s candy when she goes to bed). You can check back tomorrow for any late-comer comments. Goodnight.
February 14, 2007 at 8:17 pm
Thanks for spending your time talking to us! Hope you have a nice night!
February 14, 2007 at 8:18 pm
mrs gutierrez, i have a question, is it ok if we e-mail the poems you wanted typed to you?
February 14, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Yes–email or bring on flash drive tomorrow.
February 14, 2007 at 8:23 pm
ok thank you
February 14, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Bye! Thank you for your time!
February 14, 2007 at 8:37 pm
Hello my name is Drew. Mr. Anstett I was wondering what your poems were about in the 7th or 8th grade and if they were on the same subject as the poems you write now?
February 15, 2007 at 6:46 pm
I’m so sorry I had a Pep Rally and couldn’t do the Q and A I was really sad but I read everything and I want to thank you for your time!!!!!