Three

Ring circus, Little pigs, the Stooges

French hens, peas in a pod, tricycles

Blind mice, feet in a yard, legged race

Mick, Sheila and Jack.

They all come in threes

they wouldn't be the same if it was only two

Each piece is very important to the whole.
Mick, the oldest.
The one with the never-ending smile that is missing a tooth.
The one who is always there for the other two.
Jack, the youngest.
The baby of the family with a contagious laugh.
The one who can always manage to make you happy.
Sheila, the middle one.
The one that is happy-go-lucky no matter what.
The one who is a mixture of her brothers.
They all live by the same message:
family above everything.

But, Mom

No.
I don't want to go.
I'm comfortable here, not there.
But I won't know anyone.
I already have friends.
I have already made the tennis team here.
I will have to try out again.
I'm scared.
What if no one talks to me?
I don't like being alone.

Artificial Nature

The buildings stack up like mountains.

The stop sign hovers at the end of the street like a fiery sunset.

The green arrow, meaning go, looks like grass.

Schools of people walk like salmon swimming down a river.

The melodious little birds are replaced with gray pigeons.

The stoniness of the asphalt is similar to granite cliffs.
Groups of skyscrapers stand tall like sequoia trees.
The black exhaust from semi trucks look like thunder clouds about to rumble.
The whooshing sound of traffic is a louder version of a rushing river.
The reflective glass panels on buildings compare to the restrictiveness of a still lake.
The people in the shadows, ready to rob, are like mountain lions, ready to kill.

Autumn Sonnet

The most beautiful season is autumn

The healthy leaves and temperature drop

Newly colored red, yellow trees stand tall

The descending foliage does not stop.

Bright orange, seasonal pumpkins which you carve

Can be baked into warm, sweet pumpkin bread

Wearing my brothers' sweaters, which are large

Watching squirrels pick nuts, so they wont starve
Nostalgia brought back from orchards smell
Freshly picked apples are juicily ripe

Which are best to be eaten with caramel
Any apple will do, doesn't matter what type
When the leaves are gone and branches are bare
Step outside and inhale the winter air.

Bridge collapsed

August 1, 2007

After the movie

About a cooking rat

My cousin, aunt

And I went

To get ice

Cream. Walking through

The mall, everyone

Was gathered by

TVs. The phone

Lines were busy.

Frantic panicking consumed

The population of

Minnesota. My cousin
and I had
a sleepover that
night. It was
so much fun!
My aunt said
she couldn't get
home.

Joyce Sutphen Response

Joyce Sutphen’s poems are very easy to read. You read it once and you grasp the main concept. In her poem, “Listen”, it’s about how to listen. Her poem “Some Glad Morning”, is about spring coming one morning. This poem is one f my favorites of hers. It’s very pretty and my favorite stanza is “The clouds took up their positions in the deep stadium of the sky, gloving the bright orb of the sun before they pitched it over the horizon.”  The theme and the message of her poems are displayed in the title. Her poems speak of her life on the farm. Poems like “Girl on a Tractor” and “Just for the Record.” The poem “Just for the Record” is about stereotypes about her father being a farmer not being true. She writes, “No bib overalls over bare shoulders… he wore his dark suit as gracefully as Cary Grant.” In “Girl on a Tractor” she writes about being a girl working on a farm, “when it came time to work in the fields, I learned to drive a tractor at just the right speed.” She grew up on a farm in Minnesota so it’s cool that her poems relate to something so close to home. She illustrates that not all poems have to have double meanings. Sometimes poems can be beautiful by just being simple. I really enjoyed her style of writing. I’m a beginning poet but in the future I hope my poems can end up being similar to her style of writing and imagery.

Mornings

7:30
My alarm clock
wakes me up
artificially. I
lay in bed for those
first few seconds
not knowing anything.
I snap back to reality
and tumble out of bed.
To start a new day
with the same routine.