Thursday, May 30, 2013
Creative Writing: "Welcome to Welch" - Found Poem
We swung north toward Kentucky,
then east.
Instead of the flat desert the land rolled.
We entered hill country,
climbing higher and deeper,
stopping from time to time
to let the Oldsmobile catch its breath.
It was November.
The leaves had turned brown
and a cold mist shrouded the hillsides.
There were streams and creeks everywhere.
The air felt different
It was very still, heavier and thicker,
and somehow darker.
It made us all grow quiet.
“Welcome to Welch!”
Print Media: "Rex Walls" - Obituary
New York City - Rex
Walls, age 59, died today after a severe heart attack. After being
hooked up on life support, it was a certain decision among the family
that he would prefer the plug to be pulled.
Rex was raised in Welch, West Virginia, but unlike most people in the
small town he set his sights elsewhere. After earning his high school
diploma upon the urging of his English teacher, Ms. Bivens, Rex went on
to serve the armed forces. During his time in the forces he would meet
his wife, Rose Mary, and immediately decided to marry her. When they
went on to form a family, it could be described as anything but normal.
Never one for a traditional life, Rex and Rose Mary would spend their
time constantly moving around. Be it for work, mafia research, or just
plain skedaddling. The only thing consistent between locations was Rex’s
love to drink. After trying and failing to quit drinking, it was firmly
establish that Rex was the town drunk wherever he went. And he has
certainly been places, going from the desert regions of California,
Arizona and Nevada to Welch again, and ending his journey here in New
York with his children.
Even
when everyone else seemed to lose hope, Rex could always rely on his
wife and his daughter, Jeannette, to pull through for him in the end.
Though not always the best father figure,, he still was a loving dad. He
always had instilled a sense of hope in his kids and tried to give them
positive things to believe in despite their situation, such as “giving”
his kids stars for Christmas. And he was always a big dreamer, with
ideas as grand as an entire castle made of glass. Regardless of any
trouble he may have caused in life, Rex Walls was a good man who will be
missed in death.
Found Poem: Christmas Time
Dad lost his job at the gypsum mine
And when Christmas came we had no money at all.
On Christmas Eve, Dad took each of us kids
out into the desert night
one by one.
I had a blanket around me,
I offered to share it with Dad,
but he said no thanks.
I said next to dad
and we looked up at the sky.
Dad loved to talk about the star.
He taught us to identify the constellations
and how to navigate by the North Star.
Those shining stars were one of the special treats
for people like us.
Rich city folks lived in fancy apartments
but their air was so polluted they couldn’t even see the stars.
We’d have to be out of our minds
to want to trade places.
Introduction
For my independent novel I chose to read The Glass Castle by Jeannette walls. This blog will feature an analytical essay, mis-en-scene analysis, a found poem, and a variety of pieces in other genres. My first piece is an obituary for the ever important father figure, Rex Walls. Although Rex caused a lot of chaos, he is certainly worth an obituary. For a visual piece with words, I made a greeting card from New York. New York is definitely an important location in this book, and the greeting card hopefully reflects that which it represents. For a visual display, I made a map. A map is definitely an appropriate way to represent the journey of the Walls family throughout America. For an informational piece I chose to utilize a timeline, since that ties in with the map to show the Walls' journey. Lastly, I wrote another found poem for my creative piece. Mostly because I found set of lines that I really liked to use, and I think a found poem would be a good way to utilize them. Enjoy the rest of the project!
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