Poetry Portfolio

Poetry Portfolio
Grace Shin-Ae Lee
Ms.Johnson
11/12/06

-1-

To my dearest little sister,
You always make my day special.
I miss you.
And I love you.
-2-

I did my best on the Pantoum Poem, and the on the Narrative Poem. First of all, pantoum was so hard that I just had to focus writing on it, concerning about all those rhyming words following on the end of the lines. I tried to relate every line of the poems to the topic, which was Christmas. It was hard trying to rhyme all of those words, because some words were one of the words that don’t really rhyme very well with other words. Another poem that I spent my most time was on the Narrative Poem. I really had fun writing that poem, and I found it very funny to write this poem. I wrote about my childhood, and I think that made it very special writing this poem. I should say that my mot inspired work is the Narrative Poem.
My birthday and Christmas time are some of the most inspired events in my life. Every Christmas, our family spend many times together, doing many fun things, and we also share many gifts to each other, and share the truth of Jesus. This is why I wrote about Christmas on some of the poems. My birthday is another special event that happens in my life every year. I feel different for each year, as I’m growing a little more maturely in faith and in normal life. My little sister really inspires me greatly. She always encourages me, which is the other way around. She never gives up unless she really knows that there are no possibilities, but I know that she has the potential to do everything she wants to do.
I think the writing process we learned is very useful. It gives the general idea of how we should write it, and on what we should base our writing on. If we follow the writing process exactly as we are taught, we could make the best essay ever, but the thing is that it’s very hard to follow those categories. I think it is very important to do what other people require to, and what other people look first when they read our essays. The most important category I value in the writing process is the idea category. Essays and poems, or other writing pieces are all about showing our thought to people, and the following judges are whether we organized our piece well, or have grammar mistakes. The idea is what I most concerned when I wrote my poems, and after writing the poems and proofreading them, I still thought that idea is the most significant thing that should always be the best in any of the poems. The 6 Traits of Writing was like a rubric that instructed me how to do things, and to go more into the details of each of the categories. I learned what people expected from our writings, and I really think that it’s the best way or steps to follow when we’re writing.
-3-

Table of Contents

1. Alone... --------Haiku-----------------5

2. A Pessimistic Point of View --------List Poem-------------6

3. Rainbow Candy Store--------Sound Poem----------7

4. My Regret… ---------Narrative Poem------8

5. Christmas ---------Pantoum-------------9
-4-

“Alone…”

After a strong breeze
Red leaves falling on the ground;
Lonely, empty Tree
-5-

Title: A Pessimistic Point of View

Why do you hate writing poetry?
It has to be meaningful like the parables in the Bible.
It has to have many comparisons.
It has to have many descriptive words.
You have to be a meditator, thinking a lot before writing.
It has to be emotional, but serious also, at the same time.
It has to be devious and have depth.
It has to have one voice clearly represented.
It has many different types, like Free verse, Sonnets, Lyrics, and Dirges.
It has to have repetitive words over and over again, on some parts.
Hating to write, read, and think about poetry, is being asked by siblings to do something for them; annoying and irritating.
-6-

“Rainbow Candy Store”

Rainbow color of stores across the street;
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, purple.
Paintings reflected by the bright sunlight shining.
One store brimful with sweets
and children in a swarm,
after the last ‘ding-dong’ school bell,
the candy store.
Mumbling and grumbling,
hands in their pockets,
coins clinking to be grabbed.
Handing to the store-man,
‘clink’ again on the counter.
Children sucking their candies,
jjup-jjup.
‘Ouch, I hurt my tongue with the sharp edge’
said one of the kid.
-7-

“My regret…”

I live in a doorway
Between two rooms,
Hitting the keyboard of the piano,
A frown and a grimace on the face,
sitting slantingly on the chair,
making the most frustrating sound,
like a song without untuned;
looking at the clock for time to end.

Now here I am,
where I can’t practice everyday.
Regretting and thinking of the past,
every weekend, I find my self on the piano,
playing the rainbow color sound,
beautiful melody along the rhythm.
A trance on my face,
enjoying the play.
-8-

“Christmas”

December 25th
Special day of the year,
Bringing Christmas gifts,
Dingdong sound, can’t you hear?

Special day of the year,
Sharing the joy of the Birth of Jesus,
Dingdong sound, can’t you hear?
The wonderful Bible Story’s passus

Sharing the joy of the Birth of Jesus,
Christmas tree with red and green,
The wonderful Bible Story’s passus
Santa waiting to be greet

Christmas tree with red and green,
Hark the Harold angels singing
Santa waiting to be greet
Children, joyfully caroling

Hark the Harold angel singing
Bringing Christmas gifts,
Children, joyfully caroling
December 25th
-9-

When Ms.Johnson taught us the instructions about the Haiku, I thought of the wonderful nature outside. While I was thinking about the greatness of the weather fall, Ms.Johnson said that Haikus are better to be about nature, and a little bit of lugubrious feeling. Here it goes, my self assessment of the Haiku, one of my favorite type of poem.
The message of this poem is very clear. It is showing the depressing feeling of falling leaves. The key point of this poem is loneliness, and I tried my best to express that loneliness with words describing the falling of the leaves. It can be well-summarized into the main, general topic and purpose to ‘loneliness’.
As far as I read, I can’t find any grammar mistakes, or even unappropriate words used in this poem, since it’s a very short poem. The convention seems all good, with appropriate format of writing Haikus. I also showed my clear topic and purpose of the poem most in line 3: ‘Lonely, empty Tree’. The organizational pattern is very appropriate for genre, topic, and purpose. It is easy to read because of the conciseness of the words and words that are connected together. The transitions between lines and lines are smooth and they are followed by the instructions of the poem. The opening is a little weak for a Haiku, but it generally gives the readers a moment to think about what’s the poem going to be about. The ending of the poem is strong, giving the best idea, and summarization of the poem with adjectives that describes the noun.
The voice is very lugubrious here. It sounds very lonely, and it follows the audience very well. The voice is very honest, and it is very truthful that everybody might agree about the topic. The words chosen here are all depending on the topic of the poem. The words are what makes the poem, so I really tried hard to put words that are not too technical and professional, but words that are comfortable and words that many other people can agree on.
-10-

When I wrote this poem, I didn’t know that we were writing an actual poem because Ms.Johnson, our director didn’t tell us, when we started writing. I still don’t feel like this is a poem, and that there is such a thing called ‘list poem’. The title of this poem is ‘A Pessimistic Point of View’.
The message of this poem is fairly clear enough, and focused. When I was writing this poem, I was so concentrating on the theme of the poem, which was ‘why do you hate writing poems?’ I tried my best to list all I could answer for the question, and all of them are reasonable answers; however some are answers based on my mind or my opinion. That means that maybe other people might disagree with what I’m saying. The poem has enough descriptions, and it’s not hard for other normal people to understand what it means, even the metaphors. Other wise, the ideas are sufficiently creative and satisfying.
The convention in this poem is a little bit confusing. When I was writing this poem, I, myself was confused about the forms of the poem, and in what forms do I have to answer the question. In line 5, the line begins with ‘You’, and other lines are all starting with ‘It’. As I’m doing this self-assessment again, I think the line should be changed to ‘It was to be written after a lot of thinking’ and not writing about who I have to be, because I’m sure that it’s not for everybody that they have to be a meditator. Of course, I wrote it as to use some simile form, but I think it doesn’t really fit the poem. The punctuations are all correctly included, and there are no spelling mistakes. In line 10 and 11, the sentence is a little bit too ‘dragging’. I should’ve written like ‘Hatin about poetry is like getting a favor by siblings to do something for them; annoying and irritating.
The purpose of the poem is very evident in this poem, because I wrote the title, which was the topic and I also wrote the question above before I started to begin my first line of poem, which was intentionally done. I wanted the readers to get an idea of what I’m going to write, so that they won’t fall into a different genre, or different topic. The main ideas are clear, and shift part of the poem, which is the last two lines are the most important and noticeable sentence of the poem. Each sentences, or lines are smooth to be connected together, and they are on the same track, not losing the key point and the main idea. The opening is a little vague and it is too weak because of the ‘too general’ title. The voice of this poem is strong. Especially with the descriptive audience written on top of the page, readers can get the general tone of the poem by just reading the audience, without even reading the actual poem. The words are smoothly connected by the appropriate word choices for the students.
This is the poem that I had the least confidence so it was really hard to self-assess.
-11-

This is the sound poem that I based on kids who love candies when I wrote this poem. The idea of this poem is very creative. First of all, there are many ideas and thoughts in this poem, and it has many sounds. It is easy to summarize, and it is very realistic, without using tricks or feigning the readers. The main theme of the story is all over the lines, and it has enough details needed. The message and the theme are very clear and well-summarized. Each of the lines is not losing the main topic of the poem, and it is very thorough. The result and the conclusion is very satisfying, especially that it concludes the shift part of the poem.
As far as I read my own poem, I don’t find any errors on the poem, because of the peer editing in 2nd draft. On line 6, I think I shouldn’t have put the quotations around ‘ding-dong’. I should have also put more sounds, since it’s a sound poem, but I don’t have any regret on the sounds that I have written. The words are creative enough, and it has very special meanings for each of the powerful words. The lines are all based on the audience, which was kids for this poem, and I wrote appropriate connecting words to make sure that the audience (kids) would understand the poem and think like: ‘Yeah, I felt like this when I was doing this, and I made these kinds of sounds’.
The topic and the purpose of this poem is very clear and concise. This makes the poem well-summarized, and the poem is very easy and simple to understand to everybody, because of the wonderful topic that everybody might have experienced once. The topic is very easygoing, and is very comfortable. The transitions between the lines are fairly smooth enough, and again, each lines are all somehow very related to the general topic of the whole poem.
The voice of this poem is very strong, I think. I feel like I used many appropriate words in this poem, because when I was writing, I really concentrated on the purpose and the topic, but the most part that I concentrated on was the audience. I think the audience judges the whole poem, and it depends on the audience, whether or not the poem will be full of joy or sadness. I hope that I solved the readers’ curiosity when they started reading, and reached the shift part of the poem, the conclusion.
Again I’m emphasizing that the words are chosen very well in this poem. I especially made the lines very easy to understand with simple and deep words, concerning about the audience of the poem. Also, the words are not all easy, but it has some meaningful words, so I guess it’s balanced. The verbs and adjectives are sufficiently strong in this poem, and I’m very proud of the words that I’ve chosen.

-12-



Peer Edit
Esther Park
B Writing



Dear. Miss Grace Lee

Ms, Lee, as I have read, your poem was about joy of Christmas season.
The idea is very clear and as audience, I had no problem understanding it.
As an audience, I could understand the main idea in your poem; however, I think the audience range is a little bit vague. Also, there were few, but not many, errors I could spot. I know you were trying to make the poem rhyme, but I think you still need to use correct grammar. So, you should look for other correct words that will rhyme with other phrases and rectify the poem.
Another error I saw was that some words that you intended to rhyme did not quietly work. So, the audience might not know that your poem is a Pantoum.
There were few words that I could not understand. Thus, you should look for easier words to replace that will have same meaning to make the poem appropriate for your audience. Other than this, the topic, itself fits the audience range.
The voice of your needs is in your poem, but it needs more of your personality in it, or your personal thoughts. You might want to write in more creative ways.
The poem had good sentence fluency, and I really enjoyed reading the poem. The Christmas spirit was definitely in it.
Ms. Lee, your poem was very lovely and enjoyable and I look forward to edit your writings again.


Thank you,

Esther Park
12/07/06

-13-

Process Essay

Always the hardest: Adapting to a new country
Grace Shin-Ae Lee
Ms.Johnson

Process Essay
7/11/2006
663 words



Many people say that moving to a different country is not like making a food or riding a bike. They are trying to be serious even in those things. However, it is nothing to worry about if you follow these instructions, written by my own self, including my very own personal experiences.
Have you seen people going crazy ‘just because’ their day and night are changed? Maybe they wanted to save their time and money for traveling or wanted to have fun and go have an one-shot drink. You would’ve done this if these instructions weren’t in front of you on a nice magazine or a newspaper. Some countries, like America and Korea, have opposite time period. While it is day light in Korea it is night in America, and vice versa. Following and getting along with your body and time period is not a silly thing to ignore. You will need no equipment for this step, but you’ll probably want to have a nice, puffy bed rather than a cement floor. Now, you should wear comfortable clothing, like pajamas, and lay down on the bed. If you find yourself difficult to sleep, a good recommendation here is to count sheep in your head until you find yourself in the middle of nowhere with the sheep. It will only take a day, for the shortest, and 3days for the longest to follow along with the time, from a personal experience.
Everybody must have suffered at least once from a cold: sneezing, fever, sore throat, coughing, or the worst, stuffed nose. All of these are caused by the sudden change in weather that your body can not follow up rapidly. To prevent these evil bacteria, we should be ready to have a fight with them by wearing appropriate clothes according to the weather. Your body looks strong with muscles and fats, but after all it is a dog that has just gave birth to the pups, sensitive and nervous. I would prefer listening to these instructions if you don’t want to freeze to death wearing shorts in Alaska or suffer from having prickly heats wearing woolen jackets in Florida.
Another important step of going to a new country and adapting is getting to know the culture of that country. If you planned living in that country for a long time, you should be more understanding in the culture category. Why is it so important? There will be times when you have to try food in that country. You can’t eat your own country food every meal just because you hate the country food, can you? You should get used to the food when you first come to the country. Even people who disliked spicy and hot foods liked the Korean traditional food, ‘Kim chi’. There are people that act prudishly but actually get more into than other people. Some parts of culture are: food (everybody can agree that it’s the most important thing), education (especially school, where students suffer), traditions, religions, development of science politics and arts.
How would you feel if you were left on an island with people all talking in different languages? It’s fretful, annoying, and probably even angry. Many people say from experience that the hardest part of adapting to new country is language. There are many ways of communicating with people, but most of the people prefer ‘talking’. A technique for learning the language faster and easier is to talk a lot, even though you are not good at it. Have confident and speak out, because you remember what you’ve said rather than what you’ve heard. You would want to listen to there instructions because you will easily get cheated if you do body languages in front of people.
I guarantee you that these instructions will help you out: time, weather, culture, and language. This process will never end up with wasting time, but as a huge success. It will help you survive the new country. Then, good luck!

Definition Essay

The Unmerited Gift: Grace and Mercy
Grace Shin-Ae Lee
Ms.Johnson

Definition Essay
20/10/2006
866 words



Grace is generally mercy from God. Grace is beauty and elegance. To understand the word more than knowing the definition of the world would probably give a better and clear understanding of the word in one’s mind. There are several kinds of ways to explain this definition. The three types of ways that I chose are details of the word, negations of the word, and examples of the word.
A definition of a word is simply the meaning of the word describing with simple words and easier ways. To go more into the subject about grace, there are two different definitions of this word. One is describing a person or a thing when they are beautiful and attractive. We call people ‘graceful’ when they are admirable, charming, or delicate, and when they act like a gentle and merciful person. Acting gracefully is being a noble person, not acting ignorantly which means acting mindlessly, but dignified and refined, with elegance. Furthermore, an example of acting gracefully, is being careful and cautious of what one has said or acted is an important qualification. People who act audaciously are the negation of this example. For the second definition of this word ‘grace’, which is the most famous known and familiar definition, is mercy from other people, especially from God. It is the unmerited kindness and favor given by people who think or feel sorry to the receiver. Usually, we think about God’s mercy when we think about grace. Grace is a gift and it’s always freely given. God gave His one and only son by His wide and wonderful Grace. We are saved by the Grace of God, that he forgives our sins when we ask Him to. Grace generally means that you will not be getting what you so richly deserve.
Negation is the opposite meaning or statement of the word, which means to tell the antonym of the word. To understand the word better than just knowing the definitions, drawing a clear line between what is right and what is wrong is also a good way of starting to write the negations of the word. Grace is beauty and attractiveness as I said on the first paragraph. I also mentioned that it is used both physically and acting. However, people who try to be graceful and trick others by just trying to get into the qualification of being graceful are not really who the world call ‘graceful’. Grace is being natural, naïve, and innocent. It must come out from deep in the heart, not pretending to be one. It should not be in the qualification of ‘grace’ by affectation, but by the natural and plain heart. Also, the second definition of the word, which was mercy, is forgiving others. Here, forgiving doesn’t mean getting away of people’s fault just because you have to. It means to be generous to people. It means to give and share, forgive and absolve things that they have done wrong by mistake, or sometimes even with purposes. It doesn’t mean to feel sorry for the people, but to help others, by forgiving or giving mercy to them. It must be sincerely, whole-heartedly, and for more, earnestly.
For the last section of this explanation paragraph of the definition essay, I want to give an example of the word to make a clearer definition in the reader’s mind. When you work for somebody and get a fair pay for working, it is simply called salaries or wages. It is just being fair, calculating and counting the benefits of what you have done for somebody else. When you compete with somebody and receive a gift from winning, it is called a prize or reward. It is a gift that you deserve to receive, because of what you have done by your talents. When you receive appropriate recognition for your long service or high achievement of something, it is called an award. This is also an acceptable present or prize, because you have done and achieved what other people required. However, when you are not capable of earning a wage, no ability to win a prize competing with others, or not be able to deserve an award, yet you still receive such a gift anyways, this is called the grace. It is the gifts that are always given freely to you even though you don’t deserve to have one, because you are not in any of these qualifications-earning a wage, being able to compete and win somebody, or being highly deserved to get an award. It is feeling compassion and generosity with great blessings and mercy. Therefore, we-and everything- are all God’s grace, because we are the blessings and gifts to this world.
Grace was, is, and is always going to be enduring. Grace is the unmerited gifts and blessings from people who are generous and kind-hearted. Grace will never end, and should not come to the end, because living in the world without ‘grace’ will be full of darkness and hopelessness. There will be no dreams in people’s life without having grace in this whole world. Grace is not getting what we are deserved to. It is not less, but more than what we deserve to have.

Goals for this semester*

Reaching for a better me:)

Goal 1: This semester in Writing 1 class, I will try to pay more attention on evaluating my own writing and maybe also others, because usually after I’ve written my writing, I had a short, little scheme, and returned the work. That caused me have lower grades for making so many mistakes.
Method: Whenever we have to write an essay or any piece of my own writing, I would read it over more than two times, to check if I have any errors or mistakes, and I would also try to evaluate my own writing, so that I won’t get many corrections from others.

Goal 2: This semester, I set my second goal to try to learn the precise, descriptive, and appropriate words and language that will clarify the ideas and purposes of my writing more.
Method: I will memorize more vocabularies so that I can use better words when I write any piece of writing. I will also use the dictionaries to make better word choices and using the appropriate words.

Goal 3: I set my third goal to learn more about the conventions of capitalization in written compositions, because sometimes, I made mistakes on capitalizing proper nouns.
Method: I will be surer about the proper nouns that I need to capitalize. If I’m not sure about it, I will look it up to make it sure, and to capitalize the letter.

Goal 4: I will try to use variety of print and electronic sources to gather information for research topics and the whole researching.
Method: I used to only use Internet for my researching source, but from now on, I would also go to the library to get some books as resources, and also ask many other people for some more, different information.

Goal 5: My goal from the 6 Traits of Writing is to pay more attention on the voice category, because I think voice is what makes the readers have interest in reading or just leave the piece down.
Method: To make my voice clearer, I have to use appropriate words that fit to the writing, which is one of my goals. I will try to have better word choices that would totally change the voice of the writing, depending on the topic.

I will always try my best, this semester, to achieve my goals, and to make a better me of growing one step up.