Response to City Eclogue

    It took me a while to get into this book, City Eclogue by Ed Roberson. A lot of the material did not make much sense to me. In fact, it took about half of the book to really understand, at least what I think is understanding, what this book is all about. The bad grammar threw me through a lot of loops and it made for a more difficult read for something that should be quick and simple. I found myself going back and rereading a lot of the pages because something either didn't seem right or I just read over it too quickly to the point that the ending made no sense at all. So, for a while, it was a pretty difficult read just because of misunderstanding. It wasn't until page 52 that I thought I got my first glimpse of what this book was about.

    For me, page 52 stood out to me because it was written more like every other book I have read, no weird spaces in between words, no jumping all over the place, just straight forward, left to right. Well, there were some weird spaces; however, they didn't throw me off like they had been throughout the rest of the book. It was really from page 52 to page 56 that I felt like I was inside the head of someone for once in this book. I read it from a POV that wasn't my own. I think when it starts off with, "I'm awakened..." I get a whole new sense of the story. It's almost like a new beginning. Maybe that's why I felt like I understood the few pages more than the rest of the book. The use of the N-word in these pages was what really put it into perspective for me. I got the feeling that this book was about a black man, or black people in Africa back when slavery was more popular. 

    Coming off my new mindset for the book, I found another interesting example that basically jumped off the page at me while I was reading. On page 88, Open/Back Up (breadth of field), a whole stanza stands out, "...Black people get stopped regularly to show they have university I.D...." It is very clear now that this book is about racism and the struggle of black people during and before the Civil Rights movement. This one example really hit me hard though because I feel that black people still face a similar kind of struggle in today's world and it makes me question, why? If we've come so far from the beginning of this book to where we are now, in today's world, why do people still struggle like this? It opened my eyes to racism a bit more and really made me question some of the actions in the world we live in. 

Poem Responses

My first poem that I am responding to is Preference, on page 225. From the first line, I could tell that the grammar was off. I assumed it was a little boy talking. The grammar sounds childish and the speaker is talking about what kind of woman he is interested in. I found it humorous that the kid is talking about the differences in young girls vs. old girls and basically talking about how he's looking for maturity, when he himself doesn't sound all that mature. Overall, the poem has a great lesson behind it and some wise words. The line, "That's why I likes a older woman who can appreciate me..." shows a lot of understanding. We all look for the person that loves us for who we are but it takes some time to find them. The second poem I responded to was Sister, on page 224. The first line, "That little Negro's..." jumped out at me and told me that it was about to be a different type of poem. This poem is a little racist; however, the details in the poem explain that it's early southern language. Details like, "Why don't she get a boy-friend," and "Why does he keep on foolin' around Marie?" give me a southern feel. So, the first line of the poem doesn't seem so far off as when I first read it. I found this poem funny when Marie is basically called a gold digger, and it relates to the first poem I responded to, Preference, in the fact that some girls just run around with the guys that will give them what they want, they're the young ones, the ones that aren't quite mature enough to realize that they aren't truly happy with what they have.

Introduction About Me

My name is Derek Zonca. I'm a freshman here at EMU and I have gone in undecided. A few things that aren't easy to tell by just looking at me: I am very passionate about art, and I am a potter. Last year, I was in AP Art and my concentration was teapots, I spent the entire year making very unique and interesting teapots. I'm also a die hard, and I mean die hard, Detroit Red Wings fan. I like to think that I have a great sense of humor and with that, I've been told that I'm pretty chill and fun to be around. With my sense of humor, comedies are my favorite. I tend to be drawn toward comedic things. For example, I don't watch much TV, but when I do, it'll usually be Tosh.0, That 70's Show, or, the best show ever created, Friends. My bucket list consists of skydiving and making it onto the Hollywood version of The Price Is Right. I've been through a lot, I've made friends, lost friends and made a whole lot of memories. My favorite quote is, "Have no fear of perfection, you'll never reach it." - Salvador Dali.