Halloween Monster

Let me just start off by saying that I love Halloween:) It's my favorite holiday out of the year! The weather is just beautiful and the leaves are changing color. My niece and I are dressing up as pirates and we have matching swords. It's going to be pretty darn fun!

On another note...Halloween is the best time to be scared. Its fun to get scared. You go to Haunted Houses, go to Halloweekends at Cedar Point. But the best of all is to tell scary stories. I love scary stories. It's hard for me to get scared but I just love telling them to others. Until this day, the one thing that I cannot do is say "Bloody Mary" three times in a bathroom with the lights of. I just can't. Even though I am a grown adult...I cannot fathom the idea because I still feel like Bloody Mary is going to come out and kill me. Tell me this picture doesn't scare the crap out of you.

Four Freedoms

I have always been inspired by Maya Angelou's writings. Not only are they smooth but to me, as a woman, and a woman of a minority class it speaks to me. It reminds me everyday of just how phenomenal women are and how we should respect ourselves to the T! PHENOMENAL WOMAN by Maya Angelou reminds me of just how beautiful we really are:)She's always on Oprah and you might know some of her other works like "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" and "Still I Rise."

From our last class discussion with my peers, this poem was read to me and had a beat going in my head....While my classmate was reading it I felt like I was in a dark poetry club and all that was missing was soft beating of drums and Maya Angelou reading it with a rhythmical nod. Nod not only from the beat and the sway of the words but nodding in agreement to the words that she spoke. To me she spoke for me and to my heart.

http://mayaangelou.com/

PHENOMENAL WOMAN
by Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing of my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them,
They say they still can't see.
I say
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
The palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

How We Didn't Tell Her

http://poems.com/poem.php?date=14234

I read this poem and it really made me think about how sometimes one's happy endings aren't another person's happy ending. It kind of reminded me of when my cousin Tariq passed away, how the entire family was so careful how to tell me the news. It makes someone really think before they act.

There is obviously no way to tell a bad news in a good way but I think my family prepared me by telling me that he was in critical condition and in the hospital. From there I was already mentally prepared for the worst but I still hoped that they all made a mistake and it was someone that looked like Tariq--similar to the poem.

In Sandra Gilbert's poem everyone knew that this young "flesh" was killed in an accident but were afraid to tell the mother. Thankfully they didn't have to because it was a mistake but the young boy that was killed in the accident was someone else's brother, son, and friend. Makes you think twice, doesn't it?

Shéma