1. research the book
Factory girls Takao Arai
Write down her writing style in several bullet points.
2. make a poem that relates to the life of football players that has the same writing style and is inpired by Takao arai. Make it really imagery EX make it seem personal
mangoes / the green ones / we used stones or large sticks to knock from their branches / we’d sit
and eat / then and there / our small buckets in our laps / a bag of salt between us / the cows and
their large soft eyes would stare / eyes like a first time lover / like a face so tender it might cry /
we were children then / you and I / our grandmother Mamita was still alive / she stood at the top
of the hill and yelled our names / there was a river behind us / a small quiet thing we’d wade into
/ when no one was watching / one time you and the boys knocked over a beehive / and ran so far
up the hill it looked like you were flying / I wasn’t with you that day / I was afraid of everything /
except the poems / they’ve always been here / you would leave for adventures in that country we
considered wild / all that green / all those animals / I preferred my pen and paper / my bare feet
on concrete / my hot coffee at 3 pm / overhearing Tia gossip with Mamita / the green mangoes in
their buckets / slowly changing / like you and I / the summers I wore my adolescence like a yoke /
my heart as heavy as clay / love a dangling fruit I ached to eat / and you remained a little girl /
laughing into a sky we call home / but know nothing of
Make a shorter poem
make this one the same style and inspired by Takao too. make it about the passage of time in life and how people become too busy with work and and other things to realize time is passing by.
ex.
Moonlight
Standing at the window looking at the moon,
Its curved blade smiles in the dimming light,
Gripping its handle, im a child again,
Hands caked with soil after playing in the rain,
Running around the house in loamy delight,
Flashes of steady clicks of a grandfather clock,
My presence looming around the house,
Always looking at that one tarnished picture,
Resting against our yellow wall.
The moon unravels each chapter when I am happy.
3. write 2 page personal response, talking about your choice of Takako Aria’s poem or poems and what interested you and inspired you in writing your own poems. and how the poems relate to you personally
