Ricky+Pham

"Poetry is arbitrary solution to a structured problem" - Harrison Talese- Rhodes __**

My Ode **__ You've always aided me in my relentless adolescence The angst, the jubilation, and the moments suspended in time The morning walks to even the midnight voyages, we were together The screen that lit up whenever I pressed your buttons Deep down your skin, I found you gray and plain A painting from a man named Aaron Kraten, a gift to you from me The forest green skin with the image that I thought best represented you The forlorn boy without a face but surrounded by color Your vast amount of sounds with customizable head gear I got you From eighty dollar headphones to eleven dollar earphones You've even lost everything you knew with that dreaded silver apple on your face I helped you gain what's the lowest form of garbage to the most riveting of sounds From A through Z, even with numbers you got it all and with that you tell me Tell me to give up sometimes or even persevere, you broaden my life with your voice But through it all you were still mine, my iPod.

**__ Sonnet __** "Does father really plan on leaving us?" My brother asked her, it was a must Eventually my father was dust Because Victor was out of the row home He wasn't ours to own, none to own The drugs that owned Victor were in the bones He considered the drugs to him a must

The family soon became quite distant We all felt stranded at that time, so instant That's when it all started to fall Everyone started leaving, that was instant We all became alone, each so distant We all weren't together at all

During the summer it was a million white suns hot, son All we did back in the day was smoke pot, son
 * __Ghazal__**

I was a stupid child Don't make the same mistake as me when I was a tot, son

I was a trouble maker as a wee lad Always in a tied up not, son

But I had help For you see my girlfriend whom wore polka dots, son

I enjoyed that pattern and so did she But soon the enjoyment started to rot, son

She could have been your mother Yeah, we did it a lot, son

But I messed around at the time But you weren't part of the plot, son

So then that girl left I was then taking shots, son

The alcohol calmed me down and relieved me Then at is when I forgot, son

Forgot how to be a good father figure Then I, Ricky, learned a lesson in life and got taught, son

The things that I’ve thought for creating these poems were making them share a connection to myself. The ode, sonnet, and ghazal all were influenced from my life experiences and they represent me in a way. The processes of coming up with these poems was quite interesting due to the fact that I was never really fond of writing poetry. It caused me to find inspiration within myself to create a poem, it helped me to think of my life in another way.

in Ramallah the ancients play chess in the starry sky the endgame flickers a bird locked in a clock jumps out to tell the time in Ramallah the sun climbs over the wall like an old man and goes through the market throwing mirror light on a rusted copper plate in Ramallah gods drink water from earthen jars a bow asks a string for directions a boy sets out to inherit the ocean from the edge of the sky in Ramallah seeds sown along the high noon death blossoms outside my window resisting, the tree takes on a hurricane's violent original shape
 * __Ramallah__**

Wind at the ear says June June a blacklist I slipped in time note this way to say goodbye the sighs within these words note these annotations: unending plastic flowers on the dead left bank the cement square extending from writing to now I run from writing as dawn is hammered out a flag covers the sea and loudspeakers loyal to the sea's deep bass say June
 * __June__**

A school still in session irritable restless but exercising restraint I sleep beside it my breath just reaching the next lesson in the textbook: how to fly when the arrogance of strangers sends down March snow a tree takes root in the sky a pen to paper breaks the siege the river declines the bridge invites the moon takes the bait turning the familiar corner of the stairs, pollen and viruses damage my lungs damage an alarm clock to be let out of school is a revolution kids jump over the railings of light and turn to the underground other parents and I watch the stars rise
 * __Teacher's Manual__**

The poet Bei Dao is a man that has been also has done short stories as well. But a poem that was intriguing was "Teacher's Manual" and from the reader’s interpretation, the poem is from the perspective of a person watching and analyzing students in school. A part from the last stanza saying "kids jump over the railings of light/and turn to the underground/other parents and I/watch the stars rise" and that to me, lets the reader know that it's giving kids that go to school a chance to become a star. In Bei Dao’s poem “Ramallah” he uses great imagery and shares a connection between him and that location. He keeps on mentioning “in Ramallah” before a stanza and then he follows up with this impeccable way of describing the scenery so that the reader can really visualize and feel Ramallah. Bei Dao shows life in Ramallah with lines like “a boy sets out to inherit the ocean” and “death blossoms outside my window”. The lines are quite vague, but the reader can deeply see that the first line is sort of an act of virtue by leaving to “inherit the ocean” The second line with the death blossoms allows the reader to know that Ramallah wasn’t always a nice place for Bei Dao. Throughout his poetry he shows the truth. Whatever is in his poems, he not only shows the good but the bad as well. He uses imagery to place the reader in the spot of his poems and that is due to his superb imagery.