Harlem

There are many people that made Harlem a very famous place for African-American artists to go to. One person taht contributed to this was Duke Ellington. Duke Ellington was a very famous and a very talented person who performed and lived in Harlem. He was a player at the Cotton Club in Harlem. Even though this Club was in Harlem it was for white people only but Ellington was allowed to go there to play even though he was black. Duke Ellington was a very influential person in Harlem using his music.

Another person who contributed to making Harlem famous was Claude McKay who was an excellent writer. He moved to Harlem because he wanted to participate in the writing movements that were happening in Harlem. He did not earn a living as writing but he worked as a porter on a railroad so that he could afford to live. He also wrote a novel that was the first from a writer from Harlem to be on the New York Times Bestseller List. He helped Harlme greatly with his writings.

Having My Say

Something that I feel very strongly about today is abortion. I am very against the idea of abortion. I believe that abortion is murder because a child is living no matter how long it has been in the womb. A child is living even if it may only be a few centimeters big. I believe that a mother should not have the ability to take away their child's life. That is not fair to the child because they never even had a chance to live. Their live can be taken away by their mother just because their mother made a mistake in having a child. In my opinion abortion is a very sad thing. No mother should not want a child. That is absolutely horrible. I believe that God made every child and that God is the giver of life and of death, not a mother. I realize that in some cases mothers are informed that their child may have problems when it is born or the mother may have problems in birth so abortion is an option. I still think this is very wrong. The mother should be willing to risk her life and should want her child even if it has a disability when it is born. I am very against abortion and do not think it should be an option to expecting women. There are other options out there such as adoption that are much better than abortion

Connections to Whitman

 Me at 4years old on the right

I really enjoyed this poem about childhood. This poem talks about how everything the boy saw made part of him. One line that was in the poem said "the cow's calf." This was definitely a line that I could connect to. From the time I was born I have been around my cows. I have been showing cows since I learned to walk and working with my cows is a huge part of my life. I believe that working with my cows and helping on the farm have made me into the person I am today. Showing my cows and working on the farm have given me a work ethic that not many city kids today have. It also has given me an understanding about where my food comes from and I do not take my food for granted because I know how much work farmers put into making food for the world. This is a reason why I very much agree with what Whitman says in this poem about childhood. Cows have made me the person I am today and I would not trade all of the time I put into my cows for anything.

Emily Dickinson Poetry

By: Emily Dickinson

New feet within my garden go,

New fingers stir the sod;

A troubadour upon the elm

Betrays the solitude.

New children play upon the green,

New weary sleep below;

And still the pensive spring returns,

And still the punctual snow!

In my opinion this poem is not talking about just Emily Dickinson's garden but instead the whole world. In the beginning she says "New feet within my garden go" and I think this symbolizes spring because people start working with the Earth in the spring. Also in the second stanza I think she is talking about babies being born in the first ling and then people dying and being buried in the second line. In the last two lines I think she means that no matter what happens the world keeps turning and the seasons keep changing. 

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Affirmations of Life

I think that we are faced with many tough situations in our lives. These situations truly test us in different aspects of our lives. I think that these situations are given to us by God so that we can learn to put our trust in Him and Him only. Therefore I believe that in order to look positively at not so good situations we must turn to God. To look positively at a situation I remember that God tells us in the Bible that He will never put us in a situation that we cannot handle without Him. We probably won't be able to handle it on our own is problem that many people face. In troubled times we must turn our focus to God. We need to have faith in Christ that He will help us through the hard times. We also should pray often during the tough times. I believe that any Christian can face any hard times as long as they remember to go to God and not loose their faith.

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Personal Connection To Nature

A time when I had a connection to nature was in Wyoming. My family rode horses to the very top of a mountain and then had a picnic at the top of the mountain. The view from the spot was amazing and I could see so far. It was amazing to just sit and look at everything God had created and how perfect all of it was. I think the truth that I saw in the nature is that everything God creates is beautiful and even if in our eyes something may not seem beautiful to God it is. The connection just made me realize that I should not judge things by looks because in God's eyes everything is beautiful and all that matters in the end is God so I have no place to judge.

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Team Nathaniel

I personally like stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne more than the stories of Poe. Hawthorne's stories have a lot of symbolism as do Poe's. The symbols in Hawthorne's stories are much easier to understand. Also, Poe has a lot of very dark writing where as Hawthorne's stories are not necessarily good but they are not as dark as those of Poe. The only problem I have with Hawthorne's writing is that sometimes he puts in too much detail and that detail makes the story boring. All together I think that Nathaniel Hawthorne's writing is better than the writing of Poe.

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