Journal 3: Triggering Town From Paul Winters

Coming in for a landing in the past two chapters was very solemn as the journey with Hugo was coming to and end and there is nothing like reading a book for the first time through and it is all new. Even though he is gone now, we are still getting to know him and that is what I love about books the fruit of them lives on.

The ending just rings on, and I have read it over and over. I love the last lines of books, because I know they have been so thought out and so I have decided to quote it.
     
        "Or if we never did it ourselves, that someone, derelict or poet, did it for us once in some euphonic way our inadequate capacity for love did not deny our hearing" Page 109.


Reading it can still give me the chills as we realize we are apart of something much bigger than ourselves and it becomes our responsibility to not only be the voice of our race and what is happening, but give a voice and a channel to those that don't even know they have a voice.






https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/richard-hugo


Something I wanted to know about Hugo is when he really started getting into his craft of poetry, and I found that he was 37 when he published his first book of poems after being in creative writing a Creative writing major at Washington state and going on to work for Boeing.

It was interesting to find that he was still open to his calling and he finally honed in on it. He also died when he was 58, when he was ripe.





Something I really took away from this book is the way Hugo would talk to us in his writing, it took me from not looking at myself at a poet at all to realizing it is a great technique to connect to the unseen emotions and can be done in a very beautiful way. It is something that will always stick with me because just as Hugo did we have to be open to our calling, and no matter what that may be poetry can be used to get out of us what our way of thinking may not be able to express.

Hayley Journal Three

The last two paragraphs in Richard Hugo's The Triggering Town were very interesting to me. In chapter 8, Ci Vediamo, I enjoyed hearing about the writers past and his visitation to his past. I have always been interested in the air force and I find it very interesting that he was a bombardier. I enjoyed the humor in the line "I was on the American side, but let me assure you the history books are right. We Won. If you had seen me bomb, you might have doubts."(75) Ci Vediamo translates to see you later and I thought it was a clever title because he is revisiting his past in Italy and with the last line in the chapter "I still wasn't sure why I'd come back, but I felt it must be the best reason in the world." (98) I enjoyed reading about things he did and the places he visited and hearing him comparing WW2 Italy to post WW2 Italy and seeing how different everything was and what all changed over the years. I liked hearing his stories from the past because they give you a better understanding of him as a person and I enjoy hearing people's experiences and hearing about places I have never been. My favorite part about chapter 9, How Poets Make a Living, was the story about the squatter and his wife. I thought it was a very good story and I felt bad for the people on both sides of the situation. I felt bad for the man because he was losing everything, he was losing his home, and I really liked his line "I only lost homes in my lifetime." (107) I felt bad for the company because they had to kick a man and his wife out of their homes and see it affect the man, especially in the letter that he wrote to him. I as well almost envied the squatter man like Hugo says on page 104 "And secretly, even to himself secretly, he admired, almost envied, the man because the man was not civilized, and I suppose basically no one wants to be civilized." There are many advantages to civilization but there are also disadvantages and that squatter man had freedom in his own way and he lived how he wanted and he was okay with it and he did not have to deal with society and the problems in it. I agree that it is better to be civilized but I still somewhat envy those who are not and those who do not live by societies rules and standards and do not hurt anyone else by doing so. When I was younger I would dream of living off the land and building a cabin in the woods and so did a lot of my friends, not being civilized can be very desirable but today it is not as possible to accomplish if it is even possible at all, I do not know. 

One of my biggest take aways from this book comes from the very first page of the first chapter "You'll never be a poet until you realize that everything I say today and this quarter is wrong. it may be right for me, but it is wrong for you. Every moment, I am, without wanting or trying to, telling you to write like me. But I hope you learn to write like you." (3) I really like this because you go through school and people teach you how to write and how to write like them but to be a great writer you need to learn how to write like yourself and how to write for yourself. You cannot try to be exactly like another writer, you can try to imitate their style but you cannot be them, you must be yourself and that is how you will succeed the most in your writings, even if it isn't anything bigger than personal satisfaction, being your own writer and having your own techniques and writing how you want will always be the best option. The other biggest take away from this book is from the second chapter "Once a spectator said, after Jack Nicklaus had chipped a shot in from a sand trap. "That's pretty lucky." Nicklaus is suppose to have replied, "Right. But I notice the more I practice, the luckier I get." (17)  I like this quote and it stuck with me because the more you practice at something and try the more likely something will turn out really good for you. I enjoy playing golf and this quote is very true, the more you practice the luckier you will get when you need it and I think this can relate to a lot of things in life and especially writing. You just have to keep trying and you cannot give up and maybe someday you will get a really lucky break or create something really amazing, even if it is just one thing, you can always be proud of that one great piece. 

Journal 3- The Triggering Town - Megan

    The last two chapters of Triggering Town, in my opinion, were the some of the best chapters. Chapter 8 seemed to really show a lot about Hugo as a person. The best line showing this is in the last paragraph of chapter 8, "Of all the Americans here during the war, you're the only one who ever returned." Chapter 9 builds really well off of chapter 8 while giving a reason why he writes. I'm glad that once the Admiral was forced out of the land that Hugo was able to tell about him in his poem. These two chapters have been my favorite through the reading.



    Two takeaways I had from the reading was that there is not one specific way to write and that the best way to get better at writing is to just write. Knowing that there are many different types of writers and that each person has a different style makes me feel more confident in my work. People can view writing differently and like different types. To better writing just by writing was something that I didn't understand at first but actually trying it seemed to work. The best part is that even with just writing snippets and not full poems or stories can still help improve writing. These lessons I plan on keeping and using with my future writing and work.

Journal Three Research Share for Hugo, from Mike

Poets and Writers!

I tried to do a little research and internet work to give us a better sense of place and time for Richard Hugo's book.  I was struck by how important it was for him to go back to Italy, even 20 years later, to try to find places and memories that he could not escape.  In some ways the trip is a metaphor for writing.

Here's some fun stuff about Italy, the times, the food, drinks and the cantinas he spoke of as now being lost to globalization.

Popular songs during the war:

http://youtu.be/kOO8Gzr__zc  Benny Goodman song "Don't Be That Way"

http://youtu.be/j2fbOAyNOpM  original Stardust by Hoagy Carmichael

http://youtu.be/DjU6ZjrQulc  Stardust later made popular by Nat King Cole

Food and drinks they spoke of having in Italy

Pasta e fagioli, meaning "pasta and beans", is a traditional meatless Italian dish, with peasant roots.  Now in vogue in all social classes.

See website for more on this popular plum brandy.

http://postprohibition.com/liquor-cabinet/strega/

Strega.  

http://www.slivovitz.us/

http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2012/02/what-is-slivovitz-best-brands-plum-brandy-marska-navip-rudolf-jelinek.html

Language

https://translate.google.com/?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&client=tw-ob#it/en/troppo%20fame

Troppo tensione.  Troppo miseria. Troppo fame. means "Too much fear.  Too much misery.  Too much hunger."

https://translate.google.com/?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&client=tw-ob#it/en/come%20mio%20fratello

come mio fratello means "like a brother"

Places and Maps

Cerignola
https://www.google.com/maps/place/71042+Cerignola+FG,+Italy/@41.2626817,15.896163,9z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x13383195503ac599:0x40f7058ccbfd0d2e

Huge stone church in Cerignola.

Spinazzola
https://www.google.com/maps/place/76014+Spinazzola+BT,+Italy/@40.965786,16.0895029,10z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x1338431450de3d31:0x7f25e56c0f90a5d7

From the 460th Bomb Group historian, writing about Spinazzola:

"Records show that Spinazzola existed as far back as the third century B.C. It was situated along the Roman road known as the Appian Way, which extended from Rome to the port city of Brindisi on the southern Italian coast. Opened in 321 B.C.,this road was built to connect Rome with the southern provinces of the peninsula, with Africa and the East. One could travel from Rome to Brindisi in 13/14 days. It is probable that most who served with the 460th Bomb Group (H) were unaware that the narrow, dusty tree-lined road that ran along the north side of the 460th air base was so historically significant."

Seattle and Boeing. Where the Admiral lived.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?oe=UTF8&t=h&ie=UTF8&msa=0&mid=zjuyk18FfWKU.kmXvsVROgIUo

This was Boeing Plant 2 and the company actually built it to look like a village from the air to keep it from getting bombed.

B-17 Flying Fortress, the most famous product of these Boeing wartime plants.

From Boeing website: 

"Companies around the country coordinated their war efforts. B-17s were built at Boeing, Douglas Aircraft and Lockheed Aircraft factories. As American men went to war, women built airplanes. Thousands of women, symbolized by "Rosie the Riveter," took up the slack in the workforce, both at Boeing and at the Douglas Aircraft Co. At Boeing, they helped boost production from 60 planes per month in 1942 to an astounding 362 planes per month by March 1944 -- at one point the Seattle plant rolled out 16 planes in 24 hours. A total of 12,731 B-17s were produced around the country; of these Boeing built 6,981."

Okay, that's it, and hope you will find something in this post that is helpful and adds to the conversation and reading experience as we wrap up The Triggering Town. 

James- Workshop 2 Poem

Poem based on above patinting (Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth)

Of All Ways to Be
James Fisher

Thin hair tousles in the wind.
       It's owner seemingly just as frail.
Her body immobile as if pinned
       And her legs bent, shown in gruesome detail.

How futile her efforts must have felt,
       Crawling through the tall, dying grass.
So the young girl took to the ground and knelt
        But in a way you knew it'd never come to pass.

"Who left her there?" you ask yourself.
        Pondering the distance and longing of her look.
The house is her safety set on a too-high shelf.
        What more could they have took?

She will wait indefinitely,
        Listening to the mellifluous,
Fading to irrelevancy.
        Her pain — ambiguous.

Cristina's World by Andrew Wyeth

Workshop 1 Poem - Nikki Wehner

Falling, Falling Hard


The sound nourishes my ears,
the rain falling to the ground,
causing some people to run.
I view you as quaint and light,
to others, you are romping.
Something to run from - go hide.
No time to reconsider.

I see you as more - a change.
Rejuvenating my air,
giving something pure to breathe.
With you, I feel like thriving.
You thought you were mountainous,
unpredictable, or cold
But for me - you're just thunder,
and I am the rough lightning.

Journal Two from Nikki Wehner

Hello! My name is Nicole Wehner, but you all can call me Nikki. This is my fifth year in college and I am a forensic Biology major. I switched from business, and I would like to be a forensic science analyst when I graduate and begin my big career. For now, I live on my own with my fiancé Carlos, work online from home, and take each day as it comes, and enjoy the good and bad always. I take pride in enjoying the little things and going with the flow.
I recently was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, lupus. If I am not on campus, the likely cause is my health. I do not seem sick most of the time because my disease is not always on the surface, but I have learned to live with it and take pride in being as optimistic as possible in my life every day. Nothing is going to stop me.
I am a pretty open book if anyone ever has anything to ask! I don’t really hide much and usually fall into the awkward category a lot of the time. I am also very clumsy and laugh at myself often.