Tuesday, September 04, 2012

 

Freewrite: Tupac on Mothers

Today in class students read five poems: "Family Tree" (115), "Or My Soul" (117), "When Ure Hero Falls" (119), "A River That Flows Forever" (125), "Tears of a Teenage Mother" (129). Post your response to one of the poems here. Include a citation within your response. Include a works cited section of the post.

I think we reviewed this last week. Just in case . . . here it is again.

Shakur, Tupac. "Poem's title in quotes." The Rose That Grew from Concrete. New York: MTV/Pocket Books, 1999. Print.

From Google Books. You will note there is a lot missing:

href="http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Rose_that_Grew_from_Concrete.html?id=dbz23kIVWSQC">

http://books.google.com/books/about/Afeni_Shakur.html?id=gcxOSBYZ6iMC

Comments:


Latasha Smith
Professor Sabir
English 201A

The father of the child is not taking care of his responsibilities. His focus is on other things besides the baby. “U ask for money for the Baby the Daddy just ran out the door.” When ask to take part in the child’s life in any sort of way, he up and runs. This poem makes me feel sad because this happens to a lot of teenage mothers I know. The young man does not have his priorities in order.


Shakur, Tupac. "Tears of a Teenage Mother." The Rose That Grew from Concrete. New York: MTV/Pocket Books, 1999. Print.


 
Melisa Love
Professor Sabir
5 September 2012
English 201A

No matter what happens life goes on and will continue forever. People that can suffer the pain of life with a smile are the people that can last a life time with or without problems. "And as long as u R with me we'll ride the River Together." This quote made me tear up inside because it made me think about how my family always tells me they are always going to be with me, but then at the times i need them the most they are busy with something else. Same thing with me boyfriend at times. He says he will always be there when i need him, but sometimes he'd be off on his own world. It's nice to see that Tupac loves his mother so much and will always be there for her.


Shakur, Tupac. "A River That Flows Forever." The Rose That Grew from Concrete. New York: MTV/Pocket Books, 1999. Print

 
Ping Johnson
Professor Sabir
English 201 A

Response to the poem A River that Flows Forever

The words "As long as you are with me, we'll ride the river together" indicate the difference between teamwork and individual practice. Working as a teammate, first of all, it may relieve some kind of pressure off their mind. They can count on other people to be on your side. In this way, they may function effectively to the ultimate level. Secondly, it is like that the talent and the strength gets multiple, therefore the success rate gets multiple as well. There is a saying in China:"Three commanders' wisdom is wiser than one chief general". Basically it talks about people work in group can consciously generate collective wisdom better than those who work alone.

Words cited:
Shakur, Tupac. "A River That Flows Forever." The Rose That Grew from Concrete. New York: MTV/Pocket Books, 1999. Print
 
Rikki Ashworth
Professor Sabir
English 201A
5 September 2012


The child is being raised without a dad. He has a father but a dad he does not. The father would rather buy all the wants he desires rather than buy the needs of his kid. The pain in the words as I read them brings me to feel what he felt writing it. I feel exactly what he felt because I grew up with a father like that. It brings me back to all the emotions including remorse. I could hear the tone of the poem and feel every emotion out there except happiness. When a father chooses to be selfish and greedy over being a dad is one of the most hardest things to grow up knowing.


Shakur, Tupac. " Tears of A Teenage Mother." The Rose That Grew From Concrete, New York: MTV/Pocketbooks, 1999. Print
 
Tova Solomon
Professor Sabir
English 201A

The weeds are terrible circumstances in life, not people because all people are from a tree. Tupac says "I was the tree that grew from weeds" and that those trees are the greatest. Tupac is proud, not because his tree came from weeds, but because his tree is thriving even with all its hardships. Most people with trees from weeds are ashamed, probably because they got the lesser part of not all trees being equal.

Shakur, Tupac. "Family Tree" The Rose That Grew from Concrete. New York: MTV/Pocket Books, 1999. Print.
 
Caroline Lee
Professor Sabir
English 201A
4 September 2012

Response to A River that Flows Forever

Being as strong as we can when we are facing reverses in our life is a greatest message that the poem wants to tell us. The author says that even if there is suffer and pain, life still goes on. We need to fill with confidence when there is a hardest thing coming to you.
He also says that ‘Smile’, can be a panacea when you are in a low emotional state. It is because when you smile or laugh a lot, you will think you are going to have a significant life in the coming future. Also, the most important thing is no matter how hard the difficulties are, your families, lover and friends will give you the biggest support to you. Do not think you are alone when you are in a bad emotion. It is because people who care you will always give the greatest effort to you.
Therefore, do not afraid when troubles are coming to you. You will never know how strong you are before you get rid of them. You will never feel there is so many people care about you when you are getting into trouble. However, I sure you will be pleased on having such greatest experience in your life one day.

Works Cited
Shakur, Tupac. "Poem's title in quotes." The Rose That Grew from Concrete. New York: MTV/Pocket Books, 1999. Print.
 
Jamon Barfield
Professor Sabir
6 September 2012
English 201B


When Ure Hero Falls 4 My Hero (My Mother)

To me this poem is short but has so much meaning to it. Its basically talking about losing the only person in your life that can change your from being the strongest person alive to being weak. When he says, “u taught me 2 be strong but I’m confused 2 c u so weak us said never give up and it hurts 2 c u welcome defeat.” I can relate to this because growing up my mother always showed us to be strong and not show weakness. When she was down and something was bothering her she never should us, she just smiled. When my father passed she cried for days showing us her weakness and we were confused because she was always so strong. At the end it said, “what r u expected 2 do when ure only Hero fall.” At the time you might feel lost and feel like there is no more purpose for you on earth but that’s when you have to think back to what our mothers always showed us to be strong.

 
Jamon Barfield
Professor Sabir
6 September 2012
English 201B


When Ure Hero Falls 4 My Hero (My Mother)

To me this poem is short but has so much meaning to it. Its basically talking about losing the only person in your life that can change your from being the strongest person alive to being weak. When he says, “u taught me 2 be strong but I’m confused 2 c u so weak us said never give up and it hurts 2 c u welcome defeat.” I can relate to this because growing up my mother always showed us to be strong and not show weakness. When she was down and something was bothering her she never should us, she just smiled. When my father passed she cried for days showing us her weakness and we were confused because she was always so strong. At the end it said, “what r u expected 2 do when ure only Hero fall.” At the time you might feel lost and feel like there is no more purpose for you on earth but that’s when you have to think back to what our mothers always showed us to be strong.

Shakur, Tupac. " When Ure Hero Falls 4 My Hero (My Mother)." The Rose That Grew from Concrete. New York: MTV/Pocket Books, 1999. Print

 
Shuluo Fu
Professor Sabir
English 201A
September 8/2012

To be honest, this is the most impresseive English poem I have ever seen before. As we know, it is the common sense that river usually flows forever unless somebody stops on purpose. However, the poet use"suffer", "pain", and "smile" to express his feeling as a flowing river. This is very clever ,vivid metaphor. To encourage his chlidern who are struggle in their life, the poet try his best to tell them every difficulties will be gone as long as his will accopany with them forever in their life.

Shakur, Tupac. "A River That Flows Forever." The Rose That Grew from Concrete. New York: MTV/Pocket Books, 1999. Print
 
Response to poem: "When Ure Hero Falls (4 my hero my mother)"

Wow. Is what I say when I read the title. I also call my mother my hero. I actually have a t shirt that says my hero my mother with her picture on it. I relate to the poem on a very personal level. I too seen my mother in pain. Seen her week and "fall from grace" I too thought the same thing. How can the very person that teaches you not to be weak are not to show pain, do exactly that?
"Without my hero there is only me alone to deal with my sorrow". This makes me think about my mothers death and how alone I feel without her.

Shakur, Tupac " When Ure Hero Falls", The Rose that Grew from Concrete. New York: MTV/ Pocketbook, 1999. Print

 
Elijah Benton
Professor Sabir
English 201b
13 Sept. 2012

Rivers

Is there river that flows forever? All rivers have an end, but the one Tupac is talking about is life. Pain and happiness keeps the river of life going. And until all life ends pain and happiness will exist. Tupac dedicate the poem, A River that Flows Forever, to his mother, which tells me that was the one who went through the pain and happiness of his life with till the end.

Work cited:
Shakur, Tupac. A River That Flows Forever. A Rose That Grew From the Concrete. New York: MTV/ Pocket Books, 1999. Print.

 
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