Grieving through poetry withoout Baseball.

   In Shakespeare Bats Cleanup the main character is Kevin a young boy who starts off the story with him receiving a journal from his father when he comes done with mononucleosis. He has just lost his mother, and in not unable to play the first baseman for his baseball team. He is greatly saddened by this, baseball is everything to him. Despite his mono, he decided he will write in his fathers journal and then sneaks into his fathers study and steals one of his fathers books on poems. His father was a teacher, but after the mothers death he inherited the life insurance and decided to follow his life dream of writing. Before mono he and his father didn't didn't have the strongest relationship, and now that his mother is gone, writing can bring them closer together.

    When reading the poem book, he starts practicing poetry and the different styles. He tries sonnets, haikus, and many others. Before mono he was popular with the guys, always started first base, had many different girlfriends, went to pizza with the guys. When he regained some health after mono, and they let him come and suit up for one of the games. He had to sit on the bench with the other guys who never played. He then started noticing things he hadn't before. He realized the guys who sit on the bench weren't half bad. He had been not paying attention to the game, and writing. The coach got mad when one of their boys made a hit any everyone stood up and cheers, and  Kevin stays seated writing.

    Kevin meets a young girl Mira, who asked if he had been keeping score because she saw him writing. He said no he wasn't, she asked what he was writing then. He lied and said nothing. The next day he went on his bike to her house and apologized for lying and said he was writing something. She asked if it was poetry again. He again lied and said no. They exchanged E-mails. He apologized again for lying, and told the truth about him writing poetry.

    Kevin and Mira get close, and Kevin has his dad take them to a poetry reading. In return Mira's family invite them to her Grandmother's party. When they go it is a bunch of Hispanics, and they have a good time. There is a pinata, and Mira's older macho cousin talks with Kevin, and then missed the pinata when he swings for it. Kevin is next and he can feel where the pinata is, because of his baseball experience. He purposely misses it, for the cousins sake. His dad can tell he missed it on purpose, and thought it was a nice thing to do.

    In the end Kevin is over mono and is playing ball again, but has not given up on writing. He says that writing is actually pretty cool, "almost as cool as baseball."

    After all Kevin finds himself, and realises he can be more than a baseball jock. :)

    Baseball was his life,

He grieves through his writing, Now

    Shakespeare is at bat.

             In Speak, by Laurie Halse I think the most predominant symbol throughout the book is trees. Trees are a vast part of Melinda’s life, they symbolize life and growth. Melinda lived life kind of through trees.  Melina is assigned to focus on creating trees in her Mr. Freeman’s art class in the beginning of the year, she draws “TREE”. At first it bothers her because she thinks that “Tree? That is too easy!  Anyone can draw a tree." She comes to realize the complexity and beauty in trees, as at they first started off really plain, kind of like herself. It is hard for Melinda to express herself because she "can't bring it to life" (p. 78). 

             When she was raped it was a place where there was a ton of trees. There was the dying tree in her yard. Melinda is fascinated with raking leaves, in effort to beautify her yard. She cleans the piles of neglected leaves, "The sun goes behind a cloud and I shiver. I should have worn a sweatshirt. The wind rustles the dead leaves still clinging to the oak branches by the street. All I can think of is that the rest of the leaves are going to drop and I'll have to keep on raking...I shouldn't have raked anything. Look what I started." (167) Melinda can relate to the trees in her life. As the trees, she is full of life; and after being raped she had a hard time dealing and feeling truly alive. Through the book as she deals, Melinda finds that through expressing herself she can grow as a person, and live again. Mr. Freeman tells Melinda "When people don’t express themselves, they die one piece at a time and walk through their days with no idea who they are."

Poems, Poems, & More Poems x2

In Shakespeare Bats Cleanup, our narrator is a young boy growing up without a mother. He a baseball player who gets stuck in bed because of case of the Mono. Being in bed for countless hours and being given a journal he decides to enbark in the wonderful world of poems. Although I'm not a huge fan of poems our author does a great job of pointing out what he is doing with each poem and relating them to life.

There are countless themes within this book. I think the strongest overall theme in this novel is the dealing with grief. Our narrator really goes into some deeper thinking about what is going on in his life and what he is doing with all of his free time. In the beginning of the novel, although I will admit it was a little slow going, he talks mostly about how much he is missing being on the baseball field. Our narrator is learning about himself and what he is doing with his life. He starts writing in his journal when about what he is going though with his mother just passing away, leaving his father and him a little lost. Kevin has to be strong, no only for himself but also for his father who seems to tag with him to multiple events.

With the theme in mind we discover why he begins to journal. He is given a journal when he first gets sick from his father. You get the feeling that his father secretly wants him to become a writer like him and maybe he also wants to become a writer like his dad. When someone is dealing with grief it is often hard for them to take care of things in there life that are important but we see Kevin's father take up different things for example yoga to fulfill his "whole". We know that Kevin truly misses his mom and maybe writing is helping him connected with his father like he never has. At the end of this novel we see him and his father, and a very special girl go to a poetry reading where Kevin may or may not read one of his poems; whether it's an old one he wrote or something new, I'm sure his father will be very proud of him.

Grieving through Poetry

          The book Shakespeare Bats Cleanup by Ron Koertage is a story about a 14-year-old boy, Kevin, using poetry in a way to come to terms with his mother’s death and pass the time while missing out on baseball.  Kevin is sick with mono and at the beginning of the book is unsure what to do with his time, it is when he happens upon a book of poetry belonging to his father that he begins to write.  Kevin soon finds that writing helps him come to terms with the losses in his life.

            The first glimpse we get of Kevin’s mother is when he briefly remembers her taking care of him when he was sick as a child (20).  He mentions that his father checks on him now, but that, “It’s not the same” (20).  This small reference to his mother lets the reader now just how much Kevin misses his mother and has not fully acknowledged her death.  We do not even know how she dies until later in the book but we know it was due to an illness as the Pantuom for Mom (29) mentions “angry blood.”  The very next page Kevin writes, “You’re a great mom.  Were.  You were a great mom.”  Kevin is beginning to go through a grieving process while acknowledging how wonderful his mother was. 

            Throughout the book Kevin reflects on what his mother would think of him and wants to make her proud.  When he lies to the team about being too tired to go for pizza but it’s really because he doesn’t want to “sit at the wrong end of the table with the losers” (63).  He becomes embarrassed when he realizes that what he is thinking isn’t nice and “Mom hated it when I wasn’t nice.”  Later he remembers how his mom used to hold her arm out for him, Kevin is still grieving and longing for his mother’s touch to comfort him in his times of need.  Kevin’s dad is also trying to make his late wife proud by practicing his Spanish.  It is when he admits this to Kevin that stronger, more open bond is made.

            Kevin has had to be strong not only for himself, but for his dad as well.  The two never seem to talk about their feelings involving the loss of Kevin’s mother.  Kevin doesn’t have to be strong when he writes poetry, he is free to let his emotions flow and can even admit that he almost cried when writing one about his mom (29).  Kevin is beginning to heal at the end of the book when he returns to baseball but doesn’t forget his poetry in the process.  He writes how poetry was always there for him and seemed to “guide his hand” but the quote that says it all is, “But finally I was able to say stuff, like about Mom, that was kind of buried inside.  It was great to talk to her, sort of, and for sure about her” (115).  He goes on to compare poetry to a friend.  Poetry is what helped Kevin through what could have been a summer of TV and junk and instead turned it into a reflective period that helped him cope and come to terms with the loss of his mother.

Absolutely True Story of the Part-Time Indian

Absolutely True Story of the Part-Time Indian

In the novel Absolutely True Story of the Part-Time Indian Junior is faced with many difficult challenges.  Junior is categorized as a dweeb into today’s society.   He has a large head, thick glasses, a lisp, and a nervous stomach.  For Junior it is not what’s on the outside it is what’s on the inside.  Junior has a warrior’s mentality which includes courage, bravery, and heart.  Throughout the entire novel Junior is constantly put in situations where he has to use his warrior mentality to battle through them. After courageously deciding to go to Reardon for high school Junior finds himself taking heat for his choice.  No matter what Junior did he was always taking the heat from either side.  The reservation would criticize Junior for being a trader and the people at Rearden would criticize him and ridicule him for being an Indian.  He was bullied both on the reservation and at Rearden.  Junior loses his best friend, struggles with being ridiculed by kids and adults and has to deal with the grief of close lost ones.  Junior is a young man who has been through so much in life and even after taking so much heat and almost running out of hope he still finds joy.  His warrior mentality helps him get through these tough times and Junior is able to make it through his freshman year at Rearden, while earning the respect of the reservation and his friend Rowdy. While I cannot relate to Junior’s life experience, I do admire his courage and bravery.  Junior has all the chances to follow in his parent’s footsteps, but sees that as an unfulfilling life of alcoholism. Junior wants a better life, and not just one for himself, he thinks of his friends and family.  We see Junior wants the best for his sister and wants his best friend to join him at Reardon.  Junior is a courageous young man who takes diversity head on and ultimately succeeds.

Kevin's Identity

Shakespeare Bats Clean Up

To be or not to be that is the question

No more ball what am I supposed to do

Baseball is everything, an obsession

Sit here NO poetry is my breakthrough

I can’t believe she is gone, please come back

Stay focused man girls are the enemy

I wish I could give dad a fast jetpack

Shakespeare I am that is my identity

Cleared my mind time to show its time to go

I’m up, watch out I am batting again!

Sorry Mira it’s time for the big show

Friends are cheering; they have my back, amen!  

Thanks to you poetry I overcame!

Shakespeare is my name, baseball is my game.

Shakespeare Bats Cleanup: Grief

Ron Koertge’s Shakespeare Bats Cleanup is filled with a number of poems written by 14-year-old, Kevin.

             Meet Kevin:

 1. He’s grieving the loss of his mom.

 2. He LOVES baseball.

 3. He can’t play baseball currently because he’s home in bed with mono.

4. He spends his down time writing poems reflecting on his past.

While the opinions (from the class) were definitely mixed after reading this book, I definitely found it be interesting. I enjoyed the style of short, concise poems and I felt the reader gained knowledge on poetry, in general.  Personally, I can relate to Kevin. I lost my father to cancer four years ago and I feel writing is such an incredibly powerful tool when expressing grief and working through the pain. I actually spent a lot of this semester writing about my dad in one of my classes. Maybe that’s why I enjoyed this book. So, the theme I want to focus on is grief.

The reader really gains a sense for Kevin's mom in his poem, “Pantoum for Mom.” 

                “Diagnosis? Dark, angry blood.

  Months to live, then weeks, then days.”  (pg. 29)

It’s quite heart-wrenching to read his poems as he reflects on his mom. As a reader, it also makes you wonder what it is she died from. You can assume cancer, but are not fully sure.

He then goes on to say on the next page:

                “It’s funny. If I let myself go and wrote about her getting sick, all I’d do is whine. Instead, I made something semigood.”  

“Mom would’ve liked it.” (pg.30)

For a 14-year-old boy, that’s pretty impressive in my opinion. He has slowly begun to transition in reflecting on how great of a mom she was and how she made his life better by just being there.

While moving closer toward the end of the book, I wasn’t looking for an outcome that showed their grieving process to be complete- or that they are completely fine now. That doesn’t just happen by any means. Very unrealistic. So, the ending showed that strides were being made. I liked his reflection during his last poem, “A Poem for Poetry.”

                “But finally I was able to say stuff, like about Mom, that was kind of buried inside. It was great to talk to her, sort of, and for sure about her.” (pg. 115)

He is basically crediting poetry for helping him express his feelings and emotions. He is working through his grief and trying to move forward. Sure, he doesn’t have his same position in baseball, but that’s ok. I think he’s realized what is truly important in life.