chris_azzopardi's Journal

2:10pm: A cultural experience
Hi ya all
On Sunday I went to a Lebanese wedding which I must admit was very culturally based. I have known this family for many years and often attend many Lebanese celebrations with them, but I have never been to a wedding where both bride and groom were Lebanese. Oh by the way I am a Mozzie (Maltese Australian).
Anyway as I have already known to all the Lebanese out there youse make great food and know how to celebrate. I enjoy participating in the ‘circle dance’, sorry I don’t know what you call it.

After the wedding I decided to write a poem about the cultures of the world


Cultural Respect

One culture has one tradition
Another has another.
One country invades one culture
One culture is lost.
One family participates in another culture
One family now knows two cultures
What is culture
Is it identity
Is it living
Is it assimilation
Is it uniqueness
Everyone has a culture
Everyone should show their own
Respect
What is respect
Is it caring
Is it participating
Is it acknowledging
Is it seeing
Everone has respect
Everyone should show respect

9:23am: a poem about spring
Bring in the Spring

Hail in the Spring, a start of new beginnings.
Creativity awe-inspiring gives a reason to be living.
Plant life showing life anew, a wonder to be found.
New born lambs playing in the fields, birds nesting all around
People enjoying the sun and the warmth, feeling good to be alive.
Spring gives a purpose to our lives, a touch of Paradise.

Fulfillment and contentment as the days pass idly by.
The strong aroma fills the air, as Spring flowers catch the eye.
The ducks on the water with their families new.
The whole of nature seems to be bringing to you.
A joy of things that will unfold as time goes by.
That Spring gives each and everyone of us a piece of Paradise.

Kay M. Sutton

9:19am: Comment on Anthony's Week 7
Anthony’s comment about the poem ‘Faith’ were similar to mine. I too got the sense that she was totally devoted to her religion despite what difficulties she faced from society’s influence. I found Anthony’s comment about the line “Filled with a faith no preacher ever taught”, very interesting. I got the sense that she is putting her own interpretation of the religion forward, but Anthony proposes an interesting idea that she is filled with a faith that no one else is as they have changed with society.

For Anthony’s comments about the ‘Inspector of Tide’, they were quite different to my ideas. I got the sense that the poem was about drugs while Anthony talks about a person in prison. I agree with the idea that Anthony says about that we should look at ourselves in the poem, as no matter if the person is in prison or taking drugs they should look at themselves and decide where they want to head in life

9:11am: Week 7
In this weeks tute we looked at the poems ‘Faith’ by Ada Cambridge and ‘Inspector of Tides’ by Michael Dransfield.
‘Faith’ was about religions in the face of the changing society and how one can draw many conclusions and thoughts to what the influences are. I got the sense that the character is expressing her own interpretation of the religion, “Filled with a faith no preacher ever taught”. I got the sense of survival and utmost connection to religion that inspite of all the issues she remains strong to her religion and gives a theme of persistence and strength which reminds me of when the Roman Catholics were persecuted for their religion but still remained strong.
‘Inspector of the Tide’ was a poem that we concluded was related to drugs. I got the sense that the person at the beginning was taking the drugs, “dressed in clouds”, then the effect wore off but they were not happy “from a prison window”, then the person again turned to the drugs, “a snail on a stone rainbow”.

9:50am: Its called football not soccer
I have always believed that soccer should be called football in Australia. I call it football and so should every one else. Here are some reasons why it should be called football from the net, and by the way the association of this sport is now called the Football Federation of Australia.

Soccer is just another grubby American fingerprint on Australia's ever-decreasing soul. Have we forgotten that football (soccer for those that can't bear to lose grip of Uncle Sam's hand) is the code from which Australian Rules, rugby union, gridiron and league were all derived? Soccer - which for those that care was spawned from Association Football - is simply a part-time differential for those nations that do not understand the game and haven't got a hope in hell of winning anything playing it - namely the US and Australia. Pay the game due respect, and perhaps you might learn how to play it with a modicum of skill.

The sport with the round ball is football not soccer, as you kick the ball with your feet. Soccer is just some word made up by the americans. The correct term is football which means thats what everyone should call it, as it was around way before afl, league and union were invented. For thoses people that think its to confusing, then they should learn to deal with it an only call true football, football!

In my opinion for all those that think there are too many sports called football think of this.
Rugby league= league
Rugby union= union
Australian football league= AFL
Soccer= Football

This solves all the problems. Now all we need is to change the name of Socceroos to Footballeroos.

11:36am: Comment on Siobhan's week 6
I believe Siobhan has covered the major aspects that Les Murray’s poem has to offer. She comments on discrimination and the fact that people are leaving their worn torn land to come to Australia. I found it interesting of Siobhan’s quote “throughout the poem a certain feeling of insecurity and regret is felt”. I too felt this. I felt regret that these people had to leave everything behind to escape the dangers of the war. I also felt regret that the children will face problems in the school yard due to their heritage and what they will have to go through. Siobhan also included that fact that the decision to come to Australia was made very quickly and based on hearsay. I can understand where she is coming from and agree with the statement though I don’t think they had a choice. I too enjoyed the poem like Siobhan did.

11:02am: week 6
In the tutorial today we looked at the poem by Les Murray called “Immigrant Voyage”. My initial reaction was shock that Les Murray wrote a poem because I thought this Les Murray was the same as the person on SBS who has done so much for football in Australia. Then I realised they could not be the same person.
I must admit that I found this poem very interesting as it reminded me of the various stories that my grandparents and my parents told me about coming to live in Australia and what they faced. Despite the fact my parents were born here they too faced racist remarks in the playground as the poem states, “ahead of them, epithets: wog, reffo, Commo Nazi”. I got the sense of great appreciation that I have had the opportunity to be brought up in Australia and not had to go through what those in the poem had, despite the occasion racist remark at school but that was very few and though it caused conflicts not as bad as the characters in the book.
I got the sense of rebirth in the poem, that being the opportunity of a second chance. These immigrants are leaving their war torn native land to come to Australia were there is egalitarianism rather than the European hierarchy.
All in all this poem was one that greatly appealed to me and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

5:09pm: Comment on Lada's week 5
I am glad I got the same idea from the poem as others did by recognising the blue crane as a bird. I too agree that there is emphasis that the blue bird belongs to the land giving the sense of appreciation of nature, like so many of Judith Wright’s poems. I agree with Lada’c comment that we can not belong to the land as much as the blue crane does, and maybe that is what humanity lacks the most. I never picked up that the “First Murders Sake”, might be a biblical connotation though this makes the poem evermore so interesting due to the link, as Lada points out, with the Aborigines.

4:40pm: Week 5
In the tutorial they looked at two poems by Judith Wright, ‘Cooloolah’ and ‘At Cedar Creek’. I wasn’t at the tutorial but I will write down what I think about ‘Cooloolah”.

At first I couldn’t really understand what the blue crane was in “At Cooloolah’. I then realised it must be a bird swooping down on the lake for food. The line I found most interesting in the poem was “Those dark-skinned people who once named Cooloolah knew that no land is lost or won by wars”. How relevant is this in today’s world with the past and present wars. I got the sense of awe that Judith Wright expresses towards her grandfather. I believe that there is great love for the land that Judith Wright has for it.

5:42pm: Comment on Carmel Dobson's week 4
I found Carmel’s comment about accepting the ways things are about the poem Gum Tree Stripping very interesting. I too got the sense that we should accept the way things are, in this case nature. I also believe that people analyse things way too hard and take the beauty away with this analysing. I also find it funny that the poem again is about a single tree, but that’s the beauty of poetry.
I agree with Carmel’s comment about Cycads where she states the tree has seen the world grow. I got the sense that Judith Wright was trying to portray the wisdom that the tree carries and its survival abilities to still be around despite the worl continuously changing. Again it is pretty funny that I think all of this because of a tree

5:16pm: Week 4
Week 4 already, and hasn’t it gone fast. I feel like I am in a speeding train and each station it passes is a week. 4 down not much to go. This would be funny if a ethnic voice read this out like in the train stations so you can’t understand what they are saying. Well at least I know I can have a laugh at them because my grandparents have a heavy Maltese accent.

In the tutorial we looked at Judith Wright’s the Cycads. Firstly it is interesting to note that a poet would write about a tree, I guess it inspired her. Anyway this tree symbols everlasting and wisdom. Cycads are old trees and are always present despite the changing environment. It is the only sense of normality in a ever changing environment, as if it is saying that it is not going to be restricted to what human interaction wishes to shape it, unless of course humans bring in machinery to dig it out. In the poem the Cycad is a metaphor for loneliness. The birds’ presence is the changing society and shows the contrast of creatures and the trees.

The other poem we looked at by Judith Wright is Gum Tree Stripping. This I felt was a less intense poem but more of a subdued and innocent poem. I got the message that wisdom lies outside the word that appearance is not all and there is a secret beauty within. I also got the sense of ignorance, inner beauty, uniqueness and acceptance.

4:00pm: Week 4

9:27am: a inspiring song from Bon Jovi
Here is a song i have always liked from Bbon Jovi. It has a sense of inspiration and a 'never give up' attitude

"It's My Life"

This ain't a song for the broken-hearted
No silent prayer for the faith-departed
I ain't gonna be just a face in the crowd
You're gonna hear my voice
When I shout it out loud

[Chorus:]
It's my life
It's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said
I did it my way
I just wanna live while I'm alive
It's my life

This is for the ones who stood their ground
For Tommy and Gina who never backed down
Tomorrow's getting harder make no mistake
Luck ain't even lucky
Got to make your own breaks

[Chorus:]
It's my life
And it's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said
I did it my way
I just want to live while I'm alive
'Cause it's my life

Better stand tall when they're calling you out
Don't bend, don't break, baby, don't back down

[Chorus:]
It's my life
And it's now or never
'Cause I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said
I did it my way
I just want to live while I'm alive

[Chorus:]
It's my life
And it's now or never
'Cause I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said
I did it my way
I just want to live while I'm alive
'Cause it's my life!

4:27pm: Week 3 comment on Lada Younes
In Lada’s comment I found it interesting about her comment that the poem ‘Induction’ felt “real”. I too thought this and could also hear the struggles of the character while giving birth. I found Lada’s comments about punctuations very interesting. I now agree with the fact the lack of punctuations allow the poem to flow and add to the effect of the struggle and allows the reader to be drawn to what the character is experiencing even if the reader is male.
With Lada’s comments about the other poem ‘Emily Bronte’, I found it interesting about her comment that “death solves all complexity”. I am remembered of last semester with the quote ‘Death, death thou shalt die”.

4:13pm: Week 3
Well i have just finished work and i thought i should go this weeks live journal. Something to look forward to while at work, ha.
During the tutorial we studied two poems that of ‘Induction’ by Rebecca Edwards and ‘Emily Bronte’ by Alison Croggan. I found these two poems very interesting as that they were about very different things.
The poem “Induction’ is about birth and the struggle of it. The poem is full of descriptive language and is graphic. I found the poem to contain a sense of pressure and a struggle but as the poem went on this decreased, thus representing birth. I initially found this poem as a sense of negative feeling but then when its all over there is a sense of completion, “But I can say now I am proud of this”.
In the poem ‘Emily Bronte’ death is a major theme. I got the sense that death was being portrayed as a dream and that you have no control. I found it interesting that Alison Croggan compares death to something that we can all relate to, that being dreaming. I found that death is sort of romanticised in this poem, “and supple curve of a lover’s back”.

12:05pm: Comment on Jossiah's Week 2
Jossiah’s comments on the poem ‘Finished’ by Kate Llewellyn were similar to mine. I too got the sense of positive at the beginning and negative as the poem went on. Jossiah commented on the fact that she believes the woman was blinded, which I totally agree with. I found Jossiah’s comment “but now that the love is gone (‘there’s no more love love’) she has realized all the wrong and woken up to herself” very interesting. I do believe that she has finally realised the problems in the relationship and is getting over it gradually which this poem’s ending could only help.

11:39am: Week 2
This week we studied two poems in our tutorials which were very interesting as there were many different opinions and views. The first was ‘Finished’ by Kate Llewellyn. Kate started off by pointing out the positives in the relationship and we got the sense that these two people initially did have a good time. But as the poem prolongs the sense becomes of that is negative. There is no more love but hatred. I got the sense that this woman initially was blinded by her love for the other, but then she could take no more and had to leave. I believe this poem is closure as the last line states “there’s no more love love”.
The other poem ‘Going Down. With NO Permance’ by Vicki Viidikas was a poem that just focussed on the bad. She caught him cheating and the poem has a negative feeling through the whole lot. I get the sense that she doubts if this was the first or if there was more “leaky bucket”. I see conflict within herself and do not know if she can resolve it in the near future.

9:27am: Comment on Marie Backo Week 1
I found it interesting of comments of how ‘A Dedication’ shows the beauty of the land while the other poem ‘Crow Country’ does not contain the descriptive features of the land that would be seen as beautiful. I found Marie’s quote “He draws inspiration from all that surrounds him, looking beyond the exterior to discover something unique in the landscape”, interesting. This reminded me of the many times in which other poets and writers have at first glance not seen the beauty of Australia’s landscape but then as they analyse and search deeper into the land they uncover a sense of unquiness and utter beauty. This is common all through Australia’s history. I too got the same feeling as Maria did in ‘Crow Country’, in that the character has been isolated and the sort of ugliness of the outback and the crow.

9:13am: Week 1
Well, week 1 is up and we are already back into studying poems. We studied two poems of Australian literature called “A Dedication’ and ‘Crow Country’. ‘A Dedication’ talked about the landscape and focussed on the raw nature of the Australian environment. It shows the uniqueness of Australian’s poetry and is thanking the landscape for the poetry. I got the sense of negativeness of the poem which I found interesting due to the title. From the title I would assume it would talk in praise of the Australian outback and while it does in the Australian way many other people would not find this as beautiful. I found the structure of the poem to be appealing with the rhythm pattern but with not set stanza’s in terms of length.

9:55am: Week 12 Hypertext
Firstly I must admit I was not overly glad when I realised we were going to do an assignment like this, but in the end it broadened my knowledge of computers. I had no idea that this hypertext world existed and honestly I still don’t really understand many of the works. It was enjoyable to watch all the hypertext presentations which some were really funny. It was innovative and fun.
I realised that hypertext was everywhere after doing this assignment. All the internet page have links on words in which you can click on to get more information. Doing this assignment it opened my eyes to the hypertext world which now I pay more attention to.

9:50am: Week 11 Comment on Alison’s comment
I too was affected by Wit. I found myself thinking of it while I walked to my car and driving home. I agree that Wit has the ability to arise different types of emotions, whether for Vivian or for the dose of medication or for other characters. I like your view about Vivian’s comment that she does not want any visitors. I believe that she has not experienced a close relationship with any one before and this is the only way that she knows how to react to the situation. I also found her childhood flashbacks as an important aspect of Wit. It showed her only connection with others, her father, and showed her love for words which in the end consumes the majority of her life.

9:42am: Week 10
Well in the tutorial class we discussed the play Wit. We had different views of feminism or tragedy. In my opinion it does not really matter as the main elements are still the same. What was different in the play than the film for me was how much I realised Vivian’s expectations as a teacher. I believe she was harsh as a teacher and in the hospital was looking for someone to be compassionate, ironic.
I honest believe that Wit is a tragedy as there is the death and fall of the hero. There is no happy ending, though Vivian dying is an end to all her pain. It was not until the end of the play that Vivian realised how much she missed out on by having no friends and saw the importance of friendships when it was too late.

9:18am: Week 10 Commenatry on Noelle's Comment
I basically agree with what you said about Wit. I feel that Vivian is emotional though has her own unique method of portraying and controlling it. I believe that as a literature lecture she found words to describe all her emotions and feelings, while others would just cry or give up. Vivian is indeed brave to go through all the medication.
I too found the relationship between Vivian and Susie interesting. In a hospital where no one really cared for Vivian’s feelings, except for “How are you”, Susie was there emotionally for Vivian. She was like a moral character with a good heart. She was like a hope for Vivian and showed that there is more important aspects in hospitals than seeing how far medication can reach.

10:35am: Week 10
I will focus on John Donne’s Sonnet 10 because basically I understood it better than The Sun Rising.

I found it really interesting in that an author can reverse the terms of nature, that being making death seem as nothing and the one that dies. There is no doubt a religious sense in this poem which is quite interesting. I found the last two lines the most interesting because I have never thought of death from this view. It is ironic that wherever we go death is always present, on the news, driving on roads etc. But then when we die death can’t touch us no more. In the religious sense once in Heaven we live for eternity one thing that death can’t take from us.

It is interesting that Donne is still giving death a bad image “poison, war and sickness”, but still is not daunted and remains to facing death straight on and even demising its role in everyone’s life.
This poem actually made me think does everyone die, again relating to the religious perspective. Fair enough our physical state does stop functioning but then there is our soul that lives on, so do we die. Interesting.

10:19am: Week 9 Commentary on Tamara Gardner’s
I basically had the same opinions as you did. I too found it interesting that the silent character was in fact the most important carrying the soul of the play. I again agree with your statement about how different readers have their own different opinions. I found it interesting that people in the tutorials were disagreeing about the message of the ending. I for one believe it is a happy ending while others disagree with this. I also believe that what the readers have experienced shapes their own interpretations of the play.
I thinks that every reader has their own feeling of what Andre’s mother is feeling and going through. I am lucky in the fact I have not been to a funeral in a while and so I can not say I understand what Andre’s mother is going through while another reader may.
So that’s my comment on your entry. Good work.