2. A Poet’s Emotional Experiences Gary Soto YAY… LET’S START! LET’S START!

3. BY: Mahnoor Minhas I dedicate this power point project to my family, myself, my teacher (Mrs. Schwendimann), and to my best-friend-for-life (BFFL)…Roksana!!!!! I WANT MORE!! I want to go back…

4. Gary Soto’s Early Life of despair… Gary Soto, a guy with a bad reputation in school… whose life was turned upside down, with every step he took. The Gary Soto whom we all know today… his fans don’t have a single idea of what kind of childhood he had! Ok…I will tell you some little things about his early life. “Unlike many authors, Gary Soto never thought about becoming a writer when he was a kid. Instead, he wanted to be a priest or a paleontologist — a scientist who studies fossils and bones. But when he was in college, he came across a book of poetry, liked it, and started writing his own poems. He's been a writer ever since!” But before that ever happened I want to tell you about his successful disaster he experienced with his brother when he was 5 years old: He tried to burn down his house…along with the whole neighborhood! Did you expect Gary to be a child like this? But we are still not done yet… I would love to Know more things… This is so…boring… Let’s go back again!

5. Gary Soto’s Later Life of Success… Now we will continue talking about Soto’s life…but about his “Later Life”! “Soto writes a lot about his Mexican American background. But not everything that happens in his books happened to him — he likes to mix up fact and fiction in his stories. Gary continued writing poems and stories for adults and was considered a role model for Latino writers. Later, Gary began writing for children and he currently enjoys writing for both! Today Soto lives with his wife and daughter in Berkeley, California.” Ok… now I will tell you some work that he has done: –Collection New and Selected Poems (Chronicle Books, 1995) –Collection Canto Familiar/Familiar Song (1994) –Collection Neighborhood Odes (1992) –Collection Home Course in Religion (1991) –Collection Who Will Know Us? (1990) –Collection Black Hair (1985) –Collection Where Sparrows Work Hard (1981) –Collection The Tale of Sunlight (1978) –Collection The Elements of San Joaquin (1977) –Novel Poetry Lover (University of New Mexico Press, 2001) –Novel Nickel and Dime (2000) –Memoir Living Up the Street (1985) –Anthology Pieces of Heart (1993) –Anthology California Childhood (1988) –Anthology Entrance: Four Latino Poets (1976) –Anthology Entrance: Four Latino Poets (1976) How about.. Some poetry? I want to check Out something…

6. You're in this dream of cotton plants. You raise a hoe, swing, and the first weeds Fall with a sigh. You take another step, Chop, and the sigh comes again, Until you yourself are breathing that way With each step, a sigh that will follow you into town. That's hours later. The sun is a red blister Coming up in your palm. Your back is strong, Young, not yet the broken chair In an abandoned school of dry spiders. Dust settles on your forehead, dirt Smiles under each fingernail. You chop, step, and by the end of the first row, You can buy one splendid fish for wife And three sons. Another row, another fish, Until you have enough and move on to milk, Bread, meat. Ten hours and the cupboards creak. You can rest in the back yard under a tree. Your hands twitch on your lap, Not unlike the fish on a pier or the bottom Of a boat. You drink iced tea. The minutes jerk Like flies. It's dusk, now night, And the lights in your home are on. That costs money, yellow light In the kitchen. That's thirty steps, You say to your hands, Now shaped into binoculars. You could raise them to your eyes: You were a fool in school, now look at you. You're a giant among cotton plants. Now you see your oldest boy, also running. Papa, he says, it's time to come in. You pull him into your lap And ask, What's forty times nine? He knows as well as you, and you smile. The wind makes peace with the trees, The stars strike themselves in the dark. You get up and walk with the sigh of cotton plants. You go to sleep with a red sun on your palm, The sore light you see when you first stir in bed. -Gary Soto The Red Palm… I think this poem was written to just a person that Gary shows…he’s remembering his childhood. I think this poem expresses emotions & a story. This poem evokes kind of loneliness, kindness, warmness in my heart because of some words…like for example: “You could raise them to your eyes: You were a fool in school, now look at you.” Want More …you got more! Back!!

7. Today it’s going to cost us twenty dollars to live. Five for a softball. Four for a book. A handful of ones for coffee and two sweet rolls, Bus fare, rosin for your mothers violin. We’re completing our task. The tip I left For the waitress filters down Like rain wetting a new roots of a child Perhaps, a belligerent cat that won’t let go Of a balled sock until there’s chicken to eat. As far as I can tell, daughter, it works like this: You buy bread from a grocery, a bag of apples From a fruit stand, and what coins Are passed on helps others buy pencils, glue, Tickets to a movie in which laughter Is thrown into their faces. If we buy goldfish, someone tries on a hat. If we buy crayons, someone walks home with a broom. A tip. A small purchase here and there, And things just keep going. I guess. -Gary Soto How Things Work… I think this poem was written to his daughter & I think why, because to help guide his daughter. This poetry tells a story and the event was to tell his daughter how to spend money. This poetry evokes a common casual emotion; inside my heart.- these are some words that made me feel this way: “Today”, “I guess”, “tip”. This poetry contains simile. I liked this poem because it… Gary Soto expresses his thoughts about how to spend money, to his daughter. I’m tired Of Soto’s Poems… How about yours! I like the other poem better!

8. Lonely, Lonely, All Alone… My every second of silence; Pass in the blooming of my thoughts. Then one day he told me, “Why are you always alone?” So I tell him… “Life is like a shattered glass, That can never be repaired!” That’s why; I cry alone… I smile alone… I think alone! No one by my side, To hear my laughter or my cry. Just like the wind; I fly in my world…I feel like it’s the end of my world! -Minhoor M. About You?A second please!

9. About … ME!!! Hello. My name is Mahnoor M. I was born in February 1994. I’m 13 years old. My hobbies are: reading comics (Anime + Manga). Watching anime on youtube.com”. Going online to chat, and play games like, “pokemoncreter”, “myspace”, “runescape”, and a lot more! I would like to be a doctor or a engineer when I grow up. I also like to draw. And the most important thing in my life is… my biggest wish! And that wish is for Roxy (Roksana-my BFFL. Who moved to California forever.) to come back to NY. So we could be together again. Like always we use to be!-and we always will be, even if we're far, close together…or if we aren’t even in this world…I will always remember Roxy…and so will she remember me! SURPRISE! I like I like your poem! your poem!

10. WEBSITES! I Got Help From These Sites:  www.google.com www.google.com  www.ask.com www.ask.com  www.dictionary.com www.dictionary.com  www.authorstudy.com www.authorstudy.com  www.poemhunter.com www.poemhunter.com

11. THE END!About you!