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Type in the content of your 13 Ways Project here.
 * Way 1 - First Impression**

I had a few first impressions of "My Father's Song" by Simon J. Ortiz. I had thoughts about the message of the poem, and I wasn't really sure who the son and the father were. I believe the main underlying message of this poem is how the father is a warm sensitive person. The very first stanza states that he had tremble of emotion in something that he said. This clued me in that the father is very emotional. The fact that the father had stopped working on plowing the field to dig out the nest of mice to bring them to the edge of the field shows me that he is gentle and caring as well. Line 18 even uses the word "Very gently, he scooped the tiny pink animals", the use of the word gently also shows how he is a gentle person. The last stanza describes the softness of the sand and mice in his hand and the son's father saying things. I think that describing the soft sand and mice and his father saying things being in the same stanza, or sentence for that matter, shows that his father is being compared to the softness of the sand and the baby mice. This was my initial literal understanding of the poem. As I was reading the poem I wasn't real sure who the son and father were. At first I had a thought that maybe they were slaves on a plantation because of line 4, it says "the depth from his thin chest". The thin chest drew a picture of an under fed over worked individual. The singing by the father also reminded me of the slave era. As far as my understanding goes, slaves use to sing a lot when they were working. But then after looking at the date of the poem of 1976 I canceled out this idea. Then I thought just because someone is maybe under fed and overworked doesn't necessarily mean that they are slaves. They could just be subsistence farmers possibly. Maybe this is just a farming family during tough times. But then again a lot of the words are referencing to the fact that his father is gone and the son misses him. Maybe the son is just reminiscing about a better and maybe easier time in his life. The first two lines sound like the son is mourning the death of his father. The son opens up with saying he misses his father. Then the poem closes with a nice remembering of the softness of the mice and his father. This ending shows that the son is at ease after reminiscing about good times with his father. Being the reader, this easy going mood at the end makes me feel good as well. After reading and really thinking about the poem, I am really surprised that it can derive such deep thought.


 * Way 2 - Engaging with the text**

My Father's Song by Simon J. Ortiz

Wanting to say things, I miss my father tonight. His voice, the slight catch, the depth from his thin chest, the tremble of emotion in something he has just said to his son, his song:

We planted corn one Spring at Acu -- we planted several times but this one particular time I remember the soft damp sand in my hand.

My father had stopped at one point to show me an overturned furrow; the plowshare had unearthed the burrow nest of a mouse in the soft moist sand.

Very gently, he scooped tiny pink animals into the palm of his hand and told me to touch them. We took them to the edge of the field and put them i n the shade of a sand moist clod.

I remember the very softness of cool and warm sand and tiny alive mice and my father saying things.

I don't really see any rhythm to the poem, so it's hard for me to make a connection between that and the text of the poem. The only rhyme that I see is "I remember the damp sand in my hand" (11,12) So as of right now, I'm failing to see the connection for way two.


 * Way 3 - Form and its relationship to content**