Reading the poem about compost was very visual, some parts more than others. It gave me memories in different senses, one of them being my sense of smell and one of them being my sense of touch. When the poem was taking about fire and the compost pile itself, I could imagine the smell of fire as well as the compost pile because I have worked with compost before. I could also imagine the feeling of the corn husks, when it described what went into the compost pile, as my family husks and eats a lot of corn in the summertime.

The relation between burning and compost was interesting as we noted that they both bring about something new.  I noted that decomposition reflects that the only absolute in life is death. Everything that was put in the compost came from different places, but they all meld together to form something new. Angelos’ point was very interesting, he said, we are similar to compost, being made of several things for example: our experiences, relationships, families, etc., the combination of this all helps to shape us as people. Essays are also similar in a way because of their parts: the introduction, thesis, body paragraphs, and conclusion. The thesis is what eventually brings an essay all together, kind of like heat in a compost pile as it all relates to the thesis.

Next in class, we shared our compost heaps, about the person’s story we were most intrigued by, with a classmate. For me and my partner we both decided to write about Kelvin and so we noticed similar quotes. We also noticed similar themes shared by our person as well as other people’s stories. To finish class, we did briefly cover our future meeting with Dr. Coogan and Kelvin and we were tasked with creating questions to have ready to ask, as it is more awkward to sit in silence than ask an “uncomfortable” question.