Neighborhood Odes: List 1

by Gary Soto
This poetry collection celebrates the ordinary events and everyday objects that make a neighborhood special.

This list covers "Ode to Los Raspados"–"Ode to Pablo's Tennis Shoes," or pages 1–22 of the 1992 Harcourt edition.

Here are links to our lists for the collection: List 1, List 2, List 3

Here is a link to our list for Seventh Grade by Gary Soto.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. ode
    a lyric poem with complex stanza forms
    Ode to Los Raspados
    Ode to Mi Perrito
    Ode to El Guitarron
    An ode is usually serious and thoughtful praise for something that's beautifully and spiritually uplifting. But the Spanish words from the titles of these three odes translate to "snow cones," "my doggie" and "the acoustic bass guitar." This choice of subject matter both makes fun of the ode tradition and suggests that you don't have to look far for things worth writing about.
  2. cyclone
    an atmospheric system in which air circulates rapidly
    the kids come running,
    some barefoot,
    some in T-shirts
    that end at the
    cyclone knot
    of belly buttons
  3. blister
    a flaw on a surface resulting when an applied substance does not adhere (as an air bubble in a coat of paint)
    Mama
    tells me to turn
    it over, and when
    I do, carefully,
    it's blistered brown.
    Blister comes from the Old French blestre, which means "to boil." When something is blistering, it is boiling hot.
  4. glassy
    (used of eyes) lacking liveliness
    The sparrow will drop
    like fruit
    from the tree
    to stare at me
    with his glassy eyes
  5. wintry
    characteristic of or occurring in the coldest season
    He will jump
    on his food
    and gargle it down,
    chirp once and fly
    back into the wintry tree.
    Soto grew up in Fresno, California, where winter temperatures rarely dip below freezing. This could explain the presence of both a "green, green lawn" and "the wintry tree."
  6. helicopter
    an aircraft without wings that obtains its lift from the rotation of overhead blades
    the helicopter
    of water
    slicing our legs
    This metaphor compares the movement of the water shooting out from the sprinklers to the rotation of a helicopter's bladed.
  7. throbbing
    pounding or beating strongly or violently
    I drank some
    and then pressed
    the icy glass
    against my throbbing toe.
  8. medicine
    something that treats or prevents symptoms of disease
    I began to think
    of Kool-Aid not
    as sugar on
    the tongue
    but as medicine.
  9. reflect
    show an image of
    The puddle reflects
    a blue sky, some clouds
  10. strut
    walk in a proud, confident way
    And the chickens
    look up, heads cocked,
    strut and follow
    the goat.
  11. inhale
    draw deep into the lungs by breathing
    Senor Leal inhales
    on his pipe
  12. habit
    excessive use of drugs
    And the goat's eyes
    are spinning from
    the dizzy breath
    of man's bad habit.
  13. lurk
    lie in wait or behave in a sneaky and secretive manner
    Fish lurked beneath
    the surface
  14. brush
    a dense growth of bushes
    Mi perrito was a hunter.
    He crept in the low brush,
    his ears perked up.
  15. ambush
    the act of hiding and waiting to make a surprise attack
    The cricket chirped
    and jumped into
    the gray ambush of grass.
  16. molar
    grinding tooth with a broad crown
    The music is a
    crunch
    on the back molars
  17. devour
    eat greedily
    To the racket
    of chicharron
    being devoured
    by adult teeth
    in a fourth grader's head
  18. exhausted
    depleted of energy, force, or strength
    He needs eight hours
    of sleep
    to cool his shoes,
    the tongues hanging
    out, exhausted.
    The adjective exhausted and the description of "tongues hanging out" personify the shoes and emphasize Pablo's connection to them: having spent all day together leaping, racing, falling and snuggling, Pablo and his shoes are now both exhausted and need time to cool down and recharge.
Created on Fri Aug 01 20:02:15 EDT 2014 (updated Thu Aug 30 13:56:16 EDT 2018)

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