Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out?"

Ron Koertge

Give up sitting dutifully at your desk. Leave
your house or apartment. Go out into the world.

It's all right to carry a notebook but a cheap
one is best, with pages the color of weak tea
and on the front a kitten or a space ship.

Avoid any enclosed space where more than
three people are wearing turtlenecks. Beware
any snow-covered chalet with deer tracks
across the muffled tennis courts.

Not surprisingly, libraries are a good place to write.
And the perfect place in a library is near an aisle
where a child a year or two old is playing as his
mother browses the ranks of the dead.

Often he will pull books from the bottom shelf.
The title, the author's name, the brooding photo
on the flap mean nothing. Red book on black, gray
book on brown, he builds a tower. And the higher
it gets, the wider he grins.

You who asked for advice, listen: When the tower
falls, be like that child. Laugh so loud everybody
in the world frowns and says, "Shhhh."

Then start again.

Do you ever have any advice for those of us just starting out?
Ron Koertge
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             When life brings you down never give up. After reading the poem ,"Do you have any advice for those of us just starting out?" by "Ron Koertge" the idea of the poem is about determination and never giving up even if life brings you down. I believe this is the idea because in the poem the speaker explains how instead of being trapped at home or being miserable from an issue go out into the world and explore, this is best portrayed when the speaker says"Give up sitting dutifully at your desk. Leave your house or apartment. Go out into the world."Also the speaker's tone in these lines as well seem advising, peaceful, warm and friendly. I believe this because with the speakers use of diction such as, give up,leave and go the are more like peaceful and advising words. It seems to be as if the speaker has experienced the same issue of giving up and is advising the reader. Also when the speaker says "it's all right to carry a notebook but a cheap one is best, with pages the color of weak tea and on the front a kitten or a space ship."the speaker's tone is assuring and friendly by the speaker explains it's OK to go out into the world with a notebook of your choice even if it has a tea stain or spaceship. The speaker's tone in the beginning and the end are both the same:advising,assuring and peaceful because at the beginning the speaker gives some advice to the reader while at the end the speaker tries to send out an important message to the reader of determination and never giving up even if life brings you down. This is best portrayed when the speaker says "You who asked for advice, listen: When the tower falls, be like that child. Laugh so loud everybody in the world frowns and says, "Shhhh." Then start again." this best illuminates how the speaker is trying to compare a child staking books then  falling and laughing at the end like the world being the books, the falling the issue and the child laughing the speaker. The speaker as well is trying to show how to never give up and this is best illuminated when the speaker skips a line and says "Then start again" meaning then begin a new chapter and keep trying and trying without giving up.(HOMEWORK:4/8/13)