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Harjo’s Santa Fe reminds me of fleeting moments in life we think are special, but then the ‘fox breaks through the lilacs’ or the illusion. There may not be regret only looking back in hindsight to what things were in reality or envisioned in our minds.
ReplyDeleteEqui’s poem A Quiet Poem on pg. 78 is one I enjoyed a lot, I thought the title itself seemed to reflect that there is suffering beneath the surface, a disruptive noise beneath the silence. There were themes I noticed Equi touched on throughout her poem. The order of the themes as I noticed them: Home life, school life, artistic venture, the mechanical, and nature. When Equi mentions the good kind of scream that is a release such as when she ‘saw The Beatles’ (artistic venturing theme, or recreational.) It is only in the last tercet & couplet that Equi narrows her concept of ‘screams’ to how it can change and leave a human being feeling for the rest of their lives. When Equi says, “Just as crawling precedes walking, so screaming precedes speech,” it is literally the truth but also a reflection of people in our daily lives who know no other way to communicate or simply resort to lash out or be negative (scream) rather than use their words to resolve issues and/or communicate efficiently with our private or more social circles. Equi reminds the readers that people do not forget, I think we all definitely can and try to move on from certain events in our lives, but as hard as we try, the memory of ‘the scream’ is an underlying unforgettable emotion.
Villanueva’s bitch bitch bitch bitch is a poem I hope all women can relate to because I sure did. A lot of the time most of what we do, or how we dress, or how we apply makeup or if we don’t. We’re damned either way. When we become frustrated, assertive, we’re bitches. Something about the title is making me think. Maybe it’s nothing at all, but none of the words are capitalized and there are no commas. Hmm maybe it’s a reflection of going against the standard introduction etiquette or ‘rules’ of writing or of poetry!? Anyways, I enjoyed this poem too.
-Naissa J. Acosta
The poems read are all unique in their own way, by their meaning and by the way they’re written. “Basketball” by Sherman Alexie is not like a regular poem, there are no stanzas just a paragraph about a Indian man who plays basketball. Lorna Dee Cervantes “Poem for the Young White Men Who Asked Me How I, an Intelligent, Well Read Person, Could Believe in the War between Races” talks about what many people go through today, the racial prejudice and how the privileged white man doesn’t understand. It’s beautiful and straight to the point. Elaine Equi “A Quiet Poem” is about how the quietest whisper can be a scream to the right person. How anything can be qualified as a scream. It gives great imagery that has you think in a different perspective. Joy Harjo “Santa Fe” is about a woman in Santa Fe, thinking of a man who wanted her on his arm and the woman who went. The imagery of the drugs and the lilac is vivid. D. Nurske “Left field” is about a child hiding in the shadows, and what can only be described as embarrassed at his ability to throw. Naomi Shihab Nye “I Feel Sorry for Jesus” is about how people twist things around in the name of Jesus, how she feels sorry for him because people do horrible things in his name. That’s not what he would of wanted, we don’t know what he wants yet people think they’re an expert. Deborah Paredez “Bustillo Drive Grocery” is about a memory with family and candy before she turned sour. Before reality hit her. Gary Soto “What’s your Major” is talking about which major is best when both archeology and mortuary studies are the same thing just dealing with different dead people. Gloria Vando “new shoes and an old flame” is interesting with the style it used to have it look like a high heel. Alma Luz Villanueva “bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch” takes the word and gives it different meaning for a mother yelling at her children to a woman staring at a man. It takes the word to a new level
ReplyDeleteKendra Lara
What is your major? By Gary Soto reflect the author own experience from high school to college with a lower GPA. In his poem was going through a time of uncertainty about his major. Something that many college students go through during their time in college. To me it seems like archeology would offer more of an adventure to him, as it would allow him to travel the world to either visit dig sites or make a dig site. Bitch by Alma Luz Villanueva in her poem because it gave me an entirely new perspective on the word bitch. Villanueva begins by stating she likes the sound of the word. She begins to give connotation to the word by saying it reminds her of a woman looking at a man but he doesn't like it. But she has that piece in parenthesis. I believe this is because she is saying that a woman looking at a man is just her being a strong person but the fact that he doesn't like it makes her a bitch. I love the way that she describes things as just something a woman does like fighting with her kids or swearing at the world. These are normal things that everyone does but the perception it gives is that, that person is a bitch. I love the way the author owns the meaning of the word. She kind of sticks it to the people who may have called her that in the past saying "maybe I look like a bitch, probably because that's what I am." From now on that's what I'm going to say if someone calls me a bitch.
ReplyDeleteFatimata Traore
In this response, I will discuss 2 poems throughout the reading and the pros and cons and other unique things to it.
ReplyDeleteIn Elizabeth Alexander’s sonnet, “House Party Sonnet: ‘66”, I didn’t understand the entire poem, even though I have read it multiple times. For example, I didn’t know why the poet kept repeating the phrase, “Where did our love go?”. I kept questioning myself what kind of love, what significance did this phrase have, etc. Additionally, I perceived that this was an aftermath of a booze party, due to the imagery of the poem and the context of the imagery.
In Lorna Dee Cervantes’ free verse poem, “Poem for the Young White Man Who Asked Me How I, an Intelligent, Well-Read Person, Could Believe in the War between Races”, this was my most favorite poem in this anthology and in the reading so far, since I like that Cervantes described the situation of racism with the subtle, yet clear, use of figurative language, imagery, and diction. In other words, with the use of figurative language, imagery and diction, the poem had a straightforward message, but through the subtle form of poetry.
One thing that I noticed, with this anthology, is that most of these poems use, and rely, on allusion, which is a major pet peeve for me. I noticed in some poems, such as “Basketball”, Postcard from Kashmir”, and “Nostalgia” just to name a few, that mentions allusions within their poems and that the readers of these poems must know the background of these allusions to fully comprehend the total meaning/theme of the poem. It’s a great hinder for me as a reader of these poems.
Jose Contreras | 278 Words
As a poet, I have found this section to be my favorite out of the other genres that have been discussed. Reading the poems assigned have been beneficial in expanding my skills in poetry writing. In Gloria Vando’s poem on page 94, ‘new shoes and an old flame’ was interesting in structure. I noticed the title name is not capitalized nor a single word in the text. I have been pondering as to why the poet wrote it that way, but maybe because there are no capital letters because she is talking about an old relationship that is no longer in the present. I also loved how the poem is structed in the form of a shoe. This made her poem unique and separated from the other poets. On page 93, the poem ‘What Is Your Major?’ had some elements of imagery that I really loved. “Poor man whose head fit through the rollers/ of industrial machinery. I knew” and also, “And at night I was not in the least scared/ Of petting my own flesh,/ Eventual fodder for the carnivorous earth,” I found this poem extremely beautiful in its context. Comparing his real waking life to the history he has discovered.
ReplyDelete-Valerie Valentin
Out of all the poems assigned, the ones I liked the most were “Poem for the Young…” by Cervantes and “Bustillo Drive Grocery” by Paredez. I enjoyed the Cervantes poem mainly because I actually understood the poem. Seems like me reading a poem and not getting completely confused by it is rare so the fact that I was able to follow along throughout is something that I found pleasing. The poem depicts how the author faces struggles because of her race and her emotional feelings because of it. I thought the poem was really well structured and because of it I was able to develop some sort of connection to where I sympathized and felt pity for the author. “Bustillo Drive Grocery” I liked because I could relate to what was being told in the poem. You can tell from the references in the poem that the author is Hispanic, so it was nice to relate in that aspect. I enjoyed the reference to “chamoy” in the story…found it funny. The poem itself is written in a way to where the author is reminiscing about her childhood and it flows in a simple way. The rest of the poems I didn’t really enjoy, mainly because I didn’t get them. An exception for “bitch bitch…” by Villanueva. I get the premise of taking a negative word and turning into something empowering. Just felt bland and didn’t enjoy it.
ReplyDelete-Adrian Martinez
From the ten poems presented, the ones that I found interesting were Lorna Dee Cervantes’s poem “Poem for the Young White Man Who Asked Me How I, an Intelligent, Well-Read Person, Could Believe in the War between Races” had me reading this poem twice for two reasons, the first is because I had forgotten all about the title so I read it and thought it was addressing racism and how it is still a relevant topic even today. However, when I looked at the title again, I gain a new perspective, it still is discussing about racism but the author is replying to the “white man” and providing them with what they as a person of color has to deal with as opposed to them. Deborah Paredez’s “Bustillo Drive Grocery” is detailed and describes a reminiscing time at a grocery store run by a family, of which the author was in charge of los dulces. It reminds me of a time where a friend of mine’s family also had a business such as the one of the authors. I think I have a preference of memories or a moment in time that are used in poems more so than other kinds because it helps give me a clearer picture of what they may be talking about. “bitch bitch bitch bitch” by Alma Luz Villanueva is also another I enjoyed a lot because of taking a word like “bitch” which is often associated with negative connotations but she owns up to the word, and what made me like it more was the personification to the ocean/water it almost seems like a spiritual or cleansing moment for her.
ReplyDelete- Savannah Lopez
I find that I still have trouble analyzing poetry, probably because I’m not setting aside enough time to actually read the poems in depth, but I was able to appreciate most of these poems more than the last set because I found them easier to read. I was especially impressed with the poems “Basketball” and “Santa Fe” because at first glance I felt like I was reading a piece of prose. I’m familiar with poems like “new shoes and an old flame” where the actual shape of the poem is integral to the meaning of the poem, but ironically I had never before considered that poetry could be written like prose as well. I’m glad though that we were given poems in so many different styles, though, because I feel like this is good exposure to forms that we can explore in our own writing. As for the actual poems, I found myself most fond of “Poem for the Young White Man..” and “I Feel Sorry for Jesus” because from being very clear in what they were talking about, I was able to relate to each poem; both of them felt like they were expressing things I wish I could say but just don’t have the words or skills to put them in words at the moment. I still want to be able to understand the other poems and be able to appreciate them like I did “Poem for the Young White Man...” and “I Feel Sorry for Jesus,” but I feel like at the moment my current poetry analysis skills are too rusty for me to properly comment on them. Even if I was able to understand the “story” they told or the situation they presented I’m not sure if I’m currently able to identify what the bigger picture is for each poem or appreciate it past just a superficial like based on what I gathered from just one or two quick readings.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Garza
Of the poems assigned in this section, there are some that stood out to be more than just stanzas and rhymes or free-style end sentences. The first of the poems to garner my attention was Lorna Dee Cervantes’s “Poem for the Young White Man Who Asked Me How I, an Intelligent, Well-Read Person, Could Believe in the War between Races” (Page 72-73). This poem uses imagery to create the ripped, torn, war-zone like world that society can be like to those who belong to minority groups. An example of this is in the fourth stanza, “…because everywhere the crosses are burning, sharp-shooting goose-steppers round every corner, there are snipers in the schools…” with the crosses representing the Ku Klux Klan’s infamous scare tactics and the goose-steppers and snipers in the schools representing the racism one can face on any day on the sidewalk or how the young can experience it in schools through more than one way. The line that sticks out to me throughout is at the end of the fourth stanza where she states that the snipers are “not shooting at you.” Another was Gloria Vando’s “new shoes and an old flame” (Page 94). It’s a different approach of organizing and spacing a poem, since it is spaced to form the silhouette on a stiletto shoe. The space increases as the poem builds up the revelation of the author.
ReplyDelete-Michael Lucio 231 Words
The poems in this section has such a rich culture in their content, Alexie’s “Basketball” has cultural roots and such a tough attitude that it feels like it was written by a very hardened individual. “Postcard from Kashmir” hits me with its message of a special memory fading with time. “when I return, the colors won’t be so brilliant” (72) while this is referring to the miniature the author has, it reminds me of the feeling one can get with a person, the theme of this poem may be that time wears down our perspective, and great memories of a person or place can be whittled down over time, and become a less saturated, less wonderful concept. “A Quiet Poem” felt very powerful, demonstrating examples of scream being cheers, being full of rage, being faked, and being genuine. The lesson at the end referring to how less than a scream from a typical screamer is valued, but more than a whisper from a quiet person is outrageous. It’s a touching, melancholy poem. All these poems are written by people from vastly different cultures with different experiences, and they are all fascinating.
ReplyDelete-Kedrick Wyatt
Of all the poems in the reading, there were two that kind of confused me. "Sante Fe" by Joy Harjo was really interesting to me because I noticed that it was written in prose and I had not read many poems like this until I came across this one. The content of the poem itself, I did not quite understand. Although I do know that there are several interpretations that can be understood from a poem, I could not really wrap my head around what exactly it is that is going on in this poem. I am not sure if this is more because of the structure itself from the poem or if it is my interpretation of the content itself. The other poem I did not really understand as well, was "Basketball" by Sherman Alexie. Is the poem simply laying out a scene in which I should interpret more literally or is what is going on supposed to symbolize and represent a deeper meaning? I highly look forward to hearing other peoples interpretations and what they have to say about the poems or what sense they were able to make of them. Especially if they were able to grasp some kind of larger meaning from what is given and how they were able to do that.
ReplyDeleteKimberly Cervantes
The poem by Alexie was a very hauntingly real poem. It brought to attention the effect of new-America on the Native Americans, a sentiment that we learn in school but do not actively remember. The title itself, “Postcards to Columbus” is passive aggressive in an admirable way, that contrasts deeply with its last stanzas. The poem by Cervantes is similar in sentiment. This one is also somewhat of a ranting of emotion (like Alexie’s), but for a different reason. This poem describes the racial issues that anyone who isn’t white has to face. The line, “You think this is nothing but faddish exaggeration. But they are not shooting at you,” struck me as bold. The trend of powerful poems continues with Equi’s “A Quiet Poem,” which is ironically loud. Its last stanza, however, turns the perspective completely. This theme of abuse ends with Gary Soto’s “What is Your Major?,” although the subject of mortuary studies is arguably dark. Soto is a children’s book author, anyway. He described the similarities between archeology and being a mortician, which sound extremely different to anyone but him. I liked the line that said, “Poor man whose head fit through the rollers/ Of industrial machinery.” This line described a gruesome death.
ReplyDeleteRaquel Williams