Ashlyn
As the knife pierced the flesh
She kept on cutting.
It wasn’t until she saw the blood
Mixing with the tomato juice
That she lifted her finger
And stuck it in her mouth.
She felt the blood shoot out,
Warm and wet,
It trickled down her throat,
But the finger remained numb
And unfeeling.
A similar thing had happened
When she broke her arm.
She fell down hard
And fast
But it wasn’t until people gawked
At her arm hanging limply
Off her shoulder
That she decided to give merit
To that snapping sound she had heard.
She knew she had to be careful.
But why live in fear
Of ever cut
And scrape
And bump.
So she went along her usual business
And waited for her anesthetized killer.
The Rules of Feminism
I’m not supposed to want it.
The husband.
The kids.
The white picket fence.
I know what I’m supposed to want.
The high-power career.
The long hours.
Trying to get ahead of men
To make things more equal in the world.
So sometimes when they’re not looking,
I stop and watch the kids on the playground
And iron while watching reruns
Of Desperate Housewives.
But that gets tucked away the next day
As I keep on heading toward that career,
That next degree.
To make things more equal in the world.
17 April 2007
Response to Jim Harrison
When I first started reading Jim Harrison’s The Theory & Practice of Rivers and New Poems, I was not sure how I felt. I think my initial dilemma is the fact that I am resistant to long poems with no plot. It is probably more of a mental block than anything else, but it always seems as though I am supposed to find the one basic meaning that runs throughout and I can’t always seem to find it. (I also do not think that the subject matter of water in the first poem helped since I am writing a paper in the other class on oceans.) So while reading the poem “The Theory & Practice of Rivers,” I focused more on some brilliant wording that stuck me. Here are some lines that I really liked:
I was able to get a more firm grasp on some of Harrison’s shorter poems; however, it was still a few lines in poems that really stuck out to me. Here are some more lines that I enjoyed:
Overall, I am still trying to “figure it all out.” His style seems to be pretty comfortable and accessible but not in the same way as Billy Collins. I am not too sure what it is, but I do think I would have a hard time replicating his style. Either way, I am looking forward to see what my classmates have made of it and hopefully Jimmy will be able to enlighten us since he has been able to study Harrison extensively.
- On page 5, “The inside of the eye, vitreous humor, is the same pulp found inside the squid.” - This was just a neat image/analogy.
- On page 7, “I will never wake up and be able to play the piano.” – I think we have all had thoughts like this about something we want to be able to do but do not want to put all the time in that would be necessary. Secretly, I think we all hope that we would be able to just do something we have always wanted to do.
- On page 11, “My throat a knot of everything I no longer understand.” - This just gave me such a clear image of the feeling when you are just about to cry.
- On page 20, “The river pulls me out, draws me elsewhere an down to blue water, green water, black water.” - Since I have water on the brain, this stuck out to me. It really gets the idea across about water sucking you down, which is usually tied in with rivers opposed to placid lakes.
- On page 21, “One is a carpenter who doesn’t become Jesus, one is a girl who went to heaven sixty years early. Gods die, and not always out of choice, like near-sighted cats jumping between building seven stories up.”
I was able to get a more firm grasp on some of Harrison’s shorter poems; however, it was still a few lines in poems that really stuck out to me. Here are some more lines that I enjoyed:
- In Kobun on page 31, “The head’s a cloud anchor that the feet must follow.” – This is probably my favorite line out of this book. It is just such a neat idea that has never occurred to me before. It quite literally flips the notion of gravity on its head.
- I really enjoyed “The Brand New Statue of Liberty to Lea Iococca (another Michigan boy)” as a whole. The image of the necklace of bones around the statue of liberty was quite striking.
- In “What He Said When I was Eleven” on page 57, “The fly-strip above the table idled in the window’s breeze, a new fly in its death buzz. Grandpa said, ‘We are all flies.’ That’s what he said forty years ago.” – This part just really portrays the idea of being trapped. Grandpa feels like a fly in his old age, but it is obviously not because of his age that he feels this way. He felt trapped forty years ago and apparently continued to do so.
- “My Friend the Bear” on page 61 as a whole but especially the lines: “There’s a tunnel to the outside on the far wall that emerges in the lilac grove in the backyard but she rarely uses it, knowing there’s no room around here for a freewheeling bear.” And “Privately she likes religion – from the bedroom I hear her incantatory moans and howls below me.”
- In “Rich Folks, Poor Folks, and Neither” on page 67, “I shot the copy machine with my rifle. No more copies, I thought, everything original!” – because haven’t we all wanted to cry out against technology at some point in our lives?
Overall, I am still trying to “figure it all out.” His style seems to be pretty comfortable and accessible but not in the same way as Billy Collins. I am not too sure what it is, but I do think I would have a hard time replicating his style. Either way, I am looking forward to see what my classmates have made of it and hopefully Jimmy will be able to enlighten us since he has been able to study Harrison extensively.
10 April 2007
Poetry
I am really not happy with this week's poetry. But here it is:
Assateague
As I lay in my canvas abode
listening to the waves wash up on shore,
I heard the clip-clop footsteps
of the approaching animal.
With one glance I realized
I was the only one;
my sisters were snuggled and sleeping
soundly in their sleeping bags,
finally escaping the itch of the mosquito bites
and sand.
Laying as still as I could,
I watched the silhouette of the beast
near our tent until it stopped outside of my open window.
The horse turned its head
and seemed to look inside.
I could feel its hot breath through
the sheer polyester window.
It seemed to look right at me,
and I stared right back.
With one last breath, it broke
our connection
and turned to leave,
possibly to visit another camp
in hopes of food.
Okinawa
He never does talk about it.
When I was young,
I figured he didn’t think I would
understand. But now that I’m older,
I still haven’t heard the stories
about the base in Okinawa.
He says he did it so he could go to college
and he figured he’d be going either way,
so why not go willingly?
He says Japan is a beautiful country
that he would like to go back and visit.
He says he fixed helicopters and airplanes
but refuses to acknowledge that it cost him
his hearing.
Despite his silence,
every year I give him a Veteran’s Day card.
He says thanks, pretending it is like any other
card, and with one last glance,
tucks it on the bookcase
out of sight.
Assateague
As I lay in my canvas abode
listening to the waves wash up on shore,
I heard the clip-clop footsteps
of the approaching animal.
With one glance I realized
I was the only one;
my sisters were snuggled and sleeping
soundly in their sleeping bags,
finally escaping the itch of the mosquito bites
and sand.
Laying as still as I could,
I watched the silhouette of the beast
near our tent until it stopped outside of my open window.
The horse turned its head
and seemed to look inside.
I could feel its hot breath through
the sheer polyester window.
It seemed to look right at me,
and I stared right back.
With one last breath, it broke
our connection
and turned to leave,
possibly to visit another camp
in hopes of food.
Okinawa
He never does talk about it.
When I was young,
I figured he didn’t think I would
understand. But now that I’m older,
I still haven’t heard the stories
about the base in Okinawa.
He says he did it so he could go to college
and he figured he’d be going either way,
so why not go willingly?
He says Japan is a beautiful country
that he would like to go back and visit.
He says he fixed helicopters and airplanes
but refuses to acknowledge that it cost him
his hearing.
Despite his silence,
every year I give him a Veteran’s Day card.
He says thanks, pretending it is like any other
card, and with one last glance,
tucks it on the bookcase
out of sight.
09 April 2007
England
This is not really related to either of my classes, but it does have to do with my summer class and with me as a person. I just finished booking a flight to London for a week in July. I have been trying to get this trip going for the past 3 years and it is finally happening! :) Now it is time to yank my head out of the clouds and get some actual work done.
03 April 2007
Contemporary Poetry and Its Use of Nature
I would like to preface this paper by saying that I hate defining something, because I think things can’t always be classified or defined in simple terms. Life and literature is too complicated for that. So instead of describing what contemporary poetry is (because who am I to attempt such a classification?), I am going to make some hopefully astute observations about what I noticed in my study of contemporary poetry thus far.
Contemporary poetry can be either very personal or can be applicable to anybody who reads it. It seems as though some poets use poetry as a release to express something that is very near and dear to their hearts. Sometimes the reader can relate but oftentimes the subject is far beyond the reach of the average man or woman. However, even if the subject matter is very personal, the poet can help the reader see or feel how they feel in their personal situation. For example, Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem Facing It is obviously about something that the majority of the population can’t relate to personally, because it is about being a veteran of the Vietnam War. He makes his personal connection to the war clear when he writes, “I’m inside/ the Vietnam Memorial/ again, depending on the light/ to make a difference./ I go down 58,022 names,/ half-expecting to find/ my own in letters like smoke.” However, although most people could never experience this feeling personally, Komunyakaa’s description is vivid, and it becomes a little easier to imagine how viewing the Vietnam Memorial as a veteran may feel.
Other contemporary poems are about everyday occurrences or thoughts that almost anybody could relate to personally. For example, in William Stafford’s poem Traveling through the Dark, Stafford writes about a doe who has been hit by the car, which is a common occurrence or sight to anybody who lives anywhere near deer. In Mary Oliver’s poem Mockingbirds, Oliver writes about the ideas of the importance of people even if they outwardly seem unimportant (like the old couple in the Greek myth she tells) and the unimportance of everyday obligations because of the importance of the moment (in her telling of watching mockingbirds play instead of going onto the planned days activities). These are thoughts that I’m sure a lot of people have had. It is so easy to think that we are small and insignificant (as the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’s Total Perspective Vortex shows us), but at times, it is important to think that there is still value in our boring, seemingly insignificant lives. And haven’t we all frittered away time when we could and/or should be doing something useful? By addressing common thoughts, Stafford, Oliver, and other poets are clarifying thoughts and experiences that the everyday man or woman has encountered.
Contemporary poetry is not always about the rich and the powerful but about the everyman. In Gary Snyder’s poem Hay for the Horses, Snyder does not tell about a lush lifestyle many people strive for; instead, Snyder tells about a man who gathers and stacks bales of hay for a living. This may not be the everyday occurrence to everybody who reads the poem, but it is about somebody who may be on the fringe of modern society. This poem also seems to speak directly to the reader. Snyder includes dialogue: “’I’m sixty-eight,’ he said,/ ‘I first bucked hay when I was seventeen./ I thought, that day I started,/ I sure would hate to do this all my life./ And dammit, that just what/ I’ve gone and done.” This dialogue helps the poet drag the reader into the poem. The reader is not longer a casual observer but an active part of the poem.
Nature in contemporary poetry plays a number of roles. Some authors keep the spiritual beautiful vision of nature. In Mary Oliver’s Mockingbirds, she stops and watches mockingbirds “ spinning and tossing/ the white ribbons/ of their songs/ into the air.” This seems to be a common vision of nature as a source of beauty and reverence. Oliver also writes about natural forms in her poem The Chance to Love Everything: “All summer I made friends/ with the creatures nearby - / they flowed through the fields/ and under the tent walls/ or padded through the door,/ grinning through their many teeth.” This also seems to have a positive outlook on animals and nature. This poem, however, also shows a dark, fearful side to nature: “I heard a sound/ outside the door, the canvas/ bulged slightly – something/ was pressing inward at eye level./ I watched, trembling, sure I had heard/ the click of claws, the smack of lips/ outside my gauzy house - / I imagined the red eyes,/ the broad tongue, the enormous lap./ Would it be friendly too?”
In his poem Traveling through the Dark, William Stafford addresses a gruesome side to nature. He tells the story of deer roadkill and how it is best to “roll them into the canyon.” He writes, “By glow of the tail-light, I stumbled back of the car/ And stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing;/ She had stiffened already, almost cold./ I dragged her off; she was large in the belly.” This poem shows the seedy underbelly of nature that previous poets writing about nature left out. It tells about something that most people don’t want to think about but are faced with. However, Stafford doesn’t write about it to gross his readers out; instead, he finds some strange beauty in his experience with the dead doe. He seems to find or search for a connection or meaning with the doe’s death. He feels her unborn fawn and pauses to think before rolling her off the road. It is disgusting, no doubt, but beautiful in its own way.
Contemporary poetry can be either very personal or can be applicable to anybody who reads it. It seems as though some poets use poetry as a release to express something that is very near and dear to their hearts. Sometimes the reader can relate but oftentimes the subject is far beyond the reach of the average man or woman. However, even if the subject matter is very personal, the poet can help the reader see or feel how they feel in their personal situation. For example, Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem Facing It is obviously about something that the majority of the population can’t relate to personally, because it is about being a veteran of the Vietnam War. He makes his personal connection to the war clear when he writes, “I’m inside/ the Vietnam Memorial/ again, depending on the light/ to make a difference./ I go down 58,022 names,/ half-expecting to find/ my own in letters like smoke.” However, although most people could never experience this feeling personally, Komunyakaa’s description is vivid, and it becomes a little easier to imagine how viewing the Vietnam Memorial as a veteran may feel.
Other contemporary poems are about everyday occurrences or thoughts that almost anybody could relate to personally. For example, in William Stafford’s poem Traveling through the Dark, Stafford writes about a doe who has been hit by the car, which is a common occurrence or sight to anybody who lives anywhere near deer. In Mary Oliver’s poem Mockingbirds, Oliver writes about the ideas of the importance of people even if they outwardly seem unimportant (like the old couple in the Greek myth she tells) and the unimportance of everyday obligations because of the importance of the moment (in her telling of watching mockingbirds play instead of going onto the planned days activities). These are thoughts that I’m sure a lot of people have had. It is so easy to think that we are small and insignificant (as the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’s Total Perspective Vortex shows us), but at times, it is important to think that there is still value in our boring, seemingly insignificant lives. And haven’t we all frittered away time when we could and/or should be doing something useful? By addressing common thoughts, Stafford, Oliver, and other poets are clarifying thoughts and experiences that the everyday man or woman has encountered.
Contemporary poetry is not always about the rich and the powerful but about the everyman. In Gary Snyder’s poem Hay for the Horses, Snyder does not tell about a lush lifestyle many people strive for; instead, Snyder tells about a man who gathers and stacks bales of hay for a living. This may not be the everyday occurrence to everybody who reads the poem, but it is about somebody who may be on the fringe of modern society. This poem also seems to speak directly to the reader. Snyder includes dialogue: “’I’m sixty-eight,’ he said,/ ‘I first bucked hay when I was seventeen./ I thought, that day I started,/ I sure would hate to do this all my life./ And dammit, that just what/ I’ve gone and done.” This dialogue helps the poet drag the reader into the poem. The reader is not longer a casual observer but an active part of the poem.
Nature in contemporary poetry plays a number of roles. Some authors keep the spiritual beautiful vision of nature. In Mary Oliver’s Mockingbirds, she stops and watches mockingbirds “ spinning and tossing/ the white ribbons/ of their songs/ into the air.” This seems to be a common vision of nature as a source of beauty and reverence. Oliver also writes about natural forms in her poem The Chance to Love Everything: “All summer I made friends/ with the creatures nearby - / they flowed through the fields/ and under the tent walls/ or padded through the door,/ grinning through their many teeth.” This also seems to have a positive outlook on animals and nature. This poem, however, also shows a dark, fearful side to nature: “I heard a sound/ outside the door, the canvas/ bulged slightly – something/ was pressing inward at eye level./ I watched, trembling, sure I had heard/ the click of claws, the smack of lips/ outside my gauzy house - / I imagined the red eyes,/ the broad tongue, the enormous lap./ Would it be friendly too?”
In his poem Traveling through the Dark, William Stafford addresses a gruesome side to nature. He tells the story of deer roadkill and how it is best to “roll them into the canyon.” He writes, “By glow of the tail-light, I stumbled back of the car/ And stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing;/ She had stiffened already, almost cold./ I dragged her off; she was large in the belly.” This poem shows the seedy underbelly of nature that previous poets writing about nature left out. It tells about something that most people don’t want to think about but are faced with. However, Stafford doesn’t write about it to gross his readers out; instead, he finds some strange beauty in his experience with the dead doe. He seems to find or search for a connection or meaning with the doe’s death. He feels her unborn fawn and pauses to think before rolling her off the road. It is disgusting, no doubt, but beautiful in its own way.
02 April 2007
Preliminary thoughts on oceans
in order to whittle my paper down to a reasonable subject, I am planning on looking at oceans that the role they play in literature and some film and/or television shows. However, even though this is more specific than my previous paper, it still seems to be way too big for a 20-page paper. Here is what I have in mind thus far.
While reading Hillman, Heraclitus, and others when researching water, several thoughts came to mind. First of all, the depth of the water comes to mind initially. When one is wandering the deep, blue sea, they never know how deep it is beneath their feet (without new nifty technologic devices) and they also do not know what lies beneath. This gives the sea a degree of uncertainty. Nobody knows what evil lurks beneath and where or when it will rear its ugly head. Uncertainty also exists with the success of traveling the seas with weather. Nobody can perfectly predict the weather, and when one is traveling for a long length of time, they are bound to run into turbulent waters. Now, Heraclitus says that the soul (the Hillmanian image-soul) delights in water because it delights in death. When I read this, I thought that when one travels water, the ocean in particular, they truly are delighting in the possibility of death. No doubt after traveling the seas for a long time one becomes in tune with the method, but that possibility of death remains. It takes a certain personality, a certain bravery really, to risk ones life to travel the open seas. When you depart from the port, you never know what's coming from above or from below.
However, although an uncertainty exists with water, I must keep in mind that all elements have a duality. Yes, oceans are vast and deep and foreboding, but water also has the ability to heal and purify things. On a clear day, the ocean may not look intimidating but quite beautiful instead. I also must keep in mind that in theory we are all made up of the elements and are thus part water. We are, in some ways, one with water.
Thus far I am revisiting some books, movies and tv shows that deal with water. Bookwise, I am currently looking into The Old Man and the Sea, The Odyssey, Moby Dick, and possibly Gulliver's Travels. My fiance said the film The Abyss would work well, but I am not familiar with it and will have to look into that more. The television show Lost comes to mind as well, because in the show there is the sense that there is no way to escape; the water plays the role of a fence and anybody who attempts to leave gets pulled back to the island (although I'm going to try to stay away from sounding like I'm ripping off Ryan's thesis here). I've checked out some books from the library that would hopefully be helpful: some on travel narratives, some on Greek theory and Heraclitus. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!! I'm still trying to find my footing and am having a hard time coming up with one main point I want to make. Any suggestions there are greatly appreciated as well!!
While reading Hillman, Heraclitus, and others when researching water, several thoughts came to mind. First of all, the depth of the water comes to mind initially. When one is wandering the deep, blue sea, they never know how deep it is beneath their feet (without new nifty technologic devices) and they also do not know what lies beneath. This gives the sea a degree of uncertainty. Nobody knows what evil lurks beneath and where or when it will rear its ugly head. Uncertainty also exists with the success of traveling the seas with weather. Nobody can perfectly predict the weather, and when one is traveling for a long length of time, they are bound to run into turbulent waters. Now, Heraclitus says that the soul (the Hillmanian image-soul) delights in water because it delights in death. When I read this, I thought that when one travels water, the ocean in particular, they truly are delighting in the possibility of death. No doubt after traveling the seas for a long time one becomes in tune with the method, but that possibility of death remains. It takes a certain personality, a certain bravery really, to risk ones life to travel the open seas. When you depart from the port, you never know what's coming from above or from below.
However, although an uncertainty exists with water, I must keep in mind that all elements have a duality. Yes, oceans are vast and deep and foreboding, but water also has the ability to heal and purify things. On a clear day, the ocean may not look intimidating but quite beautiful instead. I also must keep in mind that in theory we are all made up of the elements and are thus part water. We are, in some ways, one with water.
Thus far I am revisiting some books, movies and tv shows that deal with water. Bookwise, I am currently looking into The Old Man and the Sea, The Odyssey, Moby Dick, and possibly Gulliver's Travels. My fiance said the film The Abyss would work well, but I am not familiar with it and will have to look into that more. The television show Lost comes to mind as well, because in the show there is the sense that there is no way to escape; the water plays the role of a fence and anybody who attempts to leave gets pulled back to the island (although I'm going to try to stay away from sounding like I'm ripping off Ryan's thesis here). I've checked out some books from the library that would hopefully be helpful: some on travel narratives, some on Greek theory and Heraclitus. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!! I'm still trying to find my footing and am having a hard time coming up with one main point I want to make. Any suggestions there are greatly appreciated as well!!
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