Shamsur's blog

"The Hitchhikers"  - Diane Wakoski                                              In “The Hitchhikers” Diane Wakoski describes her journey with someone and compares it with hitchhikers. She talks about her past relationship. She tries to ignore her past and move on, because she doesn’t want to miss that special person in her life in fear of being hurt again.                    In our life everything is unpredictable and doesn’t always go as planned. At some point we may feel we have everything and we are the happiest in the world, the next moment something could go wrong and eventually everything will change our lives and turn the world upside down, es[ecially if it's our loved one. Carolyn Riley’s comments on Wakoski “Ms. Wakoski is an imaginative American poet whose work, often “confessional” is characterized by dark and violent imagery.” These lines tell us that Wakoski is very thoughtful and creative poet and she sometimes confesses about her real life exp

"The Black Finger" - Angelina Grimke                          In “The Black Finger ” the author Angelina Grimke uses imagery to express her thoughts about nature and tree shaped finger as she questions their shapes but still admires them and call them beautiful.             “/I have just seen a beautiful thing/ slim and still/ Against a gold, gold sky, / A straight cypress/ Sensitive/ Exquisite, /. In these lines the author talks about a cypress tree being so beautiful and compares it to gold. “/A black finger/ Pointing upwards. /why, beautiful, still finger are /you black? / And why are you pointing /upwards? /”. Also in these lines she talks about the finger how it can face upwards like the tree and a beautiful creation although she questions the finger facing upwards.               Grimke doesn’t go into much details about anything in the poem as the poem is short and to the point. There is not a lot of rhyme and details in the poem but A black finger pointin

"Facing It" - Yusef Komunyakaa                                                 Yusef Komunyakaa in his poem ‘ Facing It ’ talks about his own journey and experiences of the the Vietnam war and its memories which was one of the most controversial war the US was involved in the history. First he reveals his ethnicity of being African American at the beginning of the poem where he says “/My black face fades/ hiding inside the black granite/”. He talks about his skin color and the war memorial through color similarities. The word choices such as his ‘Face fades’ and ‘hiding inside’ the granite that allows him to be recognized as such and be differ from the memorial vanishes.                         “/I said I wouldn’t/ dammit: No tears/ I am stone. I am flesh/”. Yusef confesses to himself that he is strong and wouldn’t be emotional after recalling his Vietnam war memories. These memories don’t recall new emotions for him, these memories make his realize about his

"In MInd" - Denise Levertov                                                                In “In Mind” by Denise Levertov, the speaker talks about two women being in his mind. One is right and ideal but she is not imaginative and the other one imaginative, thoughtful but she is mean and messy. So this shows us that our mind is very powerful and it isn’t always easy to make the right choices when presenting one’s self. We can’t have everything we want as sometimes we have to sacrifice one thing for another important one.                          Therefore, the speaker can’t decide who to choose from, because making decisions is not always easy. We have sacrifice one thing to get another important thing. Joan F. Hallisey’s comments(MAP) on Levertov’s poems that “…her poem demonstrates a strong blend of the mystical with a firm commitment to social issues, or in Levrtov’s own words, that artists must believe in the power of imagination and live with the door of one

"Rip Rap" - Gary Snyder                              In his poem ‘Riprap’ Gary Snyder creates existential meaning through the use of nature image. He uses imagery to express how everything is connected in nature in a poetic way. He finds comfort solidity in nature and he find it in a construction of a path through it. He expresses he would not appreciate the existing of nature modifying human agent because nature is the source of existential security.                  In ‘Riprap’ he connects his poem to the universe, to the mind, and see all things as connected: rock, body, mind, space, time /”in choice of place, set/ Before the body of the mind/ in space and time”/. These lines are about how we just cannot do everything. Sometimes we have go with the nature’s flow. We cannot force nature; nature forces us instead. / “lost ponies with dragging saddles”/. Snyder points out it is important to understand that loss is necessity in the natural world and part of the

"Barbie Doll"   - Marge Piercy                                                   Marge Piercy in his poem “Barbie Doll” talks about our society how people criticize others especially women. People tend to criticize others by their body appearance which no one has control of. /“This girl child was born as usual;  and presented dolls that did pee-pee;  and miniature GE stoves and irons;  and wee lipstick the color of cherry candy;  Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said;  you have a great big nose and fat legs/. In these lines the author refers that when a girl is born she is given typical toys and dolls and whatever goes along. As a girl grows up she will be criticized by people in the society for her looks and body appearance especially when she hits puberty, because this is the time she will start to change and meet new people every day. It is unfair and not right to criticize others. People should be caring for each others and make the society better.

"Harlem" Langston Hughes                               Langston Hughes in his poem “Harlem” talks about peoples dreams, how people stops dreaming and why it is very important for people to dream. He talks about what happens if people stop dreaming and have no ambition in life to achieve anything. People sometimes hold their dreams off and stop dreaming, so it is important for people to keep continue dreaming and not to stop ever again no matter what happens. 

"The Lie"                            Anne Waldman in her poem “The Lie” illustrates that everything in this world is illusion and nothing is what we think of them and how they are. Even Art, you can make it what you want it to be in your own eyes but other people might see it differently and have different views, so Anne tells us that it can be lie, because Art is just an illusion and not real. People can disregard lies in larger ideas for their own sake like the messages Art sends about people having different views on one thing.                 “The Lie” tells us way of getting the point of something without even saying it and depending on the good or the bad of the issue, art can be a good way to show the meaning that will be interpreted differently by everyone. “Her…poems are marred with flat writing and sophomoric conclusions about life, love, and art;”. Anne in her poems mainly focuses on life, love, and art as these lines proves that from biography of her by

"Into Death Bravely"                             In “Into Death Bravely” Jimmy Santiago Baca reports the winter like a knight with his strong imagery. The signal of the story is dark and fearful. In the poem he talks about self-discovering and shows us a side of it that isn’t very pretty. Life is always hard and never easy and we have to fight through whatever comes in our way.                        In “Into Death Bravely” Santiago talks about how winter is bad for farmers and poor people. It can destroy in many ways in a short period of time. Peoples dreams and lives get shuttered during that time and leave them empty handed. “Santiago was born in 1952 in Mexico City, abandoned by parents, lived with grandparents, then became an orphan. At age 21 lived on the streets, convicted of drug possession and sent jail for 6 years, 4 was isolating taught himself how to read and write which got him into poetry.” Santiago’s all the poems are dark and depressing which is connect