I’m writing about “The Drought” by Gary Soto because I have actually read some of Soto’s poems before and because I am a farmer’s wife and my financial stability is directly related to whether or not we have rain. Drought takes away life and in the last stanza when it is said, “And the young who left with a few seeds in each pocket, / Their belts tightened on the fifth notch of hunger—“ it is clear that those who had tried to stay the course and outlast the drought ended up leaving in a pitiful state of health. The last line about the belt notch is interesting because it is usually used to refer to over eating and needing to “let” one’s belt out a few notches to accommodate the excess food in one’s belly. I believe this is used here to make the decline in health more defining. The imagery is very interesting and very relatable. Everyone knows what a hat rack looks like. If anyone has been in a drought or even in a place where wind blows most of the year faster than 15mph, they know what birds have a heck of a time trying to fly and sometimes the baby birds are blown straight from their nests and die. When it is said, “But what continued were the wind that plucked the birds spineless”, I find that either it’s speaking of winds so terrifying that birds have lost the guts or spine to fly about, or literally the wind has battered the birds to a spineless state, death. A very interesting poem and even more so considering we were just in a severe drought.
May 03
Gwendolyn Brooks wrote "The
Vacant Lot". It is left to somewhat
of the imagination to interpret the poem.
It reminds me of gossip; you see an image or occurrence with your eyes
and then make assumptions without knowing what is going on with the
characters. The use of vocabulary such
as: "fat little form" and "squat
fat daughter" suggests that the narrator believes that these people aren't
"good" in their eyes and the poem is almost a tribute to these
"bad" people's house being gone.
I'm confused about why Mrs. Coley is bursting out of the basement
door?? The squat little daughter is
letting men come and go from the house when the man of the house is gone,
suggesting there is some form of sexual acts being committed, whether
prostitution, cheating, or benign I can't tell.
There may also be a racial part in this.
The poem distinctly states that the son-in-law is African. Is the narrator's view one of a racist, or is
Brooks merely adding this tid-bit of information?
May 01
Ted Hughes' "Crow's First
Lesson" reminds me a bit of superstition.
Many stories that I have heard tell that a crow is a soul's guide to the
afterlife and thus is associated with death and by some evil. The crow in this poem doesn't want to be evil
and is even ashamed to have let loose the things that it did from its
mouth. The things that come out, the
shark, the disease ridden mosquitoes, ect... are all bringers of death. It is also ironic that God is trying to teach
the crow about love and all that is created is evil. It is also interesting that each time
something more devastating it brought forth from the crow's mouth. It brings out the ideas in what some people
see in humanity even today. You can try
and teach things and people about love, but sometimes the product of that
effort bears rotten fruit. Overall, a
good poem and something to philosophically contemplate. :)
April 26
Phillip Larken wrote quite a bit
about religion and sin. "High
Windows" was very interesting and got a bit confusing in the last
stanza. I get that the poem is saying
that inhibition has gone out the window and that most people are doing as they
please and fulfilling all their wants and desires. He speaks of these things and relates them to
"paradise". I believe he hits
home though when he writes, "No God any more,..." (12). I am confused, like I said earlier, in the
last stanza. I find it interesting that
he calls the glass "comprehending" and says that beyond that glass is
deep endless blue air. I think that the
high window is high because humanity has fallen so far from grace and even just
a view of heaven and the salvation that is offered there have drifted from
sight. he says in line fifteen,
"And his lot will all go down the long slide". This is saying that those who have fulfilled
their wanton desires are on the path
that "[goes] down" and leads to hell and eternal damnation. Very interesting and of course, my
interpretation is based on a personal religiousness. Others may feel very differently about this
poem.
April 24
I thought "Skunk Hour"
by Robert Lowell would be a very interesting poem, but I chose instead to write
about "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop.
This poem reminds me of what I feel a lot of people have forgotten in
this age and that is to respect ones elders!!
It is also sad because the fish was caught this time without no fight at
all. The fish had given up on escaping
its fate, a fate it had escaped at least five other times. Why did the fish choose to give up this
time. The other fish lines and hooks
were strong and big, but it gave up for this particular fisherman. The fisherman realized though, that simply
catching this fish was a feat in itself and that the fish should be returned so
that some other fisherman may feel the rush of victory that this fisherman
did. Around line twenty-five I did get a
little confused as to what the writer was describing, was in the fish or the
blood and entrails or the scene of the boat.
It is all kind of mixed up in the whole mess together, but I realized when the fish was released it
was just describing how the fish appeared in that moment.
April 17
Dylan Thomas wrote a great poem
about not going out without a fight called, "Do Not Go Gentle into That
Good Night". The poem is full of
contradictions that lead one to believe that death seems inviting like a good
night, but the poem is telling its readers to fight to the end. "dark is right" and "blinding
sight" are two such contradictions.
If dark is right, then light is bad and light is the embodiment of
goodness. The dark though is speaking of
death, and death must be right but isn't, so "do not go gentle into that
good night". "blinding
sight" is mentioned with other lines that make it easier to understand:
Grave men,
near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes
could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage
against the dying of the light. (13-15)
The end of life blinded these
grave men, but even blind eyes can still "blaze" and put up fight to
be happy and alive. I really like this
poem because I see myself as a fighter for the most part. I fight to be happy and to keep those around
me happy and I fight to live the full life I've always wanted to. Good poem.
April 12
Shel Silverstein's "The
Perfect High" can be thought of in two ways, the quite literal drug-seeking
way, and the abstract never satisfied with life way. I worked at a prison for three years and so
the first way I looked at this was that of the literal. Drug addicts put their high above everything
else: themselves, their families, ect...
So when Baba Fats is threatened with death by the man seeking the
perfect high and tells the man a lie that would leave any normal man to believe
that they will never reach their perfect high without dying, the man gets
excited and gives Baba Fats a high five and leaves to kill a giant, swim in a
monster infested river of slime, and slay a witch to get the perfect high when
the man is already near his death bed.
It really is sad what drug addicts have convinced themselves of and what
lengths they will go to get what they want no matter the consequences.
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