The Ring

The poem "The Ring" by Diane Wakoski is about a failed marriage. The narrator talks about "the ring" which she carries on her keychain which is a big ring itself. That keychain though is made of bronze where as her wedding ring is gold. On the keychain the women keeps all her keys and her wedding ring on it.

She calls it a "relic" something that was "a symbol of sharing" but is no longer that because she is divorced and her ex has moved on to "oother wives". The ring is a reminder of the past that she doesnt seem to want to let go of. And it doesnt seem to be something that she is keeping to help her learn from her mistakes. Instead it is taunting her, reminding her what she used to have and be that she has lost and will never get back.

She is damaging herself by holding onto this reminder, this ring. It's keeping her down and from moving on and living, it's holding her back.

Perhaps the World Ends Here

The poem "Perhaps the World Ends Here" by Joy Harjo is centered on the theme of family and life. The opening sentence states "The world begins at a kitchen table.". The poem continues on to describe everything that gets done there and the people it brings together.

Harjo seems to be saying that the "kitchen table" is the common factor in the things we do that bring people together. For most families and in most homes, people get together and share there thoughts, ideas and daily occurrences during mealtime at the table. Its when everyone gets together and just talks and shares themselves. Its a way people stay connected.

This is were people go to for food, for completing tasks, for talking and for many other things. Its were children are taught manners. Were fights occur and were stories are told and made. Its the beginning of everything and the end of everything.

There It Is

The poem "There It Is" by Jayne Cortez is short, simple and straightforward. In this poem Cortez is making a point. She is saying here it is and what will happen if something isn't done.

"And if we don't fight

if we don't resist

if we don't organize and unify and

get the power to control our own lives."

Cortez is making it clear that you have to stand up for yourself no matter what. You can't sit back and just let people or anything else take advantage of you and put you down. You control your thoughts and actions and you need to be the one in charge of your life.

"Then we will wear

the exaggerated look of captivity

the stylized look of submission

the bizarre look of suicide

the dehumanized look of fear

and the decomposed look of repression

forever and ever and ever

And there it is "

In the last part of her poem Cortez is saying what will happen if you don't take charge, if you sit back in fear and uncertainty. Our faces will show the outcome when we don't try. Our expressions will be signs of "captivity", "submission", "suicide", "fear" and "repression". Meaning that we will not be our true selves we will be belittled versions of who we once were. For once you are down and beaten it is hard to get back up and fight.

Democracy

The poem Democracy by Langston Hughes is about the lack of equality and freedom African Americans have. Langston wrote "Democracy" in 1949, during the Jim Crow Era. During that era African Americans had even less freedom and even more violence and restrictions directed towards them due to the Jim Crow laws. Segregation was everywhere. Everything was separate, from schools and stores to restaurants and water fountains.




"I have as much right
As the other fellow has
To stand
On my two feet
And own the land.

I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I'm dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow's bread."



In this part of the poem Langston is basically saying that all this racial prejudice is uncalled for, he has all the right to be free and own land just as any one else. Langston says he's tried of waiting for things to change and being told that it will come when it comes. He wants a change and he wants it now. He wants to be free just as everyone else is. We're all humans but not all are treated as such.

Barbie Doll

"Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy is my favorite poem I've read so far in this class. In this poem Piercy shows us the patriarchal and societal ideals of what women should aspire to by like and look like. And how girls are taught at any early age and are continually pushed into "barbie" molds throughout their lives. Through TV shows, magazines, runway models, peer pressure and teasing young girls are going to extreme lengths to achieve "perfection" or at least what society has deemed as so. Young girls are impressionable and because of many factors like the media, a lot of girls don't grow up loving themselves. Instead they end up with low self-esteem and wanting to change their bodies. More often then not they use dangerous methods to achieve their goals.

"She was healthy, tested intelligent,
possessed strong arms and back,
abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.
She went to and fro apologizing.
Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs."

Here Piercy is trying to show that woman are only seen and valued for their pyhsical apperance and that other qualities dont matter if your not "pretty". Girls are put under to much pressure by society to achieve "barbie doll perfection" that they'll do anything to get it even if it endangers their lives. It's espically hard for girls to have good self-esteem when there is so much teasing and bullying in schools espically by catty insecure girls who make themselves feel better by putting others down.

The Bath

The Bath by Gary Snyder is a relatively long poem. The poem itself on the surface is about a family bathing together. They seem to be in a sauna, the bathtub is said to contain hot water. Its a couple and their children but only one washed with them. This line from the poem gives a detailed description and adds in nice imagery to the poem-

"Sweating and panting in the stove-steam hot-stone

cedar-planking wooden bucket water-splashing

kerosene lantern-flicker wind-in-the-pines-out

sierra forest ridges night—"

Its centered on a father- Gary, a mother- Masa, and two children- Kai and Gen. Deeper into the poem its meaning is about a man discovering that his family, their bodies are one. He says- "Is this our body?". He makes this statement/question twice in the beginning of the poem and as it continues it transforms into the following lines- "this our body" & "this is our body". At the beginning the narrator is questioning it but as the poem grows he stops questioning it and he says it with meaning and power. It is no longer a question but a statement of truth.

Song

After choosing Allen Ginsberg for this weeks blog I looked over and read through his poems. For the most part they were all very long and a bit difficult to understand and analyze. After a bit of searching I came upon his poem "Song". It is much shorter than some of the others, but Ginsberg's work still seems hard to analyze and difficult to fully understand. However I went with "Song" I tried to dissect and analyze it in pieces and to me it seems to be generally and foremost about love.

In the first stanza it seems to be saying that yes solitude, and dissatisfaction is a heavy burden to hold but so is love. "The weight of the world is love", that means that the world is made up of love and love is a difficult thing to do, for some its easier then for others. True love is opening your heart and letting yourself be completely vulnerable. Most people want love, they want someone there for them to help them through the bad times. We rely so much on the love of others and the support of others, we don't always do things to our full potential. "We carry" this huge want of love, we search for it, go out of our way for it sometimes.

"In dreams 
it touches 
the body, 
in thought 
constructs 
a miracle, 
in imagination 
anguishes 
till born 
in human-- 
looks out of the heart 
burning with purity-- 
for the burden of life 
is love"

Its saying here that we dream about it, think about it and imagine it and we feel it, we want it, we crave and long for it. Love is one of the hardest aspects of life. Some long so much for it, some it comes quickly to, others not. But it's love that causes so much pain. When people truly care and love they are opening themselves up for the possibility of worlds of pain.