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"...because only in that way can we know man in all his moods-- in the most beautiful thoughts of his heart, in his farthest reaches of imagination, in the tenderness of his love, in the nakedness and awe of his soul confronted with the terror and wonder of the Universe."

-Amy Lowell
Poetry is an art form that leaves a bad taste in many peoples' mouths- they believe that it's just a fluffy way to avoid what you're trying to say. This, in reality, is far from the truth. Words were made for communication and to describe the human experience, so poetry is just an extension of that.  As a poet, I sometimes find it difficult to translate my feelings into words in everyday conversations, but once I begin writing everything becomes clear.

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"This is how you hem a dress when you see the hem coming...

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"This is how you hem a dress when you see the hem coming...

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"...to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you're bent on becoming." Jamaica Kincaid takes us through this one-sided letter between a mother and a daughter. With age comes wisdom, so the mother in the story just wants what's best for her daughter, who is doesn't have the same experiences as her mother yet. She tries to communicaate useful things like "this is how to make a good medicine for a cold" and "wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap." She also conveys things more obscure, such as 'don't throw stones at blackbirds, because it might not be a blackbird at all' which I take to mean not to take everything at face value.

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"As the guests arrive at our son's party...

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"As the guests arrive at our son's party...

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"...they gather in the living room." We're immediately taken into this little world in Sharon Olds' "Rite of Passage." The 'guests' are six and seven year olds, that are referred to rather maturely throughout the entire piece. "...short men, men in first grade/ with smooth jaws and chins./ Hands in pockets, they stand around/ jockeying for place, small fights/ breaking out and calming." The smooth chins refer to the fact that they ARE so young. The sequence also describes the social expectations of masculinity; men are assumed to be more violent than women, even from and early age. Also, at that age, how old you are comes as a bragging right, letting everyone know ho much better than them you are.

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"like dead/ children in a chest I will carry/ with me when I marry." "Quineanera" illustrates the experience a young girl has to become a women. From the beginning of the poem, it's obvious that this is not a journey she wants to go on. As she matures, her body begins to go through changes, "Is the blood of saints and men in battle not beautiful?" and she understand that her family expects much more of her than she is able to give. The poem concludes in a way that leaves you feeling bad for the narrator, "I am wound like the guts of a clock,/ waiting for each hour to release me."

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"Victor was ashamed of himself. Whatever happened to the tribal ties, the sense of community? 

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"Victor was ashamed of himself. Whatever happened to the tribal ties, the sense of community? 

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"The only real thing he shared with anybody was a bottle and broken dreams. He owed Thomas something, anything." Sherman Alexie's This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona is full of vivid imagery which takes us along Victor and Thomas Builds-the-Fire's journey of self discovery and reconnection. Thomas uses his storytelling skills to communicate with the world around him.  "We are all given one thing by which our lives are measured, one determination. Mine are the stories which can change or not change the world. It doesn't matter which as long as I continue to tell the stories."

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"How do people come up with a date and time to take life from another man? Who made them God?" -Grant Wiggins

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"How do people come up with a date and time to take life from another man? Who made them God?" -Grant Wiggins

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This quote from "A Lesson Before Dying" hits me rather hard, in that it's such an obvious question? Sort of like, 'Who died and made you king?' The relationship between Grant and Jefferson has changed Grant's view on capital punishment. When he's first introduced, Grant is rather apathetic to Jefferson's situation but as the story progresses, we see his opinion shift to that of compassion and empathy. Grant's rage is partly fueled by the fact that it was white men deciding the ultimate date and time of a black man's death.

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"Then everybody's luck begins to run out. 

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"Then everybody's luck begins to run out. 

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"Lengel comes in [...] and is about to scuttle into the door marked MANGER behind which he hides all day when the girls touch his eye [...] He comes over and says, "Girls, this isn't the beach.""
"A+P" is a short story that follows a group of girls, but also a store clerk named Sammy, through a seemingly harmless situation. I think the phrasing which Updike uses is important to note. He says that Lengel 'hides' behind his office door all day, which indicates that his merely a figurehead. This sequence of events also leads to Sammy quitting his job due to the injustice he believes the girls were served. The girls believe that the way they're dressed is completely fine, which is the main point of contention.

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"I'd wake and hear the cold, splintering, breaking...

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"I'd wake and hear the cold, splintering, breaking...

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"...When the rooms were warm, he'd call,/ and slowly I would rise and dress,/ fearing the chronic angers of that house."
Robert Hayden paints a cold, distant picture for us in his poem "Those Winter Sundays." Firstly, winter is the coldest season, which contrasts with the warm rooms that the narrator wakes in; you could apply this to the relationship that the father and son may have. We are able to experience along with the son the sacrifices that the father makes in order to secure the  happiness and comfort of his child.

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"...the self-spoilers,/ the harmony-hushers,/ 'even if you are not ready for day/ it cannot always be night.'" This may be my favorite poem from the entire course. I find it so inspiring and enlightening, to the point where I read it as an affirmation. The point of this poem is to tell you that even though you may have bad days, that there will always be a better one in the future. You may not think you're ready to move past the people or experiences that have hurt you, but you're so much stronger than you think, and you can.

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"She looked out the window her whole life...

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"She looked out the window her whole life...

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"...the way so many woman sat their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best with what she got or was she sorry because she couldn't be all the things she wanted to be." Sandra Cisneros illustrates the deep sadness that lives within Esperanza. Though she inherited her name from her great-grandmother, she hopes she does not inherit the turmoil and experiences those before her did. This fear slowly turns into apathy as she begins to experience the struggles and understand how they effect the end result.

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"When I'm up I don't kill myself because...

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"When I'm up I don't kill myself because...

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"...holy shit there's so much left to do! When I'm down I don't kill myself because then the sadness would be over, and the sadness is my old paint under the new. The sadness is this house fire or the broken shoulder: I'd still be me without it but I'd be so boring."
As a poet, I felt inclined to share with you my favorite, and also my muse. I often relate to his poetry because it's so raw. He finds a way to infuse humor with dramatically stigmatized subjects, such as suicide and metal illness, to share this unique experience in a way that's relatable to us all.

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"With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt."
Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz" embodies the struggle of a boy wanting to love his rather, regardless of the abuse he may face. '..palms caked [...] with dirt' implies that he has a manual labored job, and is most likely a rough-and-tumble man. The poem begins with a description 'the whiskey on [his] breath' which to me, has a negative connotation. More negative phrasing follows later in the poem  'At every step you missed/ my right ear scraped a buckle' which could be seen as an accident.
This poem has a lot of negative signal phrases that communicates the strained relationship that this father and son have.