Green Chile

Green Chile by Jimmy Santiago Baca is a poem contrasting red and green chile in the manner of personal preference. In the beginning, he states his own preference of red chile. He describes them as something that has a "historical grandeur" they create an "air of festive welcome" and likens them to "yellowing, crisp, rasping tongues of old men". The first few lines are then followed by the personal preference of his grandmother(and also of those in New Mexico), the green chile. Now, the poet firstly described the red chile as historical but when it comes to the green chile the description differs. The green chile is hot, spicy, and is compared to a "well-dressed gentlemen", who I envision as younger than the historical grandeur of the red chile. The poet narrates his grandmother's actions, she prepares the green chile for him as he is analyzing her relationship with it. The relationship is described as youthful, such as "fondling", caressing the green chile "with lust on her hot mouth". The poet then mentions that the grandmother sacrifices to feed him. This brings the entire poem together. A child worshiping the old grand historical chile while the old celebrate the youthful green chile, but the main point is that elders sacrifice their youth so that the young may be the ones who benefit from the youthful. Which is why I think the poet mentions that green chile are picked by "sunburned" men and why they are sold every where in New Mexico. This act of keeping the youth alive and sacrificing it all together to create a cycle of love and tradition.

Somebody Blew Up America

This week I read, Somebody Blew Up America by Amiri Baraka. It was the longest poem I read for poetry class. On top of reading it, I also watched a clip on Youtube; Amiri Baraka read his poem while Rob Brown played the saxophone. I enjoyed both the poem and the performance. The poem is flowing with references to terrorism. Actually every line questions who the real terrorist is in the modern era while citing terrorist actions from the past. The past being the history of America that involve both, evil deeds and terroristic fear that helped bring about an ideology.   He compares the evil deeds to those who "blew up" America and in many cases, makes them appear much worse, even related. The poem names a bunch of evil deeds but does not mention directly who the evil doer is. I find the entire poem and it's question genius.

The Bean Eaters

This week I read the poem, The Bean Eaters by Gwendolyn Brooks. With, the care that I took, the words overlooked, I realized how it parallels the pain in the lives of the old grandparents, I know, who've died. The little poem is both amazing and heartbreaking. So true it takes breath from me. The imagery and symbols, relate to life, of old people. A pair, set in an impoverished kinda home with creaking wood, a place no one should live alone, let alone live as two, this home with creaking wood, belonged to, "Two who are Mostly Good."(The Bean Eaters, Gwendolyn Brooks) A pair, living alone without others in this home, children, if any, possibly grown, moved out, spread out and roamed. This forgotten couple, Mostly Good, plenty of room, plenty of room for food, when they are eating beans. The meaning, that I got, was that this couple was poor, alone with a creaking floor with chores that become second nature. Moving about, folding clothes, to keep themselves aglow. No one around, they've lived their days and have grown old eating just beans. The heartbreaking truth for so many pairs of grandparents that I knew, lived this fate as I watched their children, also old, leave them to fade alone at home with chipped paint and wood.
The poem, explains poverty, loneliness, and gives a glimpse to others of the hard life people may have that are affected by society, government, politics, growing old and growing up.

Blackberry Eating

The poem Blackberry Eating, by Galway Kinnel, is a very simple but deep poem. The poem in a literal translation is about the eating of overripe, cold, black berries in September. The important point of the poem is in the detail of the words and actions.The little blackberries are eaten for breakfast, and are protected by the little prickly stalks. I felt as if the stalks were guarding their secret of making tasty blackberries, almost like Nature herself nurtures and protects her recipes. The poet eats them and splurges their juicy ripe goodness when they are in his mouth and on his tongue. The blackberries seem as if they are willing to be eaten, or maybe, Nature trusts the poet enough to allow him a taste for breakfast. I think the poem deals with relationship with nature, morals, and even mortality. The nature is defined as the relationship with the blackberries, the morality in the poem is how the poet interacts, almost intimately, with the blackberries, and the mortality is the end the blackberries meet when eaten, only for them to grow back and become overripe to continue the cycle.

Hay for the Horses

The poem, Hay for the Horses written by Gary Snyder is about the farm life and how life does not turn out how we wish it would. I usually hear my pops(father) complain about his job. He is a construction worker that has been hit hard by bad luck in his field. He explains about his time going to college and how he could've been a lawyer. Never did he think he'd be a construction worker, rigging, cutting, or pointing on buildings so high up that you become skeptical of how much safety a harness can provide. Getting back to Hay for the Horses, there is a sense of hard work and vigor. In the end of the poem, the main character states he is 68 years old and he never thought he'd remain doing the work he has been doing for 51 years. I read to see if I could find how the main character felt about doing the work for so long. I don't think their is a specific way that is made clear in the poem. Neither good or bad. The main character neither hates it or loves it. The work just is.

Psalm IV

The word psalms means, "song sung to a harp". I looked at the titles of many poems written by Allen Ginsberg. The poem entitled "Psalm IV" jumped out at me. The title alone stirred my interest because I attributed it to something not only religious but sacred, perhaps personal. I read the poem through a few times... a lot of times actually. I even read a few other poems by Allen Ginsberg to see if there was any easier ones to interpret. To my surprise I felt all of them were long and difficult. So, I came back to "Psalm IV" and began to play with an idea. Perhaps the poem is about God. I thought on it and agreed with myself imediately. This has to be one of the meanings of this poem, especially when the piece itself is entitled psalm four. I keep feeling that this poem is about desire, especially the desire for God. I then looked for a critique of the work and found, while I wasn't off, I wasn't very on point. There are things in this poem that need a lot of research to be done to link every line together and understand it. There are references to other works or myths in the poem. With or without know;edge of the references, the poem is very esoteric. However, I think I like it. The desire for God is an interesting subject especially for poetry.

The Gift

For my poetry class this week I read the poem, "The Gift" by Li-Young Lee. It mentions the relationship between child and father. The author writes about a time his father removed a splinter from his hand. The description is pretty intimate on an emotional, mental, level. The poem reminds me of both my grandfather and father. Actually, I have had many splinters and teeth removed by them. The same method in the poem, is the exact same method they would use on me. Both of them would tell stories, or ask me questions to answers. My grandfather would sing in Spanish or recite small poems and jokes. These little things they did would help me deal with the pain. Often, I'd still have tears in my eyes, while they laughed to themselves holding a tooth or splinter, laughing because it was removed, yet I managed to not notice. The author writes about how these little memories, for him, have made him grow up. He states how he used the same technique with his wife. I think this is the gift the poem is titled after, the gift of being helpful, strong, gentle, caring, and how to be a man, which is something people believe is usually taught by the father.

Facing It

This week for my poetry class, I decided to read "Facing It" by Yusef Komunyakaa. Hmm... what to say? I don't know if I understand it on any level deeper than I already do. I think it is about war. Specifically, as is hinted at in the poem, the Vietnam War. From start to finish I feel this sense of hardship. I feel as though the author is taking me through his feelings, fears, words, and experience in sequence from start to finish. The title, "Facing It", begins to make sense when you read the poem through. I think the poem is speaking of hardship and how one should always face them.

The Fish

Initially, and honestly, Elizabeth Bishop's poem "The Fish", did not interest me in class. Only until it was being systematically dissected by my peers and Professor did I understand how great I am at underestimating a poets ability to create complex beauty out of simplicity. The simplicity being a fish, neither struggling for survival nor interested in the captor who so deeply described his appearance, both inside and out. I actually thought the poem was written by a previous student of the Professor... I don't care much for seeing the works of peers; however, when it turned out to be an authentic poets work I focused more respectfully and read the poem a few times. Reading it more than once, I think, for any poem, means that said poem is a good piece of work. The more you read over a poem the more you seem to discover. Discovery is most important in Literature and Poetry; of course to my opinion. I think discovery in anything feeds, fuels and births curiosity and information. That same curiosity the author had in her poem that caused her to observe, rather eloquently, a fish she had caught, is the very curiosity that saturates in the words and stains others, linking both our curiosity and discoveries to one another. In the poem, entitled "The Fish", I felt intrigued, not by the narrative, but more curiously, the fish. The fish was given a character, so much so, the entire poem came to life through just the mention of him, in great detail I will add. The detail was also introduced to the reader warmly. The words used to describe the magnificent fish felt homely, gently, subtle, comfortable. After all, he was just a fish with more color and complexity than a fish cares to be. In the end, the author released the elegant, dignified, but indifferent captured fish.