"The Hitchhikers" by Diane Wakoski

"The Hitchhikers" by Diane Wakoski is a poem about a the speaker trying 2 find a special hitchhiker that she pick up before 2 years ago and while searching for the lost hitchhiker she realize she had a strong connection and bond with this person. Also we see her driving in her car all over to different places and comes across the unique tree with berries and starts reflecting on her road to soul search and finding herself. I notice that she have try to harm herself before from these lines:
 "In my car, is an altar, sacrificial stone and knife,
the tears of blame and understanding,
and blood; all the blood my body has lost"
Also other lines that reflect on my process and opinon on this poem are:
And they remind me
that I drive across country often, looking for your face
in each car I pass,
or which passes me, knowing you would not hitchhike, either,
thinking of the two years I spent with you,
reliving them over and over,
To conclude, the person in the poem finally realize and come to grisp that the hitchhickers you "would not want to travel with me.
You would not want to travel with me" she stated and have giving up hope on her search for more or the same hitchhiker.

by Joy Harjo

Joy Harjo poem "Perhaps the World Ends Here" is written in free verse and enrich with a lot of metaphors that relates to living, home life, and relationships in this poem.

"The world begins at a kitchen table"
Here in this line I learned that the kitchen is the focuses point and stand for life, everyone gathers around here, and everything takes place around the table life lessons, rise children into adults, arguments, discussions, etc.......We see this through out the poem from these lines:

 

"It is here that children are given instructions on what it means to be human. We make men at it, we make women.

At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts of lovers.

Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms around our children. They laugh with us at our poor falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back together once again at the table.

This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella in the sun.

Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place to hide in the shadow of terror. A place to celebrate the terrible victory"

 

Finally, I see the kitchen table as true life as everyone gathers around and see why "Perhaps the World Ends Here" because everything takes place here and ends there whether good or bad as the result. To conclude what you take away from the table and apply to life lessons in today's world you truely see life begins and ends here.

"Political Poem" by Amiri Baraka

Amiri Baraka poem title "Political Poem" is a a free verse poem written and is broken down into 3 stazans. The symbol represented in this poem is "Luxury". In lines 1-7 stated:

Luxury, then, is a way of

being ignorant, comfortably

An approach to the open market

of least information. Where theories   

can thrive, under heavy tarpaulins   

without being cracked by ideas.

Amiri Baraka is telling us here that luxury has resulted in us not paying attention whats going around in the world we are lacking knowledge of everyday events and we have become comfortable in this process. Instead we should want to find out this information so we can use it. Finally, Baraka said "heavy tarpaulins without being cracked by ideas" a tarpaulins is a large sheet of strong, flexible, water-resistant material. So he is trying to say we are caught up in our luxury life that we resistant not to change our ways and ideas because we protected by the tarpaulins.

Mother to Son by Langston Hughes

The poem "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes is written in free verse. In the begin of the poem we can notice a metaphor from line 2:
"Life for me ain't been no crystal stair"
Langston Hughes in line 2 is showing here life isn't that transparent, clear, and easy going as you think. Their are obstacles, struggles, and roadblocks ahead of you that will challenge to overcome and not give up. Additionally, these obstacles, struggles, roadblocks in her life are represented in this poem as:
"It’s had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare"

Finally, from those line above which are lines 3-7 can be understood as splinters and tacks are objects that poke away at you or preek you once you step on them its hard to pull or get them out of your life once stuck in you. Meanwhile, the boards torn up meant there are no boundries or walls protecting you or stoping you from overcoming these roadblocks in your life and no carpert on the floor-bare shown to me no one person path is laid out or set forward for them to walk no crystal stair. To sum up briefly the stairs means steps you must take in life to climb-up. Each one step should meet as a challeneges and try your best to overcome these obstacles in your life or way, because ever step up the stairs aren't easy to walk up, you never know what faces you once you make to another step ahead of you in life.

Barbie Doll By Marge Piercy

In reading the poem Barbie Doll By Marge Piercy we come across the struggle our society faces on a whole on woman young, adults, teens, and little girls is to aspire to be like a barbie doll. We are to blame like in line 1-2 its stated:

"This girlchild was born as usual
and presented dolls"


So we are to blame for the girls failing to live up to be a barbie doll but also not explaining to them that barbie is really plastic and fake. meanwhile tell them its doesn't matter how you look on the outside your true beauty is judge on what's on the inside and looks can only get you so far ahead in life. Finally as you read and see lines from the poem which stated:


Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: You have a great big nose and fat legs.


To conclude when you have come in touch with your true beauty those words people say to you or about you will not hurt you no more or feel the need to please society as a whole instead live for yourself and enjoy life  because God made us all different shapes, sizes, height, nationality etc...and if we all like a barbie doll we all be fake a copy not original at all just duplicates of each other.

I Am Waiting by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti begins with these lines:

"I am waiting for my case to come up   

and I am waiting

for a rebirth of wonder

and I am waiting for someone

to really discover America

and wail

and I am waiting   

for the discovery

of a new symbolic western frontier" 

I believe these lines and in this poem he is trying to say he is really waiting for America to really rediscover its self as a whole again. Meaning that we need to discover our natural resource and use them to support our true "American Glory" like our passed americans instead of relaying on other countries for theirs. I think he feels this way because we was once a proud country that stood on its on and had moral values. But now in our society we have all been corrupted even in our govenment we  see our leaders mess use of there own power. Finally, Lawrence is waiting for a second coming which meant to me we the people of the RED, WHITE, BLUE and Stars should make a change and restore our country values and take back our government and live together in harmony and start to regrow our natural resources and rely on them and invent new ideas and inventions like we use to do instead of rely on other countries and get more in touch with our inner self and take back our religious beliefs and instill them.

A Supermarket in California: By Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg poem title A Supermarket in California  a very unique poem. This poem doesn't fellow a normal or traditional poetry form, meaning there is no stanza or rhyme scheme. As a result the poem does demonstrate an enrich amount of imagery and emotional effect on you.

In the opening line of the poem we meet a person name Walt Whitman. Whitman is hungry and fatigue, so he proceed to walk into a neon fruit market.(Ginsberg 3-5) Inside the fruit market Whitman said he "shopping for images". I believe he meant by this that he is really looking for familiar faces to come across. But instead in lines 6-8 which stated:

Whole families
shopping at night!  Aisles full of husbands!  Wives in the
avocados, babies in the tomatoes!--and you, Garcia Lorca, what
were you doing down by the watermelons?
 Its here we see the supermarket is crowed at night and Whitman does end up see a familiar face named Garica Lorca. After doing sum digging I learn that Garica Lorca is also a famous latin poet.

Finally, we can determine Walt Whitman character and some what sexuality from these lines:

childless, lonely old grubber,
poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery
boys.

To conclude the poem ends with these lines:
Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love
past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?
Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher,
what America did you have when Charon quit poling his ferry and
you got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boat
disappear on the black waters of Lethe?

I believe these lines meant that his soul or spirit is lose within himself and is at a cross road in his life between life and death or forgetting who he really is in the world.
Finally, I feel this way because in my study in Greek Mythology Charon was the ferryman who carried the dead into the underworld and Lethe was a different river in the underworld, which caused you to forget if you drank its waters. I end with this or can it be just a normal night out at a local supermarket? I gladly appericate everyone input!

Late February By Ted Kosser

In this poem I felt like the picture painted by Ted Kosser through his words are exactly how late February feels to me in NewYork. I point to the begin with his words:

The first warm day,   

and by mid-afternoon   

the snow is no more   

than a washing

strewn over the yards,

the bedding rolled in knots   

and leaking water,   

the white shirts lying   

under the evergreens

 

Here he is describing the process of the snow melting mid-afternoon and showing the effects the snow have on the cement grounds and evergreens meaning grass and plants. It is here i see how the poem shown its true effect on the first warm day of late february. Also I would point to the line that said:

 

But such a spring is brief;   

by five o’clock

the chill of sundown

 

this is true as we all wintess this year and all as young kids growing up in New York City. Meanwhile we do begin to notice the change at 5 o'clock as the sun begins to slowly go away wether your playing outside as a child or leaving work as a adult we feel the warm in the afternoon disappear to cold chills by 5 o'clock. 

To conclude Ted Kosser did a great job with his words in this poem as she paints a beautiful time of season and makes it feel like its late February in NYC that he is describing to me.

 

 

Sex Without Love by Sharon Olds

Sharon Olds' poem title Sex without Love posed a very powerful question to our society as a whole. This question was from Line 1 of the poem " How do they do it, the ones who make love without love?
My favorite lines from her are below and answer her own question she stated to us scholars:

They do not
mistake the lover for their own pleasure,
they are like great runners: they know they are alone
with the road surface, the cold, the wind,
the fit of their shoes, their over-all cardio-
vascular health--just factors, like the partner
in the bed, and not the truth, which is the
single body alone in the universe
against its own best time.

These lines meant to me that no matter what happens through out time one true soul and body and mind knows when they have come across true love. Meaning one have engage in real love on a spiritual, passion, and a emotional level with another person and no matter what happpens through out time you two won't forget that moment in time. Finally, you can't reach this point onto you become one with your mind, body, soul, and self. Meaning you respect your body as your temple and not having meaning less sex with someone you not connected. Its only onto you realize this that you can truely love with love and enjoy your moment with that special one in time.

The Red Wheelbarrow by W.C. William

After reading the poem The Red Wheelbarrow by W.C. William, I wonder how a simple short-worded poem is considered poetry.  It is not until I read it once again that I was able to comprehend the essence to the poem and see the true beauty of it.
I realized The Red Wheelbarrow is a poem of imagery and each line play off each other.    The imagery depicted are in the description of the colors used in the poem such as “red” for the wheelbarrow; the “glazed” with the rain water; and the “white” chicken.  The image gives a sense of simplicity.  You can consider the objects in the poem, and say that wheelbarrow and the chicken are useful everyday resources.  A county living farmer may view the wheelbarrow, chicken, and rain as a means for survival and a source of income.  Whereas a printer my view them as natural object that transformed/transcend into pure beauty. The redness of the wheelbarrow and the whiteness of the chicken give a soothing contrast of those colors when next to each other. 
Lastly, the form of the poem is interesting; usually the lines in poetry are measured in syllables, but here the lines are measured instead in words. Each stanza has one line with three words and one line with one word. But the three-word lines do not all have the same meter - half have three syllables and half have four.

The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop

In reading the poem "The Fish" I notice how well the author Elizabeth Bishop paints a vivid picture through words and by using the many elements of poetry. It's in this poem I see how well she draw the relationship between the fisherman and the fish. She captures this by showing their trials and tribulations and the obstacles overcome in life, to make it to this point of time that their path cross one another.  The fish who wears his obstacle with the five hooks left in his wrinkly lips and the fisherman seeking to catch the "tremedous" fish to claim his glory.

The poem reminds us of the many stages of life we experience similar obstacles and the journeys we travel to overcome them. Like the Fish, we to can become hook and and caught up in society with the superficial-materialistic things that takes us away from celebrating our accomplishments or just simply enjoying the true beauty of life and nature as a whole. If we take the time, then we will see that true beauty comes from with in and not whats on the outside. If you get thrown a hook in life or caught by one trying to derail you from the true path in life, as long as you have the strenght to keep fighting for what you believe and dream in no one can reel you in like the Fish and stop you dead in your path from reaching your rainbow in life or that moment in life you breathe the accomplishment.

In conclusion, one can say that this poem can also apply to the concept of Man verse Nature or the opposite.  Would like to hear from my scholar classmates. Please post your commentaries on this poem, I appreciate it and look forward to a fun and educationally semester with all of you!  Thanks.