Thursday, April 14, 2011

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.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

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!

Thursday, March 31, 2011

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.
 
 

Thursday, March 24, 2011

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.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

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.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

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.