#aplit20livingpoet

[unlikekrystal]

“Immigrant Haibun” Ocean Vuong

https://www.google.com/amp/s/genius.com/amp/Ocean-vuong-immigrant-haibun-annotated

Continuing through the book, I began to take notice of the form, word choice, themes in each poem. I began to anticipate surprise. There are so many turns in this book; surprise is one of the only things that can be anticipated. One of the first big jolts that I encountered from Night Sky With Exit Wounds (formally) was the poem “Immigrant Haibun.” The poet extends his lines across the page and writes in big prose blocks. It was not a form that I first expected. Here is an excerpt of Ocean playing with prose in “Immigrant Haibun”:

“Then, as if breathing, the sea swelled beneath us. If you must know anything,/know that the hardest task is to live only once. That a woman on a sinking//ship becomes a life raft— no matter how soft her skin…”

As a poet, Ocean shifts into prose and out of prose. He writes in couplets and creates his own forms. The form of the poems are so constantly and originally inventive. Ocean even created his own rules for the section breaks in this book too. In the lines above, and throughout the book, is full of intelligence and versatility. Vuong’s poems, written with intelligence and tenderness, offer new spaces for becoming, where the self questions its borders, remakes itself at the threshold of language.

I thought this picture related to Vuong’s poem because I noticed a theme in water and nature and every time he mentioned the ocean—or something water related, it’s described as violent or angry. So I thought it was the good idea to reanimate that reiteration of the sea.

#aplit20livingpoet

[rachhamilton]

Cheating

In Newport I Watch My Father Lay His Cheak to a Beached Dolphin’s Wet Back by Ocean Vuong

I chose this poet because he was a poet that my poet, Chelsea Dingman, uses as a model and as inspiration for her own poetry. I was drawn in by this poem because of the unique style its written in, it switches back and forth in each line and because there is no stanzas that separate it. The choice of using this design allows the author to flow from one topic to another without breaking or stopping. Another interesting choice the author made is that the title is not a distinct word or phrase, its more part of the poem. He is able to incorporate a lot of different ideas including family and war, but never really switching to the other, he just flows between the two.

#aplit20livingpoet

[preeeeethi]

“Cleaning Out Your Apartment” - Elizabeth Alexander

“I keep your wicker sewing kit,

your balsa cufflink box. There’s

only my framed photograph to say,

you were my grandfather.”

Alexander keeps her late grandfather’s wicker sewing kit and balsa cufflink box to remember him by. Similarly, Alexander’s grandfather kept Alexander’s photograph to remember Alexander by when he was alive.

In these following lines, Alexander makes many references to flowers:

“Outside, flowers everywhere,

the bus stop, santería shop.

Red and blue, violet lavender.

Impatiens, impermanent, swarm.”

Flowers are often associated with funerals, which implies that Alexander’s grandfather had passed. Alexander also describes the flowers as impermanent. While alive and blooming, flowers bring people joy, but they unfortunately don’t last and die at some point. Similarly, people are also impermanent. We enjoy the company of our friends and loved ones until they must leave us.

There is one shift in this poem between the third stanza and the fourth stanza. Alexander describes all of the items in her grandfather’s apartment in the first three stanzas. Then, she switches to observations she finds of flowers outside.

The following picture is of one of the types of flowers mentioned in the poem, delphiniums.

(From https://www.ftd.com/blog/share/delphinium-meaning-and-symbolism)

#aplit20livingpoet

[laurengrube]

Poetry Blog #5

“The Type” by Sarah Kay

This poem really taking control of personal appearance and identity. Sarah Kay begins by connecting the meaning to today’s society when she talks about how to be a woman. She starts the poem by discussing how women can grow up to be looked at, touched, held, and loved. THe rhythm of her poem keeps the audience on the edge waiting. Her words are found to be more insightful rather than predictable. She continuously has this conversation about how men view women and how women are changing how they look just to please the eyes of someone else. I agree that women are doing this because I tend to see it on a daily basis, but I disagree with the women who think its a good idea. No one she feel the need to change their identity to get loved by a guy. Women should be viewed as the real human they are instead of molding themselves into what men want. In the 2nd stanza Sarah uses the words “hands”, “windows”, and “mirrors” to provide a more general idea of how women see themselves. She uses “hands” to represent building/molding into a new person, “windows” to show an unclear passage to what people think she really is, and “mirrors” to actually show a reflection of what she’s not instead of looking at who she is. Towards the end of the poem, I noticed that Sarah uses transitions from what others do to how we act. She uses the ocean and puddles as a metaphor.

#aplit20livingpoet

[briacampbell3]

Mentor Poet Post #7: “it began right here” -Danez Smith

From the jump this poem was very hard for me to understand. With most of Smith’s writing it’s fairly easy for me to make out a general consensus of what he’s trying to get at but I couldn’t really do that right off the bat with this poem. However, when I got to the last line of the poem something clicked. I thought that maybe he was trying to talk about police brutality but I thought that didn’t fit this piece right, but then after finding out that in some of his writing Smith wrote about an HIV diagnosis I was almost 100% that he could be talking about his HIV diagnosis. Especially when I went back to the title talking about where it all began and then the line where he says “the devils sleeps in my eyes, my tongue, my dick, my liver, my heart. everywhere blood is he sleeps.” And HIV is a disease in the blood. So, I began to look at the poem in a different light. Even when Smith goes on to talk about “it” not being a death sentence like it used to be, and dieing in the blood cell. It only convinced me more that Smith was opening up about this diagnosis. Which brought me to wanting to discuss the diction of this poem. Once I understood the meaning of this poem I thouroghly enjoyed it because of how Smith presented the issue by never explicitly saying “HIV isn’t a death sentence,” or “HIV lives in my blood,” because it promoted so much thinking within me before I was able to come to this conclusion. Ultimately, I would say in my opinion this is one of the best poems in this book by Smith because the past ones of I’ve read I’ve come to some ball park of a conclusion within seconds of reading, however with this poem I had to read and re-read, and even go to an outside source to be able to come to a conclusion and talk about the writing. I connected this picture to the poem because Smith talks about learning to become the space he needed and becoming the sun and not a light. So I thought that a candle would be representative of that because even a small candle can make a dark place light so slowly smith evolved into being more than light by occupying the space around him. (405)

#aplit20livingpoet

[heblamesme]

This poem is very direct. The title doesn’t need much interpretation because it is what it says. As I read the first stanza of the poem I immediately thought about “Mirrors” by Slyvia Plath. In the the poem, she refers to the mirror as a “little god” and in this poem Francisco refers to his depression as a jealous god. These techinques are identified as metaphors. His use of metaphors is great throughout the poem. This poem gave me a diary type vibe because he uses “I want to say” serval times as a transition to connect the poem entirely. This goes back to the title. When people ask him how he’s doing he wants to say these things which are the truth but instead he tell them lies which is admited at the end of the poem. His breaks within in the text make your mind wonder whether it’s there to create rhythm or not. Also, He lacks usage of commas which also bring up the thought of rhythm. Fransico makes note that “sadness is the only clean shirt he has left” and that his washing machine has been broken for some months, giving us a more clear perspective of his feelings and the duration of them. He is not himself and he’s struggling to get up everyday. He doesn’t want anyone to know so he pretends he’s okay. Which is basically the message of this photo:

He acts as is he is a pumpkin and carves this image of himself so that others can believe it’s true/real. Which makes me think how opposite both poems are because the woman in mirrors has literally brainwashed herself to think her reflection is who she is and he is forcing others to see a different image although he know what the real image of himself looks like. I’ve have put fake smiles on my face plenty of times because the things that I was going through weren’t easy to talk about and I felt no one would understand or bottom line that I just didn’t want anyone to know my business. Sometimes the things we decided to do can either make or break us. It’s not good to pretend like everything is okay all the time but also it’s not good to persuade our selves to think the worst because we’re insecure.

(391)

#aplit20livingpoet

[ranaaqrawi]

My Mentor Poet- Zeina Hashem Beck

After looking at the list of poets multiple times, there was only one name on that list that really stood out to me and it was “Zeina Hashem Beck”. I think what really grabbed my attention was the Arabic origin of her name and at the same time I was really curious to find out what she chose to write about (whether it was beauty/love or politics). When I visited her website I was surprised to see how bold and coherent the layout was, which I really liked because it made feel like she was a powerful and opinionated individual. The first poem that I read was “Layla” and to be fully honest I was shocked at how open and free her poem was. I didn’t expect her to write about such complex subjects since she resides in an Arab city like Dubai. Then I decided to check out other poems by her and I ended up reading almost every poem on her “Select Poems” list. Every single poem that I read took me on a journey of emotions whether it was nostalgia or even sadness. Her poems are perfectly written like a story and it included everything Arabic that I personally love and at the same time the other aspects that I hate like war, terrorism, and death. My favorite thing about her poems is that she is able to blend both Arabic and English together in a single poem. Some of my favorite poems by Zeina Hashem Beck are “Dear White Critic, ،رفيقي في الرحيل”, ''Body” ,'' Broken Ghazal: Speak Arabic” , and “Ode To My Non-Arabic Lover”. 

Layla*

I am tired of the love poems Qays keeps

tracing for me in the sand. What a luxury, 

to roam mad with love, be punished only

with a tender name – Majnun. The world will always

forgive the foolishness of men. I’m the one who endures

the weight of another in the night. I remind myself

to cup my breasts and say they are mine. My thighs

mine, mine. Sometimes I tell him No, not tonight,

I’m bleeding again, and he believes me. 

It’s easy to believe anything about a body

that splits itself open and survives,

produces milk the next day. If I keep still

long enough, I hear the music inside

my veins; it sounds like women, singing.

http://www.zeinahashembeck.com/

#aplit20livingpoet #zeina hashem beck

[lenavasylak]

Poetry Blog # 4

For my 4th poetry blog I decided to chose the poem “Theia Mania”. The title immediately interested me since I wasn’t sure what that meant. When I looked it up I found out it meant loss of self and sanity, which I immediately connected to every other poem he’s written. It seems throughout this book, Sam Sax’s main theme is the loss of himself and his sanity. And that theme escalades and increases as the book goes on, so it makes sense how this poem is titled, where it is placed in the book, and how it is written!

At first glance the word Plato caught my eye since we talked so much about Plato in AP Lang. I’m not exactly sure what the reasoning is for including Plato in this poem, but I saw that connection and was interested by it. Knowing that Sam Sax is a man of religion, when I saw another sentence in there that included religion, I immediately thought that would be an important sentence. The sentence that interests me the most is “love at first sight is only possible if the government hasn’t first taken your eyes”. When looking at that sentence I thought I could relate that to the title of the poem. Since the title of the poem is about losing yourself and your sanity, the government “taking your eyes” is almost the same thing as losing yourself. (236)

#aplit20livingpoet

[celestialgarbage28]

Cheating

For the week, I cheated on Schultz with Jericho Brown. The difference between the two of them is very evident in the fact that Schultz talks a lot about death and loss to where I feel like Brown talks a lot more about things that have been taken.

In the poem, “Duplex,” I honestly felt a little lost to the themes and overall meaning behind it. I had skimmed some of the other poems about lies being told and rape and so on and this was the first poem that I found that evidently showed a light within the darkness. Beginning with, “ I begin with love, hoping to end there,” caught my eye immediately because Brown LITERALLY began by beginning with it, which is an interesting choice that I appreciated. One of the other things I noticed from the very beginning was the format of the poem, since it’s divided up into chunks of two lines, and every line connects each chunk to another chunk with repetition. This format made the title, “Duplex,” make sense since the title means a house divided into two apartments with separate doors, meaning that they’re separate but connected. The poem works the same way. The thing that really confuses me is the repetition within the poem. It’s a move Brown made on purpose, and I guess in a way it makes sense since it connects the separate pieces, but it also makes the poem seem highly repetitive in a way that I don’t fully understand. I also don’t fully understand the overall point of them poem. It gives off a lot of “lost on thought” vibes, like it’s not one cohesive thought but a bunch of different thoughts floating close together and the writer was just bouncing from thought to thought. I felt like Brown was caught in a daze. Perhaps that was the point.

This is what I picture Brown looking like right before they wrote this poem.

Word count- 277

#aplit20livingpoet

[madyiscool]

Cheating on my poet

Christopher Poindexter

“It takes more strength

To give a damn

Than to not.”

To not give a crap what people say or think is what people want. They want to be the girl that no can mess with. However, because this trait is so sought out for, we lose touch and connection. How could anyone possibly get close, if no one truly cares? That is why I really love the ending of this poem. Saying that in the world today it is harder to care for things than not caring. It is so true, if you don’t put in any effort and just go through your day it will be easy. However, it will get boring rather quickly.

I think what Christopher writes is so important. “Give me someone who gives a damn about what truly matters.” When you put in effort and care about something you become invested in. You are willing to make things work and if something is wrong you talk it out and get through it. Let’s say you’re with someone for a long time and you’re having a wonderful time. Then, all of a sudden the other person no longer feels the need to give effort and work to keep the relationship working. When that happens to you it truly sucks. Thinking you knew someone until they wear I don’t give a damn so well.

When cheating on my poet Chloe, I realized how upbeat the last poem I posted from her was. She was falling in love with someone. However, Christopher writes like he is sad, sad that the world is different. That no one cares about the little details. They want the bigger picture with all the glory and no affection. Also, their writing styles are different. An example is the fact that Chloe has a title for all her poems and Christopher does not. I find that interesting did he want to leave the meaning open for interpretation?

When first reading I wasn’t sure what the reason was for choosing the word damn to repeat throughout his poem. However, after a little thinking my thoughts kept going to a beaver, I know the childish side of me coming out because they build dams. With deeper thoughts on beavers I know that they build dams to keep water away. What if the reason that Christopher uses the word damn to show almost the fact when you do give a damn you are keeping all the bad things away. You’re giving in the time and effort and it pays off. Your relationship is safe. (418)

#aplit20livingpoet

[kenzieharrod]

My Mentor Poet -Sally Wen Mao

My process for choosing my poet was quite simple. I scrolled to the bottom of the poets page and chose the most interesting name that wasn’t taken. I then looked through a few of her pieces before deciding I really liked her work. I didn’t really flirt with any other poets before deciding. I knew what poet I really wanted from the get go. I looked into a few other names that were interesting but nothing struck my fancy. Of the work that I looked at I really liked these few stanzas; “ Cut the red ribbon from my hair ,

what’s left of my youth.” “ The fugue of winter casts shadows

on the furnace- how it glowers

like the limpets buried in my hair,

handfuls of which you pull

towards th shore, toward stagnation.”

I knew this poet was my bae when I read these stanzas, because they are relavent to our generation, with controversial topics, spins on relationships and anxieties. All of which are mostly relateable to us.

#aplit20livingpoet

[unlikekrystal]

“The Gift” - Ocean Vuong

My favorite poems of Vuong’s that explores the body occur near the end of the collection. Parts of the body—tongues, teeth, eyes, feet, knees, backs, heads, hands, blood—all get frequent mention in Vuong’s poems. The language of the body becomes the body of the poem. Vuong weaves together his concerns with bodies, beauty, and language here, in “The Gift”

“a b c a b c a b c

She doesn’t know what comes after.

So we begin again:

a b c a b c a b c

But I can see the fourth letter:

a strand of black hair – unraveled

from the alphabet

& written

on her cheek.

Even now the nail salon

will not leave her: isopropyl acetate,

ethyl acetate, chloride, sodium lauryl

sulfate & sweat fuming

through her pink

I NY t-shirt.

a b c a b c a – the pencil snaps.

The b bursting its belly

as dark dust blows

through a blue-lined sky.

Don’t move, she says, as she picks

a wing bone of graphite

from the yellow carcass, slides it back

between my fi ngers.

Again. & again

I see it: the strand of hair lifting

from her face … how it fell

onto the page – & lived

with no sound. Like a word.

I still hear it.”

In this poem, the narrator is at a nail salon, teaching a mother how to write in English. I love the juxtaposition between the narrator’s and the mother’s grasp of the English language; the tenderness and the pain between them in this poem.

The body is language, language the body, and both are trying to learn, to make the unfamiliar more familiar, to navigate newness for survival.

For Vuong, language and the body are the sites for making, and language itself and the body itself are both beyond the subjects of poems, they are poems themselves. “The Gift” is only one example of how Ocean plays with language in the book—alliteration, assonance, slight rhyme. Ocean has a range of poetic techniques that he is able to deploy to heighten the music of his poems.

I honestly picked this song because it tackles the whole essence of what I take from Vuong’s poems. The breakdown of the body and the meaning he places behind them made me hear this song in this poem and some of his other works as well.

#aplit20livingpoet

[preeeeethi]

“Krishna Denies Eating Mud” - Elizabeth Alexander

“Blue boy, the apple

of his mother’s ravenous eye.

Blue as the noon sky,

Blue as the sea,

Beautiful Krishna

Come to me!”

Although Krisna’s mother is unknowing that her son is a god, she loves her son dearly.

Krishna’s mother calls to Krishna dearly. But she finds him eating mud, rocks, and nails. Filled with worry and concern, she looks inside her son’s mouth to see the whole universe. Then, she faints in shock of what she saw. Krishna’s mother does not know that her son is a god and the creator of the universe. At Krishna’s wish, his mother forgets what she had seen, and endearingly calls to her son like before.

I wasn’t really expecting to see this poem in my book. This story, with Krishna and his mother is famous throughout Hinduism. I can relate to this poem because my family is Hindu. We even have pictures of Krishna hanging up in our house.

This picture depicts the god Krishna as a baby with his mother.

(http://indian-gods-and-goddesses.blogspot.com/2009/11/lord-krishna.html?m=1)

#aplit20livingpoet

[laurengrube]

Poetry Blog #4

“Postcards” by Sarah Kay sets the tone for people who are dealing with long distance relationships. I thought this was a good poem to reflect on since we are going off to college and leaving our loved ones, family and friends. It covers the majority of the feelings that you would go through during a hard time of leaving someone that meant a lot to you and it also shows the reactions of the one leaving.

In the first section, Sarah mentions a postage stamp which is used when you are sending someone a letter from far away. She also talks about how easy it is to fall in love with someone whether its long distance or short. I connect to this section because I’ve met so many new friends this year from different schools and knowing that I am going away to college is going to be so difficult.

In the fifth section, it Sarah explains the idea of no matter how much you talk to someone that is far away, it will never be the same as talking to them in person. It is a lot different to write letters and try to express your feelings rather than talking and feeling the emotion with their words. Also, many people who come home to visit family or friends find it hard to engage in conversations because they’ve missed so much. This is what I am worried about when I go away. I am afraid of coming home and no one acknowledges me or doesn’t know what to talk about.

Finally, the eighth section is the last one that connected to me because it sets the idea about knowing how and when a relationship with fail. Personally knowing when you are going to lose someone is the hardest thing, especially when the other person doesn’t care or notice. Sarah’s message in the section really stands out to me, mistakes get the worst of us but we just have to look past and leave them behind.

Overall, Sarah releases a very strong message about long distance relationships. It is very easy to connect with her words, especially in this poem because so many young people are dealing with this problem right now.

#aplit20livingpoet

[kellig22]

Jericho Brown.

https://www.jerichobrown.com/

When I was looking through the living poet list, the name “Jericho” really caught my eye. I clicked on the link that took me to his website and I really felt like it was love at first sight. looking around his website it had an overall vibe of “warm” and “cozy” it was like the website was giving me hug. The flowers everywhere, the colors, THE POEMS!!! I KNEW Jericho Brown was going to be MY mentor poet, I didn’t even waste my time and flirt with other poets. 

The poem that really stood out to me was “Flower” which I put below…  yellow is by far my favorite color, whenever I wear a piece of clothing that is yellow, I have a really kick-butt day. So when Jericho came out swinging saying EVERYTHING was yellow, I was in love and I knew it was going to be good. 

Flower

Yellow bird. Yellow house. Little yellow Song

Light in my Jaundiced mouth. These yellow Teeth need

Brushing, but You admire My yellow Smile. This

Black boy Keep singing. Tiny life. Yellow bile.

#aplit20livingpoet

[heblamesme]

Cheating: Poetry Blog 3

This poem here is from the poetry book called “Waiting For The Light” by Alicia Suskin Ostriker. The format of the poem was the first thing that caught my eye. Each stanza has its own position, and also each stanza has its own subject in a way. When I looked at the title of poem I assumed that poem would be about four men around a card table playing games, but that was only the first stanza. The rest of the poem is about different people but it’s still going on the same place. Which is Columbus and 97th which I interpreted as street names. I came to that conclusion when she said “Priest waiting to cross checks his wristwatch, maybe late for suicide watch”. This poem made a decent amount of sense until I reached the fifth stanza because it begins to say “you” and the text after that word seems irrelevant. For instance, when she says “your mothers packed dresses and trusted...”, like trusted what? She doesn’t finish her sentences. She goes on to try and connect each stanza together by saying “we all whip through it like blowing newspaper so many unread stories”. I follow the idea of that especially because she mentions several different people in the same place doing completely different things with completely different agendas. But overall this poem makes no sense to me and it’s frustrating because unlike my author Ostriker makes you interpret everything about her poems. Francisco says things bluntly and you get them and even is he uses metaphors that are difficult to understand, reading through several times helps you get what he’s saying. He never leaves you confused he always leaves you with a feeling of emotion whether it’s sad, happy, or shocked but never confused. Not matter how many times I read this it still doesn’t makes sense to me. She doesn’t use a lot of metaphors which seems to be the problem because everything she saying is short-ended like she doesn’t really wanna explain anything. I don’t really like this poet. She’s turning me off, I think I’m gonna stay faithful to Fransico because this ain’t it. This poem reminds me of this GIF cause I’m lost

(370)

#aplit20livingpoet