The majority of “The Possibilities of Invention,” by Cathy Song is written in a very straightforward, first-person style. Events are described with a dash of personal bias, as expected for a first-person poem written in this style. This is seen in further depth in lines 9-15, where the speaker is telling us of the teenage hierarchy, and how damaging it can be when “petty dictators demand conformity even from the lowliest worm burrowed in books.” In this case, the lowliest worm is a metaphor representing individuals who are outside of a particular social group, and do not “conform” to the status quo. Throughout this poem, there are similar messages written between the lines, statements aimed at an unforgiving society.
This week I read the poem, “Apron Strings” by Beth Gylys, the author of the poetry collection “Close to the Shore”, published by Michigan State University Press. From what I gathered about this poem, it is about a businesswoman that lives life in the fast lane in order to provide a decent life for her young children, but due to her rat race lifestyle that she is caught up in, she is unable to spend quality time with her family, and as a result her child is affected by this. This poem starts off with clear intentions. The lines about burnt dinner, multiple watches that were wound too tight, and forgotten lists left on countertops, all are vivid images that establish a scene of a frantic lifestyle of a busy woman that doesn’t have
The poem “Tetherball” by Tim Bowling, published in the Winter 2015 edition of The Fiddlehead, uses a variety of metaphors to describe what is at the most basic level a popular old schoolyard game. At a deeper level, however, Bowling sets up the game as a metaphor for life itself. The layered metaphor in the first stanza demonstrates this technique of using metaphors to describe metaphors. Further, the images painted of what is generally considered a children’s game are anything but cheerful, instead evoking violence and death. The use of enjambments which go against expectations also parallels this hidden, darker meaning.
Serial a podcast told week by week by Sarah Koenig trying to figure an event to discover what really happened on January 13,1999 the day in which Hae Min Lee was murdered. Hae’s family reported her missing that day after not picking up her cousin from school. On February 1, 1999 the Baltimore County Police received an anonymous call saying Adnan Syed Hae’s ex-boyfriend had murdered her. On February 9, 1999 Hae’s body was found in Leakin Park. Adnan Syed has been convicted guilty by the jury and has been in jail for half his life.
When she had her third kid, she ditched her writing career and returned to being a social worker. When she started her writing career, her first book was called Slammed, and she made a sequel that had three books in it that branched out of Slammed. According to usatoday, “When she published more of her books, they added up to 22 books and three novellas, and contributed to two anthologies.” (usatoday).
Although the Landmine and the Rope in Melissa Range’s poems are both made to participate in horrifying violence against the innocent, the Landmine reveals its boastful indifference by twisting imagery of life and hope into a grotesque threat to haunt the world of peace long into the future, while the Rope reveals its humble sympathy by longing for a future that redeems violence by affirming life and beauty. The Landmine and the Rope are both tools of death throughout the two poems. The Landmine claims it will “bloom into a bouquet for an amputee” (4), vividly describing the pain and suffering that it will cause to whoever is unlucky enough to cross its path, even “children”(8). The fact that the Landmine mentions children as a potential victim proves that whether someone is an enemy or not, their lives are in danger.
The 1970s were a rough year for African-Americans, still fighting for social and political rights in the United States. Consequently, women still did not receive equal rights. However, in 1972, “Congress approved the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution, which reads: ‘Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex’ (History.com Staff).” Out of the thirty-eight necessary states only twenty-two ratified it right away, it was relieving for the moment because the feminist advocates had been trying to be ratified since 1923. The First African-American woman elected into Congress was Shirley Chisholm.
After he wrote You’re Only Old Once: A Book for Obsolete Children (1986), which sold one million copies in only one year, he wrote Oh, The Places You’ll Go! (1990). He went all over the country on a traveling art tour that inspired him to write Oh, The Places You’ll Go! and it ended up being his last book he will write.
In the poem “Ego-Tripping” by Nikki Giovanni, she normalizes her worth by continuing to royalist herself as a black woman who is essential to mankind. Giovanni creates a vision throughout the poem, which leaves a thought in mind of how woman should look at themselves with much confidence as Giovanni does. “Ego Tripping” was written by Yolande Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni, Jr. who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on June 7, 1943. G9iovanni is a writer, poet, activist, and educator whose work was influenced during the Black Power Movements and the Civil Rights Movement. The poem was released in 2002.
How would you feel if someone could control what you were thinking? In “The Feed” written by M.T Anderson, everyone living in the community had a feed in their brain that was controlled by one large organization. Violet, the main character, suffers through a malfunction in her feed that changes the way she sees her society. Most people’s opinions can be changed when they have experienced the benefits and the disadvantages of something. Since Violet is aware of how life is with and without the feed, she becomes hesitant to believing that her community is being run efficiently.
Julia Alvarez, in her poem “’Poetry Makes Nothing Happen’?”, writes that poems do play a role in people’s lives. She supports her idea by using relateable examples of how poems might change someone’s life. Her first example is simple, poetry can entertain someone on long drives. This does not only aply to long dirves however, Alvarez uses this to show that poetry does not have to have a big influence on someone’s life, instead it can affect a person in the smallest of ways, such as entertainment. The second example describes poetry comforting someone after the loss of a loved one.
The poem I will be analyzing will be “Uncoiling” by Pat Mora. The theme the author is portraying is the personification of a tornado . It has a dark/fearful/grim tone as she describes the storm that is accruing. The author is using similes, and personification to convey the theme. The very first figurative language used in the poem is personification.
“Poetry Is Not a Luxury” (1982) intertwines feminism and poetry together. Author Audre Lorde says that for women, “poetry is not a luxury, but a necessity of our existence” (Lorde, 1982, pg. 281). In today’s society, women’s opinions aren’t really expressed, because it’s not widely accepted in this man-built world. Lorde’s quote “poetry is not a luxury, but a necessity of our existence” means that women should use their voices and channel their energy into poetry. Since poetry is accepted, women aren’t being deviant.
Get on the bus and join the movement towards appreciating poetry. Join author of Poetry Should Ride the Bus, Ruth Forman in making poetry an everyday thing. Poetry should be familiar to everyone and looked at as a mundane concept. Society should be able to use poetry as a benefit to their lives on a regular basis. Unfortunately, poetry isn’t appreciated as much as it should be.
Genetic testing should not be openly provided to everyone unless necessary. There are multiple reasons as to why this is true, such as costs, emotional impact, and the test results don’t always come out to be true. The biggest reason, however, out of these different ones, is the cost. The cost of genetic testing overpowers the other reasons due to the amount of money that is needed in order to pursue these tests. Even though cost is virtually the significant factor, all of the others are still highly important.
