There It Is by Jayne Cortez

I gave just finished reading "There It Is" by Jayne Cortez. This poem expresses her true rebellious frame of mind. Through its simplicity and basic frame builds a very straight forward portrayal of her point. Upon reading I felt as if I were a listener watching her speak in a protest. Though, for my taste, this poem was a little TOO simple, I do like how I did not have to go digging way deep into the poem comprehend it.
What definately stood out to me was her use of a base frame for the structure of her points, it's almost as if she's slightly touching on the concept of repition in a way, when she says we will wear "the exaggerated look of captivity the stylized look of submission the bizarre look of suicide the dehumanized look of fear and the decomposed look of repression" if we submit ourselves. She just keeps listing what can potentially happen. This is where her more detailed language comes in; she does this to emphasize her ferocity of her point and to build more of a righteous feel in her protest.

"The Mother" by Gwendolyn Brooks

I have just finished reading "The Mother" by Gwendolyn Brooks. This poem is a very very controversal, personal, and emotional piece of work due to the speakers bias on her sorrow for her abortion. Though we have no background evidence as to why the speaker got an abortion I get the vibe that she is in deep regret for her decision especially due to her frequent use of the words "killed" and "dead". It is almost she feels as if she is a killer when she says "I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed children. " That is a very deep and depressing line; she is not one to soon forget what has happened and is often haunted by it.
Personally, the one line that stood out the most to me that made me right away see through the metaphor and understand what this poem was REALLY about was the line "The singers and workers that never handled the air." The speaker is describing all the success and professions her would be child COULD have been, but her child never got a chance to live, to breath the air. Air represented life in that line, we need air to breath, we need to breath to live.
Overall, this is probably one of my favorite poems I have read this semester thus far. The use of metaphor is superb and the meaning of the poem is not shrouded TOO much in the metaphor to confuse the reader.

Blackberry Eating by Galway Kinnell

I have just finished reading "Blackberry Eating" by Galway Kinnell. If there's one thing i notice about this poem, Kinnell's topics of choice to write about are almost as obscure as him name. He uses such vivid imagery to describe these blackberries he's so infatuated with. He describes them as "fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries"

One specific comparison he draws in his comparison of the consumption of the blackberries to the expelling of words, drawing a relationship of simplicity between the two when he says "the ripest berries fall almost unbidden to my tongue, as words sometimes do." I find this metaphor to be compelling in that one action involves taking in (eating) and the other involves expelling (talking); two opposing actions to describe the same sense of feeling he gets from the two.

Riprap by Gary Snyder

I have just finished reading "Riprap" by Gary Snyder. Snyder seems to be describing life and how we somewhat rush life by without really taking time to observe our actions and make conscious efforts, rather we just follow our instinct and what's said is done. As shown through the very first two lines in the poem "Lay down these words Before your mind like rocks" Snider demonstrates his stand point on how we just rush life by. Snider uses rocks as a simile to represent immobility. These "rocks" placed before our minds through our words and actions act as an obstacle that prevent us from accepting new ways of acting and feeling. We must chisel these rocks and break our obstacles to recognize the world for what it really is, the ever changing reality around us.

America by Allen Ginsberg

If there's one thing that stands out to me about Ginsberg's poetry if anything else is that his poetry is unnecessarily LONG! I don't understand what message he's trying to get across by his overabundance of repitition in his poems, hence making them almost essay like. Don't get me wrong, Repetition is a great way to emphasize a strong feeling towards something but when you say "When will you take off your clothes? When will you look at yourself through the grave? When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites? America why are your libraries full of tears? America when will you send your eggs to India?" I mean sure, if that was the only portion of severe repition in this poem it'd be great, but it keeps lagging on and on and on. You lose interest half way through.
However, there's a contrast in this poem, while it can be very redundant and boring due to the longevity, at the same time it can be VERY compelling due to the controversy it beholds. Two lines that completely blew me away with their derogitory word choice is "America when will we end the human war? Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb." And what is most compelling about it is it happens so early in the poem; IN THE FIRST STANZA! And this is only one of many controversal lines in the poem! Ginsberg is one sick fellow! lol

"Prisoners" by Denise Leverton

I have just finished reading "Prisoners" by Denise Leverton. One thing i notice about this poem is her imagery in the use of food. It seems as if she is relating food to life. For example, when she says "We taste other food that life, like a charitable farm-girl, holds out to us as we pass—but our mouths are puckered, a taint of ash on the tongue" it seems as if she means that though the many different joys and explorations of life are put before us we still insist on "puckering" our mouths and not accepting what is potentially out there for us. We still insist on "the old apple of knowledge." Though many people may want to take a bigger "bite" out of life we find ourselves often scared to take that risk which will cause potential change. This concept is what labels us as "Prisoners" as the title exclaims. The metaphorical sense meets a more literal sense in the last stanza when Leverton explains that "The ashen apple of these days grew from poisoned soil. We are prisoners and must eat our ration." In prison you are served the same meal day in and day out, everyday. There is no exhileration; no change. Just as waking up everyday and taking a bite of that same apple, following the same routine...with no change.

"The Gift" By Li-Young Lee

One thing i notice about Lee in most of his poetry is his mention of his parents, predominantly his father. This proposes the idea that Lees father may have had a great impact on Lees life. In "The Gift" Lee expresses how much of a significant figure his father has been in his life. Lee has learned so much from his father that paved him into the person he was. For example, when Lee watched his father remove the metal splinter from his hand he had learned from this and appreciated that moment in time, he then transmitted that knowledge to his advantage and used it in his life as show in stanza three when he says "Had you followed that boy you would have arrived here,where I bend over my wife's right hand." This was Lees "gift", the gift of knowledge passed onto him by his father. Lee held a tremendous amount of sentiment over his fathers teachings and kept them with him through out the course of his life.