Change of Location

On Thursday March 29 I was graced with the opportunity to go to a poetry reading of Jane Hirshfield.  Intermixed with some of her reading from her new book of poetry she mentioned that her neighbor’s son had started a band.  Because of this new found love for music her neighbor’s son would practice in the mid afternoon, and to go along with this he played the drums.  Hirshfield told the audience that because of the noise coming from the house she could no longer write in her office/converted garage in the afternoon.  So, she started writing in the morning in her bed; the rest of this commentary will be my interpretation of how this change of location affected her writing in ways she may not have even notice.  One poem she read to the crowd was “Da Capo.”  The word “da capo” is a term used in music that tells the musician to repeat the line.  The fact that she was thinking about a term from the music world could have been subconscious because her writing venue was changed because of the noise from the drums, a musical instrament.  Another poem that she discussed was about a French horn, and she was surprised by the response to the poem because she was not aware so many people had a connection to the French horn, yet again another musical reference.  Because of her having to change writing locations she now has a different view outside than the view her office had before.  This new view may have triggered another poem idea about the redwood trees by her house.  This idea may be a result of seeing the trees out her bedroom window.  Jane Hirshfield also has a tendency to write about food.  This may be caused, at least in her new book, by the fact that she is writing in her bed and may be hungry for breakfast but is too busy writing to eat, and this hunger comes out in her work.  My final point comes from her saying that she practices a Japanese tradition of thoroughly cleaning her house on New Year’s Eve.  She talked about how she washes her door knobs, and even wrote a poem about it.  My theory is that she thinks of new places to clean when she is laying in her bed, and this is based on my own experience of coming up with good ideas while laying in my bed.  So, to exaggerate and try a far-fetched conclusion, I think that Jane Hirshfield should thank and possibly even dedicate her new book of poetry to her neighbor’s son for ideas on what to write about.  I feel this way because it was that boy who caused Jane to change where and when she writes, giving her new ideas and a new perspective of what to write.  Of course, this motivation from her neighbor’s son is most likely nonexistent except in my mind, but I’m entitled to my ideas.  

Ancestral Burden

When reading Ancestral Burden I was reminded of a couple other works that I have read regarding a similar topic.  The first was a novel, Trinity by Leon Uris.  In the beginning of the novel Conor Larkin wants to go to school but his father does not approve because the tradition of their family is of hard work and dedication to the land.  The second work that popped into my head was the poem “Digging” by Seamus Heaney.  This poem has a similar problem to the one in Trinity in that the speaker of the poem becomes a writer and his family is not so proud of him because both his father and his grandfather worked in the fields.  This leads me back the “Ancestral Burden.”  This poem starts by laying out the tradition of the speaker and just like the works I mentioned earlier the speaker goes against the family tradition, in this case crying was frowned upon in this family.  And as typical the speaker was condemned as weak and the tear was referred to as “poison.”  The ending of the poem is very touching because the speaker admits that she cannot handle the burden of the family tradition.  All three of these works share the same similar subject area of the next generation not fulfilling the expectations of previous generations.  And as a person who went outside of the family tradition, so to speak, I enjoy reading works with this basic topic.

Squares and Angles

My favorite thing to do when I read poetry is to read it without any background information. When I read "Squares and Angles" by Alfonsina Storni the original picture I got in my mind was, most likely, nothing like what the author had in mind. When I first read the poem I pictured a development with a bunch of houses that look exactly the same. And the neighborhood was laid out in a checkerboard fashion, and this was just the image I pictured from the first stanza.  The great thing about this poem is that it covers so much in so few words.  The poem is only two stanzas and a total of eight lines, but in those few words so much is said.  One thing that helps to show meaning in the poem is the repetition.  The repetition is very noticeable because it is so obvious, in that she uses the same phrase three times to start the poem off.  Another interpretation of the this poem could be that the speaker is tired of all the conformity and lack of individualism, this maybe a little closer to the poet’s original meaning.  The speaker notes all of the lack of individualism in her surroundings but it doesn’t hit the speaker personally until the she sheds a tear which is square, thus showing that she is a part of the conformity.  The poem could also be interpreted in others ways as well which show just how much a short poem like this can say.

Tonight I Can Write...

         “Tonight I Can Write…” a poem by Pablo Neruda is a heavy poem that struck me deeply when I read it.  This poem should strike anyone who reads it because everyone who reads it can relate to the subject matter.  When I first read this poem, it instantly took me back to the times when I had just gone through a tough time and was finally able to get over it and move on with my life.  This poem can even be viewed in different ways.  The basic way to interpret what the speaker is referring to is that the speaker is referring to a former lover.  Another way to interpret it is that the speaker is referring to a loved one who passed.  Even though this reference does not fit perfectly it still brought back memories for me of a passed loved one.  The imagery in this poem exudes emotion and makes the reader feel as if they are in the memory, as if watching a movie.  I feel that this is a great poem because it draws emotion out of everyone who reads it and that is a rare quality.  I can only image the emotional state Neruda was in when he wrote it, but it lead to a great work that lives on beyond his years.