The Hitchhikers.

This poem literally describes a woman driving down a road lined with ash trees covered bright red berries. I may be internalizing the whole poem, or reading the obvious, but I feel like this poem is about a woman who is traveling down the metaphoric road of her life, and is musing about the lovers she's picked up along the way, and is mourning her current isolation in that journey. I think she is a woman who has failed in a marriage because of the lines "thinking of the two years I spent with you,/ reliving them over and over,/ knowing I had everything I wanted,/ but like Midas was silent and stiff with the gold I had touched,/ felt always as if I had been buried under a ton of diamonds," She had the perfect companion down that road, but it all just left her feeling trapped under the imaginary weight of her wedding ring. She is looking at her failure and gives her own admit-ion that she isn't meant to have a companion "Oh, hitchhikers, hitchhikers,/ you would not want to travel with me./You would not want to travel with me"

I may be completly off the mark in my interpretation I found this poem very, very challenging, I cant even remotely ascertain the importance of the Ash trees, nor the berries. Its something I will continue to ponder. 

She Had Some Horses.

Doing some research after reading this poem I found out that Harjo was a Native American woman living in the contemporary American world. I also learned this poem is written in the form of a Native American chant, which suggests to me that she was trying to find a way to relate her experiences through the eyes of her culture . The poem literally describes a collection of horses a woman has been through.  In an attempt to interpret this poem I would say that the "horses" could represent two things, and possibly both, or at least the effects of both, I would say they are either people, or her conceptions of the how the people outside of the Native American culture have effected her- and possibly the inclusion of both. In any case each horse seems to be a collection of somber events, mistaken choices, failed philosophies, and heartbreaks. The last line of the poem says "These were the same horses." I believe that line is as in a lot of poems the most important line because it sums all of these past experiences or people (depending which metaphor I'm working with) and saying they're all the same leaves me thinking a few things- They all left her in the same place emotionally / they were all people outside her culture. In any case I found this poem to be very interesting, and something a lot of people could take their own message from and relate to, I know I thought of a few bad choices I made in people, and events as I read through it.

The Mother by Gwendolyn Brooks

This poem is very, very sad. It discusses all the things that will never be because a child has been aborted. Its tell of how the mother will never be the mother, never care for her child, never take a moment just to marvel at your child (Return for a snack of them, with gobbling mother-eye). She says of what the children will never have "Your stilted or lovely loves, your tumults, your marriages, aches, /and your deaths,. She says she has stolen the life they would have lived from the. "If I stole your births and your names, /Your straight baby tears and your games, /Your stilted or lovely loves, your tumults, your marriages, aches,  and your deaths,/ If I poisoned the beginnings of your breaths"and she asks for forgiveness "Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate.". This poem is a confession and a eulogy all at once. I wonder in the poem though when she refers to the abortions, were they her own, is she discussing the procedure in a general sense, or was she helping abortions to take place. I seem to find some meaning in the one worded last line of the poem "All." I dont believe she is discussing her own aborted children, but more so abortion in a general sense, and I find a lot of pity for her in the last stanza. She keeps repeating "Believe me, I loved you all." and with the last line of "All." she signs her confession. 

Blackberry Eating

 I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very prickly, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black art
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unbidden to my tongue,
as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words
like strengths or squinched,
many-lettered, one-syllabled lumps,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well
in the silent, startled, icy, black language
of blackberry -- eating in late September. 

Blackberry eating while it literally outlines a story of someone eating blackberries on a September morning, the blackberries are also used as a metaphor for words, and also "Blackberry Making" as a metaphor for writing poetry. Maneuvering through the prickly branches the poet is able to take in the ripest berries, much as a poet shuffles through words until the right or "certain peculiar" words land on their tongue and flows to their pages. They use their words and imagery to create a sensory experience, of tastes (eating the blackberries), sounds (silent) textures and the sense of touch, (fat, icy, prickly squeeze, squinch) and emotions (startled) to convey a message.  In a big way this poem is all about simply that; poems and their crafting. I believe the reason the poet chose blackberries as a metaphor is because they can be experienced through all your senses, and while words can be spoken or heard they cant be held or tasted or smelled, so by using the blackberry metaphor he was able to make the intangible, tangible.

Sometime During Eternity by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

I found this poem so interesting. In it he sort of satyrs the history of Jesus Christ, referencing to him as the "carpenter". It also makes a satyr of the bible referencing "scrolls of parchments" that will be found at a later time by the dead sea. His followers are almost treated as if they are adoring fans and Jesus is the rockstar. telling him "You're hot" and then they hang him on the tree to cool (the crucifixion). Then he almost mocks the religious practices of Christianity by commenting on how they are always making "models" of him on the tree, as in crucifixes, and how they are always "crooning his name" and asking him to come down, (worship and the belief in the second coming). Reading this I'm sure a lot of Christians would find the poem blasphemous, I found it an interesting way to ponder or question, the dogma attached to Christianity.

I liked how intelligent his references were within the poem (The city Galilee,  Carpenter, 1947, years till the parchments would be found, "Petered" out, and the use of the capitalization in the pronouns used whenever referencing Christ or God ("Him", "His" etc.)). I think there's also a statement made in this poem that really questions the followers of the religion, he claims that none of them really believe it, and he shows how its almost hypocritical that they put him on the tree (cross) but are then forever begging him to come down.

But I question the v views of the poet from the last few lines of the poem, He claims the News says Christ is dead, but then he says if you believe them (yes he shows he doesn't by calling them an unreliable source) I wonder if that means the poet is actually more devout than his poem leads you to believe.

Homework by Allen Ginsberg

If only it was so simple as how Alan Ginsberg details how he would clean up the mess we've made of this world. Simply by giving it a spin through the old washing machine. Ginsburg gives a special little plan for each part of the world, in a poem that could be written on the care label of the earth. The author creatively, and with a sardonic dose of sarcasm, details all the things he feels we've destroyed in the planet, through pollution, acid rain, the spoils of war, to the actions of the police. It also gives us a nice ironic twist when you consider the concept that he's using all these man made chemicals and machines, in order to cleanse the world (where is all this pollution draining to?). The poem gives a heavy social statement, but I feel it lends no real advice to the actual cause except pointing out the obvious destruction. I found the poem ironic, sarcastic, and whimsical, but in the end all it really sounds to me is -sarcastic musings from a voice that doesn't feel his poem will have any impact. I feel possibly the impossibility of the idea lends nothing but whimsy to the possibility of reversing our harm to the planet. But if only it was so simple, Id suggest just dropping it off at my dry cleaner. They can get anything out!

The Day Lady Died By Frank O'Hara

This poem is a collection of happenings on a seemingly mundane day, a day that is so mundane in its beginning that the only note-able reference O'hara makes about the day is it is 3 days after Bastille Day. He gets a shoeshine, he buys a poetry magazine, he goes to the bank. Then he buys a newspaper and becomes aware that Billie Holiday has died.
In his memory he is transported to being in a bathroom and hearing her sing from outside, and his breath stops, which symbolically is almost his moment of silence for her passing. I found this poem amazing. It shows how strongly an Artist can effect a person, and how their passing is so noteworthy that it can transport a person back in time to a place where that artist effected them.
I think another point has been made in this poem, simply that life goes on. As cliche as that sentence is, the bank was still open, the tellers were still present, the man was still there to shine his shoes, and yet the world- in his eyes had suffered a very notable loss.
I myself was not a major fan of Michael Jackson, but I would imagine there are many people out there in the world who could write a poem very similar to this for him. Not even being a fan of his, I know exactly what I was doing when I heard of his passing, my recollection of it is actually so vivid, its almost eerie. I also know there are many people who can tell you exactly what was going on around them when John Lennon died. I found this poem to be a beautiful moment of silence for an artist who's passing turned a mundane day in his life to one that he will never forget.

Blog about "The One Girl at the Boy's Party.

The "One Girl at the Boys Party" uses a mathematical metaphor throughout the poem. I believe this is to portray how members of the opposite sex at a young age are as complicated as math problems to each other. Mathematics is considered a universal language, but that is only if you understand it. The poem is seen from the eyes of a mother after she drops her daughter off at a pool party, and because of the mothers age and experience, she is able to understand the complexities that go on between the boys and the one girl there, and is able to calculate the situation to get a deeper understanding of their interaction through a mathematics  equation.

This poem made me think of how parents always think they know what other children are going to do to corrupt their child or how theyre going to behave around the opposite sex, and in their "because I said so" moments they feel they understand everything in such a way that it is as concrete as mathematics. I disagree with this only because (to continue with Olds metaphor) a lot of variables exist in every given situation, ecspecially their childs ability to exponentially suprise them, by not allowing themselves to be negated by the pressures of their peers or to be defined in terms of concrete numbers.

I also found it slightly odd that she brought such sexual references  into a poem about a girl young enough to wear a bathing suit "with hamburgers and french fries printed on it" and referencing the boys "curve of their sexes". I guess this was to portray how early parents worry about their children behaving in a sexual manner, but I still found it very uncomfortable how blatantly she refers to the sexuality of young children. 

The Fish By Elizabeth Bishop

Reading this poem at least to me, it seemed that the fisherman found a kinship with the fish. Looking at it's battle scars, the five hooks hanging from its mouth "Like medals with their ribbons frayed and wavering" from the previous perilous situations the fish had found itself in its life, it seemed very similar to the trials and tribulations a human must face and overcome in their own. "Here and there his brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper", is like how humans acquire wrinkles throughout their journey through life. After examining the fish, and seeing the way it has aged, noting the proud accomplishments the fish has gained in its lifetime the fisherman says "I stared and stared and victory filled up the little rented boat". This is where I think the fisherman found kinship with the fish, noticing all its been through in its life they probably saw a reflection of their own life, and with this new found relation to the fish-this new respect, everything around the fisherman becomes "rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!". It's within this revelation and in celebration of their similar hard fought journeys, the fisherman lets the fish go.