"Ballad"

"Ballad" – Sonia Sanchez writes mostly in the voice of Black women [and women in general]. The poem could be talking from the mouths of older women to the ears of younger women – younger women who think they are feeling love – the love of life. I think what the older women are suggesting is that they have lived through the dreams of youth only to come out the other side of a naked dream (time passing) – a dream unfulfilled. The words of the older women seem to be a lament of those dreams. The poem is meant to be spoken or sung as a folklore.

THERE IT IS Jayne Cortez

At the outset this poem strikes the leftist cord in me. The poem seems to start in the middle of a thought since it starts with "And". I get a feel that I entered a room in the middle of a conversation. She speaks poignantly and her statements are thought provoking. The poem begins telling the listener that: If we don't… resist, organize and unify, get the power to control then we will… she tells of the consequences. The 'ifs' are quite matter of fact, while the 'thens' are emphasized by the use of strong adjectives such as exaggerated, bizarre, dehumanized, decomposed to describe captivity, submission, suicide, fear, repression. She uses repetition to further exaggerate her point, "if we, if we, if we"' and, "the, the, the, and the" and towards the conclusion, forever and ever and ever. She then repeats the last sentence with the same start of the first sentence of the poem "And".

Harlem

This poem speaks to the Black person's dreams of desegregation. It saddens me to think what it must have been like for anyone who was black to be told they are equal yet remain segregated from white society. So what does happen to a dream deferred? Whose deference? Not the Black person's. The poem through metaphors and similes tells of the pain of people whose dream has wilted. In no uncertain terms does Hughes sugarcoat any of the emotions that come along when a dream is pulled out from under a [Black] people. I can appreciate the ambiguity of the last three lines because I think it spells out two extremes of a possible outcome. Do the people sit and accept their fate and become victims or do they ban together to let the judicial system they are not going to sit and take it. Separate is not equal. I think we all know the answer to that question.

Barbie Doll - not me...

Love this poem! At the end of the day this poem tells women it's ok to be who you are. Bury the stuff that society says you must be. From the beginning of our lives, women are "genderized". That is, we are taught to grow from little girls to grown up ladies (not necessarily women). We are stereotyped. We are taught from a young age to wear lipstick, play house, play with life-like baby dolls that even pee (2-4). Normal women – we are even above average in some aspects (7-9) but it's not ok, we are not society's definition of beautiful. We are not perfect Barbie Dolls. We do NOT have Barbie Doll figures. We are only recognized for what we do NOT have. We all may not have the perceived demure attributes of a Barbie Doll (12-14). The woman Piercy talks about in this poem finally gets tired of trying to play out her life the way others expect it should be. In the last stanza, she becomes ok with herself as she is – she gets rid of the idea that being ok means using cosmetics, having perfect features, et al. This is her happy ending. I hope it didn't take her too many years into her life to come to this rationalization.

Who's the Maverick?

"Maverick" a lone dissenter, as an intellectual, an artist, or a politician, who takes an independent stand apart from his or her associates, or an unbranded calf. A synonym for "maverick" is a non-conformist, a loner. I found these definitions in dictionary.com. But who is the maverick? Is it the speaker / visitor or the good ole boys (and gals) of the southwest who are in the bar. The more I look into the particular words Synder uses the more intrigued I am by the poem. Two cowboys did 'horseplay' (rowdy or rough play). The imagery created for me is that of a wood plank floor with sawdust strewn around. There are red and white checked tablecloths on the tables and the men are wearing cowboy hats and the women are wearing denim, either skirts or blue jeans.

AMERICA

January 17, 1956. $2.27. What’s the reference? I’m baffled, and so are a lot of other folks. No one seems to know what the reference is to in Ginsberg’s “America”. What I can tell you about “America”? It is the written in the voice of an angry person - a person questioning America on its character, morals and beliefs and how they differ from that of the speaker. America when… when… when… when will you take a good look at yourself from a place of equality of being one with the rest of the world! I think the speaker is a revolutionary because he refers to Trotskyies and communist cell meetings. Communist cell meetings may refer to Ginsberg’s counter-cultural upbringing by his mother. He talks about not reading the newspaper, yet is obsessed with Time magazine. Could that refer to Time’s critique of “Howl” as a profane tirade that railed against a conformist society? I think so. I say Hooray to Ginsberg for following his own soul, not conforming to what the papers might call the American norm. I must say I’m sorry that I am just a little bit too young to remember the “Beat Movement”.

Prisoners

Prisoners – the title says much. For me, just the use of that word fills me with a feeling of sadness. Denise Levertov is a known for her socio-political poetry http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=4048 and this poem speaks to that theme. I get a taste (pun intended) that the poem references the prison we have locked ourselves inside of in this world we as a society have created. The poem begins and ends with ‘death’ and what or how it might be waiting for us at the end of our very ordinary lives (long journey). Although she says: It’s not joy that we’ve lost (16) I think, my opinion only, that we did loose joy and common happiness when we lost the old apple of knowledge (22). The old apple that gripped us was filled with surprises, we didn’t know if it was going to be firm, tart, delectable (23-25) as opposed to the ashen apple of these current days – ashen: old, dull, grey – already picked for us – no surprises left.