New Addresses to Life From a Master Poet

Sorry guys, I forgot to post my completed Individual Poetry Project! Here it is...

Individual Poetry Project

        Life is an inscrutable and unknowable thing, and yet humans have searched through the ages for the meaning to our existence.  Sometimes, the best way to discover truths about life is through the lens of someone else’s life.  In his last book before his death, New Addresses, Kenneth Koch explores his life in a semi-chronological order through the medium of poetry.  The book captures a perspective on the essence of being human through both sardonic wit and mature analysis, along with skillful and beautiful language. 

        To begin, New Addresses speaks to its audience through a refreshing new style: the apostrophe.  The apostrophe, or letter poem, is a poem written in the form of a letter to a person, place, thing, or idea.  Most of Koch’s poems are written to an abstract concept, although some are written to an object which may be a symbol for a broader idea.  For example, some of the 50 poems in the book are addressed to fame, to “my fifties,” to the Italian language, to life, and to stammering.  The poems in the book loosely parallel the author’s life.  The book begins with “To Yes,” a complex poem that digs into the meaning of human existence, and what happens at the end of life.  The following poem, “To Life,” follows the same theme, speaking to and personifying the state of living.  The book then switches from the abstract to the more personal, as Koch explores his childhood in the next few poems, “To the Ohio,” “To My Father’s Business,” “To Piano Lessons” and “To Stammering.”  Both subtle and bold opinions about these topics appear in the poems. The speaker gently praises the Ohio, revealing that he once kept a scrapbook about the river, but the speaker strongly reacts to his father’s business, saying “I thought I might go crazy in the job.” 

The tone of the book changes throughout, and the next few poems demonstrate this especially well. These poems deal with Koch’s young adult years, as in “To My Twenties” and “To World War II.”  This set of poems combines lovely language, cultural references, and personal experiences to create a beautiful and distinctive mix of words. Koch comments on more general themes in his and others’ lives, including poems that deal with sexuality, like “To Testosterone,” as well as identity, like in “To Jewishness” and “To My Old Addresses.”  The author’s life in poems progresses into middle age, as seen in “To My Fifties,” and his attention turns to more practical concerns.  These letters are sent to the fallible body, such as “To My Heart as I Go Along” and “To Breath.”  As the author delves into more spiritual territory once more, his poems showcase fears and wonderings about the end of life, seen in poems like “To the Unknown.”  As Koch eloquently outlines his own feelings and doubts, he intuitively gives words to the whole human experience. He closes the volume with “To Old Age,” a poignant take on the nature of getting old. 

        In New Addresses, Koch’s style is markedly mature, yet playful, as he wrestles with multi-faceted themes.  He works within a simple style, the letter poem, which provides stability and ties together the poems with a common theme.  Starting with this common foundation, Koch has room to cover many topics and use unusual styles of address.  The letter poems, written in first and second person, draw the reader into a more intimate embrace of language.  Since they use the pronoun “you” to speak with the topic of the poem, the reader may feel like she is being addressed.  Nearly all of these poems are a page long or less, so they are bite-sized for a reader.  However, this does not mean that they are easy to understand.  The poems about childhood present their language and content in a fairly straightforward manner, mirroring the simplicity of a child.  The poems set in Koch’s young adult life use more angst and stream of consciousness, as he had to face problems that were more complicated, sometimes even life-threatening. Changes in tone such as these help ease the reader through Koch’s different stages of life. Koch distinguishes his poems from others by their organization as well.  All of the poems in this collection are written in one long stanza, except for two poems, both of which have two stanzas.  On the page, the poems look like a splat of a solid idea, and the short, dense poetry is a joy to read.  The poems are written in free verse, but they hide rhythm and rhyme in their depths. 

        Under analysis, the poems in the book use language in surprising ways to address interesting topics, which appeals to a wide audience with their artistry and simple humanity.  The book begins with “To Yes,” a poem about the nature of words and of the world beyond the physical world.  The poem is one stanza and is written in free verse.  It is far from prose, however.  It begins directly addressing the concept of “yes” in the second person, but digresses from this.  What follows is a long middle section that explores the many uses of the word yes, and comes full circle in the end by addressing the concept “yes” personally once again.  The central theme of the poem appears through questions, emerging eventually as a celebration of the affirmation and mystery of “yes.”  Linguistic devices help energize the poem.  Though it is written in free verse, the poem still has rhythm incorporated.  In the lines “Pamela bending before the grate/…I will meet you in Boston/At five after nine,” a distinct hint of anapest rhythm comes through.  The repetition of “yes” throughout the poem, besides contributing to rhythm, adds a sense of expectation, of waiting for the positive response to the multiple questions posed.  The personification of the word “yes” seems at once to bring the poem within reach, and yet take some things out of the realm of comprehension. 
       A poem that is set in the middle of Koch’s life is the poem “To the Roman Forum.”  The speaker of the poem invites the reader into his moment of intense joy, as his wife has just given birth to a baby, Katherine.  Feeling spellbound and a bit disoriented, the speaker in this poem speaks in short, confused bursts, such as “Oh my, My God, my goodness, a child, a wife.”  The sheer joy of the moment comes through in the unrefined words that abandon convention.  While this poem is not heavy with figurative language, as befits the moment, the speaker does make an effective implied simile, comparing his excitement level to drinking 25 espressos.  The poem ends with a comment on the timelessness of moments of wonder and great joy, saying “I am here, they are here, this has happened./ It is happening now, it happened then.”  In a poem toward the end of the collection titled “To Scrimping,” Koch uses line lengths and enjambment to communicate his experiences with scrimping.  The shorter line lengths communicate strong emotion, as the reader’s eyes jump to the next line quickly.  For example, the lines “I need to have engraved in my cerebrum/as in a library wall” communicate frustration.  Sentences take up between two and four lines, as Koch expertly varies the pace and the mood of the poem.  The enjambed line “I am a tire with my wheel dependent on you, Scrimping,/Then.” highlights the time qualifier “then” to show that the speaker intends to resort to Scrimping only in his most desperate times. 

        The formal elements of this poem were fairly subtle but contributed much to the overall effect of the poem.  While this poem was written without a regular meter, rhyme weasels its way into the poem.  The last four lines, wrapping up the poem, have an aabb rhyme scheme, with “all,” “wall,” “way,” and “away.” As the poem transitions into a more solid rhyme scheme, it reaches for resolution. 

        New Addresses is important in the poet’s works and life because it is his last work, and in many ways, it is the pinnacle of his poetry career.  Kenneth Koch was born on February 27, 1925 in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Ohio and Koch’s childhood there make an appearance in this book, along with his military service, which he served from 1943 to 1945 in the Philippines.  Koch lived in New York City for a time, where he became friends with John Ashberry, another famous poet.  Together, they and other poets made up what came to be known as the New York School of Poets.  Koch’s first book, Poems, was published in 1953.  Many of Koch’s early works were humorous, a theme that continued throughout his career.  He relished farce and satire, as his mock epic, Ko; or A Season on Earth, demonstrates.  No classic was too good to be touched by Koch, as he also imitated “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Willams.  In New Addresses, Koch covers new ground in his own life, such as his childhood and his military service.  As Koch stated in an interview, “I was very surprised to find myself writing about these subjects.  I was happy to find a way to write them.” (“New Addresses”).

        In conclusion, New Addresses is a pinnacle in Kenneth Koch’s career, incorporating good-natured humor with astute observation about life, wrapped in beautiful language to create art. Through poem analysis and biographical information, a reader can better delve into the glittering sea of words. In some way, this book has improved the human condition, by touching the reader or by simply bringing more beauty into the world.

        

A topic worth revisiting: What is Poetry?

"Do I trust that poem?"  Peter Fallon, an Irish poet, asks himself this question every time he writes poetry.  As I have wandered my way through Intro to Poetry, I have learned much about what makes  a poem, such as form, imagery, creativity, and an interesting view of the world.  By reading poetry, I have been guided into someone else's life through the vessel of language.  To me, poetry searches for a way to tell truth about life, uses language to create beauty, and reaches into the social space to speak the language of the heart.

As a poem lays out what it has to say or the image it has, it exposes a new way of looking at the world.  In Dulce Et Decorum Est, Wilfred Owen draws on experiences from the war, using horrible, desperate images to communicate what the war was like to the reader.   Soldiers trudge past exhaustion in the poem, only to be pushed to their limits once more by a gas attack. This time, one man hesitates a moment too long and dies an awful death, and Owen adds his own interpretation of the event:  if everyone would watch this death, they would no longer tell lies about the glory of dying for one's country.   Something I realized in this course was that a poem does not have to be historically accurate to speak the truth, and that may be the case in this poem.  Wilfred Owen may never have experienced a man dying from gas himself with all this vivid detail, but he can still communicate the terror and helplessness of other men.  Whether or not he was drawing on personal experience in the poem, it is powerful and raw, and it tells the world a truth about war and the lies we tell ourselves about it.

While Wilfred Owen told the world a section of truth about a very large event, World War I, through poetry, poetry can also be a very intimate snapshot of someone's life and resonate with us. In Fadwa Tuquan's poem "Behind Bars,"  she describes her forced separation from her mother, using vivid imagery of roses growing in blood in the middle of the poem.  The reader may have a harder time figuring out the exact situation the speaker is in and what the roses represent, but the empty, lonely image of her mother staring at Tuqan's old school things effectively reaches across barriers.

Next, poetry experiments with language and pushes boundaries, while still using form to bring the cold text on the page to life.  In the beginning of the class, I was oblivious to the valuable part that rhythm and rhyme had to play in poetry, as I associated them with nursery rhymes and hymns.  However, my mind began to open after looking at some of Emily Dickinson's more complex poetry, such as "Volcanoes be in Sicily."  This poem effectively utilizes form such as slant rhyme to draw the reader into the poem, instead of pushing the reader out.  Paul Celan pushed language to the limit in his poem "Todes Fuge," written in German.  He spins a poem that is a testament to what language can do, creating a feast for the reader's ear with a pulsing beat and hidden rhyme.  The poem tests boundaries of language in both German and English, as the translation by John Felstiner stretches and molds language, just as the original did.

To me, one of the most mysterious and wonderful things about poetry is that it captures some of the essence of humanity and brings them into the light of the social space.   In the anthology Against Forgetting:  Twentieth Century Poetry of Witness, Carolyn Forche describes social space as "the space between the state and the supposedly safe havens of the personal" (Forche 31). By establishing a place between these two extremes, Forche helps to visualize a type of poetry that can provide a witness to human events.  Georg Trakl wrote in this space of the social, as seen in his poem "A Romance to Night."  Trakl juxtaposes contradicting images, both disturbing and serene, such as a mother and child sleeping, while laughter echoes from the whorehouse.  This poem only hints at its context of World War I, referring to the hands of the dead, but it draws these personal experiences and the political idea of war together into a place they can both inhabit:  a poem.  Poems that deal more traditionally with the personal also illumine the nature of life and humanity.    In Sharon Olds' poem, "To my parents," evaluated and appreciated by Kate Stoltzfus, "I Go Back to May 1937,"  Kate expresses the way Olds can take an everyday occurrence and make the mundane beautiful.  In this particular poem, I found something different, sensing some of the heaviest regret a person can carry, and yet the human desire to live and thrive seeps through as well.  Like music, poetry trolls the unseen depths of the human soul, and pulls up mossy objects hidden there.  We may only catch a glimpse of  these things out of the corner of our eyes, or we may be forced to stare at something head on, but either way, beneficial, malignant or benign, true poetry will not shrink from the mystery of what it is to be human.  

In conclusion, poetry is a form of art which searches for truth in life,  which births beauty into the world through language, and explores the whole human experience.  Poetry lives, as it sets a part of the author onto the page, which is picked up by the reader and made into a new creation.  Poetry helps us to begin to reach into the unknowable, unspeakable parts of life, carving the simple vessel of language into ships, schooners, dinghies, and ocean liners that sail us out of ourselves, and then back.  In the words of Bertolt Brecht, "In the dark times, will there also be singing?/ Yes, there will be singing./ About the dark times."  

Vienna Wagner's Esther

After going to the Mennonite Church USA convention this  summer, I had the impression that Mennonite creative writing in an organized form was nearly nonexistent.  However, I read some stellar writing on the website for the Center for Mennonite Writing.  

I especially enjoyed the poem Esther by Vienna Wagner.  With Esther as the main character, the poem expertly explores the alienation and sensations that Esther feels as the king's wife.  The speaker feels out of place, as her husband's servants try to scrub her heritage out of her.  She still longs for her people and her homeland, even though she is now in a place of power and privilege.  

Imagery is central to the poem, as it begins with descriptions of Queen Vashti's presence lingering in the palace, in the scallop of the spoons and the scent of jasmine.  The speaker describes the honey and myrrh she has bathed during her "stillborn" year, and compares herself to a straw clinging to a camel's back.  

Rhythm plays a part in the poem, as seen in the lines   

"I never climbed those olive trees

or planted chickpea toes in promised soil."

The first line is written in iambic tetrameter, and the second is written in iambic pentameter.  Buoyed by rhythm, these lines emphasize the longing in the poem for a homeland and identity. 

This poem displays complexity and nuance and breathes new life into a old story.

“To Yes:” Kenneth Koch Affirms What is Good in the World

Kenneth Koch’s book New Addresses follows a fresh blueprint, a road that is rarely followed in the world of poetry.  His book’s memorable organizational style emphasizes the distinctive poem that it contains. As the reader catches on to the repetitive style of the letter poems in New Addresses, the beauty of the work exposes itself – as can be clearly seen in the complexity of the poem “To Yes.” 

            To begin, “To Yes” reveals some of itself only if the reader digs deep into the poem.  When reading the poem, the reader may experience varied feelings, including confusion, along with considering new concepts. However, if the poem is broken down, the unfathomable can be partially converted into the fathomable.   “To Yes,” the first poem in the book, is a letter poem.  This poem is an apostrophe, addressed and written to the concept of “yes,” which is personified in the process.  The poem is one stanza and is written in free verse.  It is far from prose, however.  It begins directly addressing the concept of “yes” in the second person, but digresses from this.  What follows is a long middle section that explores the many uses of the word yes, and comes full circle in the end by addressing the concept “yes” personally once again.  The central theme of the poem appears through questions, emerging eventually as a celebration of the affirmation and mystery of “yes.” 

            The poem begins with a description of the word yes, and adds question that can be answered with a yes or no.  Throughout the poem, first and second person is used.  This mode of address adds a feeling of familiarity with the reader, since it almost seems to put the reader into the shoes of the personified “yes.”  The poem consists of 27 lines, and while it is not the longest poem in the book, it is convoluted yet elegant.  The rapid-fire questions with unexpected answers keep the reader off-balance and searching for more explanation.  For example, the line “Are you a Buddist? Maybe.  A monsoon? Yes.” leaves one puzzled but enjoying the music of the language. 

            Linguistic devices help energize the poem.  Though it is written in free verse, the poem still has rhythm incorporated.  In the lines “Pamela bending before the grate/…I will meet you in Boston/At five after nine,” a distinct hint of anapest rhythm comes through.  The repetition of “yes” throughout the poem, besides contributing to rhythm, adds a sense of expectation, of waiting for the positive response to the multiple questions posed.  There is also a hint of rhyme, as “guess” and “yes” finish lines close to one another.

            The personification of the word “yes” seems at once to bring the poem within reach, and yet take some things out of the realm of comprehension.  The speaker of the poem even asks, “But what, Pamela, does that mean? Am I a yes/To be posed in the face of a negative alternative?”  The mystery of the poem deepens through the search of the speaker for truth.

Kenneth Koch again

I picked up Kenneth Koch's book New Addresses from my teacher, and I was so glad she helped me to discover his work!  I really enjoyed reading it.

a young Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch writes a letter to "Scrimping"

In his poem “To Scrimping,” Kenneth Koch creatively personifies a problem that many people can relat to: tightfistedness.  As the reader is immersed in the imagery of the poem, an auto-biographical situation, a battle with the self, emerges.

            New Addresses, the volume of poems in which “To Scrimping” appears, utilizes the style of apostrophe, or letter poems.  All the poems in this book are addresses to either physical objects or abstract ideas, such as scrimping.  As a result, all of the addressees of these letters are personified concepts.  In the volume, Koch chooses to write in first person, as he does in all of the poems that appear in this book New Addresses.  This gives a sense of intimacy to the reader, and helps to create the illusion that the speaker is conversing with the reader.  While multiple stanzas are absent in this poem, the chunk of text still has a very intentional structure.  Koch uses line lengths and enjambment to subtle but discernible ends.  The shorter line lengths communicate strong emotion, as the reader’s eyes jump to the next line quickly.  For example, the lines “I need to have engraved in my cerebrum/as in a library wall” communicate frustration.  As the speaker states, “I have my eye on you,” the short line length draw the eye, signaling the wariness of the speaker.  Enjambment also plays a part in this poem, as many of the sentences are fairly long.  The sentences take up between two and four lines, as Koch expertly varies the pace and the mood of the poem.  The enjambed line “I am a tire with my wheel dependent on you, Scrimping,/Then.” highlights the time qualifier “then” to show that the speaker intends to resort to Scrimping only in his most desperate times. 

            The formal elements of this poem were fairly subtle but contributed much to the overall effect of the poem.  While this poem was written without a regular meter, rhyme weasels its way into the poem.  The last four lines, wrapping up the poem, have an aabb rhyme scheme, with “all,” “wall,” “way,” and “away.” The author also includes slant rhyme, with “sod” and “not.”  Lines four through seven display an abcb rhyme pattern, with the rhyme appearing in the pair “law” and “wall.” As the poem transitions into a more solid rhyme scheme, it reaches for resolution.  There is one instance of clear alliteration, as Koch writes “emotionally exhausted,” which rings nicely in the ear.  All of these devices give the free verse energy and makes it a delight to read.

            Linguistically, besides structuring the poem around a drawn-out personification of stinginess, Koch also implements a metaphor in line 11. Introducing it in the line before with “completely blown out,” the speaker compares himself to a tire dependent on Scrimping to avoid a complete crash.  Imagery drives the poem, as one envisions the speaker dragging Scrimping along shopping, the speaker directing a law to be engraved inside of his skull, and the speaker attempting to shake Scrimping off of “My hand, my chest, my wrist.”  The most striking image is that of the speaker being walled up with Scrimping and left to die. 

            As I read this poem first for enjoyment, then critically, I discovered more ideas that spoke to me.  I picked this poem because scrimping is a relevant issue to me.  Monetarily, I tend to scrimp because I learned this habit form by parents as they tried to get by.  I also tend to scrimp with my time, often devoting more time to myself then I should.  I would like to change this habit and shake off scrimping for the most part, so that I may give most of my time to other people.  I could feel how the speaker struggled with Scrimping and the joy the speaker would experience by dying when he had given everything he had to give.  Reading this, I too wanted to strive to give everything I can.

The Ilustrious Life of Kenneth Koch

Brianna Brubaker

Ann Hostetler – Intro to Literature

Biography Sketch of Kenneth Koch



Kenneth Koch



            Kenneth Koch, and American writer, was born on February 27, 1925 in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Raised in a middle-class family, Koch was a talented student.  Despite his poor eyesight, the military conscripted him in 1943, leading to Koch’s service in the Philippines until 1945. Returning to the U.S., he attended Harvard University and graduated in 1948 with an A.B.

            Koch then moved to New York City, where he developed a style of writing that came to be categorized under the New York School of Poets.  This distinction also included his friend John Ashberry, along with the poets Frank O’ Hara and James Schuyler.  His first book of poems, Poems, was published in 1953.  According to The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, “his mix of surreal imagery, slapstick humor, wide-ranging cultural allusiveness, and graceful lyricism revolted against the prevailing literary formalism of the day.” His time spent in France in the early 1950s resulted in poems mimicking the confusing wash of language he experienced there.

            Many of Koch’s early works were humorous and poked fun at more traditional and formal poetry.  His mock epic, Ko; or, A Season on Earth, was loosely modeled on the work Don Juan, and traced the path of a Japanese student pitching for the Dodgers.  Demonstrating further irreverence, Koch imitated one of William Carlos William’s most famous poems, “This is Just to Say,” creating a delightfully funny poem for his readers.

            Branching out from the world of poetry, Koch had been writing plays with some consistency throughout his carrier, and they began to receive national recognition.  Some plays appeared on Broadway, including the play One-Thousand Avant-Garde Plays.  This collection poked fun at the avant-garde plays that often appear on Broadway.  Next, he taught both children and older adults how to write poetry, resulting in two books:  Rose, How Did You Get the Red and I Never Told Anybody: Teaching Poetry Writing to Old People.  Koch experienced more critical acclaim and affirmation towards the end of this life.  His book  New Addresses was a finalist for the National Book Award.  Koch died in 2002 of leukemia. 

            New Addresses contains a style that is both humorous and serious.  By using the form of a letter throughout the book, Koch opens up new ground for himself.  Although he explores  topics he has already covered in other books, such as sexuality, he also brings his childhood into the light, which does not appear in his other books.  He also dealt with another untouched part of his life, his service in the military. As Koch said in an interview, “I was very surprised to find myself writing about these subjects. I was happy to find a way to write them” (“New Addresses”).  Koch may have sensed that his life was coming to its later days, as two of his pomes allude to the end of life, “To Breath” and “To Old Age.”  “To Breath” is especially poignant, as it entreats Breath to remain with the author until he has completed all the work that he wants to share with the world.  This book is considered one of his most complex and prestigious works, and it interacts with the reader on a deep level.

Koch’s Books of Poetry

1953: Poems

1959: Ko, or, A Season on Earth

1961: Permanently

1962: Thank You and Other Poems

1968: Poems From 1952 and 1953

1969: The Pleasures of Peace and Other Poems, Sleeping With Women, When the Sun Tries to Go On

1975: The Art of Love

1979: From the Air, The Burning Mystery of Anna in 1951

1982: Days and Nights

1986: On the Edge

1987: Seasons on Earth

1994:  On the Great Atlantic Railway: Selected Poems 1950-88, One Train

2000: New Addresses

Works Cited

“Kenneth Koch.”  The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives. Charles Schribner’s Sons, 2004. Gale Biography In Context.  Web. 16 Nov. 2011.

Leddy, Michael.  “New Addresses.”  World Literature Today 74.4 (2000): 819. Gale Biography in Context. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.

“NEW ADDRESSES.” Publishers Weekly 27 Mar. 200: 71. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.

“Selected Websites on Kenneth Koch’s Life and Works.”  Gale Biography in Context.  Detroit: Gale, 2008.  Gale Biography In Context. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.

Peter Fallon at the not-so-emerald isle of Goshen

I enjoyed the time that I got to spend listening to Peter Fallon, but I especially appreciated his poetry reading.  His poem selections were thought-provoking and based in his every-day experiences, which I found meaningful.  One thing that he said during his poetry reading that stuck with me was that poems are compositions, leading to composure in the poet and the world around him.  I especially enjoying his humorous poem that wrapped up the night, featuring a scene with the police and some people who had overstayed their welcome at the bar.  The dry wit was really refreshing.

I also enjoyed the intimate experience of having him in our classroom.  He read the poem "A Will,"  which discussed a tree growing on a rock and a fence post sprouting new growth, and related these images back to our population of 7 billion people.

A few quotes that stuck out to me:

 "Learn how to write the poem you're working on, and learn how to start again."

"Could I imaging my life without poems at the center of it?"

"Writing is a tension between the mysterious and the mundane."

"Do I trust that poem?"

"Behind Bars" in a Time of Turmoil

A Perspective on Fadwa Tuqan's poem "Behind Bars"

         At the beginning of the twentieth century, Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire.  After World War I, it became its own country, only to be divided in two after World War II.  Fadwa Tuqan was born into a prominent Palestinian family in this volatile situation, and her poetry grew out of struggles with identity.  One of Tuqan’s lesser known poems, “Behind Bars,” deals with her feelings toward her mother but alludes to other layers of meaning.  Tuqan’s poem skillfully weaves together linguistic elements to create a vivid and unique image that details one person’s life experience within the larger conflicts in her homeland, still universally fascinating readers through giving a glimpse of human emotion, allowing us to see how Tuqan uses poetry in her life.

To begin, Tuqan attempts to deal with and act on some traumatic events that have happened to her by detailing them in poetry, in the process creating a very unique work. Written in first person, the poem describes the speaker's experience in prison as she visualizes her mother.   In the Against Forgetting Anthology, the speaker references the time before her arrest, saying "and my mother was near me,/ blessing my painting" (Forche 541).  The speaker then describes what she believes her mother is experiencing, such as "I see here/on her face silence and loneliness now" (Forche 541).  Probably expressing what Tuqan is feeling, the speaker yearns to escape her prison and run to her mother.     Not only does Tuqan set her poem in an unusual experience,  she does so with very startling imagery.  The poem begins with her mother’s phantom hovering before her, combining a mother, an intrinsically comforting image, with a ghost, something that tends to disturb people from any culture and may serve to shake up the reader.  Tuqan’s skillful figurative language also demonstrates the unique way her mind works as a poet.  She compares her mother's forehead, the seat of the intellect, to the light of stars, something that tends to be thought of very romantically.   This metaphor adds a tone of reverence to the poem.  Another surprising addition to the poem was the metaphor of “roses/grown with blood,”  changing the tone yet again as the author refers to her arrest.  Not many poets would talk about roses as nurtured in blood, and this ambiguous image gives Tuqan’s poetry mystery and distinction.  As a reader, one may have trouble understanding why the poet chose the phrase she did, or why the speaker’s mother blessed the painting.  In the very end of the poem as translated in Against Forgetting, Tuqan surprises the reader by yearning for not her mother's face, but the touch of "her arms and the face of day."  These hidden meanings are left to the interpretation of the reader, who will draw on personal life experience and knowledge to fill in the blanks. 

On another note, Tuqan’s poetry breaks many barriers in the Arab world, especially in the way she utilizes language. Not only is she a female poet, which is not often heard of or accepted, but according to the Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East, she also writes in free verse in Arabic.  This violates the traditional form of Arab poetry, which, according to an article on Arab Poetry in AL-Bab: An Open Door to the Arab World, is normally composed within strict forms of rhyme and rhythm.  Her experimentation creates a new and fresh form of her art.  Fadwa Tuqan’s poetry is unique not only for the unusual personal situation she is describing, presumably from jail, but also individual because of the trailblazing way she manipulates language.

Next, Tuqan witnessed a tumultuous era of her land. Born on March 1, 1917, she lived to see her country taken over by outsiders and the state of Israel created in 1948.  A rapidly changing reality was part of Tuqan’s growing up years, as disputes abounded between Arabs and Israelis on land claims. With these circumstances, Contemporary Authors online suggests that it would be natural for Tuqan’s poems “trace the development of the Palestinian people, from despair to steadfastness to resistance” (“Fadwa Tuqan”).  A time of severe political oppression in Palestine appeared in many of Tuqan’s works, as she responded to and pushed back against the dictates of foreign powers.  She lived through the Arab revolt of 1936-1939, as militants directed attacks toward the British establishment and Jewish settlements. While the reader of "Behind Bars" may not know all the details of the unrest that Tuqan experienced, she may get a sense of turmoil as Tuqan connects her written "letters in a book" to her arrest.   Tuqan’s first volume of poetry was published  in 1952, titled Wahdi ma al-Ayyam, or Along with the Days. As more wars broke out, Fadwa responded to the injustice and complexities of the Six-Days War and the Yom Kippur War, as Jewish people took more and more Palestinian land away.  Her memoir, published 1985 as Rihlah Sa’bah, Rihlah Jabaliyah, records some of this, as well as the repression she felt from her family.  Her memoir was her first work to be translated into English, as A Mountainous Journey.  The larger context of Fadwa Tuqan’s works lead to the rich and varied poetry that she produced, especially evident as her poem “Behind Bars”  showcases her control of imagery and metaphor.  She experienced more severe discouragement both in her home and in the political atmosphere than most people ever experience, and this combined with her creative spirit to explode into masterful and powerful works.  

Finally, Tuqan’s poetry is intensely emotional, touching many readers through the use of her style elements and personal life.  The imagery of the satchel and old uniform, gathering dust, draw the reader more fully into the poem.  In “Behind Bars,”  Tuqan’s mother is central to the poem just as almost all mothers are central to their children’s lives.  Drawing on shared experiences of being separated from people we love, mothers especially, Tuqan lays out a very simple but heart-wrenching experience.  As a reader, the repetition of the phrase  “silence and loneliness”  harbors an acute sense of the pain of separation.  The repetition of the phrase makes it seem like the ringing of a question asked to the hollow air in an empty building.  One can almost feel Tuqan’s longing for her mother:  that emptiness that can only be filled by a loved one.  Helplessness also preys on the reader, as one feels the constriction of being under arrest and no longer making choices for oneself. However, there is little literature on this particular poem, and the reader may feel lost when faced with the emotional burden of roses grown from blood and no explanation for these carnivorous flowers.  Tuqan’s arrest is also shrouded in mystery, laying down more questions.  However, these questions draw the reader back again and again, feeling the raw emotional power resonate with the unanswerable inquiries.  Perhaps this marriage of emotion and curiosity is what makes the poem so powerful.

          In conclusion, Tuqan’s artfully developed poetry and personal images combine with the unique situation of her homeland, creating an emotional atmosphere that touches a wide range of readers. Her unique free verse and feminist themes emerged as a cry against the restricting society in which she was raised, calling for room for change and creativity.  She pushed boundaries with innovation, challenging injustice where she saw it by responding with art.  Her poems could never be shot down like an enemy, and indeed, the former Israeli defense minister commented that “reading one of Tuqan's poems was like facing twenty enemy commandos” (“Fadwa Tuqan”).  The art of words performed an action more sacred and insidious than the violence of  a fighter:  instead of killing people, it changed their minds.  These poems, written for their own sake, added beauty and truth to the world, which always hungers for beauty and truth.  As Contemporary Authors Online explains it, “In the face of anger, despair, and occupation, she held out hope and determination.”  This is what gives Tuqan's poem "Behind Bars" its meaning in a context of death and violence:  it becomes a way to healing and life.

Works Cited

Amawi, Abla M. "Fadwa Tuqan." Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East. Gale, 2004. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 31 Oct. 2011.

"Arabic Poetry." AL-BAB: an Open Door to the Arab World. 18 June 2009. Web. 06 Dec. 2011. <http://www.al-bab.com/arab/literature/poetry.htm>.

"Fadwa Tuqan." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 31 Oct. 2011.

Forche, Carolyn.  "Behind Bars, Sel." Against Forgeting: Twentieth-Century Poetry of Witness.  New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc,  1993.  

My stab at sonnet writing

American Sign Language

Her fingers flying through the air with purpose,

My teacher gives us truth with practiced patience.

The class observes, in awe, her faithful service:

She guides us through the foreign world of silence.

With watchful eyes, we learn the signs for numbers,

actions, clothes, emotions; and the colors

bejewel the air with ideas unencumbered

by careless sounds, extra that tend to smother.

Excitedly we shape our hands new ways,

communicating with our child-like fingers,

And as we navigate this tricky maze,

a sense of learning and well-being lingers.

This class, who shared so little before signing,

now faces an adventurous horizon.

I used the Shakespearian sonnet form, because I remembered that it is an easier form to use in English, which has few rhymes.  I had a lot of trouble finding rhymes for the first words I picked, probably because I wanted to use multisyllabic words.  I either changed the words of the sentences or picked another word with which to end the line.  I discovered that it was easier to keep the meter going as I went along, and it was really satisfying to complete a line.

Having some feedback on this sonnet was really helpful, because I struggled with some things in it.  I tried to keep the rhyme scheme going in one of the stanzas, but then the actual line was pretty vague.  I fixed the meaning on that line, and I also altered a line so the  rhyme for silence would be closer.  After writing this, I also realized that I added an extra syllable to the words at the end of the lines, but I would basically have to rewrite the sonnet to change that, so I just left it.  Hopefully you can forgive my flawed writing!

Paul Celan

Paul Celan

I think he looks like he's seen a lot of the difficult things in life.

Also, here's a link to the original German of Todesfuge.

Todesfuge in a time of tragedy

I just came back from the vigil for Jim Miller, a professor at Goshen who was killed today.  It was a really moving experience, and I couldn't help comparing it to the poem Todesfuge.  Professor Miller died of unnatural causes and presumably with violence, in some ways bringing to mind the senseless slaughter of Jews and others in World War II.  Thinking about the incomprehensible number of deaths that resulted from World War II stunned me.  I can't even comprehend this one, let alone millions.  


I was simply thankful that the community can gather together to support his family, and to grieve. 


Here's the original assignment: 
Translating the poem Death Fuge by Paul Celan from the original German is a tricky proposition, since it plays with meter and references.  


Translations by John Felstiner and Joachim Neugroschel


I was struck by the way that these two translators handled a section about Death interacting with   "his Jews."   While I appreciate the both translations, I like Felstiner's better in this case. 


Neugroschel translates:


he whistles for his Jews he has them dig a grave in the earth

he commands us to play for the dance

while Felstiner translates the same spot as:


he whistles his Jews into rows has them shovel a grave in the ground


he orders us strike up and play for the dance


I thought the imagery in Felstiner's translation was much stronger. Whistling Jews into rows seems much more degrading and regimented than simply whistling for them. The use of 'shoveling a grave in the ground' also helps me visualize it, and the word 'shovel' sounds harsher than dig. I thought the shorter words in the last line of Felstiner's translation were also a better use of space, because they pack more meaning than the words that Neugroschel has selected.


Reading all the different versions of the poem in English was a great experience, because it was like hearing many different people's opinions. It helped me understand the poem in
German much better.

The Imperfect Amish

Tonight, I went to a presentation given by Saloma Miller Furlong, author of Why I Left the Amish.  I was really intrigued by her experience in the Amish, as I normally consider their society to be closer than the mainstream to the ideal existence.   While I know that the Amish way of living has its' flaws, I normally hold up their rejection of technology and community living as, in some ways, better than my own way of living.  However, Saloma's story was very moving, as she endured abuse, twisted relationships,  and  confining expectations of what she could become, eventually ending with her first attempt to leave the Amish.  I was fascinated that she could still stay in touch with her family because her community's ban was not as strict as I had imagined.  I thought it was very brave of her to share her painful history, as it may  spark a change for the better in the lives of both the English and the Amish.

Some Amish women in Indiana

Trying to Make Sense of the Insensible

After September 11, people looked for a lens to try to understand all the death. More and more frequently, W. H. Auden's poem "September 11, 1939" provided a way to deal with the grief shrouding the nation.  Even though some people thought that this poem may not have been appropriate for the time,  I found the tone to be suited to the fall of the twin towers.  To me, the poem speaks truth about the human condition,  about the shadow of industrialization,  about the longing within everyone to be loved.  It reminds us that no one can live truly alone.  I find it profound that even though Auden repudiates the line "We must love one another or die,"  readers continue to cling to it.  To me, this is the strongest proof that this poem speaks more than the poet ever dreamed it could.

September 1, 1939

I really enjoyed reading Auden's poem, written after the declaration of World War I.  I looked more in depth at stanza 4:

Into this neutral air
Where blind skyscrapers use
Their full height to proclaim
The strength of Collective Man,
Each language pours its vain
Competitive excuse:
But who can live for long
In an euphoric dream;
Out of the mirror they stare,
Imperialism's face
And the international wrong.

Since Auden was writing this from the U.S., he seems to be referring to the U.S.'s non-involvement in the war in the opening line, "the neutral air."  In this stanza, Auden describes one of the symbols of civilization's greatest achievements, the huge skyscrapers in the cities.  He then seems to tear them down as "an euphoric dream,"  which seems relevant in this new war atmosphere.  These testimonies to man's progress can be destroyed in a single air raid, and will be in the future. The blank windows and mirrors reflect the disharmony and disconnect between the relationships between individuals and relationships between countries in a time of war.

Free-Write poem

From two free-writes and the suggestions of fellow poets (thanks everyone!), I've pieced together this poem about experiences from my childhood…

Habit(at)

I loved sunshiny golden

afternoons, when I swallowed the whole world

with book in hand, I blocked out 

the mower’s snarl, tangled emotions, memories

and floated

away, to an existence

where life showed logic, and the people 

were bright, technicolored,

vivid.

In my small child body, I watched a forest

of knees and waists,

navigating burgundy tiles

through folding tables topped with fellowship and food.

A smiling face topped by white wisps leaned down 

and asked if the thumb in my mouth was vanilla

or chocolate:  it was chocolate.

The communion of bread and laughter covered up 

small talk 

and the press of people hemmed me

out 

like a good book.

A whimsical book

Poetry Reading with Julia Spicher Kasdorf

On Friday, I went to Julia Spicher Kasdorf’s poetry reading, which was unlike anything I had ever experienced.  I had only ever been to a poetry slam before, so I wasn’t used to the crowd’s reactions, or the format of presentation.  I was a little surprised that after serious poems, the crowd would laugh. I appreciated that Julia opened up the reading for questions and answers, although I had trouble hearing some of the questions asked. I personally enjoyed the reading more because we had studied Julia’s poetry in class, so I knew some of the basic structure and ideas that show up in her poems, and she read a poem I recognized, “English 213: Introduction to Poetry Writing,” which gives us a glimpse of her teaching and poetry readings.  She often gave a little background information to her poems, which helped me to appreciate them more, since they’re often abstract.  Overall, I found the poetry reading to be a very meaningful and thought-provoking experience.

Emily Dickinson's Poetry

For class, I've written a poem in the style of Emily Dickinson…
A cautious Songbird warbles

Dawn-lit Dewdrops shine--

Around a Coffin congregate

Mourners in a Line.

Death shadows solemn Faces,

Sparrows greet the Mourning--

A Song of Joy bursts forth--

A Memory ends the Story.

Walt Whitman's Poetry

Here's a poem that I've attempted to write in the style of Walt Whitman…


Memory

I search for you by the chasm of recollection,

listening for the crackle of leaves under your feet,

never quite near, snatching glimpses of your wrinkled ankles as you flee through 

dense packed trees. Why do you taunt me, darting out of reach; 

flaunting your gray-streaked hair, woven of thoughts, places, faces, words, 

frazzled with turmoil and glinting with laughter? But now I’ve caught your frail arm,

and yanked a strand from your head, 

claiming victory for today, fickle Memory.

Poetry is...

Read "anyone lived in a pretty how town." 

Listen to e. e. cummings read "anyone lived in a pretty how town" on youtube.

In the words of e.e. cummings, “the most wasted of all days is one without laughter.”  (goodreads.com) Cummings, a renowned poet, used his poems to elicit laughter and tears from his audience.  The essence of poetry appears in e.e. cummings’ work “anyone lived in a pretty how town,” which uses carefully selected words and rhythm, connects on a deep level with the reader, and brings a new perspective on the human condition.

To begin, poetry is a collection of intentional words, picked for their harmonies together or their image on the page. Poetry is much more than everyday discussion, or even a well-written novel.  In these situations, a sentence is a vessel to carry information from one person to another.  In contrast, poetry such as “anyone lived in a pretty how town” focuses on the vessel itself and makes art out of language.  The specific rhyme schemes and rhythms differ from poem to poem, with some poets like John Donne using a very disciplined and constricting kind of poem to convey their point, while others use free verse and everyday language that together, sound almost like conversational English.  Poems all have this in common:  they are constructed from a base of words that were long thought-over before joining their comrades.  E.e. cummings’ poem employs syntax in a distinctive style, shocking the reader into becoming alert.  Cummings penned the phrase “children guessed(but only a few/and down they forgot as up they grew,”  which demonstrates both the unorthodoxy of his syntax and his traditional rhyme scheme (“Anyone”).  Cummings blends a perfect mix of enterprising and dated styles, demonstrating a use of format that takes words and creates poetry.

Next, poems are meant to extract a reaction from the reader.  Perhaps the poet wants to connect to his reader by sharing his own emotions, or perhaps the poet writes to unsettle the reader.  Perhaps, as e.e. cummings, a poet wishes that his poem would cause the reader to laugh, as the reader attempts to pronounce and make sense of “(with up so floating many bells down)” (“Anyone”).  A poet may simply want to offer his reader a sense of peace or release.  In essence, a poet wants the reader to experience the world more fully, as the reader slows down to really understand the meaning.   A poem, if it truly creates emotion, does so by being honest.  The reader can feel the devotion of noone as “she laughed his joy she cried his grief/...anyone’s any was all to her” (“Anyone”).   This demonstration of noone’s love for anyone helps the reader to feel the injustice as the “busy folk buried them side by side” and promptly forget about the lives of these two people (“Anyone”).  The reader experiences sadness as the poem uses a full circle ending, echoing the cyclical nature of life.  E.e. cummings stirs emotions in his readers as he crafts his poem, demonstrating one of the most valuable qualities of poetry.

Finally, poetry makes some impact in the world, in some way bettering it.  Some poems have an obvious agenda, awakening the reader to an urgency to change something that is wrong.  Others are simply a way for the author to let go of an important experience, allowing the author to become more whole and, in this way, improving the world.  E.e. cummings instead gives us a cautionary tale, recounting the mediocre life of anyone, uncelebrated and unintentional, which was only made exceptional by the love of noone.  The vagueness of the names suggests that cummings means to apply this situation to everyone, and encourage people to value their lives and live intentionally.  This antithesis of perfection, by encouraging the reader to strive for ideals, embodies the quality of poetry that improves the human condition.

In conclusion, poetry is constructed of intentional words, moves the reader, and sparks a positive force in some way.  E.e. cummings’ poem “anyone lived in a pretty how town” embodies all of these things, and yet there is a quality to any poetry that can’t be captured in words.  This ever-changing, elusive quality is what makes poetry mysterious, relevant, and worth reading.

e.e. cummings