In class, as a group, read aloud and respond to the following poems in Unsettling America:
Pg. 204 “Mnemonic” by Li-Young Lee; pg. 220 “Always Running” by Luis J. Rodriguez;
Pg. 229 “Improvisation for Piano” by Michael Weaver; pg. 234 “English-Speaking Persons Will Find Translations” by Michael S. Glaser.
POST RESPONSE TO ONE OR MORE OF THESE POEMS ON CLASS BLOG AS A COMMENT FOR CLASSWORK CREDIT TODAY!
Students should continue to work on editing and finishing their Book of Qualities pieces.
Students can also work on their Penfield poems—due next week.
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Always Running by Luis J. Rodriquez
ReplyDeleteThis was one of the poems that I enjoyed reading. It was written very clearly, and I understood what Rodriquez was trying to get across, what the topic was. This was a sad poem, especially when kids were brought up. The image of the little kids sleeping, covered in roaches in a dirty bed was amazing; sad, of course, but a great image that set the tone for the rest of the poem.
I do not like many poems, but this is a poem I would read again.
Mnemonic by Li-Young Lee
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this poem with the class, I was bored and left hanging. I think the last line "So my father took off his blue sweater," was supposed to wrap the poem up, but it didn't for me. The whole poem was dull, and there was nothing that I could relate to in it. When Li-Young Lee talks about the world being flat and round, I was very confused.
It was nice writing, but apart from that, there was nothing I enjoyed about this poem.
Mnemonic-Li-Young Lee
ReplyDeleteI liked this poem most out of all of the ones we looked at today. I'd found it before we read it in class, because we read another poem on the page before it. Anyways, I liked how the poem started; "I was tired. So I lay down. My lids grew heavy. So I slept. Slender memory, stay with me." I liked that it wasn't full of illusion and metaphors, that it was sort of simple and gave you an introduction to the poem that wasn't full of imagery and description. It was different from the other poems in that way, which set it apart and made it more memorable. I also liked the repetition in the poem, because it wasn't the exact same thing. Well it was, but the sentences were worded differently; "I was cold once. So my father took off his blue sweater." opposed to "Once, I was cold. So my father took off his blue sweater."
I liked the way the poem is written, and I like it a lot more than the other Li-Young Lee poems that we've read so far. Something about it made it easy to relate to, even though it doesn't really apply to my life at all.
English-Speaking Persons Will Find Translations- Michael S. Glaser
ReplyDeleteThis is the poem that I felt most strongly about because I've always felt that the way America hides, or ignores what they've done and boasts it as a good thing, but then calls other countries out on what they've done is wrong. As the author of this poem brings up we go over to places like Germany to go visit places where we fought off all of these "evil" people then we made movies promoting the atrocities we performed against people like the Native Americans where we basically did attempt to commit genocide on their people, but because its the U.S. its ok. Another example is when we dropped the bombs on Japan it was never made into a movie but we were never reprehended for our actions, we just swept it under a rug and it was never really talked about again.
Out of the four poems that we read today in class, I found this one to be the most powerful. It made me really think about human nature and American culture. I've had these thoughts for a while, but this poem helped me come to a conclusion.
ReplyDeleteIn this poem the narrator is in Dachau, a concentration camp. It is the present day and the camp is a museum. People are watching movies, reading, and taking pictures. The people taking pictures were smiling and laughing, acting like they were in a Build A Bear store or Toys R Us. The thought of people doing this made me sicker than I already was. Do Americans go to Japan and pose by Nagasaki and Hiroshima, proud of what their nation has done? America murdered thousands of people under the wrong leader. Germany did the same thing. So why don't American people go to Japan, or Afghanistan or Iraq and pose with smiles by the landmarks where their nation killed many people? What makes another country's mistakes more laughable than their own?
"English-Speaking Persons Will Find Translations"
ReplyDelete"English-Speaking Persons Will Find Translations", a poem by Michael S. Glaser, captures the way Americans treat the Holocaust and how ashamed we should be of out own past of genocide. Glaser describes tourists bringing their children up to the ovens at Dachau and posing them for the camera so they can tell everyone about the "amazing" trip they had in Germany, which is wrong on so many levels, its hard to describe. The author also talks about the movie playing in his hotel, one of the cowboy and Indian kind of things, one that shows Americans in a very bad light, but it still seems acceptable. Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Vietnam are also mentioned, proving the point that we have no reason to judge. What happened in Dachau was awful, almost to terrible for words, but what people where doing and the way we see it as a nice day trip is almost as bad, and Glaser makes this point beautifully in this poem.
"English Speaking-Persons Will Find Translations"
ReplyDeleteWell, I liked it. I like how it sort of compares America to the Nazis with the whole idea of, "Well, they had concentration camps. Normally we hate that, but when you compare that to the fact that we caused Nagasaki and Hiroshima, as well as raped the Indians, then..." It was interesting to see a poem like this, mostly because you don't really see it them all that often. People are usually very ignorant as well as arrogant and say that the people that we brought such atrocities upon had it coming, and it was our divine right given to us by God to commit these inhumane crimes. Usually as long as people aren't the ones having something happen to them, they don't really care about it. Like the teacher in the poem, who said how many lives were "saved" by Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I put saved into quotes because when people say we saved lives by dropping the bombs, we actually caused the people in those cities to go through unbearable agony, and then they died. Many people died very painful deaths because of the bombs.
"Always Running"
I liked this poem as well. One reason I liked it is because of the part where he starts to question his emotions about who he wants to kill and if he should actually kill anyone. Recently I wrote a poem where the person questions himself like this, and I've got to say that it was rather entertaining to do. I much prefer reading and writing poems where the person questions things, and ones that deal with the inner mind. I can't really do imagery, and even though reading a poem with images is nice, I like having to think. Also, i like how he was managing to stay strong even during hard times. He's living in a house filled with cockroaches, his wife leaves him, and he has the constant threat of gangs, but he still manages to tough it out.
"Mnemonic"
Well, I liked parts of this poem. I can't say that it interested me much for the most part, but when it did the contrasting ideas of the earth being both flat and round, it managed to grab a hold of me. The contrasting ideas make it seem like this poem is worthwhile to read, even though I didn't enjoy most of it. It really didn't interest me much with reading about an immigrant's sweater that he wore to America. Call me crazy if you want, but reading a story where the bulk is about a sweater doesn't pique my interest.
"English-Speaking Persons Will Find Translations" is a poem by Michael S. Glaser. This poem made me angry. And it made me think. It made me think in the way where you step back for a minute and the whole picture is clearer, or at least, less blurry. This poem made some beautiful observations about people. Not 'beautiful' where it makes the people beautiful, but 'beautiful' in the way that it was so accurate the edges looked like razor blades. The poet notices how some people think of the Nazi's concentration camps as unthinkable, inhumane. And then the author points out how humans (America especially) have all done horrible things to people and thought we were saving our own kind. People ARE our own kind! How could we be saving or helping people when we are killing, killing innocents? How does that equation even begin to add up to a positive integer? And the sick part of this poem is that the tourists the poet is observing are smiling. They walk through this museum, though the gas chambers, next to the ovens and they're smiling. Smiling. And they want their pictures taken to remember this moment, to prove they'd been there, when anyone knows that being there is enough of a memory, experiencing that is enough to scar someone so that they will never forget. But maybe they don't understand. Maybe even I can't understand. But this is what the poet is trying to get us to understand. He is trying to get us to realize that we cannot point our fingers at the Nazis. We can point fingers at ourselves for the men who raped the Native American women, who slaughtered their children, who bombed Japan and now disease and death are still happening because of it. He is trying to make us realize that we are just as bad and that we have caused just as much harm to just as many, if not not more people because we thought we were saving something. He is trying to translate these atrocities into a language we can understand -- that we all have our faults, have all done something horrible, but that we shouldn't forget or ignore these things. We should not become numb to destruction.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem, "Mnemonic" by Li-Young Lee, I found it to be very powerful and heart warming. As the author discusses his relationship with his father, he recalls the memories he had with him. Memory is sweet, no matter what the cause or effect. The title is a great name for the poem because it depicts the whole theme of the poem. The word mnemonic refers to memory which connects to the general theme of the poem. One example would be when he was cold, his father gave him the blue sweater. That one sentence shows the memory of his father's compassion and the fervor with which his father cared for him. Another example is when he remembers when his father spanked him but only because he loved him. The common literary term used in the poem is metaphor. The metaphor about the earth being flat rather than round would express the difficulties he would have in his life if he didn't have his father in it. Because his father was in his life, his earth was round and he sees all things revealed as an adult. His memories were a purpose of his way of life.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, "Mnemonic" by Li-Young Lee, it was a bit confusing. I didn't quite grasp the meaning of the poem. I also felt that the poem wasn't exciting, resulting in me not being interested in paying attention to the poem. I couldn't relate to the poem, due to the fact that it was about a boy who praises his fathers blue sweater. I think O.o "English Speaking Persons Will Find Translations" by Michael S. Glaser depicts the way Americans view the Holocaust. Glaser also mentions how tourists crowd around as to not miss a thing, and they crowd around to take pictures with the ovens at Dachau. We should be ashamed of the reactions, but we aren't. Glaser also speaks of a movie that the narrator watches in a hotel room where Americans so inappropriate things to Native American women. In this poem, I believe that Glaser attempts to point out how we go on with our daily lives as if everything were okay, but we don't realize how difficult it must have been for those who were apart of a crisis. We only see that crisis as an "important piece of history", but we shouldn't be so insensitive and only look at it that way. Glaser beautifully succeeds in portraying this idea.
ReplyDeleteThree poems from this book were read today with a substitute teacher. Before I report my analogize of these works, first I'd like to mention that the substitute thought we were stupid and it kind of ruined the experience for me.
ReplyDeleteMoving on...The first poem was mnemonic by Li-Young Lee. I enjoyed it because I understood it, unlike most poems. It was basically about a girl's memories of her father, both good and bad.
The second poem was Always Running by Luis J. Rodriguez. This one I connected with because, first, I also run when I'm upset, and two, it reminds me of one of my favorite songs, Easier to Run by Linkin Park. I think most of the symbloizem of that poem went over my head though.
The third poem was Improvisation for Piano by Michael S. Weaver which just annoyed me, for mutable reasons. First, he's all scared about his son going out in the world cause he's no naive...well you should have taught him better! Duh! Second, he kills himself at the end(I think), hows that going to help your son, huh? Third, I didn't get the title, which just made me feel stupid.
The fourth poem was English-Speaking Persons Will Find Translations by Micheal S. Glaser, which I liked a lot. For one thing, it was simple language, for another it made sense. It was sad, but moving. Three thumbs up for that one. I would have perfered for Ms. Gamzon to teach it, because the sub just kind of said "where is he?" and stupid questions like that, Gamzon would have explained the content a little deeper.
Unsettling America: English Speaking Persons Will Find Translations
ReplyDeleteThis is a poem I read by Michael S. Glaser. It tells of his modern day tour of a Concentration Camp in Dachau, and what he sees while he's there. His view of the camp and most tourists is somewhat ironic, for he sees the destruction of this establishment as a victory for America despite the similar acts of cruelty we have done (From killing and outlawing Native Americans, to bombing Hiroshima to stop WW2). The title of this poem is named after how the tours often translate the museum exhibits into English, but has a symbolic meaning in how the author translates the reality of the past events that we often only see from one perspective. This poem used simple diction, but was to-the-point and had capturing imagery. I enjoyed it.
"English-Speaking Persons Will Find Translations” by Michael S. Glaser
ReplyDeleteI liked this one the best, It was really good and truthful. I liked how he summed up so much history in so little words. I also connected to this because my grandfathers family was in the holocaust. I felt that it was powerful. Michael S. Glaser has a way with words I give him props for that.
I Liked Reading The Poem : English Speaking Persons Will Find Translations By: Michael S. Glaser
ReplyDeleteIt Gives A Modern Day Tour Of A Concentration Camp In Dachau, And What He Sees While Being There. The Camps Have Been Turned Into Museums. I Think That Was A Very moving Poem Because It Describes His Experiences And How He Thinks This Apologizes For The Actions That Took Place.
'Mnemonic' by Li-Young Lee
ReplyDeleteThere were things I liked and things I didn't like when I read this poem, as there is with everything I happen to read. When I first began to read this poem I was innately confused. As it is with most poetry, I didn't understand the meaning behind the metaphor behind the bit about memory.
And then I read the part about the sweater. That at least made a bit of sense. I understood the author comparing their relationship with their father with the condition of the sweater. And because I understood it, I liked it.
The next stanza about the authors firm but loving father made me sad. Daily spankings are a sick kind of love, a kind of love stemmed from a pathetic kind of hate.
I'm assuming that the earth being flat refers to death being inevitable and that the earth being round refers to life being a mystery. Again, I like that because I understand it.
Overall, I guess I mostly liked this poem, but I am very easily pleased.
I already posted on my blog.
ReplyDelete