Poetry Day

Today is the last formal day of classes, and Dr. Reed had us bring in poems that we liked, either from other poets or ones we wrote ourselves to share for Poetry Day. I really enjoyed getting the chance to share poetry with people, particularly if it's my own work, since I'm always open for criticism on my own works. There were some really wonderful poems that were read, especially the first Shel Silverstine poem. I loved how universally relatable it was and it's so true that when the light is turned out, everyone is essentially the same and we shouldn't be ashamed of our differences or try to demean others for theirs either. I also really loved the Johnny Cash/Nine Inch Nails lyrics that Patrick shared, because I love country music and even though I've heard many references to "Hurt" I never had the chance to listen to it, so I fired up my spotify account after class (yep, me trying to keep up with the trends lol) and searched for the song, and I swear it was freaking BEAUTIFUL. Every part of the lyrics were so haunting, and there's no other words for it either, it was just haunting.

Since Jordan and I are in the same creative writing class, I have to say I'm a bit biased towards her work over anyone else's because her poem about the rose tattoo was so like Hirshfield's in her choice of language. Although I loved her rose poem, I enjoyed her darker poems much more because the language is more gritty and that makes it more real in a way. It is true what she said about our class writing really morbid pieces, especially for our dramatic monologue unit.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this class and loved going to class with all of you guys. Good luck with everything, hope to see you around in the future. Good luck on finals :)

The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock

This past week, we just finished up our reading of T.S. Elliot's "The Love Song of J ALfred Prufrock" and James Joyce's "The Dead" which is the last reading for the term (yay...sorry Dr. Reed). The first time I read "J Alfred Prufrock" was winter term, during Dr. Brown's 20th poetry class and I did not take the time to read through it. I thought it was too confusing and only took the meaning at face value. After reading the poem again this term, I felt I understood the meaning a lot more, at least for certain stanzas. I also realized that this class had a completely different meaning than the one that our previous class had came up with. In the beginning stanza, we assumed that the speaker was going to visit a brothel, because of the line that says, "Streets that follow like a tedious argument/Of insidious intent." We also said that the speaker regrets growing old so fast and he asks, "Do I dare? Do I dare?" I took it as him asking do I dare to live my life before I have to die? He's testing himself and getting the courage to live life as he wants to. 

Joyce's "The Dead" was something that I would definitely have to reread in order to understand the plot. But I loved how he opened up with a comical line, "Lily, the caretaker's daughter, was literally run off her feet." I thought it was slightly unsettling when Gabriel came in and started asking her if there's any men in her life. When Gabriel's wife, Gretta was thinking about her first love and he mistook it as her thinking about him, I felt a little sorry for him, even though he was kind of arrogant and possessive towards her. Gabriel's possessive nature reminded me of a short story by Raymond Carver, called "Cathedral" about a man who feels threatened by his wife's close friendship with a blind man. In the beginning of the story, when he is recounting how his wife came to know the blind man, he was talking about her former fiancee, and he only refereed to the fiancee as "her childhood sweetheart" and said, "He was already her childhood sweetheart, what more does he want?". The very ending, where the snow was falling on the churchyard where Gretta's childhood sweetheart was buried, was like an added slap in the face to Gabriel, that even though he was married to Gretta and that Michael was dead, Michael still had Gretta's heart (or at least her thoughts). 

Kawabata's Snow Country

So I realized I haven't been doing much blogging lately...oops again, sorry Dr. Reed and whoever else reads this blog. Been busy, but I've found the time to squeeze in an entry about the two part story that we've had to read, called "Snow Country" by Kawabata Yasunari which, I have to admit is somewhat confusing. The story begins with a man, Shimamura, who goes into the country side out of pure boredom and meets a local geisha named Komako. They engage in a detached sort of relationship, which oftentimes frustrated me to no end. I think the whole class had trouble understanding the short story, particularly the ending when the author just left us hanging.

In the author's biography before the beginning of the story, there is a brief description between the country geisha and the city geisha, which helps to explain the difficult relationship between Shimamura and Komako. The geishas who work in the hot springs in the country are distantly related to the geishas who work in the cities, who often have a wider range of artistic capabilities and command more respect. The city geishas' reputation might amount to that of a fashion model's while the country geisha resigns themselves to entertain whoever traveled through the countryside.

I really do enjoy reading about turn of the century Japan and geisha culture, but I felt like I understood Higuchi Ichiyo's "Child's Pay" a lot better.