In front of me

So, it's been quite a while since I've posted on here. I'm currently taking a creative writing class on poetry, so I'll try and post some poems I write, although it will most likely be sporadically. Also, I can't guarantee there won't be some random posts about my generally-irrelevant-to-anyone-but-me thoughts.

Here is one of the poems I've written for the class, possibly the only one that is any good (and even that is debatable). The poem was created using a method we tried in the class where we took an existing source (in my case, the book House of Leaves, and took random phrases and created a poem. 

In Front of Me

I could call her.

Our whole fight was so frantic,

even      sad in some ways.

I may have been part of it,

but still felt a mile away.

There is no satisfaction in this.

                     Sleep never arrives.

                     No rest.

                      The phone is right in front of me.

I just

     cannot run that far…

     cannot find a reason…

       cannot… 

Let me know any questions or comments (positive or negative) about the poem. The formatting is a little off from the original, but Blogger won't allow me to post it in the right form.

Friends

Friends are dime-a-dozen,

True friends are one-in-a-million,

But you are one-of-a-kind.

A Farewell

This is your home,
but you must leave
they tell you.
There is nothing left here
aside from a smiling face-
a friend.

What if this is not
just another stage in life,
meant for passing through?
Could this be
your end?

Then what’s next?
A new beginning
or just an after thought?
More importantly,
can you return here
once you’ve left?

The answer is simple.
Once you pass through
the doors of fate,
you will no longer be the same,
yet this will always be your home,
where you will always belong.

Reaching the End

As I approach the end of the school year, I also approach the end of the project that I started this blog for. I may stop posting temporarily as I prepare for final exams, although I will be visiting Paraguay after that and may have a few posts from there, but no promises.

The next section of Holocaust Poetry is "Afterwards." The opening poem in this section, "Archive Film Material" by Ruth Fainlight, is a very short poem, but very strong. Basically, it speaks of confusion between a group of people having just unloaded from a train and a field of flowers. I think this speaks about the peacefulness that the Jews maintained during much of the Holocaust, even though they were experiencing horribleness. Another poem is "Auschwitz, 1987" by Adam Zich. The poem says that even though many people were arriving there and terrible things happening to them, there was no screaming or madness, just a silent sort of death. This puts a very calm, but sad image in my head. From what I remember learning of Auschwitz, it was the final destination for many Jews, being the place where they were either killed or died from some other cause. Overall, this section seems to reflective and looking back on all the atrocities that occurred during the time, although that seems similar to the other sections.
The next section is "Second Generation." "Almost a Love Poem" by Yehuda Amichai is a poem about missed opportunity, although I'm not sure it's in a bad way. The narrator says that if his parents hadn't moved in 1936, he could have met whoever he is talking to in 1944 on the platform to Auschwitz. However, that would also mean they would be on the way to Auschwitz where they most likely would have died. It's not entirely evident from this poem whether or not they are together now, but it seems like they are. Another very sad poem in this section, "Holocaust 1944," by Anne Ranasinghe has a narrator speaking of a lost mother, although she doesn't know where she is buried, but she seems to know what happened to her. The narrator is very upset about the death, but not just about the death itself, but mostly because there was no reason for it. The mother didn't die for some cause, but just kind of walked into her death, although the Jews in the concentration camps didn't necessarily have a choice. This poem just shows how helpless all those who died in concentration camps were and how they were dehumanized before being murdered, taking away their identities, which was one of the worst atrocities committed.
The penultimate section in this book is "Lessons." Edward Bond's "If" attributes the Holocaust to being a part of history that could have happened anywhere. He doesn't take away its significance or atrociousness in his writing, but he does realize that it could have happened anywhere and that it was a factor of two things that joined. In a way, he is looking at the causation of the Holocaust, stepping away from the emotionality of it. However, he is still looking at the way people reacted to it and how we adapt to create new cultures. This seems like a fairly complex poem and I certainly don't claim to understand all the ideas or themes within it.
Another seemingly significant poem, although they all seem very interesting, is "May, 1945" by Peter Porter. This poem seems to speak of sheer destruction. It talks about the Allied tanks rolling in and a sort of chaos, which we can see when the narrator says "...no man had seen a fresh-pressed uniform/ for six months..." (171). The poem also speaks of the Anton Bruckner's 8th Symphony of which the first movement of the finale can be found here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMXbHJMn2hI . The piece certainly feels like a finale in terms of music and has a sense of greatness, not necessarily in the good sense, but in the massive sense, which this poem hints at for the ending of the war. The narrator also writes of the death of good and evil. I think this is saying that the war was so destructive that it was devastating for all involved. Also, it may be that it's not really easy to say one person is right while the other is wrong objectively, for it's almost always based on opinion.
The final section of the book is "God." Honestly, I would like to write about all the poem's in this section for they all seem to be truly exceptional, but time does not permit, so I'll try and choose a few of the best.
One that sticks out to me is "I Believe." It was found inscribed on the wall of a cave in France where Jews had been hiding. The poem speaks about how there isn't really a reason to believe in anything anymore, but he keeps on believing, even though God is silent, love is absent, and the sun is late in rising. It's a very simple poem, but says so much about the need to have faith, especially during tough times in our lives.
I don't like to end on a poem as brash as "After Auschwitz," but the narrator is quite as reflective and mournful as all the others. And let's face it, all the victims of the Holocaust weren't quite afterwards, they were angry. The narrator is infuriated at how babies were killed along with the atrocities, but death just looked on, not really caring.
Overall, this book seems very reflective and for the most part, mournful and sad. However, there is also light that shines through in many of the poems, often in the way the victims of the Holocaust still were able to find faith in God. This relates to the first book I blogged about in that it also spoke of the need to find faith in the hard times, as well as just learning to cope with those times. -Lucas

Closing in!

I'm just a day away from finishing my poetry blog project now, but don't cry for I shall continue blogging after it's over.
The next section in Holocaust Poetry is "Destruction." One of the poems in this section is by Elie Wiesel, whose work I've had some experience with before. Specifically, I remember reading his Night in high school, which I found to be very thought provoking. This poem, "Never Shall I Forget," is just as stirring as his novel and it is a grim reminder of the atrocities committed during the Holocaust. Rather vaguely, it speaks of children being burned and other horrendous acts which tested the narrators faith, which he claims to have "murdered my God and my soul/ and turned my dreams to dust" (42). So, this poem seems to not just be about what happened to the narrator, but also how it tested his faith, although we don't ultimately see in the poem whether or not he still has faith.
"Roads" by Peter Huchel (translated by Michael Hamburger) seems to me to be a poem that relies heavily on visuals to strike the reader, which gives the poem a very dark tone. It speaks of flames in the sky, ashes in the wind, corpses being tossed around, and other images of death. Considering the title, I would say this poem has to do with how multiple fates cross paths or intersect in some way, which is very interesting considering it seems to be about death.
This section, even more than the rest of the book it seems, contains very dark and sad poems. "Pigtail" by Tadeusz Rozewicz tells of a mound of hair that has been shaved off a group of people before they are taken to be burned and within that pile is a ponytail from a child. These poems may not all have a deep, hidden meaning, but they all send a very clear message about how many people the Holocaust has affected and just how much damage was done.
The next section of the book, a fairly short one, is "Rescuers, Bystanders, and Perpetrators." "I Did Not Manage To Save" is a poem about a narrator who was unable to help or save anyone, although it seems he did want to help. It seems he was always too late or didn't know how to help. This is very sad to think about, especially when considering all the people who could have helped during the Holocaust, but didn't want to.
"A German Requiem" by James Fenton is a long, reflective piece that seems to ponder the tragedies of the Holocaust and the ways different people viewed it. It says that it's "...not what they built. It's what they knocked down" (103). This is most likely referring to the fact that even though Germany became very powerful during the Nazi regime, they did so by committing terrible acts and that is what will be remembered. I think that taking this out of the context of the Holocaust, this could apply to how people often are blind-sighted by their own accomplishments and don't event think about how they harmed others in the process. Clearly, there is much to learn from these poems, other than just using them as a sort of introspective look at the period of time in which they were written, for there are often valuable lessons we can take from them.

New Book

The new book is "Holocaust Poetry" and I will be moving through it at a fairly fast pace, although still covering just as much as with the first book. This book contains poems from people of all types from the Holocaust, detailing their experiences with it.

The first section is "Alienation." One of the first poems is "First They Came for the Jews" by Pastor Niemoller, which I think I've read before. It speaks of someone who does not defend others when the Nazis come to take them, but then when the Nazis come for them, there is no one left to help them. This is very simple, but also very meaningful. Looking at this section as a whole, it's more than just topics on feeling left out or alienated as the title suggests; it's about other things that make us feel unwanted or unloved. There's also a love poem of sorts, which I wasn't expecting.
The second section of the book is "Persecution." The very first poem is "1940" by Bertolt Brecht, translated by John Willet. It's about a man who has fled the Nazis and escaped to Finland. It's a relatively short poem and doesn't say very much more than that, but it does say "Curiously/ I examine a map of the continent. High up in Lapland/ Towards the Arctic Ocean/ I can still see a small door" (17). In the context of this poem, it seems like this could mean that there is still a portion of the country that could serve as an escape out of Eurpoe, before the Germans take over the entire continent.
There are two poems by David Vogel in the section, both translated by A.C. Jacobs. They are "I Saw My Father Drowning" and "There Is a Last, Solitary Coach." They seem to be connected, both having to deal with the way people approach death and how some accept it, while others fight it.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all my readers, although I don't think there are any of you. In this post, I'll be finishing up Poems to Live By: In Troubling Times and tomorrow I'll be starting Holocaust Poetry. 


The last two sections of the first book are "I Gave Away That Kid: War and Violence" and "Ourselves Again: Peace and Justice." From looking at the  section titles throughout the book and the poems, it's clear that the book is a sort of journey through dealing with turmoil, from the initial event to moving on and returning to peace.

The first poem of this section is "American Wars" by Ursula K. Le Guin, who is an author I have dealt with much in my Creative Writing class, although never with her poems. And I really like this poem because it says something that many people my generation have felt as a result of the wars in the Middle East. When we were younger we learned about many wars throughout history, but they all seemed distant and in the past, but as said in Le Guin's poem, we have war happening right now. It has become real, which is a scary thought.
"Conscientious Objector" is another particularly noteworthy poem in this section, by Edna St. Vincent Millay, someone I've always found to be quite interesting. In it, the narrator refuses to assist Death in killing people, which is directly representative of not wanting to go to battle in war. I had never thought of war this way before, although I have never really been a full supporter of it either. In a way, war is just helping Death collect lives.

I think the first poem in the last section of the book is brilliant, or at least the idea behind it. It's "When They Sleep" by Rolf Jacobsen and it says we are all children when we sleep: innocent and peaceful. Aside from what may be going on in our minds, especially bad dreams, I have to agree with this. Jacobsen writes "They open their hands and breathe/ in that quiet rhythm heaven has given them" (129). When we're sleeping, we don't really have the ability to think ill thoughts toward others or commit sinful acts, unless you have an extreme case of sleepwalking. If only we could live our lives as if we were sleeping....but be awake.
"What I Leave to My Son" by Du Tu Le is a really simple poem that speaks of leaving a better world to our sons, which is something that we all aim to do, I hope.
The very last poem of the section and book is "The Place Where We Are Right" by Yehuda Amichai. It was translated from Hebrew by Stephen Mitchell. The poem says the place where we are right will not be the place where flowers grow, but a place where the ground is trampled and doubts and love has dug up the world. This poem is taking me some time to get, although I think it's saying that as humans, our lives will always be filled with turmoil and stress, but also love. We must come to terms with that. The end of the poem, "And a whisper will be heard in the place/ where the ruined/ house once stood" (142) possibly is saying that all the troubles in life will pass and all that will be left is a memory of what happened. I was hoping the final poem in this book would be good and this one certainly is.

Overall, this book has been very interesting, and I've been surprised to find that it's more complex than I thought. I had originally thought it would just be a collection of poems all pertaining to how to deal with troubles in life. However, I have found it is more of a journey, with each poem having an individual facet in the way we should handle troubling times. At my current point in life, I'm not dealing with any major events or issues, but if I were, this book could potentially help a great deal. I'll have to remember it and I would recommend it to anyone.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all my readers, although I don't think there are any of you. In this post I'll be finishing up Poems to Live By: In Troubling Times and starting Holocaust 

Approaching Easter

It is almost the end of Lent, which means I'll be able to have meat again soon, since that's what I gave up for Lent. It has been an interesting experience, although not as difficult as I had anticipated. I haven't really noticed any health benefits, which most vegetarians claim exist, although I'm probably just not getting all the right foods to balance out not having meat. I think the experience has been one of learning, though. And that relates to the first poetry book I'm working through, in a way. In many parts of the world, having a balanced diet is rare and even getting enough food to survive can be difficult. However, look at those of us living in the United States. For the most part, even when we are going through an economic crisis, we still have plenty of food to eat and all the meat we want. I can't necessarily say I've completely realized how lucky I am to never have to go hungry, although I have certainly begun to learn that food shouldn't be taken for granted.

"A Prayer That Will Be Answered"

The next section of the book is "A Prayer That Will Be Answered: Meditation and Prayer." I found the way I blogged about the last section of the book to be interesting, looking at over-arching themes in the section, rather than just giving my interpretation of poems, so I'll continue with that.

The poem "I Can't Speak" by Alicia Ostriker seems to say that we can't always control our bodies, but not in the literal way. Instead, the poem suggests some disconnection between our souls and our bodies. Taking this poem in the context of the section, I would venture a guess that it is saying praying should come from within; it's not always about the act of praying.

"Fishing in the Keep of Silence" by Linda Gregg jumps at me. It says God is going to sleep and He trusts heaven to take over. The narrator says God knows there are enough fish in the net. I'm not sure what this poem means, but it certainly has a calm, meditative feel to it, which relates to the theme of meditation in this section. Overall, this section within the context of the entire book seems to say that in times of trouble, some quiet prayer and meditation is all that is needed. Also, it seems to indicate that meditation alone can be prayer, in some sense. This reminds me of a song we performed in choir, called "Oremus" by Sisask. It uses no words, only vowel sounds. The idea behind the song is that sometimes we don't always know the exact words to pray, but we still feel it. Here is the song, it's great for meditation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJuhcxr7Buo. This is not our choir performing, although this choir does an excellent job themselves.

...

The connection opens,
between past and present,
life and memories
rush together, 
tears come flowing,
remembering the good,
hoping for the future,
appreciating change,
but saddened by it too.

Poem

My life has been

spent in your shadow-

A deep repression.

Every time,

I try and meet you-

equal you,

you push away

it seems.

But how silly of me,

I only feel hidden

in your shadow

because you knew

I am not ready

for the light.

Half way

I'm a little over half way done with blogging for this poetry project, although I have a feeling I'll continue blogging afterward. Most likely, the blog will no longer focus on poetry, but that will certainly come up at times.The section I'll be covering today is "They Said: Politicians and Leaders." Instead of focusing on just a few poems like I usually do in these sections, I'm going to try and and on more and look at overall themes in the sections. The first poem of the section, "They Said" by Reg Saner speaks of the way democracy works or to be more specific, they way it is supposed to work vs. the way it actually works. It seems to say that leaders often grow too powerful which takes the democracy out of the democracy. "As the President Spoke" seems to hint that the president of the country eventually gets to a point when he is no longer himself, but the image we make of him. "Waiting for the Barbarians" by C.P. Cavafy tells of "barbarians" who are coming to the senate and because of this, legislators just stop doing their work. It seems that the "barbarians" could either be symbolic of the opposing political party coming to take over the legislature or people who are going to try and accomplish things for once. I think that either way, it is a poem about our political leaders and how they often don't do their duties to their best ability. Also in this section is a passage from "The Teeth Mother Naked at Last" by Robert Bly. Bly writes about the lies that our leaders tell us, mainly those told by the president. Bly claims that the president tells some fairly obvious lies, although I'm fairly sure this is all supposed to be metaphorical. The president doesn't actually tell any of these lies, for the ones purported by the narrator would accomplish nothing for the president. However, I think this poem is just making a statement that it often seems that the majority of what our leaders tell us isn't true.
Overall, this section seems to be warning us of the dangers in trusting politicians and our leaders. The poets are either revealing our leaders for who they truly are or giving us guidance, although vague, on how to respond. I think this section seems to be the most disconnected from the rest of the book outrightly because it seems political, although it doesn't have to be. And figuring out how to deal with leaders who aren't always trustworthy and truthful can be very difficult, which makes this section fit it well with the rest of the book, in my opinion.

Was it my failure that drove you
or had you known before
I wasn't right-
preconcieved notions
are hard to change-
even when wrong.

Let me show
I can stand
on my own-
no help from you-
no help at all.
Alone.

A tear burns my eye
bleeding out.
Let me live.
Let me.
Live.

Friday

The next section of the book is "To Be of Use: Action and Compassion." The first poem of the section is "Small Frogs Killed on the Highway" by James Wright. It tells the story of frogs trying to cross a road to get to a field, but they get crushed by cars. The drivers either don't realize or just don't care that this is happening so they are blind. The tadpoles left behind in the pond keep dancing because they can't see what is happening yet, so they are also blind. I think that this poem could be a metaphor for the way the meek of the world get trodden on and we don't necessarily know what we are doing to them. However, I think this is because we are blind to them by choice. If the drivers in the poem chose to look at what they were doing, they would see the frogs. And I think the tadpoles in the story represent the innocent people of the world who are still oblivious to the evil around them because they haven't matured enough yet to see it.

"To Be of Use" by Marge Piercy talks about the importance of people who are willing to work hard without hesitation. She says that they are what keeps the world going, although it is often others who are put on a pedestal. Piercy also writes that in museums we find vases from the Hopi which were made to carry corn, but now they are on display. I would say that the overall message of the poem is that we are often blind-sighted in this world to the work others do because we simply don't see it. This poem relates to the first poem in that both deal with humans not recognizing what is happening to others.

Another poem

I'm finding more and more that writing poems is a really great way to express my emotions, regardless of the quality of the poetry.

Why do you reject me?
Hold me down
with your laming  words?
You know it?
Maybe not?
But you are the reason
I am not
who I am meant to be.
There is an angel in me
wanting to fly,
ready to escape this cell.
You think
you’re protecting yourself-
but I’m just trying
to hug you - no hate,
only love,
but you’re wearing
a spiked vest.

The Death of a Dream

I think I've written only a very few poems in my life and I've noticed the best ones arise not from my brain, but from my emotions. That's what I feel like at least. Either way, here's a poem I wrote recently:

 

A dream crushed
survives
at first
in false hope

of redemption.
Refusing to die,
it begs for
a second chance,
but
the oxygen is
gone,
and the flame
is extinguished.

 

Sunday!

The weather is finally starting to act like it's spring and today was a glorious day! And nice weather always puts me in the mood for poetry, although these two books I'm blogging about aren't necessarily the right kind of poetry. Anyway, I'm moving into another new section of Poems to Live By: In Troubling Times. This section is called: "Those Destroyed by Success: Complacency and Complicity."

The opening poem for the section, "Whenever That Happened" by Brendan Kennelly seems like a very sad poem with no hope  at all. It is a realization that all the good in the world disappears once you forget to appreciate all the beauty in it. The poem speaks of taking friendship for granted and losing wonder, however it seems that once wonder has gone, the speaker suggests we gain power. It seems they are saying by losing our innocence we gain power, although this seems like a bad thing and I concur with the speaker. In my experience, people with power are often evil or unjust to some extent.

There's a blurb by Stephen Dunn titled "Scruples" in this section, although it's not a poem, just a short article. Dunn is a teacher of Literature & Ethics and conducts a test of his students every year to see which of them would be willing to press a button that would kill a random peasant from across the world in exchange for a million dollars. The test is done anonymously. Dunn says when he first began the test in 1982 only four of twenty-five would press the button, but by 1995 eleven of twenty-five would press it. He says by the end of the school year he is usually able to figure out which students are the ones who would be willing to press the button, just by their personalities, although he says they're not always the same type of people. Sometimes they are intelligent and all around good students, but other times they just seem like bad people. Dunn claims the rise in students willing to press the button is due to the world becoming more "doggie-dog." And in my opinion, I think it is often our parents fault that this happens. They want us to be competitive in school so we can go far in life, but where does that leave everyone else. This is something I've pondered many times. As a Christian, how can I morally think it is right to strive for success when  that often means holding others back, especially in certain classes where the professors tell us only a few people will get A's and B's, while the majority will do worse just because that's the way he grades the class. That kind of classroom situation in particular, one that places students on a bell-curve model, creates a dog-eat-dog atmosphere like the situation  Dunn speaks of. Why are we not able to all be successful? I may have to devote another post to this topic because I feel like I have a lot more to say.

Hope and Courage

It's been quite a few days since my last blog post, but I'm going to start having more frequent posts. The second section of Poems  to Live By: In Troubling Times is called "A Comfort Spell: Hope and Courage. "Healing" by D.H. Lawrence has a really good message. The speaker is saying that he's not some machine or robot, but a living, breathing being. He also says that as a human, he is wounded, something that will take time to heal. I think this poem is very relevant for the current generation. We often tend to think we're invincible and we can keep chugging on; nothing can bring us down. However, sooner or later we all realize this isn't true. Lawrence's bio: http://www.online-literature.com/dh_lawrence/.

Also in this section is a poem by Mary Oliver, "The Sun." I think she does an excellent job of describing the sun in a unique way. For example, Oliver says in the morning it streams "upward on its heavenly oils..." The entire first half of this poem is just speaking about the gloriousness of the sun, but the last section begins to ask if we've been blinded by the search for power and can no longer appreciate the sun. Here is a brief biography on Oliver: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/mary-oliver . A few interesting facts about her include that she attended two colleges, receiving degrees from neither and it has been said Oliver is an "indefatigable guide to the natural world."

Happy April!

The first section of Poems to Live By: In Troubling Times is called "In Troubling Times: Anxiety and Terror." The previous two poems I blogged about, "Nocturne" and "From the Frontier of Writing" were a part of this section also. Another poem from this section that I found particularly interesting, "Out in the Open (Part II) by Tomas Tranströmer," seems to speak of the evils of the modern world. The narrator is clearly from a foreign country and he is speaking of America as a distant land filled large, evil corporations. The narrator is praying for America and speaks of how the evil in America is different from that in his own country. "Over there evil and good actually have faces./ With us for the most part it's a fight between roots, numbers, shades of light." The narrator goes on to talk about an American office building and calls it"a mirror-like lake with no waves, turned on edge in the summer night. The narrator is pointing out the unnaturalness of America. We live in concrete cities and large corporations run the country. Here is a very brief biography of the poet: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/1112

The next poem is the most interesting in the book so far, in my opinion. It is "The Terrorist, He Watches" by Wisława Szymborska whose biography can be found here: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1996/szymborska-bio.html. Szymborska is known for using irony, paradox, contradiction, and understatement, a few of these found in this poem. The poem tells the story of a terrorist bombing in a bar. It details all the people who are coming and going from the bar, keeping track of them to see who will live and who will die. The whole poem seems very relaxed considering its nature, which is part of Szymborska's style of using understatement. This poem caught my attention immediately because I have always been slightly obsessed with wondering how differently events would turn out if people had made different decisions, in this poem, it's whether or not they come to or leave the bar. In my opinion, Szymborska has done a very good job with this poem. It stirs the mind, but refrains from being overdone like many poems. I think that in poetry, simpler is often better.

A Poem

I wrote this poem a few days ago, although I still can't think of a good title that's not too cheesy. It's really the only poem I've ever written, so try not to be too judgmental.

My soul is here
gone astray.
My heart holds fear,
lost the way.

Home is a memory,
a time with friends-
long gone.
The past.

Memories
can take us back.
They are real,
and not.

Can it be found again?
Will we forget
what it once was?
Its old meaning?

It has been said
to live now-
but why?
Home is gone.

Introduction of Poetry Book #1

Poems to Live By: In Troubling Times is a sort of sequel to a book written as a response to the September 11th attacks. Its main focus is on figuring out a way to deal with the troubling times we are going through, learning that there are others out there who are also struggling, calling to us.

I think it's good, if not necessary to mention the first poem in the book, since it was more than likely chose to be the first poem for a reason. The poem is "Nocturne" by Li-Young Lee. Lee is a highly established poet of Chinese descent. A brief biography can be found here http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/291. A nocturne is a piece of art or music that deals with the night, often a work for the piano, so it seems fitting that the poem has to do with noises heard at night, when everything else is silent. In the poem, the noise doesn't seem to be calming in any way, but instead seems to be troublesome for the speaker, even reminding him of death and rust. I think this poem could possibly be a metaphor for how in the silence and calm of the night, all the troubles in our lives seem to intensify.

The second poem, "A Suitcase Strapped with a Rope" by Charles Simic, also seems to be worth mentioning. It tells the story of children who are being smuggled across some border, into the United States I assume. The children just want to go out and play, but the parents have made them squeeze into this suitcase to get them across the border. This seems particularly appropriate to the current time when there is always the question of how we should deal with immigration, both legal and otherwise.

I will have more up soon and I may even post a poem or two that I've written!

A New Beginning

As the first post of this blog, I would like to welcome all readers (hopefully there will be at least a few) and explain what I intend for this blog to be about. First and foremost, it will be a blog about poetry. I am starting it for a poetry class project, after all. And, at least in the beginning, the majority of the blogs will be about poetry, although I'm sure other posts will sneak in, including posts about music, writing, art, etc.

I would now like to introduce the two poetry books I will be blogging about for the next month. First, is Holocaust Poetry, including works by W.H. Auden, Anne Sexton, Czeslaw Milosz, Sylvia Plath, Elie Wiesel and many others. This book was compiled by Hilda Schiff and is a tribute to all the victims of the Holocaust and their families. Next, is Poems to Live By: In Troubling Times including the work of E.E. Cummings, D.H. Lawrence, Mary Oliver, Robert Bly, Jane Kenyon and others. This book was edited by Joan Murray and is a collection of poems that speak to the soul in troubling times, such as the ones we are currently living in.

I hope to be discussing at least a few poems each day, along with providing any helpful background information I can find.