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.