Knight saved the day?

This week in poetry class, we learned about one of my favorite poets, Etheridge Knight. One of the main reasons I really love his poetry is because even though he dropped out of school at such a young age (16, in fact) he was still a poetic genius. He was born in Corinth, Mississippi, in 1931, and was given honors from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Poetry Society of America.

Luckily, we got to read my favorite poem by Knight, "The Idea of Ancestry," in class this week. The poem itself reads:










1

Taped to the wall of my cell are 47 pictures: 47 black
faces: my father, mother, grandmothers (1 dead), grand-
fathers (both dead), brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts,
cousins (1st and 2nd), nieces, and nephews. They stare
across the space at me sprawling on my bunk. I know
their dark eyes, they know mine. I know their style,
they know mine. I am all of them, they are all of me;
they are farmers, I am a thief, I am me, they are thee.

I have at one time or another been in love with my mother,
1 grandmother, 2 sisters, 2 aunts (1 went to the asylum),
and 5 cousins. I am now in love with a 7-yr-old niece
(she sends me letters in large block print, and
her picture is the only one that smiles at me).

I have the same name as 1 grandfather, 3 cousins, 3 nephews,
and 1 uncle. The uncle disappeared when he was 15, just took
off and caught a freight (they say). He's discussed each year
when the family has a reunion, he causes uneasiness in
the clan, he is an empty space. My father's mother, who is 93
and who keeps the Family Bible with everbody's birth dates
(and death dates) in it, always mentions him. There is no
place in her Bible for "whereabouts unknown."

2

Each fall the graves of my grandfathers call me, the brown
hills and red gullies of mississippi send out their electric
messages, galvanizing my genes. Last yr/like a salmon quitting
the cold ocean-leaping and bucking up his birth stream/I
hitchhiked my way from LA with 16 caps in my pocket and a
monkey on my back. And I almost kicked it with the kinfolks.
I walked barefooted in my grandmother's backyard/I smelled the
old
land and the woods/I sipped cornwhiskey from fruit jars with the
men/
I flirted with the women/I had a ball till the caps ran out
and my habit came down. That night I looked at my grandmother
and split/my guts were screaming for junk/but I was almost
contented/I had almost caught up with me.
(The next day in Memphis I cracked a croaker's crib for a fix.)

This yr there is a gray stone wall damming my stream, and when
the falling leaves stir my genes, I pace my cell or flop on my bunk
and stare at 47 black faces across the space. I am all of them,
they are all of me, I am me, they are thee, and I have no children
to float in the space between.





Overall, in the first section of the poem, Knight is describing a setting where he is sitting in his jail cell staring at all of these pictures of his relatives on the wall. He looks at these pictures very often, and he reminds himself that no matter how successful a person if with or without the help of their families, they still are a part of the family. He even comments on one of his uncles, whose “whereabouts [are] unknown"; regardless of whether the uncle wants to admit it or not, he is part of the family and there is nothing that can change that fact.

In the second section of the poem, Knight describes his reckless behaviors from when he was young; these events were probably the culmination of him going to jail. In one night he manages to “walk barefooted in my grandmother’s backyard/ smell the old land and the woods/ sip cornwhiskey from fruit jars with the men / flirt with women.” After all of these actions were done, he was forced to see his grandmother, and he was full of aberration and shame, he could not even face her.

By the end of the poem, he reiterates the idea of families joining together constantly. Not only does
this poem reach out to individual families, but Knight was also trying to reach out to the African American community at large. Larry Neal, a famous poetry critic, said in response to this poem that, "Black Arts is the aesthetic and spiritual sister of the Black Power concept. As such, it envisions art that speaks directly to the needs and aspirations of Black America." Knight supports the Black Arts movement throughout the poem, because he describes his family, as well as the African American family as “dead . . . living . . . [and] unborn,” recognizing that he still has commitments to his family. Finally, he also addresses the Black Arts Movement and his family at the end of the poem by assuring to both of them, "[he is] all of them / they are all of [him], [he is himself], they are thee.

This concept of continuity between African Americans during this period is what really led to having an African American flourishing community. Many other poets too followed this avenue, and ultimately, African Americans benefitted tremendously. Another prime example is Gwendolyn Brooks. In her poem "We Real Cool," overall she wanted to persuade people to stay in school, and think before a person (specifically an African American) acts. During the Early and Middle Twentieth century, there was a lot of crime and depression in urban areas across the United States. In order not to starve, many adults and teenagers hit the streets in order to make any money they could. Keeping this in mind, Brooks is trying to forward to her readers that although it may be satisfying and fun at the moment to be reckless and miss out on school, education is the most important part of any young man or lady's life. Through all of these positive messages sent to the upcoming generations, African Americans began speaking out and saying, "'We, the people'is a very eloquent beginning. But when that document [the Preamble to the US Constitution] was completed on the seventeenth of September in 1787 I was not included in that 'We, the people.' I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation and court decision I was finally included in 'We, the people.'"[Barbara C. Jordan 1974].

If it were not for the Black Arts Movement, and scores of poets preaching positive messages to stay together and peacefully protest to gain equality among all men and women, who knows what the United States of America would be like today.

SHORTEST???

Last week in my poetry class, we learnt a poem from Gwendolyn Brooks, "We Real Cool." I think it is the shortest poem we have leanrt in class. "We Real Cool" only has eight lines and each line only has three words, but it gives readers much space to imagine--late afternoon, kids skip school, hang out at the pool and think they are really cool.

We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.

We also did an interesting activity in my poetry class called "boil the poem"--everyone picked a poem he or she wrote and tried to shorten it. The poem of Brooks and the activity we did in class made me wonder--what is the shortest poem in the world?

"Lines on the Antiquity of Microbes", also known simply as "Fleas", is a couplet commonly cited as the shortest documented poem ever written with an unknown author. It is easy to remember because of its perky rhyme, humorous and allusion. Here is the poem:

Fleas

Adam
Had 'em

Some people think "Fleas" should not be the shortest poem because it has two words, but I wonder if one word will still be recognized as a poem. Poems can be as long as an article, or as short as a word. I think long poems can give readers an image of the theme easily and the short poems develop people's imagination. Short poems can actually be harder to write than long poems because authors have to use the least amount of words to express the most thought. I prefer to read short poems and guess what is going on when everything is not obvious.

Here is a link of another two-word short poem "Me, We" from Muhammad Ali.

WHERE IS THE HARLEM NEIGHBORHOOD RIGHT NOW???

Last weekend, I went to New York City. I was staying at my friends' house on 77th street. It was great to spend a long weekend at New York City and meet some old friends. Monday afternoon, I was thinking about what I did in the past weekend on the bus back to school; a word suddenly appeared in my mind--"Harlem." I learnt Harlem Renaissance from my poetry class and read many poems from poets in this period, such as Langston Hughes. "Why didn't I go there???!!!" Maybe I had too much fun. But I want to go there and see how the neighborhood looks like right now.



The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s, it was also known as the "Negro Movement." It was centered in the Harlem Neighborhood in th New York City ( which starts at 125th street, between Madison Avenue and Park Avenue, Manhattan). As we know the golden age of Harlem Neighborhood was about 1920s--1930s because it was the black culture center at that time, but the neighborhood has been there since 17th century. The hard economic times hit Harlem during the Depression with poverty, high unemployment and high crime rates. After the 1980s, the was a huge redevelpment in the neighborhood. As the Manhattan real estate market boomed, the abandoned buildings in Harlem were replaced with new housing and office buildings. Soon many shops and restaurants moved in, some people call it Harlem’s second renaissance became official. It seems like the Harlem Neighborhood looks totally different right now from the pictures and the articles I read, but I still want to visit there. Most of the buildings might disappeared already, but the Harlem Renaissance is memorized in people's hearts.

Some extra information about Harlem Renaissance:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_Club_(New_York_City)
http://www.biography.com/blackhistory/harlem-renaissance.jsp

"Die Soon. We"

Gwendolyn Brook, a famous poet of the Harlem Renaissance played a major role where she helped expose the good in African Americans helping their growth into American mainstream. The Harlem Renaissance which spanned between the 1920s and 1930s was a time of great recognition of African American in politics, literature, music, culture and society growth. Gwendolyn Brook was a great African American woman in which she wrote a poem titled "We Real Cool". Brook's poem is very inspiring due to the fact that at the end of the poem, she has a firm point, the point being that you are given yourself the opportunity to succeed, don't throw it away and dig yourself a hole. She is trying to say that the felonious behavior will leave you dead, just like the path that these seven boys have chosen. She is trying to send a message to all the people who are being misled in the wrong direction, to give them an example of how life will turn out for themselves if they do not find the write path. It's inspiring because Gwendolyn Brook uses very concrete but short sentences. Each line is three syllables and the first and second line rhyme. The second and third rhyme, and so on. This poem proves how intellectual and how smart of a woman Gwendolyn Brook is. To get a message through like she did, it would take a paragraph or two, or even a whole book to explain. Brook did it in eight sentences, three syllables each. I aspire to become a poet like her. With such great talent and intellecutality she brings to society, a person like Brook cannot be ignored. She is inspring by relaying the message of not to waste your life a way like these boys, spending their whole days at "The Golden Shovel". Ironically enough, there is a symbolism behind a golden shovel. A common expression used is, that people are digging themselves a grave with a golden shovel. These boys are doing just that.

What's the deal with the hating!

This week in Poetry class we dove deeper into the Beat Movement, and talked in greater detail about the overall cultural reform. We also undertook a very famous poet, Bob Dylan. Growing up in Minnesota, he was very keen with the creative arts, specifically music and poetry. With music, multiple rock stars inspired him during his teenage years; he adored Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis, respectfully. Bob Dylan looked for inspiration in poetry from American legend Dylan Thomas. Although the more famous pieces of his manuscript are seen in his song lyrics, he did not fail in being a prominent poet. His poem, “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,” is one of his more recognized poems even though it is also performed with music. Here are the lines to this magnificent poem:

The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll

William Zanzinger killed poor Hattie Carroll
With a cane that he twirled around his diamond ring finger
At a Baltimore hotel society’
And the cops were called in and his weapon took from him
As they rode him in custody down to the station
And booked William Zanzinger for first-degree murder
But you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears
Take the rag away from your face
Now ain’t the time for your tears

William Zanzinger, who at twenty-four years
Owns a tobacco farm of six hundred acres
With rich wealthy parents who provide and protect him
And high office relations in the politics of Maryland
Reacted to his deed with a shrug of his shoulders
And swear words and sneering, and his tongue it was snarling
In a matter of minutes on bail was out walking
But you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears
Take the rag away from your face
Now ain’t the time for your tears

Hattie Carroll was a maid of the kitchen
She was fifty-one years old and gave birth to ten children
Who carried the dishes and took out the garbage
And never sat once at the head of the table
And didn’t even talk to the people at the table
Who just cleaned up all the food from the table
And emptied the ashtrays on a whole other level
Got killed by a blow, lay slain by a cane
That sailed through the air and came down through the room
Doomed and determined to destroy all the gentle
And she never done nothing to William Zanzinger
But you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears
Take the rag away from your face
Now ain’t the time for your tears

In the courtroom of honor, the judge pounded his gavel
To show that all’s equal and that the courts are on the level
And that the strings in the books ain’t pulled and persuaded
And that even the nobles get properly handled
Once that the cops have chased after and caught ’em
And that the ladder of law has no top and no bottom
Stared at the person who killed for no reason
Who just happened to be feelin’ that way without warnin’
And he spoke through his cloak, most deep and distinguished
And handed out strongly, for penalty and repentance
William Zanzinger with a six-month sentence
Oh, but you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears
Bury the rag deep in your face
For now’s the time for your tears








After analyzing the Beat movement and Bob Dylan’s prose, a mind blowing question hit me; what was trying to be said through all of these literary and cultural reforms? Both styles of poetry were very critical of cultural reform, specifically wars, bigotry, consumerism, etc. They would also support the ideas of Walt Whitman in his poem, “America”, with having a strong, structured America. Dylan loved to talk about the government in his pieces and show the overall corruption inside government through realistic events(well he did exaggerate a little…). The Beats criticized the cultural movements going on in the mid-twentieth century with an anti-establishment approach. They denounced the ideas of conventional social, political, and economic principles of a society.
As I dug a little further, I stumbled across other pieces of literature that criticized government. In George Orwell’s novel, Animal Farm, he establishes a farm and makes all of the animals equal, but some animals are more equal than the others. Overall, Orwell was satirically foreshadowing the communistic threat in the Cold War. Another novel which has a similar idea is Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers(1959). In this novel, everything is earned through military service, and the government in this book is overall fascist.

So overall, what’s up with all of this reform? Think about it though. After years of death and destruction in Europe from both of the World Wars, dozens of nations, excluding the United States, significantly lost power and wealth. Luckily, the United States came up on top economically, and it was to an extent “ruling the world.” Keeping this idea in mind, I think that these intelligent reformists understood what the long term effects of another war, communism, and corruption would have on the government. Now, I may just be giving some “daddios” too much credit, but think about it really. The government is intentionally for the people; nonetheless, the government often does not support the ideas of the common folk. Therefore, the only way to address concerns in the government on a national or international level is through literature and clear evidence for a cause, which is exactly what all of these intelligent individuals did.


Unfortunately, a lot of pictures and videos that I tried to put into my blog this week could not go in because of some technical difficulties (Image Uploads will be disabled for two hours due to maintenance at 5:00 PM PDT Wednesday, Oct. 20th)


HERE ARE SOME ADDITIONAL LINKS THAT I THOUGHT WERE RELEVANT AND FASCINATING:

http://www.biography.com/articles/Bob-Dylan-9283052?part=1

http://www.lukemastin.com/utopia/mid20th.html

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/argentina/



-Permitpat

This week I was really inspired by reading "The Ball Turret Gunner" by Randall Jarrell. This is a very inspiring poem, which highlights extraordinary men who fought during the second World War to protect America. People do not realize what it takes to be a six miles in the air, in a Plexiglas sphere at the under belly of either a B-17 or B-24. The ball turret is occupied by a small man in a tight space in the fetal position. This turret gunner was armed with two .50 caliber machine guns. and the trigger at each hand revolving the ball turret, shooting at the enemy. These men were exposed to the enemy with not much protection from .50 caliber and anti aircraft bullets flying in their direction. This poem is inspiring because these men were the true warriors of the sky. The poem describes these men as being stripped form their mothers and thrown into the hands of the State where they are considered just another soldier to fight and die. Recognizing what these warriors did is important because they sacrificed their lives for our freedom. The final line of the poem reads "When I died, they washed me out of the turret with a hose". Jarrell is conveying the message that these soldiers were considered to be just a number.

The dead solider would be washed out of the ball turret and another solider would replace the dead one. Innocent young men who lost their lives should always be recognized for their efforts. This poem is one of the most inspiring memories I've read, because its deep, and it puts us inside the ball turret with the dead soldier.

This week in Poetry.

What I love most about poetry class is that every week we learn about new poets every week! The more and more that we learn about poetry, I learn how unique each and every one of the poets are. I notice that everyone is unique in their own way, by the way they feel, think, and express themselves. Noboby is the same and even though Whitman and Sandbrug can be compared to each other, they are still both different in how they express their poetry. I've learned that poetry is not always about rhyming, as a matter of fact, the most amazing poems I've read had no link to rhyming. It is very interesting how I once perceived poetry, and now, I see it in a completely different way. I've also learned that you cannot express what you are writing, unless you have been through the specific situation you are writing about. You cannot see the beauty behind marriage unless you are in a happy relationship or your parents have had a great relationship. You cannot write about being in a Ball Turret six miles in the air, shotting and being shot at unless you were in a situation like that. What I loved most about this week was our poem about "My Place at Sem". I've never really thought of the great memories I've had at Sem. This poem opened me up to realize what I had around me and how much some of the expriences I've had affected me in a positive way. This class is very important to me because it takes me away from the stress and the pressure of the rest of the day and it gives myself time to think about my life and to read amazing poems.

Last week in my poetry class, we learned about The Beat Generation. It happened in the 1950s along with the Consumerism, Baby boom, Red Scare, etc. The Beats were named from the phrase “beaten down” because they were kind of an outsider group because what they wanted and thought was right were different from others. They centered in bohemian artist communities of NYC and California. They wanted to liberate poetry from academia and bring it “back to the streets”, and the way they expressed this and themselves were quite shocking to people (ex. fashion, behavior, girls not shaving the hair on their legs and armpits).

The Beat Generation had Jazz/Harlem Renaissance roots, which led to the spread/development of Bongo drums in America. I did not know that bongo drums were significant in this period of time, so I thought it was so cool! Bongo drum is a Cuban percussion instrument, consisting of a pair of single-headed, open-ended drums attached to each other. The drums are all in different sizes with different names. The bigger one is called the hembra (female) in Spanish, and the small one is called the macho (male) in Spanish. How to play bongo drums is easy; you just tap it. As I was doing a little research on it, I got really interested in it. So I was going through Youtube watching tutorials and cover videos, and found this really cool cover (below). I loved the beat and the sound the bongo drums made, and decided that one day, I will learn how to play this, and play reciting a great poem I will write one day! Hope you guys enjoy the video! :)

LIFE IS A BATTLE

Suddenly, two weeks passed and September passed too. I realized one thing that every week I would get something special from my poetry class. Poems we learn in class are getting harder to understand, but I enjoy learning them.

"The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" is a poem written by Randall Jarrell. Jarrell enlisted in the Army Air Corps and many themes of his poems were about war. "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" described a ball turret gunner died in the WWII. It is a five-line long nightmare, I just want to "wake up" when I read it. The poem reminds me of a song from Green Day called "Wake Me Up When September Ends". In the music video, the boy decides to to leave his hometown and his girlfriend in order to join the army. He fights in danger while she worries about him everyday. When I read "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner", I always feel the first sentence shows that every soldier misses someone back home just like the boy in the music video misses his hometown and his girlfriend. The lyric of "Wake Me Up When September Ends" is like a poem with rhymns. The end of September when "summer has come and passed" just matches with the time right now. I like to read some mordern poems or lyrics because I can find something in common easily.

The past two weeks were a little bit tough for me, I was confused about my life, my friends and I had to take the SAT!!!

"like my father's come to pass"--It was really nice to talk to my dad because family always gave me power to face to the challenges.

"drenched in my pain again"-- My friend says," No pain no gain."

"the innocent can never last"--Because we grow up.

There are so many problems and challenges in our lives, I want to treat each of them like a battle. We should all become brave soldiers if life is a battle! Fighting in fall, I am waiting for the next summer!

Change IS NOT BAD!

This week in my Poetry class we dove into mid twentieth century poetry movements, specifically the Beat movement. Apart from the awesome slang vocabulary that the poets used, there was a lot more to be learned about these individuals. Beat Poets were often judged as impoverished rebels whose aesthetics ruined their public image. They were seen as people who aimed for spiritual and sexual liberation, while being entwined with nature.  They were very explicit, and wanted to abolishing censorship and protect the environment. Some people were alarmed from their motives and thought their radical ideas came from the illegal drugs that they consume, while others believed it was just decadence and communistic ideas. Although the former might be true, the latter is what was the public image. The Beats did not care though, because like all other cultural movements, the initial reaction of a new style is disapproval. Ironically, the Beat poets were not very affected by the general public, because they too were describing and disapproving of the decadence in society.

One of the most famous Beat poets, Allen Ginsberg, described a lot of these ideas in his poem, “A Supermarket in California.” He begins the poem by initially preaching about his distaste for consumerism, and how the “American Image” is being revolutionized; however, he points out that this change contradicts the American image of the average working class man. He also disapproves of the idea of consumerism, adding on to his disapproval for a new America. One more common characteristic of beat poets was inserted into his poem: the image of sexual liberation. He describes people near “avocados, peaches, [and] watermelons,” all fruits that have a very sexual connotation with them as well. He also describes “fruits,” in general, addressing homosexuals.

I find it very unfortunate that people are not more open to cultural movements. Now, I understand that it is human nature to sometimes not accept change, but come on now! The Beatles were arguably the most successful band of the twentieth century, and Americans initially hated them. Another prime example is art, music, and literature during the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement (BAM). My question though is why? Why are people so ignorant to different approaches to music, art, poetry, culture, etc, especially in America? It seems that there is an unwritten law throughout the country that there is one ‘correct’ view on multiple aspects of culture. Hopefully this image will change one day, because a society that is accepting to changes in culture and ideas often is a lot more successful (Renaissance HELLO!!!!).  Maybe one day things will change . . .

-pemitpat

P.S. I wish people would be able to be as open to change as Tupac in the song, "Changes."

A degree does not show intellect

This week I tried to tackle the idea of how poetry is invented, learned, and mastered. After learning about a variety of poets and their different prose from my poetry class, I found a common ground between a lot of these individuals; they were mostly college or high school drop outs. I found it fascinating how even a man who has as much intellect as Robert Frost or Robert Browning did not complete college. After looking at this idea from a bunch of angles, I realized one key idea: college isn't for everyone. With the large increase of college tuition, to some people, a high school degree is the only affordable degree. Regardless of whether a person can or can not afford the tuition though does not measure his or her intellect by any means. 

In my poetry class, we were studying Ogden Nash.  In this man's lifetime, he managed to work on Wall Street, have poems in Harper's, The Saturday Evening Post, Life, and Vogue, and was a schoolteacher. There was no question that Nash was a truly gifted individual who inspired millions of people with his popular collections of poems. He mastered all of these prominent rolls WITHOUT a college degree. That's right. Granted he went to Harvard for a year, but he dropped out after a year for a variety of reasons; regardless, he is still considered one of the most notable poets of the twentieth century.

Another example of a poet who did not need professors or peer writing labs to become a successful writer is Dorothy Parker. Obviously, growing up as a young woman during the twentieth century suffrage movement was definitely challenging. Not only was a woman's role in society viewed inferior to a man's, but also education for a woman was hard to come by, especially a college degree. Because of this rarity, Parker stopped her formal education at the age of 14. Nonetheless, she still managed to write scores of poems, novels, autobiographies, and plays. She is, in my humble opinion, the best female poet in the twentieth century.

What I am basically trying to get across is this question. Is college really for everyone? There are tons of people who go to my school who are absolute geniuses. For some, it is Math, Literature, Science, or History. Whatever a person's forte is, if he or she utilized his or her talents in these fields, then success is inevitable. However, there are millions, even billions of people who use college as a place to find his or her intellectual passion. Once this passion is found, what is really the point of college? Being lectured by professors, and eating high calorie food? In today's society, becoming successful involves being able to have time management and discipline to learn by oneself. By no means can something as insignificant as a piece of paper make one person smarter than another.

-Permitpat