April 15 Readings

I enjoyed reading all of the authors this week. Each had their own special quality that made their writings peak my interest.
Adrienne Rich's Storm Warnings really appealed to me. The way she described the situation was very relatable to me. I have seen many hurricanes and road them through waiting to survey the damage outside. The last line is so true " These are the things that we have learned to do who live in troubled regions" it becomes second nature to close up the house when bad weather comes. At the beginning she even talks about knowing the weather better than the barometer. The words she uses to describe the weather create strong images in my mind. In her other poem Snapshots of a Daughter-in- Law she is kind of like a contemporary Plath. The last stanza was bittersweet it alluded that there were changes to come but one is always being reborn into new ideas and identities. The poem had a strong feminist air to it. Rich explores the advancement of women through time. She ends with the beginning in a way. With women being reborn through out their life it creates a stronger connection with their past. My favorite poem of hers was Diving Through the Wreck. Rich acknowledges women's fight for civil rights in the past as well as the present. There is a strong tie to the unconscious embedded into diving into the unknown. She also creates a since of problems with the images of the wreck, knife, and being below the surface. By her finding the wreck it creates a sense of recovery which could be linked to the recovery of women's rights. Rich creates a myth for women to look upon when needing a sign of hope.
Micheal S. Harper has a writing style that infuses the jazz structure with writing. He is very spontaneous in his writing with a rhythmic and music openness. He also writes a lot about past events. Harper celebrates African American culture in all of his writings. In American History Harper uses lots of history to create a tragic poem. He speaks of slaves coming to American to be sold and little girls being killed. All of his poems were very interesting and created a different view point of situations.
Komunyakaa like Harper had a jazz like structure to his poems. His writings were very personal and in a way confessional. The structure was not like other writers during that time. He had a very unique way of looking at things.
Li- Young Lee had an emphasis on material things with specific pin points. He was able to make me hungry when I was reading Eating Alone and Eating Together. Like Hemingway he uses sensual imagery to grab your attention and switch from one thing to another. Lee uses the "icy metal spigot" to change from present to past. He is also a lot like Bishop, he writes about things and starts with things in his poetry.