Perhaps the world ends here

The table is always a significance of a family being brought together. Family values are very important and many are shared during this time. This should be the centerpiece of our lives but today it is not as important to a lot of people. As we get older things change, time gets the best of us and we drift. Although a family may still be important the value of conversing and sharing love and thoughts around a kitchen table dies out.

there it is- jayne cortez

In this poem Jayne Cortez uses a powerful structure to get her point across. In so many words she expressed a whole era of oppression and fighting for rights. She uses strong imagery and shows a very strong passion, most likely from experience, and makes me want to stand up for every right that I have. These types of poems give you a certain sensibility of wanting to do better, to work against abuse and all types of oppression.

mother to son

Every mother wants her child to succeed. Demonstration of love and encouragement a mother shows to her offspring is expressed in this poem. Life is rough, full of suprises, ups and downs, but we are taught to take chances and to understand that it is not always easy. The mother clearly has suffered in her life and he incorporates a mother's wise words into the poem to her son. This is an inspirational poem for those who have struggled and can relate to a mother/ son or mother/daughter relationship.

barbie doll

This story I must say intrigued me because of society today. Every girl has this idolized image of a barbie doll as what they want to be, even though, Barbie, is a plastic doll. Girls eat away at their self- confidence and self-image to be what they see as "ideal." This poem expresses the social pressures of women to conform to certain ways of a society, for the way they look and act, and it has become a serious problem.

Getting Divorced

The opening line itself of this poem right away caught my interest with a mix of dreadfulness and glory. The way the stanzas are so scattered makes me feel like this is the way he was feeling when he wrote it, scattered, not knowing who he was anymore, not being able to put the pieces together. A person's life is forever changed once they go through a divorce, almost like a death because they are being taken out of your life and like he says in the poem
"and years later not even knowing

if the other ever

found a mate

without splitting the seams

or remained intact

unlaced."

Howl by Ginsberg

This story was interesting, because it definitely was not like the other poems we've read. He speaks of the best minds of society ( which clearly they weren't doctors or lawyers), but rather people who are druggies, bums and all those people who never quite got anywhere far with their life. The poem is telling us about others out there who are not perfect, but they still make up society. Then he speaks of "Moloch," a Hebrew God that sacrificed children, how lovely!! This could be associated with the inhumane ways of life, the mainstream culture that was rising at this time, that was killing youth and love.

the secret

This story is about life through thought and imagination. The secret seems to me as a state of mind or an emotion- and a way of finding yourself. The two girls will not tell the secret probably wanting others to find out for themselves. Almost as life is- nobody is there to walk you through it, you have to do it on your own.