Poem Response

To some people, poetry is a way to share their emotions with others. Poetry is nothing more than writing to me. I am very misunderstood when speaking of poetry, so writing poetry is not an option. Jimmy Santiago Baca uses language in his poem “Immigrants in Our Own Land” that is usually reserved for a different context. The use of the word “immigrants” to describe prisoners was quite different than I had imagined. I chose to write about this poem because of the odd use of the language. In his poem, Baca begins by saying, “We are born with dreams in our hearts, looking ahead for better days ahead” (lines 1-2). This start seems fitting for what we would consider immigrants wanting. As the poem progresses, you can start seeing that the poem is not meant for someone migrating from one country to another. The use of the word “temporary” (line 26) was a way to describe that they are not moving to another location. Speaking of keeping all the cultures separated “like the old neighborhoods we came from” (lines 27-32) also has the reader questioning what kind of immigrant the poem speaks of. When Baca said in line 41, “My cell is crisscrossed,” it became obvious this is about prisoners. I can understand the reasoning they may be considered immigrants, but most of the time, the prisoners did something to deserve to be in prison. This is a very intriguing poem because of the odd use of different language.
September 11, 2001 is a day that anyone who was alive and old enough will remember forever. Wislawa Szymborska wrote the poem “Photograph from September 11” as an obvious reaction to the news headlines from that day. This poem is very disturbing in the use of the language describing some of the pictures seen from that day. “Each is still complete, with a particular face, and blood well hidden” (Szymborska 7-9) is very graphic, and you can see the people as they are falling, but then again, they are not in the picture. They are stuck in mid-air. The end of this poem has me confused. I don’t understand why Szymborska ended the poem by stating; “I can only do two things for them-describe this flight and not add a last line” (lines 16-18). I guess I would have to understand her overall feelings on that day to be able to really grasp the reason for ending it this way.