Dis Poem

Mutabaruka’s poem “Dis Poem” employs personification, a unique structure, and metaphors, along with a hurried yet non-chalant tone, to present an infinity of events at any moment in time. It makes reference to things that have happened a long time past, and things that are yet to happen. The author relies on time to set a context, or a lack off such, for his ideas. Mutabaruka’s text is an attempt to encompass only a fraction of the humanity he describes, such insignificant portion of the whole.

Mutabaruka presents the poem along with an abnormal structure, which lacks punctuation and, in some cases, leaves words incomplete. The structure relates to the speed at which everything in the world happens, allowing no time for pausing, much less for correcting the past. Initially, the author states that this poem “shall speak of time unlimited time undefined.” Mutabaruka mentions this in an attempt to remove the limits and constraints of content, similar to the limitless and unpredictable structure of a poem that rushes line after line with little time for respite. The author finalizes the poem, in which minimal presence of punctuation is evident, with “in your mind…”. In recurring to a sustained pause he is liberating his writing for anyone else willing to elaborate upon it as more things happen, as time continues to elapse. Mutabaruka leaves out some letters as he writes his words, an example present in the fourth to last line where he writes: “this poem is to be continue”. According to the lines that immediately follow, it is evident that the word should be “continued,” including the missing “d”. The author alienates letters as he tries to give the reader a sense of rushing through thoughts that have but moments to exist.

Likewise, Mutabaruka’s hurried tone and use of literary elements further build upon the meaning of the work as a whole. The recurrent mention of time in the poem alludes to the infinity of existence, for even when we put an end to our part of “Dis Poem.” Someone else will carry on as more things happen, just as we are extending the meaning of something that has already happened in reading it under the light of a different humanity over a decade after. In the same manner, Mutabaruka personifies the poem as he shifts the vision of writing as a means to record a story to the protagonist of that same story. In other words, the poem no longer narrates history, the poem is history. It acquires a personality as “dis poem is watchin u tryin’ to make sense from dis poem dis poem is messing up your brains making u want to stop listening to dis poem”. The author turns the reader into a part of a conversation, as he no longer reads but listens. Now this poem really is “ a part of the story his-story… her-story… our-story”. Mutabaruka plays with the concept of our story as part of The History. In doing so, the author makes the poem personal, he makes us care, he writes not for us but about us.

Therefore, Mutabaruka has given his part to the whole poem. He has written a small segment of a much larger story, a greater poem regarding us, and our story. For this reason, the end of the poem remains open, for “dis poem needs to be changed”. In fact, it will forever need to be changed as more things happen and more poets come to immortalize humanity, millions of stories running parallel in time.

Timed Writing 2

Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Wall” employs stoic imagery and structure, encompassed in a nonchalant tone, to portray the importance of boundaries. The narrator insists upon the unimportance of the walls even as he builds them back up. In contrast, his neighbor cordially defends the importance of setting the limits for fruitful relationships.

Frost introduces the first stanza by distinguishing those that “[don’t] love a wall.” The word “wall” immediately strikes the reader as a metaphor to boundaries, the most important being territorial and social boundaries. But those walls deteriorate and show gaps which the narrator comes “after them and [makes] repair.” In depicting the deterioration of the walls, Frost refers to an intangible boundary. He refers to social relationships, where limits begin to fade with time and governments must rebuild through laws, or parents through education. Frost purposely omits any separation into stanzas in an effort to mimic the absence of walls in his text. He describes different standings on the subject, but suggests his position in his writing. Accordingly, the characters meet “to walk the line and set the wall between us once again.” Frost alludes to the difficulty of maintaining boundaries and questions their productivity. Limits are constantly checked and zealously maintained by both sides regardless of what they say.

However, as the narrator mentions that “we do not need the wall,” because his apple trees will never invade the pines, his actions contradict him. In response, the neighbor suggests: “Good fences make good neighbors.” The words mean that boundaries avoid trouble. They prevent people from invading others’ privacy. The narrator then comes to the conclusion that before “I build a wall I’d ask to know what I was walling in or walling out.” Frost alludes to alienation and discrimination in the words “walling out.” A wall may work wonders for those it protects, but how about those it leaves out to face their troubles? A wall is an instrument of rejection, a method to distance oneself from others. For that reason, the narrator argues that “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” These words bring about all those who live outside the barriers society has erected, especially if we take into account the time period during which the poem was written as one of discord and civil unrest.

The poem culminates with the resurgence of “Good fences make good neighbors.” The repetition of these words demonstrates the neighbor’s unwillingness to change his mentality. In effect, some degree of metafiction kicks in, for the walls built inside the neighbor’s mind prevent him from considering the narrator’s words. A reflection upon the inefficiency of walls meets some solid mental blockades, thus rendering it obsolete.

Timed Writing 1

Kevin Young’s poem “The Mission” juxtaposes life and death through the use of imagery and structure. He describes children experiencing life right next to souls of those whose time has elapsed. Imagery of death, amidst a detailed description of the pleasures of the living, depicts both ends of a spectrum. Young invites the reader to reflect upon his own vision of the two, upon the efimerality of life.

Young introduces the poem “across the street from a home for funerals.” He sets the tone for a conversation about the banality of death. In front of the funeral house, “soul after soul she watched pour into the cold New England Ground.” The culmination of one’s time on earth is no longer a surprise but an expected part of routine. Likewise, the structure of the poem reflects the continuation of this imagery, almost as if every couplet was a “soul after soul.” In a similar manner, Young juxtaposes the sun of the living with the cold ground of the dead. It is interesting that the author depicts as souls going down into the cold ground, for it challenges the usual depiction of a blazing inferno beneath.

Likewise, young introduces children as the symbol of innocence. He remembers, “back there” when he was a child, “[paying] tag out front, while the bodies snuck in the back.” His reference to children is especially powerful when combined with free verse, for it foreshadows their liberty in choosing what to make out of their life. They begin their life as others come to an end behind their backs. However, to Young as well as every other being, the time comes when the realization of death corrodes this vision of a gay life. It becomes a custom, a reason to wear old suits, “praying they still fit.” Death becomes so banal that that “most laughed despite themselves.” People have succumbed to its reality and resign themselves in expectation for their moment.

In effect, it is as if our clocks had broke and “always read three.” We have lost notion of the importance of time. In his use of the imagery of time, Young plays with the limited time we have under the sun before we head to the shivering depth of the ground. It is as if when “the sun is too bright. Your eyes adjust.” These words convey our conformity. We have simply adjusted to the sorrows of death forcing it through a metamorphosis to the mundane. At the end, “the cars fill & start to edge out,” signaling the end of a cycle. The poem begun with their arrival and culminates with their departure, playing with the idea of cycles. The last words read: “I could not see to see.” Young finalizes with the loss of his sight, he has become one more of the numbed spectators of life. He began to realize when he poured down to the cold ground. His understanding did not come in time to illuminate his sight when he should have seen.

Interview With Toni Morrison

As I listened to Charlie Rose interview Toni Morrison, it intrigued me to learn that the author begins most of her works with a question. All questions have something in common: every word following the question mark has a specific purpose, a role in the answer. In effect, Morrison strives to instill learning in her readers. By opening with a question, she defines the whole novel as matter of importance, a process through which she leads us in the answering of the question. But what learning is she trying to put forth?

Later, Morrison describes the extensive research she conducts before the writing of a novel. She must master a historical context as well as specific relationships and patterns in a time period. She believes that “everybody changes all the time,” and after a short pause she adds, “like the country.” Morrison gives and added importance to relationships in her novel in her comparing them to the development of a country. This is true in Song of Salomon, where characters encompass ideas that represent groups of people. Guitar, for example, represents those who fought for the acquisition of equal rights for blacks. As the novel progresses, his relationship with Milkman begins to corrode as he takes on a more radical position. Conversely, Milkman takes on a passive stance towards racial discrimination. He represents northerners who chose to ignore the situation in the south in face of their own fortune. In effect, Morrison presents a dichotomy in her descriptions of Milkman and Guitar, a clash of ideals very real in America during the 1950’s.

Likewise, Morrison’s dependence on biblical allusion is supported by historical tendencies. As part of her research, she tried to locate the factors people where running from. She mentions Bacon’s rebellion, where a group of white and black gathered to bring down an oppressive government. They succeeded only to be caught and hung later. At first the relation isn’t very clear, but then Morrison explains: “religion supported people.” The bible was that driving force that led people to think and act the way they did. It led them to gather in an attempt to rebel against tyrannical rule, it gave blacks a reason to hope for a better future, and it even gave whites a reason to alienate blacks. Morrison explains how Satan was perceived in the bible as “the black man.” In one of her novels, a black girl is alienated because whites think she is a minion of Satan. The bible, she beliefs, is deeply related with the African American evolvement from slaves to Americans.

Enduring Themes

In reading Song of Salomon, I began to encounter Biblical allusions every few lines. Before I could recollect what I knew about a biblical figure, another appeared. I began to wonder why Morrison made so much reference to this sacred book. For centuries, the ancestors of African Americans suffered the whip of slavery under humiliating conditions. With few possessions, and access to little or no entertainment, religion became a central element in the lives of slaves. They perceived the Bible as a source of hope and purpose for years. Eventually, when the abolitionist movement came, African Americans continued to gather around religious ideals. The Bible contains themes that are as valid in modern society as they where for the slaves during the darkest period of American history. In including biblical allusion in her novel, Morrison demonstrates how these themes are present regardless of time or geographic location.

However, names like Pilate, First Corinthians, Magdalene, Solomon and other biblical names pursue definite purposes. As a result, characters in the novel are defined by the history and traits of their equivalents in the Bible. In it, Hagar was a handmaiden who bears Abraham a son and is punished as a result. Her story reflects a patriarchal society and the idea of women as an object of pleasure. Likewise, Milkman’s Hagar symbolized his sexual initiation and his positioning as a man. She had brought change for “Sleeping with Hagar had made him generous” (69). Marrison points to sexual activity as the factor that triggered change in including “sleeping with her.” It isn’t what she is, but rather what she provides, that makes her important to Milkman. This happens short after Macon Dead hits Ruth. This is another display of masculine superiority, which reveals that the position of women in society isn’t that much different from what it was during Abraham’s time. In effect, Morrison confessed “The challenge of Song of Salmon was to manage what was for me a radical shift in imagination from a female focus to a male one” (Foreword).

Number 176002

“Grab a copy of Song of Solomon from the EVL and begin reading the first fifty pages tonight.”

Those where the final instructions I heard before the class concluded. I had a few minutes before my next class and decided to stop by and grab copy from the library. The title resembled that of a National Geographic documentary: The Song Of Salmon. Already my expectations where not the best, but as I took a first glance at the cover, depression overtook me. White letters over a plain blue background, and not just blue, it was bathroom blue.

I began reading with what was definitely not the best of first impressions. However, things began to change. Mr. Smith was standing on the roof and determined to fly. It was not a threat and he wasn’t crazy. Mr. Smith was not the typical suicide, in fact, “jumping from the roof of Mercy was the most interesting thing he had done” (8-9). Robert Smith had an ambition: freedom. He had lived a monotonous existence until that day when he chose to rebel against his confinement. The fact that the novel begins with this anecdote foreshadows a fight for freedom through the novel. Toni Morrison describes every character with their limitations. Be it Ruth enslaved to her marriage or Macon Dead tied to every penny, Morrison incorporates a limiting characteristic in every one of her characters. Only Mr. Smith did she set free from these limitations.

Likewise, Morrison’s naming of the characters is also peculiar. We encounter hidden meaning within names and names that mean nothing at all. Macon Dead received his names from “somebody who couldn’t have cared less” (18). Names are given to distinguish individuals from the masses, to give them a sense of identity. However, characters in the novel lack this sense of identity. Names such as Macon Dead, which are probably not real in the first place, begin to blur the importance of the individual. In the same manner, a nickname of the sort of Milkman casts a shadow over any real qualities the individual might have. His most important asset, and the characteristic by which he will be remembered, is an empty nickname.

As a result, I went back to my initial impression on the novel. What if, resembling its content, the cover purposely lacks an identity? It is a great risk, but maybe Toni Morrison tried to mimic the naming of her characters in the naming and presentation of her book. At first glance, the novel fails to outshine any other title in a library, but those who give it a chance find a novel far more intricate than those contained in the more extravagant covers.

Exposing The Truth

Adam Hochschild uncovers the truth behind Belgium’s dominion over the Congo in King Leopold’s Ghost. Concerned specifically with the effects of slavery over the African territory, Hochschild narrates the toil of individuals who strived to expose this cruelty. As he shares the factual evidence in history, he contradicts an erroneous take on events that has become widely accepted as the legitimate account. Belgium was nowhere near to being the victim. How could a group of people ever imagine that they would manage to hide events of such magnitude from the world with any success?

In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad describes an expedition into mysterious lands in Africa. The novel deals with the Dark Continent as the unknown. Conrad tries to expose those interior lands, where Kurtz dwelled in harmony with the natives, to help shape our understanding of European colonization. Likewise, Hochschild deals with a dark period in history as the unknown. There was minimal information available, for most of the historical documents “burned for eight days, turning most of the Congo state records to ash and smoke” (294). These authors try to trace our understanding of European colonization back to its origin in an attempt to correct modern understanding of history. Slavery decided the fate of countries for centuries after it vanished as they fought to “[emerge] from the shadow of its past” (301). If this is true in places where its existence is widely admitted and confronted, how much harder will it be for territories where slavery is dealt with as fiction to overcome their burdens?

Consequently, schools preach about the importance of understanding the mistakes of our ancestors as to avoid their concurrence but filter the cruelty from our memory, thus failing to prevent their repetition. This might help explain how the world appears to be a worse place as day goes by, as if humanity had no limit to its cruelty and our only limitation was the time taken to device new means of cruelty. How can we progress in our understanding of human behavior when its flaws are treated as “taboo. Like the history of millions killed” ?(298). Both authors reach places previously barred to the public. If we take Conrad’s novel as an adventure into his own mind, we face the mysterious functioning of human brain as another limitation to our understanding of human cruelty. In effect, they try to prove how enlightening the general public naturally concludes in progress. The more we know, the more we are able to understand and assimilate. When we are able to filter things through our reason, we prevent the fueling of passions that often drive people to bestow disaster upon others.

Finally, I think it is important to highlight the power Europe had in shaping the face of the world. There has been no place on earth where Europeans didn’t determine the fate of its people. Their legacy survives to the present days where many of the habits of tyrants translate into corrupt individuals leading countries. Only by acknowledging our heritage will we ever overcome the obstacles engraved in our history. There is no use in denying what has happened. We must strive to shed light onto those dark spaces in human understanding if we are to evolve out of the shadows and “a hundred black fiends” that trouble us daily (295).