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In this collection, the sense of place has
shifted or taken onlife in the eyes of the
poet. Talk about the place, the meaning of it to the speaker, the
way the images make it specific…
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When asked about
the meaning of place, I was immediately reminded of a women/gender/sexuality
class I took at Mills last semester. At the very beginning of the semester, we
defined the meaning of “place”, and how it was different from “space”. What we
learned was that place was essentially space that was given meaning, a bit like
a house becoming a home.
Saadi Youssef repeats
the word “home” over and over again in the phrase: “God save America, My home
sweet home!” (Youssef, 197-202) throughout his poem “America, America”. He also later defines his home in the following
verse: “How long must I walk to Sacramento?/How long must I walk to
Sacramento?/How long will I walk to reach my home?/How long will I walk to
reach my girl?/How long must I walk to Sacramento?” (Youssef, 197-198) This
definition is more specific than simply “America”, and is attached to not only
a location, but to someone he loves and cares about.
In Patrick Rosal’s “An Instance of an Island”, place also seems connecetd to a person’s
loved one instead of a location. The two women described in the poem are first
compared to one another in a way that makes it seem like they complete in
another in a way: “Two women, Filomena and Josefa,
arrived within days of one another. By then, each had lost most their toes,
though they had ten full fingers between them, each woman with one hand still
intact.” (Rosal, 1)
The two women, made to leave their home or “place”, and
forced onto the island or new “space”, make the space into place with each
other’s company and the makeshift instrument: “One way to erase an island is to
invent the waters that surround it. You can name the waters that will turn all
the sounds the island makes into salt. It will teach you to listen to
everything you love disappear ... or you can invent a song so big
it will hold the entire ocean./ Josefa and Filomena/rocked in the dark, hip to
hip, joined by that third body of wood, which made sure there was nothing
left in the unbroken world to possibly make them whole.” (Rosal, 1) This
one part of the poem made me feel so much. It felt familiar.
My girlfriend and I
have similar disabilities – we are both on the autism spectrum and both have
the same emotional dysregulation disorder. The world is largely not built for
how our brains works, and it feels very isolating at times. The way these women
were on this island together, but found home in each other, felt so much like
how my girlfriend and I found place as well.
I don’t believe place always has
to be a location. In fact, I don’t think it can JUST simply be location. It
takes so much more than that to make space into place.
What a specific understanding to arrive at Dani, that place is not only a physical location but something more intangible yet just as valid. Your essay indicates you know this special space because you're able to share it with someone who in turn is able to have it through sharing it with you. This is a magical place. Guard it.
ReplyDeleteRosal's "An Instance of an Island" made me really curious where this "leper colony" might be. It sent me hunting through the internet to discover what I could and I am only able to arrive at a guess. The poet may be Filipino and somewhere within that archipelago could be an island that a "great emperor wiggled his finger" by way of assignation of said island as this colony. The physical attribute of fingers appears three times in this poem: the emperor's, the ten fingers totaled between Filomena and Josefa and the final mention of "the jiggle of a little finger gone still" were an artistic thread that helped me understand how a feint of hand, a gesture even, can create a "place," this island for instance, and how fingers could become something long forgotten on its shores that now host "pontoons and fake tits." The poet speaks of someplace specific that's been so transformed that it's no longer what it was. Lost.
"What we learned was that place was essentially space that was given meaning, a bit like a house becoming a home."
ReplyDeleteOh, thank you for this Aha! moment. I was struggling with this idea throughout the readings this week, trying to figure out if there was a difference in space and place, whether it felt more like "place" is a physical (and possibly contained?) area and "space" is less concrete, but I think it might be the opposite. It seems real that just any random area is a "space", but what makes it a solid "place" is the importance of it. This makes me think about how space becomes place is a personal process but that place can become space by politics/colonialism/occupation.
The metaphor/ literal interpretation of the island is one of isolation but thriving in a specific location using the resources you are given, according to your reading (if I am not mistaken). The duality of this reading really resonates with me. Often times our society wants us to feel one extreme way about everything. When it comes to immigration, there is this irritating expectation that people will renounce their homelands and traditions and pledge completely to assimilate to the country they immigrate to. I feel like the process of holding any sort of identity in life, especially that of being an immigrant is so complicated. I (like you, Dani) reject the notion that an island would have to be simply isolating or simply home or that an immigration experience is simply negative or positive. As you pointed out with your personal example, lived experiences are so rich and complex and positive and negative. Typically, we are asked to water these experiences down for the sake of an audience belonging to dominant social groups. I am so glad that these poets gave their truths.
ReplyDeleteDani,
ReplyDeletelike you colleagues here, i agree that you brought a special perspective to the sense of home. It reminds me of how, once in the US immigrants often find their historic ways of behaving (covering, kissing when greeted,...) become embarrassing, much like the lepers, who have to find others encoded to the same behavior. Anyway, excellent
e
Hello, I really like your thought on space vs. place. The biggest thing that stuck out to me was that place inhabits so much...it feels narrow minded to think of place as a physical location when place can also be emotional, psychological and much much more. If we take it further, this makes me think about how place encompasses (memories) emotions, events, etc... Place as a concept is such a complex thing!
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