Blog 3

Each of these poems captivates a space that can be intersected with another place within the lens of the poet. The poets are able to metaphorically engage the reader into these places that at different periods of their lives or moments in history can take another meaning or form. The poets own concept changes as their experience to their spaces are tainted by war and or industrialization.

In the poem Plucking Flowers by Ishigaki Rin which sets the reader up in Tokyo near the 1920's admiring a beautiful landscape that displayed an open field of flowers of all sorts then it clearly jumps into post war era. During WWII Tokyo was constantly being bombed, where as Ishgaki Rin describes-

"Farewell Maranouchi
Now No open fields anywhere"

This clear comparison to her life as a teenager living in a time of peace and tranquility in which flowers can be admired, to a moment after her retirement where the flower fields as she knew them no longer existed.

One of the similarities I found between two poets was the use of being a woman and the capability of being a "wildflower" for Ishihaki Rin, her concept was that in Japan everything was valued as a sense of a market value, and young women were competition with each other. This rise in placing women hood as market value terminated the idea of girls being free to choose their own path.

Similarly Marilyn Chin in her poem, Tonight while the stars are shimmering explains the devaluation of the female sex, exposing India and China. While using the word wildflowers to embrace the scenery, but to also convey the idea that their is a "wall of wild flowers" of women, that are being utilized or murdered based on their value.