This week's topic of "family" was hard at first to concentrate on when reading the poems individually. No poem in fact uses the word family, but instead all mention key words and phrases that began to guide me through more abstract ideas around places in time that make up familial references worth reflecting on.The fluidity of family I found thematic throughout this collection of readings was very open to interpretation, so I'll try my best now to articulate where my mind took me.
My first attempt at Nick Carbó's Directions to My Imaginary Childhood left me confused. There were so many different words of places and people in different languages and the ending came to this halt that felt like I had missed the whole ride. So I read it again, and realized that one could infer from the title that he makes up his childhood, his family, his place in the world, as he goes. Being that he is a writer, it becomes clear to me that he is his writing, his poem, whatever story he tells is true, to him and to us because it's all we know (without looking up his bio). "Open the door and enter this page and look me in the eye." Reminiscent of that saying, he/she/they are an open book, I think this poem takes that expression deeper into a realm of, I come from everywhere and everything I know in my head and when I put it on paper it becomes my story.
After a few reads back and forth I decided this is my favorite from the collection we read because it's fun, and funny, "the Frederick Funston fish sauce factory... an oscillating electric fan will be driving" and reminded me of my cousin's sense of humor who died young and I miss very much.
Moving on to Marilyn Chin, I noticed the juxtaposition of life and death, the past and present all swirling in one poem which to me illustrated how family ideology can be passed down through generations. I felt that at first this was more obvious, she in fact has the words "my dead mother" on the page above and between "heaven and earth" (see line 5-6) followed by line 7, "the sky is green where it meets the ocean" (143). I understood this to be describing the place where "family" exists. Between life on earth, in the present moment and in our hearts and minds through ancestral lineages. "My mother followed the cockcrow, my granny the dog, their palms arranged my destiny" this could be talking about Chinese zodiac and epistemology of Chinese ontology, and it could also be a double meaning possibly sarcasm for the men in the family because she also brings up being too old to marry and mentions a lover throughout the poem.
My Grandmother's Grave by Dunya Mikhail I felt falls between the thematic themes I've mentioned previously. Having a strong influence on ancestral knowledge passed down through family storytelling, this is also mirrored in Heredities Etymology by J.M. Martinez. Martinez's poem is written in the form of a story, block paragraphs with a beginning and an end. He tells a story his grandmother once told him, a story of her kindness in language manifested a sick silence in the literal form of tonsillitis. She used indigenous medicine by way of the curandero to heal her sickness, in the span of a night's dream her tonsils healed and through that dream she named her children. I think what this poem/story tells us is that it is important to rely on teachings that have been passed down within our cultures to find our strengths, because these cultures are our family it is apart of us, inside of us and it is there to protect us.
I love the idea you present that Carbo's poem presents the idea, "I come from everywhere and everything I know in my head and when I put it on paper it becomes my story." The directions in his poem feel more and more ridiculous as he progresses, but at the same time, each reference feels grounded and intentional. Even if he is making up this alternative reality, he ties in real world connections, some of which we cannot fully know or understand. Nonsense, cheekily mixed with real places and people, is squeezed into a logical form (the directions) to suggest that his ideas, books, and writing are themselves a kind of reality.
ReplyDeleteI was drawn to your post because you wrote about the poems I decided not to (perhaps feeling like I didn't grasp them well enough, but reading this was comforting to know that even after a couple of reads, the ball is in the reader's court). You put Carbó's poem in great context: "I think this poem takes that expression deeper into a realm of, I come from everywhere and everything I know in my head and when I put it on paper it becomes my story." I definitely got the sense that Carbó's imaginary landscape of his childhood wasn't necessary untrue but that he created a narrative based on childhood memories. If I had to give directions of places I've been as a child, it probably would be similar to this poem. I would tell folks to make left turns from one street to another not even in walking distance of the other. I would tell them to stop and look at the way things seem, ask for people I vaguely remember, etc.
ReplyDeleteI wrote about Chin's poem when it was assigned sometime ago, it is one of my favorites that we have read. "Between life on earth, in the present moment and in our hearts and minds through ancestral lineages" was a great way to think about this. I figured it was about the in between, between here and there, life and death, but didn't think about the things that live in those spaces (like family and childhood). Ahh, thanks for that insight!
I like the ideas you point out in Dunya's poem - when I think about family and childhood, I think about the different things that make up that experience. It is not simply people and places, but smells, texture, colors, tastes and many other things add to family and childhood. This poem reminds me of that because the experience of relying on the teachings of the elders is not just about continuing tradition or ensuring a culture survives, it is also about the small aspects of a person's childhood and family that s/he associates with the smells, tastes, sights, etc...of the knowledge and practice that the person witnesses and gains. It makes me think about the sweet/rich smell of my mom's peach cobbler...now that is childhood all rolled up into on smell because of the many memories it holds.
ReplyDeleteDD. you drew great responses from your colleagues on the poems you chose to use. I appreciate your letting go of "making sense" of Carbo's imaginary childhood and viewing the images of the collection of the way children see, retain and reconstruct their images/lives. I appreciated as well your insight on Mikhail, by the way, who is a woman-poet- i was surprised more readers didn't gravitate to it because of the narrative base, so thanks
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