The poem that I found interesting by Javier Zamora is titled “How I Learned to Walk”.
The poem begins with the Spanish word “cállate” which means shut up or be quiet. This sets the tone and establishes that the poem will be provocative for the speaker. At first, I thought the poem might be from the perspective of a dog because of the line, “I piss in the corner,” (line 4). However, the speaker then says he would, “fling rocks / at bats hanging midway up almond trees,” (lines 6-7). So, the speaker must be a young child because hitting animals with rocks and doing impulsive things is something I associate with childhood, especially boyhood. With context, I know this poem’s speaker must be the child version of the poet. I believe there is a tone shift within the poem. It begins with a child remembering their father and the childhood they had. However, it transitions into an adult speaker wondering who their father was and what he was like. The speaker says, “When I clutch my pillows, I think of him. If he sleeps / facedown like I do,” (line 13). This line struck me because clutching something in your sleep means you are stressed, scared, or angry. It is not a positive action. Therefore, the speaker must feel distressed over the questions he has about his dad. He wants to know who he was and in a way, he wants to know more about himself. It must be frustrating for the speaker to have certain traits and wonder if they are his alone or something that was passed to him by his family.
My question: You use “cállate” twice within the poem, but the second usage seemed out of place. What was the intention behind using this word? Was it meant to be an internal thought of the speaker or a way to break the 4th-wall and reach the reader beyond the poem?
By: Tierney Bowden
Introduction to Poetry 
Mar 21, 2024 @ 21:21:57
I really liked your observation of the pillow clutch, but also how you emphasized the loneliness the speaker feels and that yearning for his father. In some ways, the pillow quote also stuck out to me because of how that loneliness is reflected by that desire to hug potentially his father. A way I feel you could improve on this analysis is explaining why the speaker might choose to say “cállate?” It’s a word that brings aggressiveness into the poem, and I think it’d be interesting if you had expanded on such aggressiveness, whether this is the speaker trying to repress their emotions or if it’s a societal demand for him to be quiet, in which furthers that loneliness.
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