Get Through It

Get Through It (Lyrics)

By Diane Tarabay

About to tell you something I don’t know where to begin 

been silent all my life and I’m just tired of holding in 

you don’t see my bruises you don’t see the pain with in 

all you know is how to judge the color of my skin 

See I don’t wanna be here I didn’t want to leave my home 

running through the desert was afraid and all alone 

see let me tell you something 

let me tell you loud and clear 

I’m done with all this bullshit  I no longer want to fear

left my family behind 

their everything that I had 

ma look into my eyes I don’t wanna see you sad 

this is how life goes 

this is how life always goes 

people come and go and their hate always seems to grow 

This a story bout my pain this a story about my

struggle I didn’t come here on a plane I came here

through a smuggle 

what’d you f**kin do?

tell me what’d f**kin do?

I was only 9 years old and I didn’t have a clue 

mama why you crying mama? 

why you always crying? 

I know I’m only 9 years old 

but I know when you are lying 

(2×)I’m just trying to help you out

I’m just trying to make things better 

always be here for you when you feel under the weather 

I have to find a better life 

how do I do it?

I heard about the desert I think I can get through it 

see this is why we do it

Review:

Dear Mr. Zamora,

After reading and hearing your performance of the poem, “To President-Elect”, I was reminded why I have a love for poetry. The emotion that you put into that poem was astonishing. I could feel the frustration radiating from each line and the words you used were extremely vivid to the point in which I felt like I was that nine-year old. Your poem was short and simple and I think that’s the best way to tell a story. There was no rhyme or any deeper thoughts that had to be over analyzed. It was simply a story about the struggle that many illegal immigrants have to experience in order to come to the United States. 

Your poem inspired me to write something of my own. I imitated your poem through a rap song because I knew it would be the best medium to attract a contemporary audience. I completely changed most of the form of your poem but I made sure to maintain the same tone, theme, vivid language and freestyle. Your poem consisted of 16 short lines yet it perfectly captured a whole experience. I felt that I wanted to expand more on the topic of your poem. My main focus was to humanize the illegal immigrant story. 

The rap song is addressed to people who discriminate against illegal immigrants. I want them to understand the reasons why many decide to face the dangers of crossing through a desert inorder to arrive to the “land of opportunity”. Just like in your poem, I talk about crossing through a dessert all alone. I knew that writing my rap song for others to read would not suffice so I performed it through a recording. Through my performance, you can hear the tone that I want my audience to feel. I was able to express those feelings of frustration and anger. The first four lines of the rap song end with words that rhyme. I did this on purpose in order to make it sound poetic. There are many instances throughout the rap in which I do the same thing. I also repeat certain lines in order to underline key point that I want to make clear to my audience. 

Writing this rap song was not an easy thing. I had to keep the beat in mind in order for the song to flow. I tried to not go too overboard with the rhyming but I got carried away in some sections. Thankfully, It all came together in the end. My goal was to express the anger and frustration that illegal immigrants experience due to situations that they have to encounter like crossing desserts to come to a country that discriminates against them. I hope that you enjoyed my recreation of your poem.

Sincerely,

Diane Tarabay

Harder Than I Thought

Diane Tarabay-Rodriguez

After reading all three blog posts, I ran them through the syllabus requirements. Giving each blog post was very difficult taski for me because It’s hard for me to point out the negative parts of any type of writing. I usually like giving positive feedback, but I tried my best to be completely honest and fair with the grading. 

The blog post that stood out to me was “Tropic shadows”. It included everything that the blog post needed, It did a very good job in providing references and quotes from certain lines. The thesis was very clear and it had a lot of textual evidence. It may have been a little boring but It contained everything a slid blog post needs. I give this blog post a sold A. 

When I began to read “White America”, I became instantly bored because of how basic it was. It provided clear analysis and textual evidence but I feel like the blogger could have dug more into the meaning. They could have also done a better job at explaining their textual evidence that they provided. I got the feeling that this blog was written at the last minute yet the writer was smart enough to cover everything that was required in no time. I would give this blog post a solid B- because I know the person could have done a better job by going more into depth with the analysis.

The blog post, “The Great Divide”, was enjoyable to read. You can tell that the writer of this blog post put some thought into it. The blogger mentioned their honest interpretation of both poems and was clear and straight to the point. The thesis was very clear and captivating.The post maintained a very good structure and it included textual evidence. I would give this post a solid A.

NO ESCAPE

Diane Tarabay-Rodriguez

McKay’s “Outcast” represents the hopelessness and despair of the working class speaker in “The Tired Worker”. The sonnet, Outcast, talks about feeling trapped in racist America with a tone of longing for better. The speaker wishes to be where his ancestors lives, only then would he feel free. He states, “something in me is lost, forever lost, some vital thing has gone out of my heart”(3). This line clearly illustrates feeling of despair. This is a full representation of how African Americans felt in the weatern world.

In “The tired worker”, the speaker expresses the same feelings of being trapped. The sonnet is about an exhausted worker that is thinking about the end of the work day. He wants to be released so that his body can finally rest. There is a lot of exclamation marks which work well to express the strong feelings on the subject.

Both poems talk about desire for something better. The poem “outcast” clearly shows why the working class speaker feels the way he does. Even though the speaker tries to look on the bright side of the situation, he ends up accepting his misfortune. 

Some may argue that the poem “Outcast” doesn’t represent the hopelessness and despair of the poem “The working class”. They belive that there is a lot more self motivation on “The working class” sonnet, but we can clearly see that those feelings of hope disappear by the end of the poem. They are both filled with feelings of being trapped with no hope of escaping. The only thing to do is to imagine and dream about being somewhere else, but in the end they are made to face reality.

SPECIAL

Diane Tarabay-Rodriguez 

William Shakespeare’s sonnet,”My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”is a poem that focuses on the idea of female beauty in a completely different perspective. It contains a similar theme to other traditional sonnets-Female Beauty-but it goes about it in a realistic way. This sonnet contains fourteen lines that are composed of three quatrains and a rhyming couplet. The poem is dominated by an iambic pentameter, and many of the lines are not punctuated, which allows the rhyme to flow smoothly. There are three types of literary devices that work towards enhancing the sound of the poem There is the use of alliteration when words of the same consonants get close together in lines. For example: (1 My, mistress/ 4 wires, black wires/ 9 hear, her/ 11 grant, goddess go). The sonnet contains assonance throughout most of the poem. This happens when words with same/similar vowels are near each other in lines. For example, (1 My, eyes, like/ 4 hairs, hers/ 6 see, cheeks/ 10 that, hath). The repetition in the sonnet places special emphasis on the repeated words and phrases.

When viewing the skit performed by Catherine Tate, we instantly get annoyed by Tate’s character because she is obnoxious. She continues to interrupt the teacher to the point where she makes him explode in anger. He tells her that she will never be as genus and brilliant as Shakespeare. Towards the end, she begins to recite Shakespeare sonnet off the top of her head. She blurs it out in a very fast pace that is difficult to understand with a tone of anger. The reason she recites it in that way is because she is only trying to prove to the teacher that she knows the poem and that she needs no further explanation of it. It came to my understanding that the meaning of Shakespeare sonnet was poorly transformed by Tate’s classroom performance and not enhanced in anyway because I could barely understand what she was saying. After going more in depth between the poem and the skit, I came to the conclusion that the theme of the poem and the way it is performed had a similarity. For example, Shakespeare’s poem talked about how his mistress isn’t anything unique. He states, “My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare” (12-13). This shows that the poet does not consider his lover as ideally beautiful yet he still loves her. She might seem like any other ordinary women but to him she is special. Tate makes the poem seem meaningless by the way she performs it but THAT sonnet is just like the mistress in the poem, special.

Listen To His Voice

Diane Tarabay-Rodriguez

After reading Javier Zamora’s poem, “To President-Elect”, I was immediately captivated by the story of the poem. I felt a wave of anger and sadness due to the experience that was depicted. It was a very short poem that gave me a clear picture of an intense moment that many immigrants have to go through while trying to illegally cross to the United States. He States, “We craved water; our piss turned the brightest yellow-I am not the only nine-year-old who has slipped under the ranches fences”(Lines 5-6). The detail in these lines allowed me to understand Zamora’s experience more clearly. His use of imagery throughout the poem gave me a chance to experience the struggles many illegal immigrants have to face.

Javier Zamora had the opportunity to read the poem for the Bay Area Writers Resist. His oral version was completely different from the written poem not only because of his added words, but because of the feelings it gave. When he performed it, I was able to see and hear the words of the poem coming from an immigrant from El Salvador. He includes a lot of profanity to express his anger and frustration towards the dry back in the poem. I was able to hear his frustration through the tone of his voice. He stated, “‘If you call us illegal, call us wetbacks, we’ll end in putasos. If you call us aliens, you are equally fucked”‘.

The meaning of the written poem changed when it was performed orally because I was able to more clearly understand the writer’s message. By listening to the tone of his voice, I felt like I could completely understand his struggle. By looking at him and his expressions while reciting the poem, I felt like I had finally met the person who could not only show me but allow me to see through the eyes of an immigrant going through the intense experience of crossing the border.

I Still Know Who I Am

Diane Tarabay-Rodriguez 

In an interview, Natalie Diaz raises many issues that are faced by indigenous people like herself. She talks about the oppression that she has experienced. She describes the embodied experience of poetry as the transmission of energy from one’s body into paper. Through poetry, she is able to release her emotional energy. She mentions that she is always trying to return to the body because she feels that she hasn’t been given the opportunity to be who she really is due to all the oppression she faces as an Indigenous, Latina and queer woman.

In her poem, “Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym Subjugation of a Wild Indian Reservation”, Diaz gives a reflection to the past when white men wiped Native Americans out of their land. At first, the white men seemed to be angels who had come to help, but instead they brought diseases, destruction and death. The settlers had brought in diseases that lead to about 90% of Native Americans dying. Diaz also refers back to the Trail of Tears when she mentions, “You better hope you never see angels on the rez. If you do, they’ll be marching you off to Zion or Oklahoma…”(32-34). She also mentions that the men also tried to convert Natives into white men. There came a point where they completely destroyed the Native American culture that was rich in ancestry, stories and culture. Many tribe leaders were killed which made it easy for many young Natives to mix into the American culture. Throughout the whole poem, the poet tried to make the reader recall the past. Hinting at the fact that history repeats itself, and we cannot allow it to happen again. In lines 1-4, she mentions that the angels meant death so they shouldn’t be allowed into the reservation. On lines 30-31, she talks about how it’s better if the “Angels” stay rich, fat and ugly in heaven.

Given the issue raised in her interview, there are specific elements in her poem that signal a return to the body for herself and for others like her. For example, she is basically taking back her identity and transmitting her emotional energy throughout the whole poem. I could clearly feel her anger and anguish while reading. She is reclaiming her body through every line. Her poems do a great job at accommodating social identities that have been marginalized or silenced because her words are empowering and care free from judgment. A lot of people get so caught up with the noise of society to the point where they forget who they are. Diaz gives her readers a chance to return to their body by allowing them to take the first step of pausing and self-reflecting.

I SURRENDER

Diane Tarabay-Rodriguez 

As a Christian, religious poems that talk about my personal beliefs immediately intrigue me. Don’t get me wrong, I am no expert on Christianity, but I have a clear understanding of the basic principles of my religion. Like most people, I find it difficult to understand many parts of the bible and George Herbert’s “The Altar” and “Easter Wings” made it no easier for me. Just like in many verses of the bible, I found myself pondering about how the words and the shape of the poems connection and what it all meant.

With simply looking at the title of the poem, “The Altar”, I immediately visualized the shape of the altar that was created with all the lines combined together. As I began to read the poem, I began to understand that the altar was not just ANY altar, it was a broken one. I came to the understanding that the poet was referring to himself as an altar. The altar is his body. It contains a heart and it has shed a lot of tears. In line 3, He states “whose parts are as thy hands did frame”. Through that line he is acknowledging himself as a creation of God. In the beginning, he shows that he is well aware of his imperfections. On lines 5 and 6, He states, “A HEART alone is simply a stone if”. Comes to show that a heart without God is nothing at all. He mentions this line on the most narrow part of the poem to visually show how one becomes so small without God. After, he makes the lines more wide and talks about wanting to be redeemed.

The poem, “Easter Wings”, also demonstrated a strong visual that was related to the poem. As I began to read it, I visualized a two pairs of wings. The way the poem went from wide to narrow and wide to narrow, allowed me to see the pair of wings in movement. Even the tone of my voice began to drop as the lines got thinner and it rose up as the lines widened. The poem contained a very strong religious meaning behind it. It talked about how god created man, “in wealth and store”(1), yet man still decides to fall in the hands of sin. Parts of the poem refer back to the beginning of the bible where Adam and Eve are created and given all that they need, yet still decide to go against God’s words. The poem takes a dark turn when it goes from wide to narrow but slowly rises when it reaches the most narrow parts of the poem. This is the poet’s way of showing is that no matter what mistakes people make, God always gives a chance of redemption.

After reading both poems, I felt that “The Alter” offers a more powerful Christian message than the poem, “Easter Wings”. There was a strong personal connection in the poem “The Altar”. I felt a personal connection to it because it talked about a broken person that is accepting God as their creator.

You Have Seen My Beauty…Now Let Me Show You My Scars

Diane Tarabay-Rodriguez 

Have you received a rose for Valentine’s Day, or on a day that, for some reason, your lover was feeling a little romantic? You looked into their eyes and you felt an unexplainable feeling right between your chest, right? You completely ignored the rose at first. Do you know why? I do. That rose was not just a rose, it meant so much more. That love and romance that you thought had faded over time all of a sudden came back with the presence of such a beautiful rose.

Roses have become known to symbolize love, beauty, passion and romance. There are two poems that talk about a rose. H.D.’s “Sea Rose” and Punente’s “The Rose and the Poppy” both had a very creative way of talking about a rose in their poems. 

In the poem, The Rose and The Poppy, Puente’s talks about the traditional symbol of a rose and completely opposes it and turns against it. For example, she states, “Not a ravishing ruby red” (Line 2) and “Nor am I a symbol of romance” (Line 5). She later writes, “I am wild in fields of green and blues” (Lines 11 and 12) and “like tangerines in an orchard of trees” (Line 14). Her poem is undeniably brilliant, but she does NOT challenge the traditional symbol of the rose. She states the typical symbol of a rose and then mentions that she is NOT like a rose. 

On the other hand, in the poem, Sea Rose, H.D. effectively challenges the traditional symbol of the rose by talking about a rose that is ” marred and with stint of petals” (line 2). This shows a different type of rose, separate from the typical “beautiful” one. This specific rose is in no particular way a symbol of romance. In this case, the rose is meant to represent someone who has struggled. Even though the rose has seen some bad days, it is “more precious than a wet rose” (Line 5 and 6). Despite all the things this rose is going through, it’s still getting by. The struggles it has gone through is what makes it even more beautiful.

MEN, WE KNOW YOUR WEAKNESS

Diane Tarabay-Rodriguez

I was completely drawn to Ode 44 by Hafez. There was great use of figurative language that allowed me to clearly visualize the beautiful women he was so vividly describe. Hafez talks about the women with wine red lips with such fascination. One can instantly tell that he is intrigued by her. He states, “Narcissus-eyes all shining for the fray, Filled full of frolic to her wine-red lips, Warm as a dewy rose, sudden she slips Into my bed – just in her little shift”. He uses personification and a simile. His use of personification allowed me to illustrate the woman’s lips and eyes in my imagination. The use of the simile described the women warmth. Throughout the poem, the use of personification helped Hafez bring the writing to life. By giving objects human qualities he was able to effectively get his message through. Through the use of figurative language, the poet captured my attention, and It helped me create a clear image of the poem. This poems tenor was lust and the vehicle was wine. In other words, lust is like wine, its very easy to give into.

The poem would be interpreated diffrently if the poet was a non-Muslim because there are religious belives that are tied to this poem. In her article, “The Erasure Of Islam From The Poetry Of Rumi”, Rozina Ali talks about how there are a lot of versions of Rumi’s work that has been futher adjusted from the original. Each translator needs to be able to make his/her audience comprehend a poem that might be based on a completely different system of beliefs and culture. In other words, they need to adjust it in order for the reader to understand the foreign. If this poet was not muslim, I would not take his sin too serious because I wouldn’t attach him to a religon that is strict in it’s moral and religious codes. Knowing his tradition and heritage, allows me to understand that he committed a horrible sin. I’m very educated on the Musim religion and I know that those types of sins are extremely frowned upon.  Also, I would instantly interpret it based on my christian beliefs.

DON’T BREATHE

Diane Tarabay-Rodriguez

By reading and closely analyzing both poems: “I Sing The Body Electric” by Walt Whitman and “We Are All Whitman: #2: Song of/to/My/Your/Self” by Luis Alberto Ambroggio. It is inevitable to miss the close resemblance that both poems share. You can clearly see that Ambroggio’s poem translates the rhythmic enumeration of body parts in whitman’s poem. You can instantly tell that both poems are free verse because they contain an irregular form and meter, while still maintaining a poetic structure. As I began reading Ambroggio’s poem I instantly began to feel out of breath. Just like in “I Sing The Body Electric”, it was composed of run-on sentences with no chance of a pause. It felt like I was completely immersed into a completely new world of poetry. My body began to pulseate due to the pulsating sound of both poems. Take these lines for example:

“It comes from Mexico, Central America,

from Costa Rica, Tikal, Guatemala,

from their rainforests, lakes of salt and honey,

from Panama, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela,

the corn crops of the Argentine pampas…”(Ambroggio, 47-53)

This part continues with eight more lines, which contain commas but no periods. Despite there being commas, you feel the need to keep on going without a pause. Stopping for only a quick second for a small gasp of air. This is what makes this poem as majestic as “I Sing My Body Electric”. You are not only captivated by the message of both poems but for their use of rhythmic enumeration. The poems give the reader an experience of cacophony. The beauty of both poems is that they seem chaotic, yet there is order in the chaos. All the rhymes in both poems depend on the sound pattern and NOT on meter. If you closely analyze both poems you can see that they are both very long and they go on and on with only a few periods.