Running through time

To school I went, everyday 1

with the fear that that was the day. 2

The day my parents wouldn’t come home. 3

While others expected their parents, 4

to pick them up while I wondered if i’d see them  5

One day my father was at work, 6

Under the heat of the summer sun, 7

He heard chaos when he turned around, 8

he saw the I.C.E vans pulling up. 9

His boss telling him to run away, 10

drifting through the fields, 11

Same way as time drifts away from you. 12

The adrenaline coursing through his body made him look like a blur, 13

 A blur running away through the fields 14

From I.C.E who have been after him. 15

No matter how far you run or how long you run, 16

They can always catch up to you 17

No matter what 18

The only thing to say is, 19

F*** I.C.E  20

Review : 

To whom this may concern:

The poem that I chose to make a parody out of is “Mexicans begin Jogging” by the author Gary Soto. This poem is from our Border Crossing unit and it’s is a short freestyle poem about a group of undocumented Mexicans that were at work at a factory to which then homeland security (ICE) shows up so they have to run away before getting caught. In this poem we can feel the adrenaline that they must have felt when running away trying to save themselves from being caught and deported. Many of the people who decide to cross the border and come to America risk it all for the so-called “American Dream” where they believe that there are more opportunities for a better life/future for them here than back home where they are originally from. 

To begin with, this project was one of the hardest for me. Being creative was never one of my strong skills which is why it was difficult for me to get all my ideas together and make it into something coherent. Finding a poem I liked was not the hard part, what I found difficult was the imitation or parody part of the project. I wasn’t sure of what I wanted to do just yet so I tried two different methods, one of them being an illustration of the imagery that the poem portrayed with the specific diction chosen by the author. However, I didn’t really know how that could be imitating the original poem so, then I instead chose to write my own poem with similar guidelines as to the ones seen in the original piece. With my piece I stayed on the theme of I.C.E and the fear that many who choose to cross over feel everyday. My imitation is different to the original poem because it also draws attention and focus to the fear that one as an undocumented worker may feel when found in that situation. It ties to the feelings in the original poem with similar themes and depictions however its not completely the same since I am talking about someone else’s experience not my own in the original piece the author is talking about a personal experience. My piece is also implied to the modern audience since immigration and deportation relating to I.C.E is still something prevalent to this day.

by Sandra Landa-Sanchez  

eng-057-notes-1Download

The Exhaustion of Day to Day Life

Both of McKay’s poems,“The Tired Worker” and “Outcast” work alongside each other representing  the same idea of the working class. In the poem “The Tired Worker”, we can sense a feeling of fatigue and exhaustion. This comes from the way the words carry each other and the way that they flow. They are words that when reading them feel light and soft in a way that even by just reading it the reader also feels tired and exhausted (at least I did in a way). Within this poem we can see that the speaker refers to the anguish and exhaustion of the working day “The wretched day was theirs, the night is mine” and how the only time they have to themselves is the night in which they can finally take a break and relax. Something that is similar between both poems is the reference to the speaker’s soul, the working day and relaxing night. I am neutral to the idea of the poem “Outcast” representing both the hopelessness and dispairity of the middle working class in the other poem “The Tired Worker”. I think that they both are about the same topics and themes which make them similar in many ways. In the poem, “Outcast” we can also sense a feeling of fatigue and exhaustion. However, it is more about the physical feelings than the emotional and mental ones. In the first poem, “The Tired Worker” it talks more about the soul and the emotions that the speaker feels on the day to day actions. As for the other poem it’s more about the physical things like the lips, knees, and heart. Which is why I am neutral and wouldn’t be able to choose between them. 

Sandra Landa-Sanchez

The Effects of Shakespearean Sonnets Even After his Death

William Shakspere even after his death with his work still has an effect on society today. In his poem, “ My Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” we can see the theme of love and passion that the author has for his unidentified beloved. It also describes the different traits the lover has that the author is attracted towards. In the comedy skit we see Catherine Tate’s character as an annoying student that doesn’t like the fact that her new English teacher isn’t actually English, he’s actually Scottish. Catherine Tate’s character is of English descent and doesn’t think her new English teacher is qualified to teach her class English just because he is of Scottish descent instead. This brings up the topic of class and ethnic background. Which relates to the way Shakespeare wrote his own pieces he would not only write for the high class members he would also write for the middle class members and when she mocked the fact that “No, reading’s for losers”like saying that those who don’t understand poems and can only read are losers unlike her. With both Shakespeare’s sonnet and Catherine Tate’s comedy skit we can see a similarity. The structure of a sonnet is based on a 14 line poem that follows the iambic rhythm as well as an organized rhyme scheme. The similarity between both pieces is that the first couple of lines in Shakespere’s sonnet were utilized to set the theme/mood and then in the last two lines we were able to witness a twist. For example, “My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground./ And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/ As any she belied with false compare.”(lines 12,13, and 14) within these lines we can see that the shift happened when he stopped describing his lover’s beauty and instead focused on declaring his love as something unique and rare.  In the comedy skit we can see something similar taking place. The skit begins with the introduction of the class’s new English teacher to which one specific student, Catherine Tate’s character, doesn’t agree with because he has a Scottish accent. Like in the sonnet the first couple of minutes are used to set the tone and mood which towards the end will change and in this case the teacher had enough of her attitude and turned her into a doll. 

Sandra Landa-Sanchez

Gentrification has left me and many without a home

 

The topic of gentrification is almost never brought up but it is something that sadly is happening a lot and it greatly affects communities in multiple ways. I myself can relate to these poems and the poet because I too come from the East Palo Alto (EPA) area. After I was born my family and I lived there for a couple of years before moving to Redwood City which is close by. It is a hard truth to think about but because of the gentrification, my family was obligated to relocate. In Antonio Lopez’s poem “Letter to the Editor” which is a letter directed to the editor Dara Kerr, an enterprise editor based in Oakland that writes about labor in the Silicon Valley, he brings up many questions that I’m sure everyone would like an answer to. 

Many would say that my chosen poem isn’t really considered a poem because of the format and lack of rhyme; however, I think it is even if it doesn’t follow the traditional guideline of an English poem. It is literally not formatted as a poem because it is a letter however it still has the same effect as if it was a poem. Many poems are made to describe a specific situation or event and within call people out which I find that in this piece that is what is going on. In the letter, the author Antonio mentions the article that the editor wrote about the new health clinic that was opened in East Palo Alto in which it was mentioned that “The press bravely announced East Palo Alto as a “strategic location” in the Silicon Valley,”(lines 2-3) one of the biggest things that came to mind when reading this is what about EPA made them feel like that was a “strategic location” what are they looking to benefit from this? The poet also brings up the many companies that have taken over parts of the EPA area in which they have built their offices and in this situation, they are the ones causing gentrification in that area. The poet calls out the article for the way that the editor chose to describe the area “ ‘we paid a visit to this once down-and-out’ town”(line 8-9), “Más que nada, cómo te parece if you and your colleagues wrote about us, and not just the negative shit?” (line 18-19) With these phrases and the use of rhetorical questions “1. How come I didn’t have one white friend till I was sixteen?” (line 11) the poet brings to question the reality of things and the gentrification effects on the community. 

Sandra Landa-Sanchez

Living Hell

As we may all know World War 2 began in the year 1941 and with this war came much destruction, death, dehumanization, and separation to the Japanese American families. As time passed more and more destruction was caused by the war and we know this because of the survivors that have been able to share their stories and memories with us. We learned about these moments in history through many different forms of record keeping and one of them being poetry, more specifically haiku. This form of poetry was first invented by Matsuo Basyou (Basho) during the 17th century as a form of expressing one’s feelings and day-to-day life.

Imagery is invoked in haiku for the purpose to allow the audience a glimpse of what is experienced by the Japanese community in the internment camps. The diction utilized to help invoke the imagery is what really helps the poem capture the feelings and emotions experienced in these internment camps. As seen in one of Shiho Okamoto’s haiku “Iron fence immovable/over the mountain/winter sunrise” with these simple three sentences we can already see that they were being kept enclosed by “iron fences” as if they were animals or not human beings. When the author mentions “immovable” we can see that they are being kept against their will and can’t do anything about it because of the immovable fences, they weren’t just figurative they were literal and physically in place. With these, we can already see a feeling of desperation within the poet of being behind those fences day after day, season after season, and having to wake up to the same pain every day. Many times “winter sunrise” is thought of with a positive and beautiful connotation, however, through the imagery of this haiku I get a feeling that it’s the complete opposite. It’s not as nice of a view with “iron fences” in place and the feeling of being kept against your will and treated wrongly for so long. This poem properly utilized its diction to convey its personal experience in the form of imagery so that the audience could at least imagine what they went through for so long.

Sandra Landa-Sanchez

Barbed wires and camp barracks at former Nazi German concentration camp Auschwitz II-Birkenau on January 23, 2021 in Brzezinka near Oswiecim, Poland. January 27 will mark the 76th anniversary of the camp’s liberation. This year’s commemoration ceremony will be held online due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Reality

Through time and history, we have developed the rose to be a symbol of affection and love that one has for another. We in our own way have given a new meaning to the rose and have made it a symbol for the undying love and eternal affection between two souls. However, that is not the only meaning that the rose has as a symbol. As seen in both poems, “The Rose and The Poppy” by the author Adrianna Puente and “Sea Rose” by the author H.D. In both of these poems, we can see the opposite of what is normally seen about a rose.

They both talk about it in a negative connotation in the sense that the rose is not a symbol of beauty or love anymore instead it is “harsh” (line 1, Sea Rose) and not like a “ravishing ruby red” (line 2, The Rose and The Poppy). Like we can see in the first lines of both poems the authors will not be talking about the normal symbolic meaning of the rose instead quite the opposite. However, we can see that in “The Rose and The Poppy” by the author Adrianna Puente the idea or most commonly known as the symbolic meaning of the rose is challenged the most in this poem. Since the very beginning of the poem in the first few lines “I am/ not a ravishing ruby red,/ or a semblance of purity white”(lines 1-3) we can see what is supposed to be the description of a flower, in this case, a rose but the way that it is being described makes it seem like someone instead of a something. Within these lines, the author challenges the idea of a beautiful rose with her reality. She claims that the rose (herself) isn’t perfect in any way and that instead its (she) is “wild in fields of green and blues” (line 13) and also mentions “but I am my own” (line 20). This is why this poem seems to be challenging most of the meaning of the rose.

Sandra Landa-Sanchez

Love is Intoxicating

Out of the three poems that were presented to us “Ode 44”, “Ode 487” by Hafez, and translated by Richard Le Gallienne along with the third poem “Like This” by the author Rumi the one that I chose was “Ode 487”. In this poem, the author Hafez used multiple types of figurative language to convey his message of love for example he utilizes personification, alternate rhyme, rhyming couplet, metaphors, and similes to further perceive a message that love isn’t easy.

With the use of these figurative languages, the author can within the poem illustrate a beautiful romance that couldn’t be. In the very first line “With last night’s wine still singing in my head,” we can see how the author employs personification to give parts of the poem life and help give us some context as to what the narrator is feeling. In this poem, I believe that the love that is being described is the love that doesn’t happen between two people. It is in a way describing the emotional roller coaster one goes through when they have been rejected, “and mocked my foolish hopes of winning her.” (line 15) In this line, we can see how the narrator was rejected by a woman that he was interested in. The way that this poem is written and the messages it is portraying I believe that it is rejecting Islamic spirituality because the author brings up “ the holy city of intoxication” and in the Islamic religion they aren’t allowed or it is seen as haram for them to drink alcohol. This is why I believe that this poem overall is based on rejection in the sense of love as well as rejection towards the Islamic religion.

Sandra Landa-Sanchez

How tone and translation affect the rhythm of a poem

When reading the poem “I Sing the Body Electric” by Walt Whitman almost nothing made sense and everything was read in a very fast-paced beat it was very chaotic. In poetry when a poem is chaotic it is referred to as cacophony and that is when the lines of the poems are discordant and even the words become difficult to pronounce. During class, the professor read the poem to us out loud, and while reading it was visible how hard it was becoming for him to continue reading. In the end, he mentioned being out of breath and dizzy to the point where he used his inhaler. When listening to our professor read it the room had an electric feeling to it like we wanted to get up and move because of the way that the tone fluctuated through high and low points.
However, in the video that we watched about the translations of the poem “Song of Myself” by the author Walt Whitman, it was a shorter poem and it was accompanied by soft music in the background. In these interpretations, each poet had a different way of performing it and it was all based on their tone. As seen the original piece was read in English which was calm and flowing then it was read in Spanish this poet added a bit more spice and passion when reading it while the Persian poet’s translation had a lot more passion and even the music in the background picked up the pace.

• Sandra Landa-Sanchez

Rhythm & Meter: the art of Women

by: Sandra Landa-Sanchez

Doing this assignment was more difficult than I originally anticipated. In both poems “ Delight in Disorder” by the author Robert Herrick and “Still to Be Neat” by the author Ben Jonson there was a visible representation of the nature of art. Both poems give their description of the nature of art through the many details that can formulate to in a way describe a woman. Also both poems seem to be written in the iambic prosody. In “Delight in Disorder”, author Robert Herrick utilizes many oxymorons to convey the audience into believing that he is explaining the way we view things as inconveniences and annoyances instead of delights he does this through giving an example that represents women like, “A sweet disorder in the dress,’ and ‘ A lawn about the shoulders thrown”. When reading this it made me think that the author was trying to describe that women have to deal with so much in everyday life that we are sometimes just seen as sweet disorders in a dress. In a way, trying to say that life in all its complications is delightful like nature and that in a way that is also the meaning of art. In the poem “Still to Be Neat” by the author Ben Jonson we can see that in a way he is also describing the nature of art through the representations that describe the feminine women. We can perceive this through the author’s use of the prosody iambic tetrameter. 

In my opinion I like the second poem a lot better because it is easier to understand and in a way the very first time I read it and was confused. That was what intrigued me more into figuring it out and trying to understand it.