Disorder in Masculinity

A trampoline’s spring beneath the feet,
Provokes scorn, makes for retreat;
No grace in such a simple thing,
Just shudders at the thought it brings.

A hardy me, or so I tried,
But every move just mortified.
No floating gently in the sea,
No tech on laps—oh, woe is the!

For they frown upon each act,
That lacks the ‘hardy’ stereotype exact.
To earn a nod or win a glance,
The must perform a tougher dance.

But lo, poor the, the cannot win,
Against the ‘ick’ that lurks within.
So let them be, these imperfect guys,
While women search for ‘manly’ skies.

Let this poem, with rhymes so neat,
May also stir them sense of defeat;
For lengthy verse and structured line,
Evoke in her a weary sigh.

Review:

This parody poem, titled “Disorderd in Masculinity,” is a twist on the themes explored in Robert Herrick’s classic poem “Delight in Disorder.” While Herrick’s original poem celebrates the beauty found in the casual disorder of women’s attire, this parody will take a playful look at societal expectations surrounding men and masculinity. In “Disorder in Masculinity,” the focus shifts from female beauty standards to the behaviors and activities of men that are perceived as unmanly or ‘ick’-inducing by women. With my best effort, I incorporated rhymes and imagery in the poem to illustrates how ordinary actions like floating in a pool, using a laptop on one’s lap, or bouncing on a trampoline can be subject to scrutiny and disapproval based on narrow definitions of masculinity.

What stands out about this parody is its adherence to the original rhyme scheme of Herrick’s poem (AABBCCDDEEFF), despite being longer in length. My thought process behind the making of this poem was to keep the rhyme as a symbol for “perfect” but intentionally making the poem longer to indirectly reflect the theme of ‘ick’ within the poem itself due to its extended form. And to make this more evident, I last minuted-ly added a stanza that actually acknowledges the potential weariness induced by the poem’s length, all to tie back to the overarching theme of societal judgments and personal preferences. Another thing I symbolized was approaching gender references. In the beginning, the poem avoids direct male or female terms, mirroring Herrick’s original poem which similarly eschews explicit gender mentions. I made this choice not only to pay homage to the source material but to again, indirectly reflect the “ick” within the poem format. I aimed for the reaction of: “aw man it was almost perfect, but because you added gender references its all of sudden not perfect, but rather an “ick”. The poem format is a symbol of an almost perfect man who suddenly becomes not perfect because of an “ick”: the insertion of gender reference.

In creating “Disorder in Masculinity,” my main aim was to playfully shed light on societal expectations surrounding masculinity and challenge the harmful notion that certain behaviors or expressions make someone “less of a man.” I tried to do this through humor and satire, where the parody poem underscores the importance of embracing authenticity and individuality. The aim is to encourage readers to celebrate male tenderness and reject narrow stereotypes. The poem is supposed to illustrate how ordinary actions can be unfairly judged based on rigid definitions of masculinity, emphasizing that it’s okay to be oneself regardless of others’ perceptions.

-Mustang Chang

The Sensual Form

The meaning of Julia Alvarez’s “Sometimes the Words Are So Close” is enhanced from the drafts by showing the “many drafts” to reflect the speaker finding themselves through many trial-and-errors. This is a petrarchan sonnet, because the rhyming scheme follows that of the petrarchan rules but also the volta that occurs on line 9, “Why do I get confused living it through?” (Alvarez 9). The audience partakes in this confusion as they read through the enjambment from lines 1-8 because of its lack of punctuations, in which shifts with the rhetorical question. The speaker also mentions they are more who they are when “down on paper” (2). The drafts Alvarez made become an artform reflecting the creation of the poem, the audience can see the authentic struggle of an individual trying to seek the right words that reflects their emotions. Alvarez writes many scribbles, crosses, and self-critical comments like “pretentious” that echoes the running sentence – a running thought of a speaker whose anxieties find relief in writing.

The speaker also speaks to the audience, “I once was in many drafts as you” (12). The audience is referred to as a rough sketch of a poem where each individual is refining and editing what gives them meaning, what they want, and who they are. The speaker acknowledges this too, but the sonnet takes a form of its own by the speaker by giving it a gender; “who touches this poem touches a woman” (14). And that is seen through the edits made in the drafts, a sensual experience of a female speaker who defines themselves through the poem’s form. The edits as well enhance that meaning as she tries to find the right words that reflect the meaning of her poem. It is with certainty, especially throughout the rough drafts, that the poem’s form is a woman’s as Alveraz ensured the poem ends in this manner. Her utilization of the sonnet form could be to reflect the female speaker defining herself against the patriarchal control of the sonnet, in which she encourages her audience whose words are “close” to the audience to define themselves as well. Nonetheless, it is through the drafts that reflects a human process of understanding one’s identity and establishing it despite the odds.

Phillip Gallo

Living in These Pages

When comparing Julia Alvarez’s “Sometimes the Words are So Close” and earlier drafts of the poem, the final meaning is altered from the drafts because the missing punctuation shows the speaker’s growth as she learns she has a home in poetry. Alvarez mentioned in the interview that she learned English late and books became a “portable homeland”. This poem mirrors her own journey of growing up, learning English, and finding a home and identity in words.

In previous iterations, Alvarez incorporated punctuation into the poem. An early draft approximately reads, “Sometimes poems are close to who I am / expressed, all that I am, down on pages / feet, legs, thigh, hips, belly, breasts, arms”. Alvarez did not end up including the list of body parts in the poem, so the focus became less physical and more about words. By eliminating the need for the previous draft’s commas, she brought the words closer together (as the poem title suggests) and took enjambment to the next level. The final version still communicates the same idea that the speaker belongs in poems.

The final poem begins with, “Sometimes the words are so close I am” (line 1). This version creates more of a jumbled, confused, stream-of-consciousness feeling due to the lack of punctuation and lines that form a run-on sentence. By blurring the lines together, the speaker replicates the babbling speech patterns of a multilingual(?) child and leaves the line’s meaning more open-ended. Since “I am” doesn’t fit grammatically within the sentence, readers stumble on the words. In the beginning, the speaker does not have a home inside or outside the poem (which relates to the underlying metaphor of the speaker being the poem itself). The second line truly begins within the first, “I am / more who I am when I’m down on paper / than anywhere else” (lines 1-3). This speaker is uncertain as to where she belongs, so her thoughts are jumbled and conjoined. However, she recognizes that she has a close relationship with words and language in general (as demonstrated in the first line where she is literally close to words).

When the speaker finds her full form as a person, the poem has full sentences with proper punctuation. The stylistic change mimics her clarity concerning homeland and self. This change would have been less apparent if Alvarez had keep an earlier draft where the speaker is coherent throughout the poem. In this version, the speaker’s thoughts are less scrambled and more clearly distinct because she has found more stability with her identity. Poems have given her space to strip back her layers and translate them into words. The speaker is confidently expressing herself, so she is no longer a poem “in the drafts” (line 12). Through reflection, revision, and time, a poem with humble beginnings transforms into a masterpiece. The speaker reveals her true self to be in poems, and says, “Who touches this poem touches a woman” (line 14). This poem is a deep look into this woman’s whole life and journey with language. Her experiences influence her writing, and through poems, she reveals her innermost thoughts and struggles with identity and belonging.

~Miki Chroust 

Dehumanizing humans

The poem “Second Attempt Crossing”, by Javier Zamora is a beautiful poem that through the use of imagery, describes a traumatic moment in his life. Javier at nine years old had to cross the border to get to his family in the U.S. Yet, this process to cross withholds so many dangers to anyone who crosses it in hopes for a better life. Throughout history in the U.S. people who have migrated here from many other countries have been subjugated to discrimination and dehumanization. They have been dehumanized all for the dream of giving their families a better life. Which in all makes no sense since these lands belong to Native Americans who lived here first, therefore why are these white people deciding who belongs where? Why do they hold the power to place immigrants where they please or deem fitting? Yet, Javier through his poems writes the truth about these “animals” that protect each other when crossing from the gringos who are trying to shoot them. La Migra for years has hunted and abused their power when trying to obey the laws and not let people cross into the states. They do this by shooting, killing, raping, and trafficking these immigrants. They feel the need to dehumanize a person because of where they come from, how they look and speak. In recent news, my blood boiled to hear that in 2023 an eight-year-old little girl was found at the border with 67 DNA inside her from being raped. Yet no further investigation has been continued or outed to the public who rages alongside me. Since most evidence points out that she was raped by border control workers, most of them are filth, scum of the earth. Just as Javier describes his personal experience of being threatened to be shot by a border control worker. He at the same time grieves for his friend Chino who protected him from that shooting.

 Chino was a man who was affiliated with a well-known gang in San Salvador that reached into the states, mainly in the Los Angeles area. Chino being labeled by the rest of the world as a criminal, still risked his life in saving a child with his body as a shield for Javier to live. Yes, he was a criminal, and who knows what he did, which is why I won’t justify or glorify his actions. Yet, Chino still risked his life for a child whom he had never known, and for that, he became a hero for Javier. Therefore, a question that I have for Javier is, who is the audience that you want to reach with your poems? Reading his bibliography, he talks about the identity struggles of being a Mexican American. Yet, these poems switch from Spanish to the English language making it difficult for non-Spanish speakers to understand. Especially when Latino Spanish is not “proper” Spanish to the rest of the world. Therefore, that makes it difficult for English speakers to try to understand the point that he is trying to get across. His point being that immigrants are no less than any other human in this world, given the label that they’ve been put under, they will still overcome any form of discrimination. They surpass this because of the camaraderie and union within our races to help one another. They are humans and even with all the oppression they face, it is up to us, their offspring, to spread awareness. To rise further than the goals that white Americans have for us, surpass them, and bring equality to ALL immigrants from ALL countries.

~ Jeshua Rocha

Adopted Country

The poem that stood out to me the most was, Citizenship. Javier Zamora’s poem explores the sense of belonging as well as undocumented immigrants. Zamora starts the poem off by describing his early memories of crossing the border with his mom and siblings. As well as the sense of foreboding that accompanied their journey. The repetition of “we shook” emphasizes the physical and emotional toll of the journey and the term “dared” can imply a certain recklessness or defiance in the face of danger. 

As the poem continues Zamora reflects on the contradictory nature of his identity, he talks about the feeling between both worlds. Firstly being unable to belong in either his ancestral home or his “adopted” country. The imagery that is used is evocative as Zamora describes the way that they “see through mud and steel” and “gather food like horses”, which can suggest animalistic quality to the immigrant experience. Throughout the poem, Zamora emphasizes recurring motifs and symbols, including fences, water, and fire. These images are used to emphasize the stress in the relationship between immigrants as well as the society that they’d like to join. It appears that water signifies both the treacherous journey of migration as well as the difficult process of fully understanding the ideas. Fire can symbolize destruction and renewal, suggesting a more transformative power in the immigrant experience. 

My question for Zamora is how do you keep connecting with your culture even though you’re in America as well if it is something that you struggle with what do you do to help adjust?

Yue Wu-Jamison

The Devil was my Brother

Natalie Diaz talks about poems being a form of embodied practice, which is a form of therapy that helps identify sensations to expand the healing processes. She says that it’s always the want and trying to come back to your body. Even when it’s uncomfortable due to the situation that you are around in, she tries to treat everybody on the page like the body of the beloved. Further exploring these statements, after reading “My Brother at 3 A.M.” I realized that through her use of imagery and metaphors, she signals a return to the body. But what is a return to the body? Natalie explained that often we wander around in our body, therefore through signals that can be love, terror, and other signals that give our body some type of fight or fight response. Those “signals” are uncomfortable events that have been marginalized and unaccepted for some social identities. Therefore, her poems further explain these signals and topics spiritually.

    The poem “My Brother at 3 A.M.” highlights how damaged someone acts when addicted to drugs. The poem starts with her mom opening the door to her brother crying on the steps that the devil is going to kill him. Although to the mother this appears to be something that she cannot see in the beginning. Through the element of imagery, she further sends signals that will then show us the audience how by the end the mother will also see the devil. “ The sky wasn’t black or blue but the green of a dying night” ( Diaz line 17). This signals that through a green night, that symbolizes hallucinations we understand that the brother is on drugs. Therefore, the mother was now able to understand why her son was seeing the devil, and why she winced at the state that he was in. “Stars had closed their eyes or sheathed their knives” ( Diaz line 21). Through this metaphor, that the stars had their eyes closed can be interpreted that the stars didn’t want to see the state the brother was in. Maybe because of Natalie’s Aztec roots and spirituality, she wrote as if the stars symbolized happiness and renewal, they could not see that in her brother.

Natalie talks about the return to the body, yet at the end of this poem, the mother can see how the brother has not yet returned to his. This topic of drug abuse has been silenced in many cultures, one being Aztec because of drugs that contain hallucinogens. When drugs of that degree that are man-made are forbidden to us. Therefore, drug abuse has never been a topic of discussion in family teachings. “Mom finally saw it, a hellish vision, my brother” (Diaz line 27). It wasn’t until someone in the family has an addiction problem that they want to address the situation, but sometimes it can be too late. This can be seen as her brother fights himself and we see his internal struggle. This poem showcases the importance of your body being at an equilibrium point, to be able to confront uncomfortable situations. Therefore, Natalie brings these silenced situations out to the public so that they can be addressed and no longer shamed.

~ Jeshua Rocha

Within the body

Natalie Diaz stated in her Sampsonia Way 2018 interview that: “I am trying always to return back to the body because as an indigenous person, as a Latina, as a queer woman, I haven’t been given the permission or the space, to be fully in my body” Diaz places an importance on the inner body and the ability to return to it after not being given the opportunity prior, and that importance is showcased throughout “My brother at 3 A.M” . The poem revolves around the speaker’s brother, who returns home to talk to their mother, afraid of a demon-like figure that follows him and threatens his life. “He wants to kill me, he told her, looking over his shoulder.” (lines 7-8) This threatening figure whom the mother cannot see at first, leading the audience to understand that this figure is a mere hallucination. Ultimately being revealed that the figure is simply himself within the final stanza. 

It’s this poem that beautifully showcases Diaz’s view on the return to the body, and its necessity, even during more difficult times. “How can I constantly return to the body, even when it’s uncomfortable” The brother’s devil-like figure is simply his internal struggle, as he fights within himself, as his soul attempts to destroy his body.  Showcasing the importance of returning to the body, to confront these attempts and struggles, no matter how uncomfortable one might feel doing so. Diaz’s work also helps bring into light these internal issues that are rarely spoken about, oftentimes those struggling choosing to remain silent, with these communities not used to speaking out and discussing these issues and doubts they face. In this way My brother at 3 A.M serves as a perfect way for others to be fully within their own body.

– Eduardo Ojeda Jr

Confronting Reality

“My Brother at 3 A.M.” by Natalie Diaz, signals a return to the body in imagery and emotional experience that the protagonist (the brother) bears. The portrayal of mental illness and the intersection of familial relationships with societal perceptions accommodates marginalized and/or silenced social identities. Firstly, the repeated invocation of “O God” and the imagery of the protagonist weeping on the front steps at 3 a.m. induce a sense of desperation and a plea for divine intervention. This can be seen as a call to return to the body, to ground oneself in the present moment amidst turmoil. The protagonist’s intense emotional state and his perception of seeing a devil or a tail behind the house indicate a disconnection from reality, perhaps hinting at a dissociative episode. In this interpretation, the poem suggest the importance of reconnecting with one’s physical presence: to ground oneself in the here and now to confront and navigate through difficult experiences.

The protagonist’s distress is palpable, and his fear of being harmed by an unseen force reflects the stigma and lack of understanding often faced by individuals grappling with mental health issues, especially within marginalized communities. The family’s response, depicted through the mother’s concern and confusion, underscores the complexities of navigating mental illness within familial and societal contexts. The poem sheds light on the intersections of race, class, and mental health- highlighting how these factors can contribute to the marginalization and silencing of certain experiences. Quotes from the poem such as “He wants to kill me, Mom,” and “The devil does. Look at him, over there,” are convictions of fear and paranoia, while also illustrating the challenges faced by individuals struggling with mental illness in articulating their experiences to others. Then there’s the imagery of the sky “the dying green of night” and the stars closing their eyes”: these quotes summon foreboding and isolation- He’s in an emotional turmoil, trapped in the societal barriers that can’t seem to understand and accept his reality.

-Mustang Chang

The Burden of Being “Foreign”.

Claude McKay’s poetry was written to reach a wide audience; by using the sonnet form, these stories of the African American experience become more universal and digestible. In the poem’s “The Tired Worker” and “Outcast”, the themes of labor and foreignness are brought up through similar diction and poetic form. As a result, it can be concluded that the poem “Outcast” represents the emotions of the speaker in “The Tired Worker”.

Claude McKay’s decision to merge the concept of feeling foreign with the theme of middle class labor can be read as a claim about the identities of not only African American community but also the middle class as a whole. In line 9 of “The Tired Worker” the speaker says, “The wretched day was theirs, the night is mine”. Similarly, in line 8 of “Outcast” the speaker says, “While to its alien gods I bend my knee”. The use of their and its let us know that the speakers surroundings, from culture to daily life, belong to someone else and are not native or natural to them. Specifically in the first poem, we can assume that the speaker feels no connection to their day to day labor and the system for which they work for and this is later extended in the second poem to include culture and society.

The sonnet form is also kept constant and traditional throughout both poems, with rhyming couplets at the end. These couplets when read together almost feel as if they are part of the same thought.

“Weary my viens, my brain, my life! Have pity! / No! Once again, the harsh, the ugly city.” (The Tired Worker, 13-14)

“For I was born, far from my native clime, / Under the white mans menace, out of time.” (Outcast, 13-14)

The speakers claim parts of their body and identity, while outright denouncing the structure around them. This is a claim that asserts that: not only do they feel foreign in the system, but the system feels foreign to them as well. The ugly city has no real connection to the speakers weary brain. The white mans menace (in the white mans nation) is so disconnected from the speakers native clime.

In this way, readers can read these two poems together and “Outcast” as an extension and deeper view into the speaker of “The Tired Worker”.

Darah Carrillo-Vargas

A Loss of Faith

Both poems written by Natalie Diaz, portray what marginalized people go through every day. Focusing on “Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym Subjugation of a Wild Indian Rezervation”, Natalie Diaz, uses imagery in the poem to describe the “Angels” and the power they have over her own people. Usually “Angels” are seen in a positive way, however, Diaz views them as harmful beings. Many people who are discriminated against lose faith in what most people think is a good thing, like an “Angel”. Being a person of color, I understand the anxiety that many marginalized women and men go through, and I understand how it feels to lose your identity. Reading Diaz’s interview, I can relate to her when she says “an American anxiety, whether you are talking about pharmaceuticals and the rise in the number of people being treated for anxiety, or you are talking about our government.” (Diaz). This fear and anxiety has been a common theme for hundreds of years within marginalized groups throughout America.

Diaz’s poem “Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym Subjugation of a Wild Indian Rezervation”, uses imagery to create a new meaning when it comes to an “Angel”. Diaz starts of the poem with “Angels don’t come to the reservation.”, when reading that the first two things I thought of were, Diaz is Native American, and why don’t Angels come to the reservation? Diaz pulls you into the poem with the very first line. Then she goes on in the third line saying  “Coyotes, too. They all mean the same thing–/ death. And death/ eats angels, Iguess, because I haven’t seen an angel”, a very negative meaning toward “Angels”, while comparing them to coyotes, bats, owls, and boxy mottled things, and also by furthering it by saying, “And death eats angels” a very deep and dark thought. Diaz then goes to compare a man named Gabe to an “angel” by saying “Sure he had wings” but then said in line 10 “jailbird that he was. He flies around in stolen cars. Wherever he stops”, then showing this Gabe person is a criminal not an “Angel”, but angels may also be like Gabe, criminals. Toward the end of the poem, is where Diaz explains how her people, Indians, were treated by these “Angels”. Diaz uses imagery to describe what an “Angel” is, “ living on clouds or sitting on thrones across the sea wearing/ velvet robes and golden rings, drinking whiskey from silver cups,/ we’re better off if they stay rich and fat and ugly and/ ’xactly where they are—in their own distant heavens.”. Most people think “Angels” are in the heavens with robes on drinking out of silver cups, and are big. Diaz painted a more ugly picture of what a regular “Angel” represents, however explains in the last line why she has such a hatred for “Angels”. In the last line Diaz says “You better hope you never see angels on the rez. If you do, they’ll be marching you off/ to/ Zion or Oklahoma, or some other hell they’ve mapped out for us.”. This is where the ending is, but the beginning actually starts. Diaz is remembering all of the horrible things that happened to her people when these “Angels” came on to her peoples land, and now she can only picture a negative image of an “Angel”.  Many marginalized people have this same view due to all of the horrific tragedies they were put through and still go through. This poem is very relatable within many communities and it accommodates how different social identities may all feel and think. 

Joseph Jordan