Corridos Tumbados

No Le Aflojo – de Fuerza Regida

Pero cuando no tenía
Nadie conmigo comía, pero compartí mi plato
Aunque no lo merecían
No dejó de dar la mano porque así es como me criaron
Vengo de buena familia
Mijo, no te creas más que nadie
Porque todos somos iguales

REVIEW

I chose a corrido de la frontera as my imitation of Javier’s poem because of the messages that come from corridos. They can tell a story through the rhythm and music of the message that the artist is trying to get the audience to understand. This corrido that I chose reminded me of Javier’s whole experience crossing the border because it describes another mans mental view of crossing the border. Javier uses a format that imitates a corrido for this poem. This correlates to a corrido because they both tell a story about the same setting. For this song, the artist writes about his mentality and the treatment that he received before crossing. He states that he had nothing under his name and that he was brought up in humble beginnings. He comes from a good family where they share plates so that everyone can eat because for him everyone is the same. Which I think relates very much to Javier’s poem about the coyote, since most of the time a coyote is not reliable and will leave you for dead. This comes from coyotes having a mentality that they are better than the people crossing because they know the desert and have money. Yet, the song says that you shouldn’t think of yourself as more than anyone else because we all come from the same place. This statement made me think of the coyotes only being money-hungry to the point where they leave people for dead stranded in the desert. Simply because they think of themselves as better.

~Jeshua Rocha

Nothing

Looking through the glass 

the rain pouring so slowly

 Drowning in sorrow 

…

Is tomorrow gone?

no stars no dreams nothing seen

now where do I go?

Dear friend, 

I wanted to take on a haiku and the poem I chose to imitate was from you in the Anthology of Wartime Haiku, into to poetry it goes, 

“From the window of despair 

May sky

there is always tomorrow 

…

At daybreak 

stars disappear

where do I discard my dreams?” 

Pg100-101. I wanted to encapture almost like a similar style of words for example tomorrow, stars, dreams. I wanted to get the connection between poems by presenting these words in similar tones. I know you were in a really bad place where you wished everything was over and that you could finally go home. I chose to encompass those feelings you might have felt. By choosing my first line to be “looking through the glass” almost like a reflection in your poem of its first line being “From the window of despair”. I wanted to bring forth the imagery of the poem and have a new modern audience see through the window that it is pouring rain outside as maybe you were inside writing your poem. I wanted people to see the true sorrows you may have been through being in an internment camp and the pain it caused you to try and live on. Even though you had said it was a May sky meaning it was in May at the end of Spring and beginning of Summer I wanted to bring a counterpart of myself into it. How whenever I am going through a tough time it is usually when it’s raining. The rain just symbolizes for me the dreadfulness and freedom to cry, with my cries being muffled by the rain. I hope this is alright for you and you don’t see it drift much apart from your poem. In my second stanza just like you had written “Where do I discard my dreams?” I wrote “Now where do I go?”, I wanted to say that you were the dreams and now were deciding what to do. 

I wanted to show the power of alliteration I know as a fellow friend you would love from your writing skill level. I chose to input this to symbolize the word no and nothing in stanza 2 line 2. With alliteration I could help display your work on one line instead of multiple. This helps in bringing rhythm and the importance that there is nothing surrounding this poem. There is an abyss of nothing, and it is the speaker’s choice to see where maybe they can go.

I know you like free-style haiku and from the last lines from the stanzas you would end that would be 7 syllables instead of 5 in retrospect, a traditional haiku ending and starting with 5 syllable lines and in the middle being 7 syllables. I tried to form a nice sounding rhythm to your poem to intrigue an audience to go on a poetic rhythm as they continue reading on. I wanted to fight your notion and capture the traditional haiku to show you that it also could work with your poem and what you are trying to say about being boxed in and not being able to live your life freely. From being on one side of the window and watching the world pass by as you sit and write poetry to show what had happened during World War 2. 

My dear friend people are drifting apart from history so I wanted to make this poem to pay homage to your poem. It deserves to be read and analyzed by poets throughout. I thank you for writing something so deep and emotionally beautiful. That is why I made this to show people today the dreams that were crushed, the pain and abuse you had gone through, and most importantly the historical aspect of when you wrote this. Today, there is something similar as to when you were in the camps. It is a war. A war on Gaza and the Palestine people. How they now have to leave their homes just like you did or they would face death. Even today they are still facing it and don’t know whether they can get it tomorrow. My dear friend this is why I wrote this homage poem, to have these people who are oppressed know they are not alone and that we the people see them. Like how we saw you guys we will not remain silent. 

          With deep love and understanding your friend,

    Kelly Flores

The Mockery of Rules

The main manner in which Catherine Tate’s student character mirrors the format of Millay’s sonnet would be in the manner in which both seek to undermine an established power. In the case of Tate’s character, she rebels against the English teacher and recites Shakespeare’s poem in a rushed manner thus eliminating the rhythmic pattern which would typically be heard by the readers which is similar in the manner in which Millay’s poem disregards the need to keep a consistent flow, since in some lines, the manner in which one reads may be consistent, almost lyrical, but is then interrupted by the harsh pause of a break in the form of – or a period, most evidently in lines 6 through 8. Something else of note that also represent the going against established rules, would be found in the structure of the poem rhyming scheme, since the 14 lines would make a person think that Millay’s poem would be a sonnet, the scheme is not represented in the sonnet manner which follows a ABAB CDCD format, instead the poem went ABBC CDDA, this also alienates itself from the Italian sonnet form of ABBA ABBA. The clashing of rhythms and lack of question and therefore answer in I Will Put Chaos into Fourteen Lines parallels the manner of conduct that the student portrays since the student character, just like the poem, jumps from one thought to another without regards to any relation they may have. In addition to this thought, the only instance in which both the poem and student fall in line with the rules, it would only be done if there was some mockery going on, such as the student keeping the gag of Doctor Who going on, and the poem joke about how poem declares that chaos has finally been controlled via rape, thus giving it some shape.
Isaac Ruiz

Beyond the Poetic

Catherine Tate’s recitation of Shakespeare’s sonnet 130, “my mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun,” transforms its meaning by breaking the sonnet’s conventional form through a chaotic gender performance that opposes masculine order. The traditional situation of a sonnet involves a male speaker expressing his idealized love through poetic elements, but Shakespeare’s sonnet opposes this as the speaker refers to his “mistress” as lacking the emphasized beauty found in nature – “coral is far more red… no such roses see I in her cheeks” (Shakespeare 2, 6). The speaker brings realism by portraying how his love is incomparable to the romanticism that poetry tends to display, referring to them as a “false compare” in which the speaker provides his “mistress” with her own individuality (14). This is furthered from the volta in line 13 where the speaker shifts from presenting his love as potentially ugly, but then unveiling that true love to him is the beauty beyond the poetic metaphors or similes; it is her genuine self.

Cacophony also follows throughout the sonnet up to the 12th line, until the volta holds a change in sound and becomes euphonic, “and yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare…” (13). Cacophony mimics the chaos prevalent throughout the ugliness of the twelve lines, preceding how the unpleasant sounds reflects the unpleasantness of how the speaker’s love is incomparable to anything beautiful. However, euphony ends the sonnet because it is through the identity beyond the poetic that is pleasant and beautiful.

Straightforwardly, this is a sonnet chaotically presenting itself through its ugliness by not providing the desired aestheticism expected by popular conventions. The sonnet’s chaotic imperfection orders its existence through its 14 lined, iambic pentameter that defines the identity of the sonnet/mistress. 

Catherine Tate’s gender performance is an expression of her character’s identity by embodying the chaotic mannerisms to rebel against her teacher played by David Tennant. Tate’s character opposes the order in which her teacher tries to enforce, but during her recitation does it show that the character is intelligent, despite the supposed belief that she was “dull.” Instead of a male speaker speaking in the voice of a woman, it is a female speaker. It is her femininity that creates the order of her identity, in which her chaotic manners structures who she is. She recites the sonnet in continuation without any pauses, embodying the chaos that she poses against her teacher. Thus, her “ugliness” – in terms of her personality as being perceived reprehensible by her teacher – is a definitive expression of Tate’s character reflected from the sonnet that defies conventions. 

-Phillip Gallo

Self-care and love

The two poems, seem to equally categorize particular things that they find important. For instance in Whitman’s case, “ his limbs and joints also, it is curiously in the joints of his hips and wrists,” (Whitman 13). As well as you’ll also find that in Ambroggio’s writing, he also creates these lists, except he seems to be much longer, “This Self is Puerto Rican, Chicano, from Cuba free dancer of merengues, from Santo Domingo and all …” (Ambroggio 43-45). When reading these lists out loud it sounds very fast pace almost like they’re in a rush to say what they want to say. I also noticed how the two writings had really long and potentially run-on sentences, as well as it seems like the two poems didn’t exactly have some type of structure or format. 

Whitman’s poem “ I Sing the Body Electric”, it that the poem seems to continuously have a fast-paced/rhythmed poem, as well as to some extent it feels very rushed. Whitman appears to be very passionate in regards to the anatomy of the body as well as generally the sexual aspect of it. Another thing I noticed was the way that Whitman made alliteration by using the same words to create similar-sounding words such as “Girls, mothers, house-keepers, in all their performances”, this helps to create more emphasis on certain parts for the reader to interpret. 

When reading Luis Alberto Ambroggio’s poem “We are All Whitman: #2 Song of/to/My/Your/Self “, I noticed that Ambroggio puts a lot of emphasis on the repetitive use of certain words as well as playing around with contradictions. Throughout Ambroggio’s poem, he plays around a lot with the rhythm by using words that have to do with sequences, ex: “today, here, yesterday, and forever”. By doing so it creates an emphasis on the time sequences that can play into the meaning of his poem, and the passion he has. Whilst reading Ambroggio’s poem there was lots of emphasis regarding human passion and their hopes, as well as the pain that everyone has to go through. When you read Ambroggio’s poem I found that he has longer lists and that it relates to Whitman’s style regarding free verse. Unlike Whitman’s poem, Ambroggio appears to focus more on “Self”, self-care, struggles, etc. “Boss and day laborer; still the job’s slave, painter of trenches, resourceful creator of roofs, pavement on the agony of yesterday’s blood and the even-now of the Monday of beginnings and the Sunday of holy days.” (Ambroggio 62-65). In this quote, the poet seems to be talking about the amount of hard work that they do daily to sustain themselves, as well as not only are they working hard now, but their ancestors have been fighting for their beliefs all this time. 

The two poems seemed to have a sense of showing that people should love and cherish themselves, which is something that I liked. I also found that Ambroggio takes inspiration from Whitman (and his structure) and makes it into his type of writing, which is always really cool to see from writers.

Yue Wu-Jamison

Body=Soul=Beauty

 In Walt Whitman’s “I Sing the Body Electric”, he uses fast-paced or almost too little to no periods to convey his message. Just like in Luis Alberto Ambroggio’s poem “We Are All Whitman” where he uses little to no periods until the next stanza to show his message. Like Whitman’s poem, Whitman is trying to tell the world that the body is the soul, and the soul is the body. For what we wish to perceive to love from the outside of man we should also choose to love the inside since they coincide.
 In Ambroggio’s poem, he follows in Whitman’s footsteps to tell this story but also adds some of his personal form to it. He adds in how Latin countries were colonized and yet, they stay strong and comfortable in their bodies. Even though they had to experience great scrutiny their souls and bodies belonged to themselves, and the colonizers couldn’t take that away. In stanza 5 he says “This Self is Puerto Rican, Chicano, from Cuba free dancer merengues, from Santo Domingo and all the Caribbean, from El Salvador and Nicaragua” he lists Latin American countries in the same way that Walt Whitman listed body parts and went down a list to how they connect with each other. These two poems show the same rhythm when they start listing countries and parts of the body, it gives a strong and powerful vibe that one can’t stop till their body gets tired or has to inhale again to read more. That is what makes these two poems flow so nicely and give the feeling of how our souls are beautiful and how everyone is intertwined with each other in some way or another even though we all are different we are all so similar.
 Ambroggio translates his poem into Whitman by not only expressing how he loves Whitman’s interpretation but by taking from Whitman’s poem and poetically making his own baby poem with it. For example, they both use alliteration throughout both poems to evoke a notion of feeling to the reader to read with more emphasis and to see if they can follow through the words being the same sounds. Another thing is from the video of Luis speaking in an authoritative voice I took that into the translation and read it thoroughly that way to see that both poems could be compelling to get their readers to have the same views about their bodies and souls to be beautiful rhythmically.

Kelly Flores

Beuaty is in the eye of the beholder

After analyzing, it seems that both poems, “Still to be Neat” and “Delight in Disorder, ” are mainly Iambic tetrameters. These two individuals seem to have different ways of expressing what the ideal woman would look like. Johnson’s poem can come off as a bit more harsh about his personal insights on the beauty of a woman with the different personalities of a woman who does not care about her appearance rather than women who live different lifestyles. Ultimately, these highlight that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder because it’s just down to their opinion on beauty, while some may like an upbeat woman.

Ben Johson’s poem “Still to be Neat” dives into a woman’s daily routine. It seems he’s saying that women can hide their daily routine and that everything they show is above the surface, hiding many things about themselves. Johnson’s poem highlights that some women may have the nicest clothes and look proper, but he doesn’t know. He does not have any feelings other than pure lust, as he states in line 12, “They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.” He is saying he wants a woman who doesn’t think she has to present herself in such a perfect manner. In his mind, it makes a woman less beautiful when they come off as perfect, line 5, “Thoughts arts hid causes are not found.” The writer is getting to the point that their makeup hides their true beauty. Another thing that stood out to me was lines 7-8: “Give ME a LOOK, give ME a FACE”. Line seven is almost like he’s pleading for an ounce of the real them, one thing to show that beneath the surface of the present, he creates that feeling using the Iambic rhythm to emphasize the stress on how strongly he feels about it. Line 8 …“That makes simplicity a grace.”  Johnson practically says the simpler, the better, for it is the true beauty he sees in that. Overall, the structure of this poem seems to follow the same pattern throughout the poem and relatively the same length.

In Robert Herrick’s poem “Delight in Disorder,” he highlights his love for a woman who does not appear perfect. He thinks that true e]art is imperfection, and he makes that point prominent when he states in line 14, “Do more bewitch me than when art.” He expresses that he has a love for both things. But something about true beauty captures his eye more than his love for art. Sometimes, he rhymes words at the end of each phrase, starting after the first two lines, perfumed–presumed, not found– not sound. He used these rhymes to invoke some sort of emotion in the readers as they can see his passion for literature and his love for the beauty he ses

Comparing the two, the structure of both poems is quite similar, even though their intensity and energy are slightly different. Although both are iambic. The tone is entirely different and way harsher in Johnson. Herrick’s poem is more straightforward because he’s softly explaining his love for a woman who isn’t as worried about her appearance.  I think Herrick’s poem is a better example of art because his whole emotion is more about expressing love. At the same time, Johnson’s approach can be perceived as bashing and not talking about his passion but his dislikes.

Victoria Sasere

Rhythms of a Spell

Despite both Herrick’s “Delight in Disorder” and Jonson’s “Still to Be Neat” being mainly comprised of iambic tetrameter, they manage to carry the same flow but are distant in the way that they’re structured. They both exhibit distinct rhythms that can be likened to the casting of a magic spell. The rhythms can be seen as a contribution to the enchantment of language that holds the potential of drawing its reader (me/us) into the enchanting world of the poets’ visions.

In “Delight in Disorder,” Herrick’s rhythmic pattern is playful and whimsical, reflecting the disorderly delight he finds in the subject’s appearance. The cascading rhythm mirrors the chaotic beauty described in the poem, creating a spell-like effect. The irregular flow of the lines mimics the disorderly charm of the subject’s attire, resembling the unpredictable and alluring nature of a magical incantation. On the other hand, Jonson’s “Still to Be Neat” carries a more structured and measured rhythm. The regularity of the meter and rhyme scheme imparts a sense of control and precision. This controlled rhythm aligns with the speaker’s plea for simplicity and natural grace in appearance. The repetition of “still” emphasizes the desire for consistency, creating a steady and enchanting cadence that reinforces the poem’s message.

In terms of effectiveness in representing the nature of art, I think “Still to Be Neat” by Ben Jonson is more effective. The poem advocates for a simplicity that resonates with a timeless and enduring beauty. The controlled rhythm reflects the speaker’s plea for order and refinement – aligning with the idea that true beauty lies in simplicity. The rhythmic enchantment reinforces the speaker’s preference for a genuine and unadorned appearance, making the poem a compelling representation of the enduring nature of art. In contrast, while “Delight in Disorder” captures the magic of disorderly beauty through its enchanting rhythm, the emphasis on chaos might limit its applicability in representing the timeless and enduring qualities associated with art.  

– Mustang Chang

Herrick and Jonson’s Admiration of Beauty

Both Herrick and Jonson utilize their poetry to illustrate what they believe makes a woman beautiful in society, and even though their pieces were published 39 years apart, they concur that a natural woman exudes beauty over any other woman. In class, we discussed that Iambic is the most common rhythm in poetry, and it is because seeing the easy pattern of what poets want emphasized helps assist in interpreting what they wanted readers to get out of reading their pieces. For instance, in Herrick’s poem “Delight in Disorder,” he uses Iambic tetrameter to emphasize the beauty he sees within women who are scrutinized within society because they are not perfect. In line one, Herrick writes, “a SWEET disORder IN the DRESS.” Reading the emphasis on sweetness and dress while recognizing the slight focus on disorder helped me understand that one may consider the woman’s dress as untidy; Herrick eyes it and admires the untidiness of the woman. While talking about Herrick’s prosody is important, it is also essential to highlight points where he switches the rhythm. In line two, Herrick transitions from Iambic to Trochee. Herrick’s switch-up within rhythm is critical because when listening to rhythm, we are conditioned that rhythm that only stays at one steady pace is the perfect type to consume. Herrick trashes that idea, just like he trashes the idea that only “tidy” women are beautiful.

Instead of switching up the rhythm line by line, Jonson switches up the rhythm as “Still to be Neat” continues. I wasn’t sure if I was scanning correctly, but I started with a trochaic rhythm, and as the poem continued on the last few lines with “me” or “free” or “heart,” I then began to transition into an Iambic rhythm because I believed that those words should be emphasized to convey the poet’s message. While in the trochaic rhythm, Jonson believes that women who wear makeup or a lot of perfume are not his type. Meanwhile, in the Iambic rhythm he praises women who present themselves as simple and wear their hair freely within the Iambic rhythm.

While I enjoyed both poems, I have to say Herrick’s “Delight in Disorder” illustrates the nature of art. I say this because of Herrick’s last two lines, where he writes, “Do more bewitch me than when art is too precise in every part.” This quote critiques to perfect art, and the message tells readers to stop trying to aim for perfection because perfection is a constraint. Beautiful things are creative without being bound by the limitation of perfection.

Janayah Applon

The Blue Man And His Hopes On The Night

2021-12-09-13-51Download

Review:

Good day my WordPress audience,

If you have been following along with our wonderful website’s blog, then I’m sure that you are aware of a little activity called our “Creative Project,” well… here I present my take on this subject. For my creative project I chose to focus on the soul touching poem by Claude Mckay titles The Tired Worker. This poem is a poem emphasized on the lives a blue-collar worker in the 1920s and 30s. I decided upon this poem because I deeply enjoy the poem and the feeling of anguish and need for freedom that it allows us to feel as we view the world through the eyes of this overworked man. The poem is written in Iambic pentameter, this allowing for emphasis and stressing of certain words in lines, such as the word “wretched day” in line 9 of this poem.

In my drawing interpretation of this poem, I depicted the worker(speaker) in a factory working while he stares off at the window where you can see the moon and the night sky. I drew the worker with brown overalls while drawing everyone else and his wor place in gray pencil. I wanted him to stand out even more, so that when you look at the picture it captures that this poem is viewed through his eyes as McKay wrote it. The worker looks up at the window to see the moon, and as you can see, the night sky viewed through the window is also depicted in color. I drew the view of the window in color to contrast from the inside of the factory, which I drew solely in pencil. The worker viewing the window while working is my interpretation of his yearning to be free and out of the constant agony that working such a difficult and exhausting job has put him in. The window view is in color because it’s what he looks forward to after the gloomy day of work. The smudged workers, who also happen to be faceless, are other workers just like the speaker who have been caught up in a terrible work environment and have lost themselves in their work, the smog-filled,, dirty room emphasizes the the sense deterioration that the workers are going through, the loss of person, as they are blinded by the focus on work and the routine that they feel like they have to go through everyday. But the speaker talks about how the nigh.

-Guadalupe Lemus