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

I am the Poppy

When I first read this poem while doing the assignment, I was so impressed that I decided to recreate the emotions of the poem exactly as I felt the poem. And that’s what I recreated ‘The Rose and The Poppy.’ The main point of my poem is Poppy. Therefore, I wrote the poem in the shape of a ‘flower’ resembling Poppy. The order of reading this poem is not fixed; the audience can read it as they want.

In the original poem ‘The Rose and The Poppy’, the poet strongly asserts the poppy’s uniqueness in contrast to the rose. Furthermore, the poet explains the original beauty of the poppy. Hence, I compared the various colors of the Rose to the orange color of the Poppy. And I wrote about the uniqueness of the poppy. Additionally, I recreated every beautiful phrase from the original poem as I understood them while reading. For example, the original poem explains the beauty of the rose using the past and the future timeline. I really like this method, because it means the rose is very common and everyone can remember all the moments with their rose. So, I twist this part and emphasize the symbol of the rose, love.

The lines at the top of the flower petals all represent the differences between the Rose and the Poppy. The part corresponding to the stigma of the flower describes the Poppy itself. The lines at the bottom of the petals all highlight the characteristics of Poppy. Particularly, since the original poem does not mention the narcotic addiction that Poppies are known for, I incorporated this aspect to emphasize Poppy’s free will and identity. A poppy is a flower that someday has to wilt and drop its leaves into the ground. So, when someone sees poppies in the field, one can only see the flower and stem. Inspired by this, I wrote the stem section exactly as in the original poem. Because the entire words in the original poem gave me the feeling of the poppy’s personality and free will. In the stem part, while the original poem mentions ‘scenting rooms,’ I changed it to ‘Nature’ to emphasize the free will of Poppy. Since the Poppy is a part of the flower that I mentioned, it cannot last forever. And the feeling that it will wither someday, ‘Rotting into umber,’ is included to capture the essence of the original poem.

~Jisoo Jang

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

Spring’s Isolation

The haiku poem that I believe captured the experience of daily life at the internment camp was “Firm buds will open when the day comes looking up at the trees” (Reiko Gomyo 105). Firstly, I thought it was really interesting that the buds are considered to be in an undeveloped stage, one of those reasons is because the camp was created in the month of February. That being said, many flowers and plants around that month are in their blooming stages, so the season this poem is portraying is close to spring. Furthermore, this poem had its lines that portrayed imagery. For instance, visually you are able to see a flower or a leaf in the development of which the plant is not in full bloom. “Looking up at the trees” also has you visualizing the presence of a tree, only it has no leaves or flowers because the buds remain closed until “the day comes”. The buds are an important symbolization of the many Japanese who felt trapped and isolated through the oppressive conditions in the internment camp. There were many barbed wire fences around the camp along with guard towers as a way to keep surveillance on the Japanese. All the hardships that the Japanese have encountered in the camp was through the buds for this poem. They represented “firm buds” as to say they were closed off from the world but continued to strive in living a normal life.

To continue, the Japanese lives in the internment camp had many of its difficulties but they continued to push through by establishing settlements and building upon their community. In the poem it states, “Firm buds will open when the day comes” which I believe “when the day comes” is referring to the moment of which they are freed from the camp, only then the “buds will open”. In other words, the Japanese would feel full of life once they would leave from the internment camp “looking up at the trees”. In my opinion, this part of the poem was another way of saying there is a chance. Looking towards the trees, looking at its stems, either the buds will grow or will not. Just as the Japanese, even as they stayed in the camp for 3 years in isolation, they built upon their community, it may not have been through hope, but it was a way to make a life out of it.

Celeste Tejeda-Menera

Imperfections

There are many symbols of a rose. Some may see it as a symbol of love, pain or death, but it also represents a woman’s perfections and imperfections. After analyzing both poems, I found H.D’s “Sea Rose” poem to be the most effective in challenging the traditional symbol of the rose. The poem questions the conventional meaning of the rose by contrasting a flawed rose with a beautiful rose and narrating the journey of the sea rose, which has imperfections that make it difficult for it to survive in the environment, with the easy existence of the spice-rose.

This poem has a lot of imagery, which is important when challenging the traditional rose. A traditional rose is meant to be perfect and have no flaws. Meaning they have the perfect curves and color, which is what everyone expects from a rose. In this poem, the rose is described as “harsh,” “marred,” “stint,” “meagre,” “thin,” and “sparse.” This rose is being compared to some women and how their characteristics don’t reach the society’s expectations. 

The speaker starts off the poem describing the rough characteristics of the rose. In this poem, the rose is a woman and her imperfections are compared to a rose that is close to death: “harsh rose/ marred and with a stint of petals/ meagre flower thin/ sparse of leaf.” The speaker then starts praising the rose, saying how it’s more special than a traditional rose and independent: “single on a stem.” The situation occurs at a beach when the rose is “caught in the drift.” The speaker starts addressing the reader, saying “you” are the rose. Even though the rose is independent, it is still a small rose: “with small leaf.” Since the rose is seen as a harsh and thin flower, it is still seen as a weak flower. The speaker goes on to say how the rose is being moved and controlled by the environment (society): “flung/ lifted/ drives in the wind.” Stanza 3 shows how the “sea rose” has a hard journey and is fighting to survive against the environment that is trying to keep the rose under control and following their expectations to make the rose perfect. 

The last stanza mentions the spice-rose, which is a traditional rose that has many perfections compared to the sea rose. The sea rose in this poem is shown how it starts off as a weak flower and then has to fight against society and their expectations in order to survive. The spice-rose is seen to have a simple and easy life since it’s already perfect. The poem challenges the traditional symbol of the rose because it compares an imperfect rose to a perfect rose, by showing the journey of the sea rose and how its flaws make it hard for it to survive in the environment, while the spice-rose has an easy life. 

Gurranvir Kaur

I am not a rose. I am a free poppy.

‘The Rose and The Poppy’ by Adrianna Puente is most effective in challenging the traditional symbol of the rose. To understand this poem, we need to start with the title. The Rose traditionally symbolizes ‘love’ itself, with its thorns representing ‘pain.’ However, alongside it, The Poppy is traditionally a symbol of ‘Remembrance and hope for a peaceful future.’ Yet, in this poem, The Poppy seems to focus more on the efficacy of the flower rather than its traditional meanings. As we know, The Poppy is sometimes associated with a type of narcotic, but it can also be used as a medical remedy. Depending on its use, The Poppy can either harm or heal individuals.

Throughout the poem, the speaker insists that the speaker is not The Rose but The Poppy. The speaker rejects all the symbols associated with The Rose, such as love, friendship, comfort, romance, etc., and claims herself to be a kind of natural flower, The Poppy. Why does the speaker keep asserting that she is not The Rose? While The Rose traditionally symbolizes not only love but also alluring women, the speaker asserts that she is not a captivating woman like The Rose, but rather a flower in nature, inartificial, just one among many people, like The Poppy. As mentioned earlier, The Poppy can be both a remedy and a poison. The speaker states that she may be chosen like The Rose on Valentine’s Day, but she never forgets who she truly is in any situation. The speaker chose The Poppy, which can eventually turn brown like a wildflower in a field, rather than conforming to the traditional symbols of love, friendship, and pain associated with The Rose. And that woman, the speaker, strongly asserts her desire not to play the typical role associated with The Poppy as either poison or remedy, but rather to live freely like the Poppy blooming in the field. By doing so, the speaker effectively rejects the traditional symbols of The Rose. A captivating woman like The Rose is just one among the common 8 billion people, much like The Poppy.

Jisoo Jang

A Rose’s Battle

I believe the most effective poem in challenging the traditional symbol of the rose was “Sea Rose,” by H.D. On the first line, “Rose, harsh rose” was being portrayed for something cruel. A rose is typically a symbol of beauty and love, but this rose is considered displeasing. On lines two through four, it states “marred and with stint of petals, meagre flower, thin, sparse of leaf.” These lines were really focused on the rose’s appearance due to its misfigured and unappealing look which goes against what a traditional rose usually stands for its breathtaking beauty. In other words, this rose is ugly, it has little amount of petals, it is very thin, all in which imagery is present in this stanza and the whole poem. This rose in particular may be referring to a woman, despite her lack of beauty, she is unique.

Although this “rose” is described poorly, on lines five and six it states, “more precious than a wet rose.” A rose that is wet has a bright and a glitter appearance, it could be referring to a blossoming rose. So a rose that is misfigured has a higher value than a rose in blossom. It may also refer to the sea since the water reflects and glitters from bright sources such as the sun and moon. In addition, on line eight states, “you are caught in the drift” which is portraying the sea as rough, but the rose is staying firm in the drift. That being said, traditionally the rose is seen as delicate but this rose is strong and independent in the drifting sea.

Which appoints my next lines of reasoning, nine through thirteen continue to describe the environment of the sea but with the wind being rough. On lines nine and ten it states, “Stunted, with small leaf, you are flung on the sand” in which the rose or woman is tossed by the many brutal battles of the world. Even though the rose is put through a harsh environment, the rose is “lifted in the crisp sand that drives in the wind,” according to lines eleven through thirteen. In other words, through the hardships of life being thrown to this rose, it continues to stay put but also sounds like the rose is flying across the breeze, as though to say the woman wants to be free from all that life is pushing onto her. Traditionally, a rose is meant to be kept with care but this rose is kept in harsh environments that can harm it.

Furthermore, on lines fourteen through fifteen, “Can the spice-rose drip such acrid fragrance hardened in a leaf?” This is the only line that had a question mark instead of a period because it is asking of its questionable and strong fragrance. The spice-rose can be interpreted as saying that the strong fragrance is the brutal environment in the woman’s life. In addition, the poet somewhat makes it seem as though a spice-rose and a rose are to be compared. Basically to portray that the rose may look like it is losing its strength but, it is able to create its own fragrance. A rose typically has a beautiful smell but this rose is overpoweringly displeasing.

With that being said, I don’t believe Adrianna Puente really challenged the traditional symbol of the rose because it didn’t seem like it was well captured. In a sense that the rose isn’t only taking part but a poppy as well, which really drives away from the idea of a traditional rose. In addition to this, I thought the rose wasn’t really part of this poem, it mostly was speaking of the orchards, tangerines, and “Electric orange.” However, this poem did contain lots of imagery and diction. The formatting was really interesting on how “I am” was used as a repetition on the first and second paragraph, to indicate that this is what they are resembling or not.

Celeste Tejeda-Menera

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

It’s the Angsty Feminist Vibes for me

When we think of a rose, we think of love, romance, perfect, and delicate, thin petals. With these connotations, we romanticize the rose and give it almost a lovey-dovey emotional feeling. Right off the bat with H.D. ‘s poem, “Sea Rose”, it can be seen that a delicate rose might not be what comes to mind for the Pennsylvanian born author. H.D. begins with “Rose, harsh rose, marred and with stint of petals”. H.D. automatically is spinning the associations a reader has with a rose as she explains the rose to be a meek, imperfect object. The last line especially sticks out to me, “Can the spice-rose drip such acrid fragrance hardened in a leaf? because of the feminist background of H.D. as an American woman. While her father was a Professor for astronomy, her mother was an artist who inspired H.D. early in her life. From this information, it can be assumed that when the “acrid fragrance” is a feminist way of saying that while woman are beautiful on the outside (the connecting word being fragrance to beauty) and acrid being that woman have ideas and dreams that to men could be seen as “irritatingly strong or unpleasant” as stated in the dictionary. Truly, all of this is to say that H.D.’s version of the rose interpretation challenges traditional views of a rose because it is written from a woman’s perspective, perhaps a woman who is tired of being treated as if she is just a romantic, delicate, thin flower. 

Likewise, there is something to be said about Adrianna Puente’s “The Rose and The Poppy”. Puente’s poem definitely states that she is not a rose, “not a ravishing ruby red, or a semblance of purity white. Not the flower you give to a lover”. Her poem goes on to say that she is more like the poppy flower. And no, it’s not a Valentine’s Day flower. It is still perfumed, but often forgotten, Puente says. She ends her poem with “In a potpourri of our colors we each wilt between dried petals- scenting rooms with our fragrance. Rotting into umber”. Umber is a pigment, some might not even call it a color. Puente’s interpretation of the rose is not about how she is not a rose, it’s about how she is still similar to a rose, just different from what most people might think of as a beautiful flower. From this poem, my interpretation is that roses are women who are beautiful on the outside and poppies are women who are beautiful on the inside and out. 

In all, both poems definitely stray away from the traditional thinking of what a rose symbolizes for most people. For me, I found Puente’s interpretation very insightful, but the feminist, almost angsty version of the rose from H.D. is the poem that truly challenges the traditional symbol of the rose. 

-Anne K. Anderson

This is what a feminist looks like, but make it *poetic*

The Modern Rose

The rose, a symbol of romance, love, sensuality, and fragility, is often associated with the romantic era or light-hearted holidays such as Valentine’s day. When I picture a rose in my head, I think of a bright, colorful, and extravagant flower that you would give to a significant other or find displayed at a flower shop. H. D. and Adrianna Puente, however, take this preconceived image of a rose and drastically morph the meaning of roses into something darker, imperfect, and more human. Although both poets manage to successfully change the symbolism associated with the rose, I feel that H.D. has a more interesting, unique, and thorough symbolic shift of the rose than Puente.

Let’s first look at Adriana Puente’s poem, The Rose and The Poppy. The poem begins immediately with a reference to traditional images associated with the rose: “I am/ not a ravishing ruby red … Not the flower you give to a lover, … Nor am I a symbol of romance”. These three lines in the first stanza are a direct acknowledgement of the traditional symbols of the rose (red, love, romance). The speaker, personifying themselves in the form of the “rose”, is stating that they recognize what a rose symbolizes and telling the reader that they are none of those things at all. Instead, Puente makes it clear that the speaker is the opposite: “I am/ wild in fields of green and blues./ Electric orange-/ like tangerines in a orchard of trees,”. This imagery of the “rose” not being traditionally red, but instead a myriad of colors gives the impression of something more natural, with emphasis to the word “wild” in this stanza. This is essentially saying that the typical romantic rose are domesticated and uniform and not unique. However, the true beauty comes from these wild flowers that are imperfect but free, unlike the rose.

I think the final line of this poem sums it up best, with “Rotting into umber.” Umber, a reddish brown color, seems to come in contrast with the typical vibrant potpourri that one would normally find. Instead, these wild flowers live their lives, wilt, and then fade away, returning to the soil. In a way, it is a commentary on cultural uniformity with the rose as it’s centerpiece. However, I do find that this detachment of the symbols of the rose relies too heavily on the preconceived images associated with the flower, especially in the first stanza. It’s a little on the nose at time, stating that I am everything that a rose isn’t, but overall still very successful in transforming the symbols of a rose.

Let’s put this in contrast with H. D.’s poem, Sea Rose. This poem uses the rose differently than Puente’s poem. Instead of saying that the rose is everything but the traditional symbols a rose represents, H. D. prefers to attach negative adjectives and imagery to the rose, giving the reader a vivid image of a wilted and broken rose: “harsh rose,/ marred and with stint of petals,/ meagre flower, thin,/ sparse of leaf,”. Words like harsh, stint, meagre, thin, and sparse are all being used to describe this flower, quite the juxtaposition from the typical adjectives used to describe roses. These negative adjectives persist throughout the entire poem, with words such as “stunted” and “acrid” as well, really creating vivid imagery of a rose that is anything but what you usually consider a rose. This greatly reflects the time era that this poem was written, given that H. D. wrote this poem in the modernity era, which was a critique of the romantic period before it. This period consisted of the search for meaning in the modern age of the industrial revolution and the individualistic culture that permeated the time. Similar to Puente’s poem, the rose in Sea Rose seems to be a personification of something, in this case the romantic period. During the romantic period, the rose was a symbol of the idealist and flowery life that poets portrayed in that era, where everything was bright, colorful, and perfect.

But this rose isn’t perfect.

This rose is harsh, thin, has sparse leaves, and is full of imperfections. Unlike it’s perfect and ideal counterpart in the romantic age, this rose has seen and lived through the harsh reality of life, yet is more precious because of that realism in the mind of the speaker. This rose is “caught in the drift” of the absurdity and isolation of modernity, wandering through time and looking for meaning, just like poets were at the time. In a way, this rose reflects the shambling of romantic poetry after the industrial revolution, where the idealist world crumbled away and was left searching for meaning like everyone else. Yet this rose is more real than the ideal and perfect rose often symbolized in poetry. It has imperfections and scars and flung left and right across the sands, yet it is more precious because it is more real to the human condition than the ideal rose of the modern era.

The rose in Sea Rose does more than just simply becoming an antithetical foil to the traditional symbols of the rose. It evokes the emotions of pain, of hardness, of the drifting search for meaning, and of what it means to be human. It sheds away all of the idealistic and flowery imagery synonymous with the rose and instead replaces it with the realities of the modern life. Because of this juxtaposition, the rose in Sea Rose becomes far more successful in challenging the traditional symbol of the rose.

Sky Miller