Fisher-Price Mike The Knight: Evie Figure - UNBOXING*

Babylon Revisted by Amiri Baraka

I read this poem four times and I am still at odds of what it exactly means. Baraka has a raw, edgy style that pushes a sense of social issues as a main point. I think that the poem referenced one of two things: 1. Warfare or 2. Crack Cocaine.

"The gaunt thing with no organs creeps along the streets"If something has no organs then it is dead,creeps along the streets means un-detected; death "creeps" up on you, it is around every corner.

"she will be the great witch of euro-american legend who sucked the life from some unknown nigger whose name will be known but whose substance will not ever even by him who is dead in a pile of dopeskin"I think "Witch" in this context means a mechanism of death, the person will not have ever known their "substance" or addiction. "Dopeskin" can give the impression of referencing to drugs. "..full of American holes and a monkey on his back" "American holes" to me means the tracks that are left on a person after continual drug use and the "monkey" on his back is the guilt from the addiction.
On the other hand I believe there are some references to war considering Baraka's previous war experiences.

Mother to Son By Langston Hughes

I think this poem is very clear on what it's meaning is. I think that Hughes used a stair case as a metaphor for the struggles or road blocks in life that one has to face. "Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair." Here he is saying life has not been an easy, clear road.

"It’s had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare." The tacks, splinters, and boards represent the challenges that have come about during the mother's journey in life. There is no carpet on the floor because life has not been laid out for like a carpet for the mother, she had to find her own way, hence the reason why the floor would be bare. In the second stanza to me the mother is telling the son to never give up the fight in life's journey no matter how hard it may be because although her life was not laid out for her like a carpet she has not giving up. Up until this day she is still "... For I’se still goin’,honey,

I’se still climbin’,

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair."

Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy

This is one of the first poems assigned this semester that I felt had really the element of surprise. In the first stanza Piercy describes the elements of a "perfect child hood" embellished with many gifts only to be shattered by bullying from her peers. I think Piercy hits a resonating note on an epidemic that the country is facing now with bullying, and how negative of an impact it can have. Piercy uses clever word play to show that the girl is healthy and intelligent but all people could see was her looks. She was healthy, tested intelligent,
possessed strong arms and back,
abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.
She went to and fro apologizing.
Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.
If someone tells you something enough times you start to believe it. People told her what she should do to loose weight that she did not have because to them she was too big. She was advised to play coy,
exhorted to come on hearty,
exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.
Her good nature wore out
like a fan belt.
So she cut off her nose and her legs
and offered them up.
to be totally happy with herself, and please other people she pushed herself until her death, now death could be a meaning in this poem as death of her individuality. In the casket displayed on satin she lay
with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on,
a turned-up putty nose,
dressed in a pink and white nightie.
Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said.
Consummation at last.
To every woman a happy ending.
Now she is happy, she has her happy ending because everyone now thinks she is pretty, hence the tittle of this poem "Barbie Doll" Barbie is suppose to be anatomically correct so many woman, ladies, and girls are now getting surgeries to look like Barbie. "Consummation at last" - Satisfaction at last.

Sometime during eternity- Lawrence Ferlinghetti

This week I decided to blog on "Sometime during eternity" a poem that draws upon an audience of performing artists and their fans. Ferlinghetti sets up a story guiding you through an adventure of sudden fame and the effects thereof. This is "Eternity", now the "common" man is among stars and the question is, how will he fit in? How can he be equal to his counterparts?

Sometime during eternity

some guys show up

and one of them

who shows up real late

is a kind of carpenter

from some square-type place

like Galilee

and he starts wailing

and claiming he is hip

to who made heaven

and earth

and that the cat

who really laid it on us

is his Dad
The Carpenter is a normal guy who "Shows up" which I interpreted as sudden fame, "claiming he is hip to who made heaven and earth" represents his trying to fit in and display his knowledge of the business and the story about his dad represents to me him trying to fabricate his past to fit in. In the next stanza he makes a reference to a tree which I thought to have two meanings, one being the layout of the poem itself resembling a tree and the the other meaning being a metaphor for a pedestal that he has been put on by his fans. "You're hot they tell him and they cool him, they stretch him on the tree to cool and everybody after that is always making models of this tree with him hung up and always crooning his name and calling him to come down and sit in on their combo as if he is the king cat who's got to blow, or quite can't make it, only he don't come down from his tree, him just hang there on his tree" He is on a pedestal and he does not come down from his "high horse" he is now too good to even have a conversation with the same people who put him on his pedestal.

Ginsberg- "Song"

I think that this poem at first can be interpreted as a long metaphor for love. Ginsberg allows the reader to "Zen" with their surroundings and indulge in reaching their most hidden feelings, he dares the reader to be open.

The weight of the world is love. Under the burden of solitude, under the burden of dissatisfaction the weight, the weight we carry is love. In these two stanzas he describes the heaviness of all that we go through as we go through it because of love and because we love, also the burden of being alone causes us to put up with certain things because we may be in love that is "the burden of solitude".

No rest
without love,
no sleep
without dreams
of love--
be mad or chill
obsessed with angels
or machines,
the final wish
is love
--cannot be bitter,
cannot deny,
cannot withhold
if denied:

the weight is too heavy

In these stanzas I believe he addresses denial as a major factor of this "burden", everything we strive to accomplish whether forfillment of faith or within our careers we strive for it because we are driven by love, no matter if that love is positive or consuming. "..the final wish is love, cannot be better, cannot deny, cannot withhold if denied the weight is too heavy." In the if we deny our "love" for something the "burden of solititude" can becoming over bearing and self destructing.

Penn Sound: Paul Blackburn: Brooklyn Narcissus

I think that this poem's main idea could be interpreted as just a rider on the train in deep thought, the author describes the bridge that the train passes over, the stars and the scenery.
At second listen the audience could interpret the train ride as one's journey in life, and as this author is on the train he is "observing" all the "good" things along this journey. I feel like the train represents the object of him reaching his goals. And by him riding the train its the start of his journey. The stars and the water could remind him of the good things that he seen on the way. The bridges could be the struggle that he had to overcome. As he looks in the dirty mirror he gets a reality check as he looks at the pain in his eyes. "The dirty mirror gives me back my face."
When the author mentions "Do you need a better friend, yes myself" I think is not only a representation of narcissism but also represents trust issues, maybe the author trusts too easily so now he realizes that he needs better, more trustworthy friends i.e: himself. The local stops and the "Nemesis" could represent road blocks along the way and the author also uses the distinction between Brooklyn and Manhattan as well as the bridge in between them to signify thr beginning of his journey and the end.