There were only two poems in this section that elicited any emotional response from me. Both of these poems were emotional in the sense that they were about the loss of something that couldn’t be returned. The loss of self or material possessions can be equally devastating depending on the person. One was written to show that they saw what others had gone through and tried to show their understanding of the situation. The other was written with the hope that someone would see their inner turmoil and understand what they were going through.
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| Nicole Cooley |
In the poem titled “Compendium of Lost Objects”, Nicole Cooley tries to show that she understands what the people of the
natural disaster went through and what was left behind. She writes this poem with just simple words of items that were seen. It’s not an in-depth story telling you what she saw; it was a collection of words that let you decipher the meaning. It allows you to place these items into your life and apply them appropriately. She states that all of these things left behind couldn’t have “fit in a dark wood cabinet for safekeeping” (1. line 21 and 22). I think that means that your smaller material possessions don’t seem to add up to the bigger things that get forgotten in the rush. That you can keep the materials in your life you think you can’t live without, safe and hidden from the world’s eyes, yet the things you work so hard to show people disappear. People spend their time with material objects showing everyone in the world their status and ranks, yet when everything goes bad they get left behind to wither away, just like everyone else.
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| Joy Harjo |
My favorite poem in this selection was “The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window” by Joy Harjo. It’s about a woman going through serious inner turmoil. She is questioning everything in her life and its purpose. She tries to place herself with the other women around her when she says, “She is all the women of the apartment building who stand watching her, watching themselves” (2. line 14 and 15). She talks about all her different roles in her life and how they are all just pieces of a whole. As a mother myself I understand her when she feels torn against all her different “personalities”. I think that she passed the breaking point in her life and is looking for some sort of direction, some sign that she’s doing something right or what she needs to change.
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| Which way will you go? |
Joy Harjo moved me incredibly with this poem. She puts in words what I have felt time and time again. I have had the feeling that I have listened to my own life break loose. She shows the world that although we women may put up a strong front, we can, and most eventually will, break. We all come to a cross road in our lives where we have to make decisions that affect everyone around us. And all of us hope that we too will be set free.
1. “Compendium of Lost Objects” Nicole Cooley. 2010. <http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/21526>
2. “Woman Hanging From the Thirteenth Floor Window” Joy Harjo. 2006 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=180960
pictures from:
crossroads: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRkiQPUPrEgwy17iPq6miEb3qQ2OLkfdkCJhew4bax_qh_nq6XNQ8pL0BZPw8bYLN087yFTEkSee4rab68jlebJKBKnEpUz-ncWhfRB4EbPbVUNIDm7hEzQV5QSwaErrRrZdL0gtdf5hI/s400/cross-roads.jpg
Nicole Cooley:http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v6n1/images/contributors/cooley_nicole.jpg
Joy Harjo: http://www.nativewiki.org/images/b/b3/Joypress3.jpg
natural disaster link: http://www.katrina.noaa.gov/
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