W.S. Merwin – For a Coming Extinction

I personally love this poem, as it has been one of my favorite yet. I find a strong sense of poignancy in this poem, as it looks upon how selfish of a creature we humans are. I love the lines “Join your word to theirs, Tell him, That it is we who are important.” It breaks us down into nothing but animals, yet shows how we see ourselves as the only thing on this planet worth anything. We do not care what we destroy as long as we live on. The sense of death of a creature, and that creature no longer exists. The death of each person is an extinction of that person’s life, but what happens when there is no other one like that person to carry on his story? The sense of the ultimate end in this poem is what draws me to it, as each person’s death is his or her ultimate end.

Denise Levertov – The Ache of Marriage

The Ache of Marriage explains the hardships of marriage as well as the beauty in which it can be. I find a sense of myself in this poem, as I have experienced the same type of hard times and beauty this poem speaks about. I have dated the same girl for 4 years now, and it takes hard work to make a relationship last. You can sometimes feel the pain in your teeth from the things that go on, but at the end of the day, you appreciate exactly what you two are working for. The poem has true sense of truth about it, and it is told in such an unconventional way which initially drew me to the poem. The hardships you go through in your relationships are what you have to do before it can turn into a blissful, happy relationship.

Stanley Kunitz – The Portrait

This poem is such a blunt feeling of love lost and anger. It is about a man who killed himself in a public park while his wife was pregnant, and she never forgave him for that. I could never imagine having to deal with that sort of pain, losing someone that way when your lives are about to be joined by a child. The poignancy in this poem however is not about the suicide, it’s about the hurt that never dies. She was never able to let the hurt go, even after the son was older and her reaction to the father’s picture was to rip it up and smack the child. That pain that she felt was then held by the son who at the age of 64 still carries that pain that she dealt with. The time factor in this poem turned a pain from a mother, to child, to poem forever caught in time.

Yusef Komunyakaa – Boat People

I find myself in this poem, yet not in the complete sense. As I interpret Boat People as a poem about fisherman, Thai fisherman in the poem, and the life they live at sea. Seasick, they daydream Jade Mountain a whole world away. This line from the poem could refer to the homes they left behind, that seem that they will never be back to caught in the tides caused by the moon, drifting all over the grand ocean in search of a catch. I find myself in this because as a child I used to go on many fishing trips with my dad. After hours upon hours out in the sea, you always start to look back at the land you came from, longing to be able to walk on the solid ground again. These people are at sea for months, never being able to just turn around and quickly go back home.

Robert Hayden – Frederick Douglass

I realize that I have a trend toward poems involving racism, but I do find such poignancy in the past struggles of this now “non-racist” world. This poem takes an iconic figure, and breaks him down into the man he really was, a poet. It is not about the legends or poems, it is about those that he affected with those medians. The other thing about this poem that makes it poignant is the talk of freedom, something that many in today’s society take for granted. I find myself in this poem, not because I was a black slave who was freed, but because I am one who lives in this free world. I feel it is powerful and realistic referring to freedom as a “beautiful and terrible thing.” It is amazing how something like freedom can be referred to as a terrible thing, because those who have it take it for granted. Frederick Douglass is one that understood what freedom is, something much of today’s society has forgotten.