“The Poets of D Block”
She is –
A tempest in a teapot.
A soul for sale.
The middle of the play.
Crayons melted under the hot sun.
A complex variable in a math problem.
That elderly woman who pretends to be deaf.
A folded note hidden in the joint of a cabinet.
A patchwork heart:
One scrap exudes lilting laughter,
Another left bitter by betrayal.
Faulty – yet not lacking.
Ambivalent about running.
Afraid of saying the wrong thing -
But loves uncomfortable conversations.
Standing on a point circumscribed by homes
Which one she belongs to is the question.
She is Italian, the Big Apple, the endless
Tobacco fields of Arkansas.
A little white lie, no big deal.
A girl, a student, a daughter, a sister
With much to say,
And still trying to find her voice to speak out.
She dreams of the time she is out in the world –
Making her mark in history.
Sound out, mighty Muse
Ring through me the echoes of this girl
The birth hour of the girl in transit.
Hey Fellow D Blockers –
ReplyDeleteHere is a quick overview of last class. We learned two vital things: Henry James was a psycho but an amazing and complex writer. Although he faked an injury to get out of serving in the war and threw his ex-lover’s clothes in a canal, James pioneered the writing style of physiological realism. In Daisy Miller, his use of punctuation, syntax, and settings of scenes were descriptive enough so that the audience can learn about the characters even without dialogue. James’s use of punctuation – a slew of semicolons and commas – illustrates the rapid speed of Winterbourne’s thoughts while on the steamboat. Winterbourne seemed to always be jumping from one conclusion to the next about Daisy Miller without ever stopping to breathe. James’s careful construction of syntax with negative constructions of Daisy and then positive realizations shows she is not fitting Winterbourne’s distinct categories of provincial women. Also, the setting on the water is an escape from society. The passengers’ views are always changing, reflecting Winterbourne’s inconsistent view of Daisy. The water is a symbol of rebirth for Winterbourne and Daisy’s perspective of each other as well.