"Dancing on the Grave of a Son of a Bitch" by Diane Wakoski

This is truly a poem of a brokenhearted person that has come to realize the ending of the relationship is a better feeling. I love how the poet speaks as if the man in the poem is dead when he really isn't; she portrays him as being dead because she is trying to wipe him out of her life mentally. Thinking about all the wrong that he has done to her and realizing that she wouldn't have to suffer in that way anymore make her feel much more relieved and happy to have him out of her life. I love the way she explains the plants that she will grow on his grave, they are all poisonous plants which leads me to think that she is saying "yea we are not together anymore but i am going to make your life hell"...funny poem over all.

"The Woman Hanging From The Thirteenth Floor Window" by Joy Harjo

Wow..i must say this poem is really beautiful. This woman(from the 13th floor) is clearly struggling with her life and of what it has become. She compares her life to the other people that are living "better" than she is. She seems like a single mother and feels that she has lost her beauty. She wants to jump and end her life because it is not what she has thought it would be but she holds on listening to her children's voices and thinking of how she can rebuild her life. She sees many other women hanging from their windows(as if there are in her same position). This poem seems like a poem for a single mother struggling to make ends meet. But she mentions Chicago a couple of times in this poem, I'm guessing it would have great significance but don't really know how(I'm not too familiar with Chicago). A little help on that part please....

"Jazz Fan Looks Back" by Jayne Cortez

I love how she looks back into the Jazz era. She really expresses how she loves the music and how it made her feel and react. She uses words to express the emotions that build up inside of her from the jazz era in a way that we can feel as if we are there right with her. Describing the styles and dances and even mentioning the most powerful and influential Jazz artist of that era was a great way of the poet giving me a taste of the art of jazz.

"Harlem" by Langston Hughes

This is one of the most quoted and talked about poems i have ever heard about during my school years. This poem speaks of a dream that is deferred or delayed. The poet wonders what then becomes of the dream that once was well and strong. He gives you a couple of gruesome images of when something is rotten and soon no longer exist. He is in a way also trying to answer the question at the same time by phrasing the answers in a questionable form. He uses words such as "dry up", "fester", or "explode" to show a negative and ending of a dream deferring.

"Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy

This is clearly a poem of how the media and objects that are made today influences our lives. Here we have a beautiful young girl on her mist of puberty and going through changes have another child tell her that she has a big nose and fat legs. Yes she is smart and beautiful in her own way but because of one statement the views of her appearance changes and makes her want to change herself. She doesn'tf feel beautiful anymore based on how a Barbie doll is made with its perfect thin/small nose and skinny legs. The girl does not fit the so call "model" figure or image. She fights with herself and starts to change to fit the "thin nose and skinny legs" image. Willing to ruin her health and mind and loosing herself at the same time. She finally is called "pretty" in her casket! The things people go through to get noticed but only gets noticed when it is too late!!!

Seaman's Ditty by Gary Snyder

This poem gives me the impression that the poet is sort of regretting a love or a close one that he missed. Like they had the chance to build and grow a home and family together but werent arent able to and the memory of thinking back in their past is paining him. They also werent ready for these types of commitments and let time past as they grew apart from each other. When he mentions "gulls" i assume that he probably feels cheated in life for not being able to committ to a house and family as the years went by. But im sort of lost at the last 4 lines of the poem....is he trying to say that he rather had discovered the world and find the mysteries of it then had stayed in a relationship and missed out on it all? A little help plz...

Homework by Allen Ginsberg

This poem is really great in its metaphors that are being stated. The way the poet chooses his words and statements of the Worlds history as if he is doing his laundry is wonderful. He is basically saying that he wishes he could clean up the world and all it trails and tribulations as if he is washing and drying his own clothes. I can sense his mentality of wanting a clean and better world that solve its problems by simple means. He feels that the world is very much polluted by trash and wants to clean it all up if he was able to. Nice poem!

BTW: Go Green Everyone! LoL

February Evening in New York by Denise Levertov

I like this poem...For some reason it reminds me of the feeling i get when i'm walking byself just really observing nature and finding the most simple stroll down a block to be very eye-opening and relaxed. The poet decribes the sky as "iris blue", which automatically makes me think of the eyes and how the shades of the blue in the iris of the eyes are sort of mixed shades and tones of blue which is nice in color(biology lab, so i know this lol). Also when Levertov says "balloon heads drift and dive above them; the bodies aren't really there", draws that exact picture in my head. I figured that he is sort of saying that you see the people but its like their heads are not attached to their bodies; as if their minds are drifing off to another place. This poem seems to tell me appreciate the mixed up, good and bad, but beautiful life that we have.

Ave Maria by Frank O'Hara

This poem reminds me of some of the mothers that overly protect their children. Not letting them go out and play with other kids, not letting go out to the movies because they are afraid that their sons and daughters may interact with the opposite sex, or not letting them watch certain things on tv because, dear old mama is trying to protect them from reality. I really like this poem. Because it really does describe what a protective mother worry about. She worries and tries to protect them and keep them from seeing the real world because she is afraid her children will leave her. But as the poem goes, the kids will learn about what mother is sheltering them from one way or another and they will still love her. They will love her more if she lets them discover what's out there, instead of having them hate her because she basically kept them away from having a real life. Nice poem....everyone can relate it to atleast one person they know thats the same way.

"Early In the Morning" by Li-Young Lee

In this poem the author gives you a calm "home sweet home" feeling of a couple that been together for what seem to be years. Its very early because he says "before the birds", meaning that the birds have not waken yet to fill the air with thir chirping sounds. The father sits and waits to hear the sound of music from his wife combing her hair. The author describes her hair as being beautiful art work; it's neat, dark, and is always combed the same way, never changed! The author gives off the feeling(to me atleast) that her hair pined up symbolzes sophistication and when her hair is down it symbolizes seduction and relaxation..its like her hair style represent two sides of her, an early morning and night time. Am i totally off? LoL

Facing It by Yusef Komunyakaa

In this poem you i can really sense that the poet is very much connected and attached to this memorial more than others my be. It's like the memorial is a great part of him, almost like half of him. While standing there and looking at the memorial he is telling himself he is not going to cry but cant help fact that his eyes are very much clouded with tears. He obviously cant believe all the pain and memories that's rushing through his body. "I go down the 58,022 names, half-expecting to find my own in letters like smoke", seems like he feels that his soul is half dead when reading the names off the wall. He's is picturing how one may have died and how they may have felt during their time of dead. But what i am most confused about is "Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's wings cutting across my stare. The sky. A plane in the sky", what exactly does he mean by those few lines?