City Eclogue

The Open

 I choose this partucular poem becasue reading it aloud in class made it make more sense to me so i wanted to share my thoughts on what his poem meant to me.

The spacing looked like chaos and had no order which i think was a visual representation of his theme which was Jim Crow laws, civil rights and 1950's 1960's southern america. the line that says black pillar of light is in refernce to MLK and Malcolm X's assasinations.. they represented hope for black people and their deaths was like that dream going up in smoke for their followers and their respective movements. The line that says "a people within a people" like we're all of a human race but we're seperate as if we are not all one. people dont even realize how similar they are becasue in one neighborhood its like two different planets.



 I almost feel like the poem is saying their deaths represented no hope when you go back and it talks about things being plowed down and nothing being put in its place its like there was no new leader to rise up and keep that movement alive.

I THINK THE ENTIRE BOOK IS UNIQUE IN HOW IT LOOKS VISUALLY, THERE IS A LOT OF SPACING, LINES, GAPS, INDENTS, HYPHENS, SEMI-COLONS. WHICH ALLLOWS FOR A CERTAIN AUTOMATIC RYTHM WHEN YOU SAY THE POEMS ALOUD. I DONT QUITE UNDERSTAND EVERTYTHING HE WRITES.

YOU SORTA HAVE TO READ IT OVER AND OVER LINE BY LINE TO KINDA UNDERSTAND, EAC POEM FEELS LIKE IT IS SERIOUS IN NATURE MAYBE EVEN TAKING A STANCE BUT IM NOT CERTAIN BECAUSE ITS HARD TO FIGURE OUT, THERE'S A VOICE ALSO LIKE A NARATIVE IN SOME OF THE POEMS LIKE THE POEM PSALM WHERE IT SEEMED LIKE A STORY.

BUT ALSO HIS LANGUAGE IS VERY VISUAL YOU CAN EITHER SEE WHAT HE IS SAYING OR EASILY IMAGINE. FOR EXAMPLE 'THE RISEN NIGHT SWEAT UP...A PACING FOG OF NIGHTMARE...DRIES AWAKING TO WAKING.'

SO EVEN THOUGH ITS DIFFICULT ITS SORTA LIKE USING CONTEXT CLUES WHERE  YOU FIGURE OUT THE MEANING BASED ON WHATS AROUND THE WORD.