I remember as a young Canadian reading Flanders Field as a poem. Most of the time it was known to be read during memorial day. John McCrae’s poem describes the war in a more peaceful way. He explains that these poppies represent death but at the same time it represents a life that has been lived. We can feel the pain that the soldiers endured. Sometimes explaining the war in a positive and happy way is hard, it’s ironic how simple he the emotions of the soldiers that have been suffering and it touches us more. The poem by Juan Felipe Herrera is a lot more visual in his stanza’s. He has lots of spaces and in between certain words. It gives us time to absorb the meaning of each word. He is more direct and also very calm as the poem Flanders field. He brings up the aspect of humanity, how we are actually very similar each one of us. I feel that he wants us to question is war really worth it? In the beginning, the spaces are far apart. But at the end, the words are closer as if death brought them together.

I like the fact that poetry in fewer words can mean a lot and that gives a lot of liberty to the poet and be very vague allowing us to imagine the meaning. Thus, this is a great way to mention and bring up sensitive subjects that could be censored if talked about openly. Poems do have a place in the conversation we’ve been having about culture and politics. The poem about the photograph of the falling man was surprisingly calm and soothing. This poem was talking about an event with people jumping out of windows and dying but the poet made us feel like an “in the moment” feeling where time has stopped and nothing can prepare us for what comes after. We also mentioned in class that if we did not have the title of the poem we probably wouldn’t have known that the poem was about 9/11. ( keeping it discreet) Poems also create a feeling of anxiety such as the one of Sparh. She builds her poem up with repetition and a constant reminder of the situation. I think that poems bring out people’s different emotions in a more dramatic way.