Hello readers!

In my ATSU 100A class this week, we discussed poetry, specifically with regards to the traumatic events of September 11th, 2001. We analyzed four individual poems, as well as language poet Juliana Spahr’s This Connection of Everyone With Lungs. Spahr’s collection of poems about 9/11 exemplify her range of emotions and thoughts during this confusing time. The discussions that we had in class regarding 9/11 and poetry prompted many of my fellow classmates to discuss these controversial topics in their blogs.

Some students chose to focus on how they feel about poetry itself. Carolina Judkowicz, for instance, discussed her hatred of poetry and the unnecessary formatting of such an art form — it simply makes the comprehension process much more complicated than it ought to be. However, Carolina’s favourite poem by Bill Bissett entitled “Tomato Conspiracy” serves as an exception to her lack of love for poetry and she admits that “This Connection of Everyone with Lungs was actually pretty okay”. Although Jacqueline Desantis came to a similar conclusion regarding poetry and Spahr’s poems, she took a different approach than Carolina, focusing more specifically on the validity of poetry once analyzed through an academic lens. Jacqueline directly refers to the application of literary theorist Judith Butler’s ideas to Spahr’s poems and how Spahr seems to have almost taken Butler’s theories and applied them to the real life situation of 9/11. Jacqueline claims that “…when I applied Butler to her [Spahr’s] work I realized that she actually accomplishes a way to explore grief in a constructive manner that doesn’t dichotomize the ‘us and the them’”. In other words, this idea that we are separate people in a world whose perspective is based on an “us or them” mentality is not completely true. Although we have different experiences and locations, we are all connected. Jacqueline’s point about Spahr not focusing on this mentality is one of the things that makes these poems so unique.

This idea of connection seems to apply beyond the events of 9/11; it has become a lens through which we see the world. Sam Tuck focuses on this point in his post, as he links this idea to C. Wright Mills’ concept of the “sociological imagination”, our Human Geography class, and Judith Butler’s theories. Sam suggests that we could analyze situations through a “geographical imagination”, considering that Spahr felt both separated from and connected to the world and 9/11 while living in Hawaii. He brings up the point that Spahr uses specific language to portray this effect. An example Sam brings up is when “she changes ‘You’ to ‘Yous’, ‘Your’ to ‘Yours’”. One can interpret this as exemplifying both the distinction between people — there is the danger of creating homogenous categories — as well as the connection between them, especially on a global level. Both Sam and Raphael Gamo focus on the bed and how this trope links the intimate and private sphere and the connection, or lack thereof, to the public sphere throughout Spahr’s poems.

Other students appear to have been deeply affected by the other poems discussed in class aside from Spahr’s. For example, Isabelle Semmalhack focused on the lack of a last line in Wislawa Szymborska’s “Photograph from September 11” as well as the controversial sculpture entitled “Tumbling Woman” by Eric Fischl. On the one hand, Szymborska’s poem is beloved by most and serves as an effective technology of memory with regards to 9/11. The fact that she leaves the last line of her poem open to interpretation gives people the freedom to create their own ending to a tragic story. However, on the contrary, Fischl’s sculpture appears to show the woman hitting the ground — a reality many do not want to face with regards to their loved ones dying during the events of 9/11. As Isabelle points out,  “had the sculpture been suspended in the air, or had depicted a woman upright, or in a gentle roll, rather than balancing on her neck this piece may have been widely appreciated”. This controversy shows the sensitivity people still feel today when discussing September 11th. Diego Balce picks up on this point while comparing Szymborska’s poem to Billy Collin’s “The Names”. Diego discusses how Szymborska’s poem lacks closure and avoids identification, whereas Collin’s poem is based on “putting a name to a face”, as Diego puts it. Both of these approaches lead to a questioning of whose lives are worth identifying, for as Diego mentions, there were many in the “them” category whose losses remain unrecognized. 

Although everyone’s insights varied with regards to the poetry and trauma associated with the expression of 9/11, I found that the questions Raphael poses sums up our analyses thus far extremely well: “where does the connection of everyone with lungs stop? Do we all have to share the responsibility in the crimes or acts of terror committed by people from different places? Or is it really just a kind of existential, oh look how we can all be together?” These are questions that I found myself pondering over during our class discussions as well. They will most definitely require further analysis in order to be answered.

Excellent work, bloggers! I cannot wait to see what you write about next.