Hola Bloggers!
This time I want to talk to you guys about a new interest that I found these last few weeks when we started to look at poetry in our ASTU class. I used to think poetry was not something interesting that I could reflect on but after looking at several poems that were written after 9/11 and one at the outbreak of WWII I found that there are special connections and emotions expressed through poetry that stand out from other forms of literature.
When I was reading Wisława Szymborska’s poem Photograph from September 11, I thought of the way that the author was gentle in interpreting the horrendous scenes from the terrorist attacks on 9/11. She used a certain style that made me think of the falling people from the World Trade Center. When I first saw the videos I was shocked. I was left with a disturbing image of that event and and when I started reading Szymborska’s poem I was surprised that somebody would refer to those atrocious and shocking moments, I wanted to know how she portrayed what happened and put it into words. I was delighted because I feel like the poem contains the right words to express the grief but also gives the reader the opportunity to reflect on the details that make the scene seem as another kind of event. Szymborska made me feel like these people were there in a different situation, when she writes:
I can totally picture the moment frozen in time, not as a violent event but as something more quotidian, with the wind blowing our hair, the coins and keys in our pockets. I think the poem ends in the most perfect way when the author stops to reflect on those seconds of “flight” and not going further to tell us what we already know that happens to those at the end of their ‘flight’.
~Gabo Nogués