This week in our ASTU class we discussed Juliana Spahr’s book of poems called This Connection of Everyone with Lungs. This book is a response to her feelings towards the trauma of 911. What I found to be very interesting in her poetry was the break from lyric poetry and instead a transfer to “confessional poetry”. The use of “I” portrays a personal experience but what made Spahr’s poetry so unique was her use ability to escape the “me” and create a connection between the reader and author.
By retreating from individualism and idiosyncrasy, her renovated language can be applied to many people and situations. Her use of “we”, “our”, and “yous” makes her reactions very open ended allowing for interpretation. One line from her poem especially stood out to me when reading, “I can’t predict our time together either. Or why we like each other like we do”(33). This line could easily be applied to victims of trauma, survivors, and those who have lost loved ones. On a more personal level it caused me to consider our families, whom we don’t necessarily choose but love unconditionally. Life’s unpredictability’s can cut our time short inexplicably like Oskar’s father in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Oskar has such an attachment to his father and attempts to fill the void that now is left after his father’s death.
Similarly in Persepolis, when Marjane loses Uncle Anouche she never expected their time together to be so short. We must value what we have and never take for granted the time we have together. It can be unpredictable when we become attached to someone but necessary to create connections. Just like Spahr’s use of inclusive language we must remember to include and consider all the people in our lives as valuable.