Shona's Shennanigans

She reads it better, here on youtube: Carolyn Forche performs her poem "Ourselves or Nothing." It is dedicated to the late Terrence Des Pres, whose book The Survivor,  a much-admired account of holocaust survivors' will to bear witness, entailed a great struggle for the author. Forche, who knew Des Pres later, witnessed forms of that struggle. Des Pres taught at Colgate University and he was one of the first to offer a course in the literature of the holocaust (in the mid-1970s). The poem refers to Forche's own work in El Salvador supporting those who bore witness to atrocities committed there. https://youtu.be/5jIiRvFRj18 

I found something to help us with our theme: https://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/04/books/two-poets.html  

What do you make of this? 

In this episode, I express my insecurities and try to figure out what ee cummings was talking about and how I'm going to write the model essay for this unit. 

Be prepared. This is weird. Very, very weird. You probably won't understand it all at first. I sure don't. How will be examine these poems by "being" and "unbeing." I have no answers, but we will roll through the muck and mud of these ideas together. 

Sometimes it looks like poetry, but reads like prose. 

No capital letters? Why? Sanchez writes here to reflect on a powerful, personal experience with a real person. Her words became a gift to him. Soak up the words, read more about the man, and then return to the letter to see what Sanchez is saying about walking, peace, bravery, and other things. 

Reading poetry by phrases, singly, and then reading them coherently reveals a focus on phrases and meanings that you would miss without such a dual practice. 

Sanchez is a poet, even when she writes prose. 

Sometimes, I read something and injure myself. I think you'll hear the poetry Sanchez uses to describe her admiration of Norma.