Thursday, April 26, 2012

Sandburg Project


In the opening passages of his book titled Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, Carl Sandburg offers the following scenario regarding people who played a role in the Civil War: 

If those who are gone who had their parts and roles in it could be summoned back to tell of the gaps and discrepancies, they might give unexpected answers to questions.  And many witnesses on being dug up and given speech might again be as noncommittal as ever on this or that circumstance (vii).

Why was Carl so intrigued by “the Second American Revolution” when he “was born a little less than thirteen years after 1865?” Even after perusing through his poem The People, Yes and scanning through the first two volumes of Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, I am still uncertain as to why Carl, Whitman and many others were so enthralled by Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War as a whole (especially considering they didn't take part in the war nor were they influential in making changes to the legislation that followed the war). Along the same line I still cannot understand why some people are so fascinated and drawn to the presidency of Barack Obama. I’ll blame it on my density and lack of education. So, as I tried to articulate a question for our group project while watching The Boondocks (an animated television series based on the comic strip by Aaron McGruder) it just so happened that the episode that I was watching was a depicting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr coming back to life in present-day United States.

Here is a portion of this episode that I believed was relevant to the question that I will be offering shortly:


Question: How do you think Carl and Walt would feel about how their poems are interpreted, utilized and, often times, misread if they were somehow reincarnated and brought back to present-day United States?  Furthermore, do you feel their poems are relevant to the issues we are currently facing i.e Occupy Wall Street Movement, The Tea Party Movement and the Anti-War Movement? Sandburg and Obama both have ties to the heartland of the United States, if Sandburg were alive, do you think he write a poem for our current president?  

Thursday, April 12, 2012

9/11 poem #1


If Bin Laden read Dr. Suess by Mark Kuhar 2001 September 18

I found it appropriate that the poet chose to utilize a children’s political cartoonist to couch his venomous feelings towards Bin Laden. When the speaker if the poem implores Bin Laden to “fire up some Afghani red” and “go to a soccer game” he takes on a similar tune to that of a over-coddled latchkey kid whose latest crisis consists of being out of pop-tarts or Capri-Sun juice drinks.  The sense of entitlement held by poets continues to befuddle me. What gives a poet license to suggest, “the arab world needs a savior, not a fugitive killer” while explicitly stating that Bin Laden should “feed five thousand with loaves and fish.” Anger and feelings of hurt is one thing: stupidity and hypocrisy are another. Let me get this correct: “the arab world needs a savior” and the poet suggests that Bin Laden perform Christ-like miracles? Are you confused? I am. I’ll go back to my red-dot books and attempt to craft a critique of them. 

Final Project

I am hoping to revisit my initial tracking post regarding the things that Whitman takes in as he compiles his inventory in Song of Myself. I believe that I also see a good number of the things that Whitman saw from his perch in New Jersey here in San Francisco. I will attempt to gather images of San Francisco that capture the essence of Whitman's poem. For me, this is my stab at being creative. I took a couple photography classes in junior college and this project will attempt to fuse my knowledge of San Francisco with what I am learning about Mr. Whitman.

Whitman sees "himself" while still "see[ing] and hear[ing] the whole." I'll attempt to do the same with my camera and match pictures to the imagery that Whitman provides'.