Langston Hughes

May i just say this is by far my favorite poet Langston Hughes. His style of writing is so real and riveting to me. I read "You and your whole race" and "Mother to Son" both are beautiful poems that takes you back in his time during the Harlem Renaissance period. I feel he brings alive what a lot of people still don't know how it really was back in those times. How he speaks in different tones and languages (dialects) to show you how certain words were spoken in that period of time. This poem is in such a feeling of  optimism and he illustrates the race struggle he witness with being a African American man and just being African American period. He wanted to show his people there is away :"With your hands of greed seeking to touch my throat, I dare you to come one step nearer me:/When you can say that you will be free!" Freedom is what he spoke so strongly about in his poems.

Does anyone else love his poetry as much as i do ? I agree with Heru about his optimism.

Gary Snyder -- "I Went into the Maverick Bar"

This poem was very interesting , i actually like the straight forward approach she used. She went into describing her surroundings when she entered the bar with a friend. I know it was a friend because she said "the bartender asked us" which led me to know she wasn't alone. I took this poem and related it in a woman's perspective because she said how she had her hair in a cap and left her earring in the car. She seem to me like she had a long day at work and this was a escape for her. She reminisce on her surroundings of what they reminded her of. I actually enjoyed this poem because i like when i get to use my imagination because it could be many things this poem specifically is trying to get across. How do you feel about this poem ? Do you think she should of put more into it? , More into "the tough old stars"

Sun Flower Sutra

The poem was very different for me, his rhythm and the words he spoke were loving but a sadness to it. He started to try to explain how the sunflower is beautiful and he is very detailed in his words about the sunflower. His style is very unique, he abbreviated and used different way of expressing what he was really talking about. I don't feel he was genuinely  talking about a "Sunflower". I feel he was talking about a long lost love he had for someone that turned on there self, by going down the wrong path. I Love how he  integrated certain things into his real thought by using descriptive words, for instance "You were never no locomotive, Sunflower, you were a sunflower! ". His style is so different that i need to know more, more about him and the background to this poem and his life. Who is the locomotive? who is the sunflower? Why is the sunflower not a sunflower ?

The Fish

This poem is very narrative and expressive . Do you think she is imagining the fish ? The details she use to describe the fish she caught .... Tremendous  and how the brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper and its pattern of dark brown was like wallpaper/ How she related it to wallpaper was very peculiar  it had me wonder was this a familiar place. Do you think she related the fish to familiar places and/or things in her life?