Keep, Keep, Keep - Post 5

Listen along on my Voice Thread to my found poem:

"Keep, Keep, Keep"

a found poem from The House on Mango Street

by Hannah Welch

This is how they keep.

Their strength is secret.

Push, pull, push pull -  dizzy.

Straight ahead, straight eyes.

Blinds are always closed.

Roses that cry a breath of mold and dampness.

Do you feel it, feel the cold?

Make your blood freeze.

Ain’t it a shame?

Is that it?

What difference does it make?

Wonder, shrug, remember.

I’ll jump out of my skin!

All at once she bloomed,

beautiful like the Emperor’s nightingale.

Wonderful, wonderful

Excited tinkling

Lovely things everywhere-

Leap and somersault like an apostrophe and comma.

She just laughs. 

I’m me!

Alive

This is how they keep-

appreciate these things-

they, who reach and do not forget to reach,

whose only reason is to be and be.

A home in the heart – this is home.

We are home.

 I chose lines from our 3rd portion of the book, pages 58-78.  My most important lines came from the vignette "Four Skinny Trees," in which Esperanza describes 4 trees in her front yard that don't fit the neighborhood, that have to fight against the odds to stay standing.  The title "Keep, Keep, Keep" and the repeated line "This is how they keep" came from that vignette.  I thought this was a powerful idea to relate to not only this section but the entire story, because I see two things at work: the outside, surface existence of these people - it's rough, not easy, and often unpleasant - "roses that cry a breath of mold and dampness."  We know there's struggle, ugliness, and pain in their lives.  But the major message that I've seen is the beauty underneath this - the strength of these people - their abilities to love, celebrate, enjoy life, and make the most of what they've got.  That's where the shift in the poem comes from - the second half is quite happy, my favorite line being "Leap and somersault like an apostrophe and comma," which, along with many other lines, came from the vignette "The Earl of Tennessee." I think the ultimate message of my found poem is that happiness and Esperanza's home are not physical things, or things that one can observe on the surface - they are in the heart, these pieces of happiness and beauty that so many of the characters lift up and celebrate.  This home is about finding yourself, being yourself, and loving the person you are and the life that you live.  Once Esperanza is able to come to this realization, she finds, finally, that she "is home."

SIDENOTE: The House on Mango Street is full of SO MUCH beautiful language, much of it figurative, which really made this assignment fun for me.  I loved going back and picking out these phrases that I smiled at while I read and giving them new life and meaning, so that I could appreciate them in new ways.  This was a really fun response to do, and I LOVE how the Voice Thread felt like a poetry performance or a poetry slam - it feels like within our voice threads, we're creating our own little coffee shop and using our voice to bring our poems to life.

PS:  If you put your name in your label each time you post, we won't have as much confusion about who's posting what and we don't have to put it in the title- just a thought!!!