Shambhavi's Shells

     Defining and finding meaning line by line of any written piece has never been my strong suit, but with the poem my group chose for the poetry panel project, I find that it's necessary to understand every line in the poem since each line holds a valuable meaning that develops the underlying message of the poem. We are, I am, you are by cowardice or courage the one who find our way back to this scene carrying a knife, a camera a book of myths in which our names do not appear.      The stanza above is the final stanza in the poem Diving into the Wreck . During my first read of the poem, I found myself confused with what the poem was trying to say, at first glance the poem was really just about the speaker going on a dive to explore a wreck that she witnesses. Now since this is the poem from my group's poetry panel project I won't give out any spoilers, but I do want to mention that I admire how each and every word from Rich's poem carries weight to it....

     Last year in AP Lang we read a part of Cathy Park Hong's book Minor Feelings, specifically, The Indebted, and Hong's writing style and word choice stuck with me as impactful and gave me a new perspective on different ideas.      When thinking of beautiful words and poetry, the first thing that came to my mind was Minor Feelings and The Indebted. Although I haven't read all of Minor Feelings, there were two lines from the book that stuck out to me as beautiful.      “Innocence is both a privilege and a cognitive handicap, a sheltered unknowingness that, once protracted into adulthood, hardens into entitlement.” Hong's choice of words such as "unknowingness" and "hardens" brings a sense of (interestingly enough) innocence turning into the knowledge of self, which is exactly what Hong is trying to convey. Another notable word to point out is Hong referring to innocence as a "cognitive handicap", unlike others who would refer...