Diving Into the Wreck

    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. 

    Cathy Park Hong's poem Zoo places emphasis on linguistic choices and how it affects reader response.

Ga       The fishy consonant,

Na     The monkey vowel.

Da     The immigrant’s tongue

          as shrill or guttural.

 

        Hong employs the use of words such as "fishy" and "monkey" to represent the foreign and almost animalistic sounds of the Korean alphabet, placing an emphasis on the title of her piece: Zoo. 

 

    Both pieces find different ways to convey their messages without blatantly saying it, which to me is something new that I still have to get used to about poetry. The closer you read, the more messages and meanings start to uncover themselves.