The Dark Side of Man

I feel that the poems are all connected in that they all show a dark, ugly side of humans. In the Brooks poem, we see the shame and guilt felt by a mother who aborted her unborn child. She communicates the sadness and helplessness that I imagine every woman who has an abortion must feel. I know that I I ever had an abortion I would never stop wondering what great things that child would grow up to do. My favorite line is "If I poisoned the beginnings of your breaths,Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate." I can feel her desperation when she was getting the abortion. She was probably very young and scared and felt that there was no other choice. This poem has such a sadness and genuine emotion about it. I really dig it. The poem by Ms. Angelou highlights the deteriorating condition of this world and the people in it. The loneliness and the self centered attitudes of everyone. But she is also sending out the message that "nobody, but nobody can make it out here alone." The singular attitude that many people possess may not hold them back from having monetary gain, but it won't save your soul. As with the example of the millionaire. He has all his riches but his family is falling apart. He doesnt even care enough to fix it. This is so true in today's world. Hollywood showcases many of these dysfunctional families. We should heed the message she sends out. Everybody needs somebody sometimes. This poem is deep. The last poem, by Rosario Castellanos, I believe, illustrates our inner evil. It shows that feelings of hatred are far stronger than feelings of love. There is a saying that we always hurt the ones we love. I'm not sure but I think the part of the poem about drawing breath from someone else's lungs exemplifies this. We always want to lean on our loved ones and expect them to save us. This ties in with the Angelou poem as far as that selfish attitude. On the other hand, when we dwell on hatred, we are only allowing it to grow. We become fixated on it and allow it to devour us. I love the analogy of the deer seeing the reflection of the tiger in the water as he drinks. I dont know if he sees the reflection behind him or if he sees it instead of his own reflection. I like to think its the latter because when you harbor hatred for you enemy, after a while you become the very thing you hate most. And by giving in to hatred, you are becoming its accomplice. All of the poems were very interesting and informative. I just hope I'm not completely off with these analyses.

THOUGHTS on the three poems by Luisana S.

1. "The Mother" by Gwendolyn Brooks.
"If I stole your births and your names, your straight baby tears and your names,..., your marriages, aches, and your deaths".
This line makes me really sad. I think that abortion is paid with sorrow, guilt, and solitude. It makes me sad to think that these unborn babies wont have the opportunity we had to see the beautiful light of the sun, and to feel the air and breath it. They wont have the chance to feel love or to be loved. It is unfair to take their rights away. I feel guilty because I cant do nothing to stop these crimes. It is incredible to see and to know that there are people with no sentiments, or morality. I dont think these people are going to experience the blessing of giving life to another human being. I think the guilt wont let them be as happy as they should be. In my opinion, giving birth is a blessing that many people have, and those that cant have it might even die for it.

2. "Alone" by Maya Angelou.
"Nobody but nobody cant make it out here alone".
This line made me think of many things, such as not having someone by my side when I get older, or becoming a bad mother, what would happen to me if I turned to be sterile?; these are thoughts I had when I read this line. I love kids, I love taking care of them, It is only the diapers that get me nauseas. I think about what type of mother I will be in the future. Will my children abandon me? Will they get tired of me? Will I end up 'Alone'? I want to be like my mother, she is the best mother ever, and I will never leave her alone, or abandon her. I think you children are the ones that stay by your side, and take care of you when you cant take care of yourself. They dont let you die in a solitude. I dont think a person can "make it out here alone".

3. "Destiny" by Rosario Castellanos.
"We give life only to what we hate".
I dont agree with this line. I think that we have the virtue of living, not because our mother hated us, but because they love us. My mother loves me and my little brothers, and I love her back. But my question is: why would you hate something that doesnt have breathing, and that is not living yet? I think about this all over again, and I truly dont find a logic.

Thanks for reading.

Man is an animal of solitudes...

The Mother - An abortion can be a traumatic experience for some women. I believe that every woman that goes through that experience will always have the presence of her child in her mind. They killed an innocent life. No one has the right to take away somebody else’s right to live and choose. Too bad that those innocent beings can’t have the right to choose whether to live or die. In the poem The Mother by Gwendolyn Brooks we come across with this particular subject: abortion. Brooks describes the feelings of a mother that decided to abort her baby and how she regrets of doing such a crime.
Alone – Just imagine yourself living a world without friends or people that care about you. It would be a dull and lonely place to live. The poem Alone by Maya Angelou represents how people need affection from other people. People can’t jus live in a world where nobody cares for no one. Even if you are poor but if you have someone that cares about you that’s enough. As Angelou stated there are people with a lot of money but without a happy life they just live a miserable life because they don’t even have time to spend with their love ones. The only thing these people care is about making and saving money for a future. You need to enjoy what you have in the present because you never know what is going to happen in the future. The words in this poem are so powerful and kind of easy to analyze because people can easily relate to some time in their lives to the emotional state of loneliness.
Destiny – It’s really easy to kill what we love just not to kill ourselves. We can hate and love at the same time. We can love with hate. It’s like a love+hate relationship. Monotony, Infidelity, apathy, etc can kill love, but love can still survive but not with the same strength that had at the beginning of a relationship. This is how an affectionate relationship turn into a love hate relationship, you can still love your partner but you can never forget the flaws of love. Love doesn’t stay the same it just simply transforms that’s when we start to kill Love. Affectionate love doesn’t last forever.

Do not let your past to destroy the future.

What is it to be a mother? My friends who have children tell that it is the most amazing thing in the life – to have a baby, to feel a new life growing inside of you. Nothing can be compared to it. Sooner or later the maternity instinct wakes up inside every woman, but beside the instincts there are social, financial or other issues, that make it impossible to have a baby. How often do we hear now from women that they need to do the career first, or that the time is not right or I do not have enough money to provide myself? What if she did get pregnant? Abortion? It is very touchy topic to discuss. I do not know if its right or wrong- each situation is different. Some women may never forgive themselves and this decision will affect all their life. In any way I think it is up to woman to decide to keep the pregnancy or not. Gwendolyn Brooks in her poem “The Mother” describes the woman’s feelings after abortion, her regrets and anger. I have a friend who had abortion and was able to recover and to start a new life. She had 5 years relationship back home in Ukraine, but it was not working out. They broke up and she decided to leave the country. Luckily she got visa to US, but she discovered she was pregnant. She did abortion and could not forgive herself for a long time. Two years ago she met a guy, fell in love with him. They got married and had a beautiful baby-girl this May. She told me no matter how hard it was back then, she made a right decision. We all make mistakes or decisions, that might be wrong, but the biggest mistake will be to let the past to destroy the present and the future. I do not judge anybody; it’s not for me to decide what is right or what is wrong for another person. Nobody’s life is easy. We all need support at one point or another, because: “nobody, but nobody can make it out here alone”

journal entry - three pomes

The three poems: The Mother, Alone and Destiny writhen by three women. Poems: By Gwendolyn Brooks, Maya Angelou and Rosario Castellanos respectively talk about what it is to be a women ,all three poems are strong on facts and emotional it would be hard not to be affected by them. Take for example” The Mother” it talks about a woman who had more than one abortion however she cant forget any of those babies who as she says can be a singers or ordinary workers she cant forgot at the fact that she prevented these babies from ever being breastfeed patted on their head, disciplined of bribed
with sweets not only that she is responsible for the facts that these babies will never experience love, marriage or pain she is responsible for them never breathing or ever dying. She asked herself… “Why should I whine that the crime was other than min?”
The woman therefore admits that she alone was responsible for the abortions of her babies. However, she does not say why she was force to have abortions. She asks these babies to believe her that she was not totally set determinate pregnancies.
“Believe that in my deliberateness I was not deliberate”. She asked them to believe her that although she knows them “faintly” she loved all of them.
I never imagined that one can write about so many details about the babies that are aborted. I always imagined that a woman would regret doing having an abortion but that there would be just one deep, deep pain for her. Certainly as a woman and as a mother I sympathize with this woman who was only mother to be. It is my good luck than I never had to experience these tip (kind) of pain. I always expected to be a mother I m happy that my expectations came true.

As to the second poem “Alone “ By Maya Angelou my cousin’s life comes to mind she is a sole breadwinner for herself and for her children. Many times she talks to me about being in the terrible financial situation ,she is working over time but can’t have enough money to pay her own bills. My cousin wishes just like in the poem that she could find some one who could help her financial. She is in a total despair because as I’m concerned it is not only financial trouble that she has deal with.
In her numbers talk to me. I came to the conclusion that she is too lonely. Many times she tolled me how she longs for another close human been who would helpfully to face her everyday duties. It is the universal condition of human beings desire to how contacts, and help from another human been. Whether is one poor or reach ones need to be connected with another human been.

In the poem “Destiny” by Rosario Castellanos the woman is totally depressed. She sees no hope for herself, her pain is unbearable. She wishes that there could be another human been perhaps a man who could share her pain with her that suffocates her. Not sooner she thinks that, she becomes convinced that nobody could unburden her of her pain. No one would even hear her call for help, because she decides that there is no point in her asking for help she tells herself “Man is an animal of solitudes”.
I think that the reality is that man i.e. everyone should try to be connected with other human beings.
As to her refrain “we kill what we love may possible mean that we destroy our self while we should love ourselves.
“ We kill what we love” may mean that we kill another person although we love that person it would be great if someone could explain this refrain to me or the reference to deer in the tiger in these poem.
In any case I sympathize with this woman too.

Motherhood

"The mother" by Gwendolyn Brooks touches on the issue of abortion. Gwendolyn Brooks focuses on how the mothers would feel after the abortions. I feel the mother anger and regret. She is angry of herself for having the abortion. She is angry that she was not brave enough to have the baby. She is regretful now for not having the baby to hold and to nurture. She wishes she could have one child now. She imagines the baby's images as if it is so close to her "Your straight baby tears and your games, your stilted or lovely love, your tumults, your marriages, aches, and your deaths." The sin of having an abortion will follow her for the rest of her life, just like my friend's case. My friend was 19 years old when she was 1 month pregnant. It was an accident, she said. After days of thinking and talking over with her boyfriend, she decided to have an abortion. I personally think that it was a good idea. She was here all by herself, and it was hard enough for her to take care of herself. How was it possible for her to take care of someone else, a child? Rather than giving birth to the child and raising him/her in a hard way, she made a good choice of "killing" the baby at one month old. Even though it was a good decision, the sin of killing her own child still follows her and she cries every time someone mentions it.

The Love For Life

Gwendolyn brooks poem about abortion is beautiful and meaningful, the way that she describes the feelings related with this type of action. She describes vividly how the baby cries or looks for food all the way to planning and experiencing things later in life, and that all of these things the child will never experience. Her poem is incredibly honest and open. It would seem almost like an addmission of guilt for doing something were this girl had no choice, maybe due to circumstances out of her control. She explains that even though the baby is taken out before it is fully grown, that she still felt a deep connection even though she never met the baby. Alone, by Maya Angelou, is a poem about the needs that everyone has. That even though we feel that we are on this earth just for ourselves, we can't forget that the reason that we are able to do what we do is because of the people around us, and the people that were before us that made the mistakes that we don't have to make. She explains that a rich man has a heart of stone, because he spends all of his time creating wealth, while his family suffers. Explaining that in this life we have to lean on each other. Rosario Castellanos poem called Destiny, is a beautiful poem about the way that people react when they love something. That people draw all the energy out of this thing until there is nothing left. That by loving something is to dominate and eventually kill it, so that you devour that love. In life today you see this all the time in the way that people react in some relationships. They feel that just because they declare their love for someone, that they have the right to be abusive to thing they that their supposed to love.

Take a look in the mirror

While the debate on legalization of abortion will probably never be settled, the debate seems to only focus on one aspect of many other pertinent once in the issue. The reason for the debate is the fact that that a child’s life is taken before the child is even born. While this is a strong argument, jury often fails to consider a variety of circumstances that lead to the decision to kill the fetus. What we call “debate on abortion” is not really a debate of this subject. What we see in the media and the news is a debate on after how many months should a line be drawn and determined that a life is gone.
We never weigh the mother’s circumstance, the type of life the child is to have should there not be an abortion, financial constraints, hereditary factors, and many more aspects that abortion in itself entails. The Mother by Gwendolyn Brooks talks about a woman in the midst of the aftermath of an abortion, considering all the would-bes have she not done an abortion. Perhaps at a superfluous glance, this poem contradicts my main point, however, it is not so. The heated debate around abortions focus on everything besides the mother’s fate and true feelings; even though the mother in this poem regrets the decision that she has made, to the media and the public it is not a factor in deciding whether one should or should not commit an abortion.
Alone by Maya Angelou describes a world of sorrow, pain, and destitution. Her main points focus on wealthy people who “have hearts of stone,” and that compared to others they consider themselves better and due to their financial standings can succeed without help. While this is a very general belief recognized by many around the world, in my opinion and experience it is everything but true. I have met very wealthy people and I work with very wealthy people; I have likewise met and work with, people who are much less fortunate and not always can afford to have lunch and dinner. From these experiences I can confidently say that there are much more wealthy people with kind hearts who are willing and do help the ones less fortunate, then the pissed off ones who never worked and do not want to. It should come by no surprise that the ones who accumulated their wealth never stand alone and have many people to turn to for help, unlike the beggars who have no one to ask.
Rosario Castellanos is another poet who focuses on the negativity of human nature, and is incredibly right in doing so. “We give life only to what we hate,” is probably the most meaningful quote from all of poetry I have ever read. While the poem talks about our reflections and the like, the main phenomenon and moral is easy to demonstrate. Opposites attract while likes repel. Most people I have met, including myself always hate the people who most closely resemble ourselves, while we praise people for qualities that we do not posses. In doing so, we give life or have qualities that we hate the most.

Expressions of life - Brooks, Angelou, Castellanos

Abortion is a controversial issue. The debate on whether or not the fetus is alive or not during an abortion will never conclude whether the act inhumane or not. What psychological studies can prove is the disturbing emotions that a woman is left with after the procedure. Whether a person chooses to have an abortion or not is solely up to the individual. The Mother by Gwendolyn Brooks expresses the distress that results from an Abortion. This poem conveys the guilt, regret and haunting aftermath of an abortion. You sense as though the author wishes to be pardoned from the act, and even envisions how motherhood would. This poem reminds me of how a friend of mine coped with abortion. It seems as though she was never able to forgive herself for the act. For a long time, she was distant and out of tune with others. She made a promise to herself that if she’d ever became pregnant again, she would keep the baby; and she did.

The saying that “money can’t buy happiness” is cliché, but true. Alone by Maya Angelou, describes a person who truly feels alone in the world. It is true that “there are some millionaires with money they can’t use”, because money can only buy tangible things. You cannot “purchase” what the sole is lacking, bliss or love. Angelou was able to convey that no human can truly make it “all alone”. The line of poetry that impacted me most was when Angelou stated “how to find my soul a home”. I don’t believe this was literal, I think she meant, how can she live a life that is peaceful for the soul? How can she come to a common ground with her life? I feel that the life lived alone, would be miserable and dark.

Destiny by Rosario Castellanos was properly the titled. I wondered if it really is in our destiny to “kill what we love”. When reading this poem, I can sense that Casellanos was angry and in pain. This poem expressed anguish, disgust, pain and disparity. It seems that Castellanos was trying to explain that “we” live lives that are contradictory to what we want/need.

I just wanted to share: my fav' quote of all the poems is:

"We give life only to what we hate"

-I thought this was a was powerful and real statement. We as humans on this earth have the ability to bring to life the positive and the negative.

Poetry shmoetry...

I felt Brook’s anger, guilt and regret when reading her poem. She apparently made a decision without realizing the depth of the consequences she would feel afterward. Most of what is written relays a message of the inner dialogue of depressive anger that she may have with herself as a one time mother. This poem reminds me of my pet rooster, named Perdue, that I had growing up in Queens. I gambled his life away one day on a meaningless bet. I too discounted the being of another and did not realize the seriousness I would feel. I was very upset and so was the rest of the block.

Angelou’s subject is quite different and kind of reminds me of a person desperate to create value of themselves to others. She hooked me in the beginning using a formula that I guess takes the subject and asks what it should have and then goes ahead to give it the opposite or nothing. It produced to me an unexpected quality of thought for things otherwise commonly assumed and associated with these subjects used. I thought a lot of the poem was directed to the upper class and that she stressed an idea of interdependence. I personally believe she wanted not to be forgotten and actually meant reliance on her. Though, I could be way off I have known people to be of this nature.

Castellano is yet another poet who concentrates on the negative with yet another depressing outlook. Or maybe reading too many of these back to back has affected me. My friend Jeremy who died last week was killed by what he loved. The passing of his mother, father and x-girlfriend hurt no one else as much as him. He killed what he loved most once and that was his life.

In The Now - David V

The decision to do what one thinks may be right for them in the now, often ends up causing regret in the future. The poems remind me of an event in a friend’s life. In her early professional life, she became pregnant, and after a couple months of thinking it over, against the wishes of the father, she decided to have an abortion. “Now’s not a good time for me to have a child,” she said. She wanted to focus on her career and felt that a baby would hold her back. Although I knew her to be career-minded, I was surprised by her decision because she seemed to enjoy children.

In the months following the abortion, she was told she would most likely not be able to have children again. After that she would look at children like one would look at pictures of a long lost loved one. Not long after the abortion, she started cheating on the father of her aborted baby. “I loved him,” she said, “but being with him reminded me of the baby, and I was just trying to ease the pain. He said he would leave, but I told him I didn’t care because I didn’t need anyone.” He did leave and would not go back.

Over that time, she changed, and aged so much. Her every waking moment was spent working, or doing anything, anything, that would stop her from having to think about what had happened. First losing her baby, and then the man she loved. She killed the one’s that she loved, and in turn ended up killing a big part of herself. After that she sang the blues and only after a time did she realize that “Nobody, but nobody, can make it out here all alone.” Within the course of a year, she went from ever joyful to ever under storm clouds. These days, no one has heard from her for a time, but I could imagine her saying “I’m so cold. So cold. And this rainy day represents the feelings that I hold.” All for doing what was right in the now.

Women and Women

10/18/07 7:30 PM
Read three poems, the Mother by Gwendolyn Brooks, Alone by Maya Angelou and Destiny by Rosario Castellanos when I took the #6 train to my account information system class. I am not a mother yet but I can definally feel Brooks’ pain about life after abortion. Life is not the same anymore. A lot of people might not able to recover from it. Some people feel guilty about the child who they suppose to have but never be born. They feel unborn babies talk to them with their immigration. “I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed” as Brooks wrote. I do feel some people abuse the right to abortion especially those young teenagers who are lock of education. They do not know some people who try so hard to have a baby. I knew one of my friends’ sister have try couple years to have a baby but can’t not. She had to take so many shots and doctor’s help to be able to have a child.
The other things that get my attention when I read Angelou’s Alone is money can not buy happiness. I do agree it however I think it depends on if people use it wisely. I mean life is not easier but compare the problems that rich and poor people face. It is just sad in some situations. For instance, elderly won’t have to rely on social security, some of them have to get genic Rx because they can’t afford brand name. I knew that through my current job. Or look at some of the victims who died in New Orlando two years ago, they did not get out there like other rich people do because of money issues, they did not know where to go. They could still alive if they have money to stay in motel instead wait for our unreliable government that response like turtle.

Nadav's Women Poetry

An abortion is a very traumatic thing for every woman who does it, and that I can tell from my own experience, although I did not have it myself.
About a year ago a very good friend of mine called me crying and told me that she just found out she got pregnant. My first question was "when are you going to do the abortion?" This question was so obvious to me, that I did not pay too much attention to it. My friend on the other hand felt so bad when I asked her this question that I could barely put in any more words..
After she calmed down a little, we started talking more deeply. I found out that although she did not plan it, she wanted to keep the baby. She told me that she really wanted to have the baby, regardless the fact that she wasn't in a serious relation at the time. I, on the other hand, thought differently. I told her that in my opinion it would be selfish of her to have the baby as a single mother, especially when she wasn't sure where her life was going to. In my opinion, someone who wants to have a baby should do anything he or she can in order to bring the child into a stable environment as possible; this means to have both mother and father in a stable relationship with the ability to support the infant. Since she wasn't in this position, I thought it would be a mistake to keep the embryo. After she had many discussions with me, with the future-to-be-father, and with some other close friends, she decided to do an abortion, although she didn't feel 100% sure about it.
Right after she did the abortion, she told me she felt like she lost her lived child. She took it so bad that she got into a big depression for the three following months after. The whole situation was very hard for her, and although she got over it eventually, today she regrets she did the abortion. She keeps on telling me that she should have kept the embryo. In spite of her feelings, I still think she did the right thing, and I’m happy for her because I saw many cases already of a single-mothers did not considered what best for their child’s, but what was good for themselves, when they decided to bring a child all by themselves.

The Jaws Of Life

10-16-07
Hey it's me again,

Me and Nik had a little talk last nite. She's was worried about me taking the five classes and working full-time and trying to establish the brand. She says that "if anybody can do it, you can", but something in her voice let me know that she needed some reassurance; it kinda wavered. She said when she hugs me that I feel "distant" and "unsure". I can't front, sometimes I feel alone, I mean I know she's there, but I've felt that way my whole life so it's nothing new to me. I don't know, I try my best to let her know I'm alright, but she can see the stress and fatigue. It's nothing really, I'll rest when I acheive my goals; til then I'm grinding. She also mentioned something about a baby, and I must've gave her a look of horror, because she quickly told me she wasn't pregnant. I mean if she was, I'm here and I would handle my business and take care of her and the baby, but the thought is, ummm....terrifying, to say the least. She told me I need not worry because "even if I was, I would get an abortion", and I guess the look before was no match for the contortion my face presented to her this time because she looked at me like the Jaws theme music was playing. I think it was the casualness and ignorance in her voice that made me react that way or maybe it was that I began to mourn the loss of something that wasn't. I asked why and she said "it wasn't the right time", to which I responded "It'll never be the right time" and informed her to "research the topic". She did, and informed me that same nite to "pick up some of them thangs" (thangs=condoms), I had to laugh, because I knew she couldn't believe how she responded earlier. That emotional damage never goes away, and the physical rollercoater isn't anything to sneeze at either. We agreed about not making our future the past before it gets here. The poems really made me think that somebody feels the way I feel sometimes (maybe not all at once); and that we just gotta keep on going until we can't. I gotta let Nik know that she has nothing to worry about, but I think she's starting to understand that I'm gonna be hard on myself until I'm established and thriving. She's a strong woman and I'm glad she's my right hand because "Nobody, but nobody can make it out here alone". I pray she won't worry so much anymore, hopefully the creator will grant me that. It'll all be worth it when I have that Inc. added to the name. Well, until next time....

Peace & Love,
James

P.S.- I gotta take a vacation!!!

Interconnected Poems

I was impressed and mystified by these poems that were posted on the blog. I know some of Maya Angelou’s poems, but “Alone”, I was reading for the first time, just like “The Mother” by Gwendolyn Brooks and “Destiny” by Rosario Castellanos. In my opinion, these three great poems are posted and introduced together because they raise questions about life, acceptance, recognition and endorsement. All three poems, though written by women of different race, age and social status, are closely interconnected. In “The Mother”, a woman who suffers after abortion and being tortured by her deeds “Abortions will not let you forget” and “We kill what we love” in “Destiny”, is it not the same idea to show wrong action and battle between right and wrong? In Alone, Maya Angelou shows the reader how important it is to love and to be loved. Money does not one happy. People make people happy in this little world of ours. Love makes this world and we can love ourselves, we need others. Another point of “Alone” by Maya Angelou is that every generation has responsibility to generations before them and after them. As of today, we must help our elderly parents and take care of our offspring, because they rely on us, just like we will rely on their help in the future. And, finally, there would be no future if all women would make abortion, because no children would be born.
When I was growing up, I remember one of my cousins, who were mean and distant. At one time she disappeared and no one knew where she went. Somehow, she was discovered and taken to the hospital. After she got well and stronger, she left our community. However, our family realized that she was pregnant at the time, but because, she was young, jobless, and a high school drop-out, she, by her parents’ advice, decided to undergo abortion. Her reason was that, she would not be able to take care of a child.The more time passed by, the more she regretted what she was forced to do. For a while she became more and more frustrated, angry, and isolated. In her mind she could not forgive and forget what she had done, the child was never born, in her mind she killed what she already loved. Fortunately, she got professional help and she was able to move on with her life, though, the empty spot in her heart after the abortion was never filled.

Women and Women

When I read these poems they gave me instant flashback. I had a very difficult time preventing myself from reflecting on someone I knew during my childhood. She was a teenager at the time. She got pregnant while attending high school. I am from a country where once a student gets pregnant that child has to leave the school out of fear of bad influence. She was indeed helpless so she had to go along with her parent’s decision. Thus in order to keep her in school, her parent terminated the pregnancy; and kept it in clandestine. This act would soon came back to haunt her. “ Abortion will not let you forget the children you got that you did not get” – Gwendolyn Brooks. “We kill what we love” –Rosario Castellanos. The faithful decision to abort the fetus turned out to be detrimental. Consequently, history would have it that she was not able to conceive since her abortion. It is possible that was a procedure that that had malpractice written all over it. It turned out that the immediate family later regretted their action. As Maya stated it “Nobody but nobody can make out here alone”. As a result of terminating that life, she is without a child of her own.

Only Human

Human existence and relationships are deeply complex and visceral. As much as we adapt to new technologies, evolving cultures, and , we're not able to forget for too long that we're just simply human, with all humanity's innate contradictions. Our minds are capable of great feats in the realms of science, art, philanthropy, yet even the greatest minds are still subject to emotions such as aloneness, remorse, or hatred.

The Mother by Gwendolyn Brooks conveys what, perhaps, scientific journals cannot; We have the technology to terminate an unplanned pregancy, but the matter doesn't end there. The person emoting in this piece describes desire for the joys of motherhood, an understanding of the lost potential of the terminated lives, and regret about the course ultimately chosen. There's the unspoken request for forgiveness, understanding, from the reader as well as from "the children you got that you did not get." Expediency and technology never nullify these innate human, maternal responses.

With the number of distracting devices and toys available to amuse and/or torture us in modern society, with the ability to use the technology to connect to others via internet or mobile devices, it's ironic that so many still express feelings of loneliness. The writer of Alone, Maya Angelou, could very well have been another mother, the "empty nester'' whose years of nurturing her children led up to living alone. Or a famous blogger with a huge online community of correspondents who goes home at night to find that, as usual, there's no one there. Human beings need physical contact, personal intimacy, to feel connected in the most fundamental sense to another human being. There's no electronic device that can produce even a reasonable facsimile of human interaction. Yet, our interaction with one another can sometimes be antagonistic or painful as described in Destiny by Rosario Castellanos. Castellanos echoes the saying "kill or be killed." Like The Mother who asserts that "in my deliberateness I was not deliberate", Castellanos seems to acknowledge that there are times when the promotion of one is the demise of the other. There is a connection, even a sharing, between the parties, even in this morbid exchange.

It is precisely because of our humanity that someone without a similar experience to those described in these poems can still relate to the material. The lost promise in aborted lives resonates deeply with me as I really believe in the worth and potential in every single life. Most of us might not understand nuclear friction, project management, or be able to grasp a foreign language. But we can most certainly understand violence, longing, heartbreak, or hope.

Expressions of life

October 14, 2007:

“You were born, you had body, you died.” - The Mother, Gwendolyn Brooks
“You remember the children you got that you did not get.” - The Mother, Gwendolyn Brooks
“We kill what we love.” - Destiny, Rosario Castellanos
“Nobody, but nobody can make it out here alone.” - Alone, Maya Angelou

These poems brought back memories of my visit to “Bodies…The Exhibition” earlier this year. There were nine galleries each displaying different aspects of the human body. One of the rooms featured real fetuses that did not survive pregnancy. Their bodies were so tiny but fully developed within weeks of conception. A friend of mine who once had an abortion may be sensitive to these displays with the knowledge that she terminated what was on its way to living. Having the abortion was a painful experience for her always having to “Remember the children you got that you did not get.” This poem gave me a better understanding of abortion and the emotional consequences it has on women.
Also during this exhibit there was a sign that mentioned how your life is shortened by a specific amount each time you smoke a specific amount of cigarettes. Below the sign was a clear bin with numerous packs of cigarettes. People know that cigarettes are damaging to your body, however they continue to smoke. “We kill what we love.” Someone very dear to me quit smoking after attending this exhibit.
Another one of the displays in the gallery was the body of a man comprised only of his muscular structure and facing him was his skeletal structure, illustrating the dependency of the systems which make up our body. “Nobody, but nobody can make it out here alone.”

Female Poets " Sing the Blues"

Journal Entry, Thursday October 11

I spent my morning in court today to complete a law class requirement that I observe an actual Arbitration Proceeding. Today as luck would have it I was able to observe the “Three Poems proceedings”. Brooks, Angelou, and Castellanos, through their poems, present their testimony on womanhood to the arbitrator the Honorable Lens2cents.

When Castellanos, who is the last to testify, concludes her testimony, Lens2cents says we will adjourn for 30 minutes and when I return I’ll render my decision.About 28 minutes later Lens2cents reenters the court room and begins to deliberate saying “that after careful review I believe we have all learned some important new things about the female experience from the poems of these three women. In “The Mother,” Ms. Brooks is successfully able to convey the very intense emotional reaction many women encounter after having an abortion, something I had never really considered. Even more amazing is that Ms. Brooks wrote “The Mother” in 1945, almost three decades before abortion was legalized and the risks of such a procedure were infinitely more perilous. The expression of love she emotes for her unborn children is heartbreaking. It also made me reflect and remember that women in those days had very little freedom of choice in terms of their life expectations.As for Ms. Angelou’s poem and her theme that no one can make it alone clearly serves to reinforce the differences in the way men and women perceive love and express their emotional needs. I found it of particular interest when she discusses millionaires, who seem to have it all, but in reality their wives run around on them, their children are depressed, and they too, are ultimately very alone. I do believe that a common misconception among men is that if they have enough money all of their problems will disappear.Finally, while I found Miss Castellanos’ poem to be the most challenging for me, it was certainly clear that her tone was disturbing. She did invoke my sorrow for her, and she was successful in persuading me that she must be leading a very isolated life, and that she has very little trust in people. Additionally I believe she succeeded in making a very compelling argument that her pain cannot be shared, and that man is an animal of solitude.

Therefore after carefully reviewing the evidence, I must find that the assignment to read the three poems definitely served to provide us all with a better understanding and appreciation for the many struggles women have faced in the past, and still, to some degree, face today.

the plight of abortion

That last statement by Castellanos, we give life to only what we hate, seems to be the picture of the slippery slope fallacy we learned in Philosophy 101. Abortion has been and continues to be one of the "hot-button" issues in today's society. One side claims choice for an oppressed gender while the other side demands responsibility for mistakes. I personally have a friend who went through this about six years ago at the age of 17. There is a story behind all of this of course but basically she became pregnant and eventually got an abortion. The pain that I saw her go through was phenomenally described by Gwendolyn Brooks in her poem. She felt as if she was a failure and came to a point where she didn't feel like she should be able to live for her decision. (I think part of this is the stigma in which society places on women who get abortions but this is a different discussion) Now she is happily married and got pregnant a year and a half ago and now has a healthy baby but still, this is the plight of the situation. It is such an important issue to people that it, along with other values issues, very well could have won the election for George W. in 2004.

David Fairey