10 Things - Whereas Poems PDF

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10 Things 1. My first impression when reading the beginning of Layli Long Soldier’s Poems was the unique structure of writing compared to the previous poetry books we have written. I personally found it hard to follow because what I first perceived to be independent poems were actually a series of a single poem spread across multiple pages. For example, the poem Steady Summer beginning on page 31 and ending on page 33. In addition to the spread of the poetry, the structure of many poems was funky, either aligned in one corner, in a square shape, in paragraph form, etc. The various types of structure can be seen in poems on page 8, 47, 90, etc. I believe the author did this to capture the readers’ attention, as well as how exactly she wants her audience to read her poems, which words to emphasize, etc. in order to deliver the content as she intended. 2. In a stylistic perspective, I found that the author often had repetition in her poems, similar to tongue twisters. ● “I sat I wrote about writing. I write I sit about writing. I’m about to write about it, writing and sitting. I will write and sit with my writing” (28). ● “This is how you see me the space in which to place me. The space in me you see ___ is this place. To see this space ___ see how you place me in you. This is how to place you in the space in which to see (8). Even the WHEREAS section beginning on page 60, shows how the author uses repetition often by beginning every poem with “WHEREAS.” Specifically, the poem on page 63, which begins every line with the word whereas. I believe the author did this for a stylistic reason, that I feel like is supposed to be more profound than how I am perceiving it as a reader. The author could be trying to scramble words to prove to the reader the importance of sentence structure and how when rearranged or repeated gives the content a different meaning. 3. Layli Long Solider split up the sections of poetry beginning with Part 1: These Are the Concerns & Part 2: Whereas. The first part was filled with imagery and themes such as nature, language, and body. The second part changed drastically in tone, addressing the very serious topic of the Congressional Resolution of Apology to Native Americans and how the political act was an inadequate response. Solider divided up part two into three subgroups: Whereas Statements, Resolutions, and Disclaimer. I believe the importance of sectioning the book is to organize each message she is trying to send with the greater theme of Native Americans in America, specifically activists, protests, political responses and events such as shootings. The author is bringing awareness to ethical issues in the United States, ultimately criticizing political behavior and advocating for the government/President “to acknowledge the wrongs of the United States against Indian tribes” in order to heal (94). 4. One of the many reoccurring themes I noticed within the book was the attention to diction, language, and definitions. One would assume the obvious that within poetry sentence structure and word choice are always important, however, in Solider’s poems she often singled out certain words, sometimes providing definitions, or even making the whole poem about that single word. For example: ● Pages 18-22 are poems deciphering the single sentence “I’m a straw man for leftist critique” (18). Where the author writes a poem for every word of the sentence. ● Opaque: “O-PĀK-I interpret O: open / P: soft / Ā: airplane or directional flight / K: cut

through” (27) ● Wakhályapi “1. A word commonly used for coffee; 2. formally meaning anything that is boiled” (40) ● “Tókhah’an -- to lose, to suffer loss, to be gone, lost (34). Another theme, combined with the emphasis of language and definitions, is diction. The author even dedicates a poem to Diction on page 14, saying “I understand yes I / intuit a ken / a style of speaking / or writing depen / ent upon choice” (15) where you can see the flow of one word be split and completed on the next line. I think the author makes all of these technical choices because of how she wants her poems to be read and perceived. She could also want to embrace a style of her own and make these choices based on preference or what exactly she wants to draw attention to. 5. To speak on the tone of the poems in this book as a whole, I would say it is neither depressing nor positive. I feel like I did not understand many of the messages the author was trying to pinpoint in every single poem, but I did not get the feeling of sadness, loneliness, angst, which has appeared in past poetry books. From Part One: These Are the Concerns, I felt a tone filled with solemn, mixed with frustration, parallel to nature and reminded me of writers in bookstores and coffee shops full of curiosity questioning the information given to them. Examples: ● “Much as I failed to start with the great point in question. There in muscle in high inner flight always in the plunge we fear for the falling, we buckle to wonder: What man is expendable?” (9). ● “I thank the empty room I still my body I work hard not to slip a centimeter in dark work” (25). ● “I glue a coffee cup to my lips, blow the heat. The sun’s not up yet the birds begin first 5:06 a.m.” (29). In part two of the book, the tone changes to more of a cultural stance and reveals more personal thoughts of the author with various stories of her childhood, society and political questioning. Still filled with many themes and imagery there is more of the common theme of culture. Examples: ● “Well you know Native people as in tribes as in people living over there are people with their own nations each with its own government…(77). ● “Whereas, I have learned to exist and exist without your formality, salt-shakers, plates, cloth” (79). ● “...tribal nations and the people themselves are healing this land its waters with or without Presidential acknowledgment” (94). I think the author did this to first give the reader a background, with lighter imagery and then progressing to the significance of the book where the main themes are uncovered, which coincides with the change in tone. 6. A particular line that really stood out to me when reading Solider’s poems was the line: “I don't want to hear a friction writer say, / This is why I don't read poetry” (29). Personally, I find it hard to understand poetry and often times do not like always having to deeply analyze every line of each piece in order to get one message. However, I have yet to read a poetry book where the author addresses this common notion about poetry and for Solider to incorporate this type of attitude towards poetry in her writing is really interesting and just gave me more insight into who

she is as a writer. Even though I cannot relate to much of Solider’s story, I related to her attitude of being, “tempted by the bed next to my desk, yet the desk next to my bed “sounds” better sometimes” (29). This was a particular poem where I felt like I could relate to her thoughts, which is maybe why she included it in the first place. 7. I think one of the most commonly mentioned themes in this book of poems is nature, but specifically grass. The author constantly mentions grass in many of her poems, beginning the book by saying “make room in the mouth for grassesgrassesgrasses” to mentioning grass in the poem Look, “from grass- head s one by one a part I split grass wires” (5, 11-12). The most prominent feature of grass is in the poem Steady Summer with lines such as, “a grass chorus moves shhhhh,” “heady grasses in the mouth loosens confesses: I don't trust nobody but the land,” and “you understand the grasses hear me to always” (31-32). I think the symbolism behind grass is purely representative of the Native American land and is a huge foundation when discussing Native American influence in America. I think she uses the word grass to make a common theme filled with serenity and imagery to reference the land in multiple poems. 8. Politics and government play a significant role in the book and specifically the poems in Part Two. Solider uses poetry to address the Congressional Resolution of Apology to Native Americans presented by Obama in 2009, which was then grouped with an unrelated piece of legislation and inadequately addressed. The author questions political behavior and emphasizes Native American role in today’s society, by criticizing the system specifically with land rights, extracting resources, and general attitude towards indigenous people, pointing out that there is a bigger root issue. From pages 89-97, Solider tears apart the “apology” and the tone of the piece is defensive, frustrated and shows the unfairness behind the governmental response. I believe that this was the overarching theme and through poetry, the author was able to voice her opinion and bring awareness to an issue that is often forgotten about. 9. My favorite poem amongst all the poems is the poem “38” which a 5-page narration of the land of the Dakota people leading to the Sioux uprising. Personally, I really enjoyed this poem because I felt like it was very easy to follow, straightforward and in a language I could understand. Due to the ease of the writing, I understood this poem compared to others and found the history of the Dakota people to be devastating, yet inspiring. I found this poem to be one of the most intense, as if the author broke her poetic character to tell the readers’ straight facts of an issue bigger than herself. She mentions the memorial for the Dakota people are not “plaques, statues, or gravestones,” but “an act” and their behavior during the revolt reflects poetry.. “‘Real’ poems do not ‘really’ require words” (52-53). I found myself engaged throughout the whole poem and really enjoyed it. 10. My least favorite poem amongst all the poems is unfortunately “Look” beginning on page 11. I just felt that I understood this poem the least and was very confused when reading it. The shortness of each word and line does not provide any clarity to my analysis and I struggled to understand the meaning and correlation between words. I feel like poems structured similarly to Look tend to be more difficult for me to understand due to the lack of content and abruptness. I know the author must have had specific significance for the choices she made in her writing, but with this poem, I was struggling to decipher the meaning behind each line....