Jackson Lester

In the poem “February and my Love is in Another State” by Jose Olivarez, explains the complications that come along with having to deal with a relationship where both live in different parts of the country. While describing the situation he is in, through his usage of imagery he is able to describe to the reader how his current relationship is affecting him. 

The poem starts out with Olivarez depicting an image that the readers can immediately picture in their head. He describes himself walking down the street and “holding hands with the wind”, explaining that wherever he goes at this time he is alone. Olivarez then goes on to describe a cat walking away from him and seeing “two yellow eyes become four.” This line specifically shows readers how alone Olivarez feels at this time. Even the stray cats find something else to walk away with, while he is walking by himself.

Jose then goes on to describe how the streets come alive with the illumination of the streetlights and the “television sets will light up with blues.” This line could be  further explaining the loneliness he feels at the time. With the televisions turning on readers can infer that multiple people, such as couples, could be sitting down together to watch something at the end of their day, and the streetlights further emphasize how he’s walking by himself on the street, which is a place that is commonly occupied with many people walking down it, specifically couples. Olivarez is then asking his partner to “stay with him” and “hold the ladder” so he can climb. He is asking whoever his partner is to stay with him as he tries to reach something important in his life such as his goals or aspirations he has as a person. He is questioning his partner by asking them to be by his side as he tries to obtain these things in his life. Olivarez wants his partner to be with him as he tries to succeed in life.

The poem ends with a sudden shift in which Olivarez says that him being alone is the “star that he follows”, but then saying “alone is the home with the warmest glow.” Olivarez could be saying that when he is alone his motivation is eventually getting to be with the person he wants to be with, but when he says “alone is the home with the warmest glow” he could be getting used to being alone and realizing that it’s the place that he feels the most comfortable in. His choice of emphasizing the month in the title could be because February is the month that Valentine’s day is in which could have influenced him to write this piece.

A poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning called “How Do I Love Thee?” can relate to Olivares’ writing, sharing the same aspects of loving someone when distance is an issue. Olivares focuses on the issues of being separated from the person that he loves and the complications that come along with that. There is heavy emphasis on the aspects of everyday life in Olivarez’s’ writing, explaining the loneliness he feels in regular scenarios. Similarly with Olivarez’s writing, Browning’s writing focuses on how love can help individuals in general. She uses lines such as “ I love thee to the level of everyday’s most quiet need.” This line specifically relates to Olivarez’s writing in the sense that he is focusing on the effects of separation has on throughout his everyday life. Both poems share the aspects of how the distancing of love can affect people.  

Word count- 599

In the poem “first fight” by José Olivarez, he explains the event in which his first fight had taken place. While describing the scene of his first fight, the poem has a deeper meaning talking about why he never wanted to fight but he had to due to his surroundings. Through Olivarez’s’ writing, he is able to depict a story for his audience that puts the words he is writing into readers minds to paint a picture of what this scene actually looked like. 

The poem starts off describing what the current season is. It is May, and Olivarez compares the trees flowering to the “budding adolescence” and “bloomed fists.” Meaning that it’s the end of the school year and Olivarez, along with his friends, have developed a want to fight each other. While the age of these boys or the year of school they’re in is not told in the poem, it’s fair to assume that this is around elementary or middle school based on the line “budding  adolescence”, which means the boys are raging with hormones, giving them the urge to fight. 

José is then asked by his friends why he hasn’t fought anyone yet. He goes on to say that there’s a kid named Eric and he’s sitting at the lunch table who eats his pizza and plays Pokemon and sits in a “silent shame.” In the next line he talks about how he’s scared that he is Eric “wearing a mask”, and how he doesn’t want to be unmasked like a “disgraced luchador.” A luchador is someone who doesn’t want to be unmasked. José is afraid that if he tells his friends that he doesn’t want to fight, they’ll see him as an outsider or someone who is scared, and José does not want to be seen this way by his friends.

The poem seems to end when José talks about the person he chose to fight since it goes on until the end of the poem. He picked a boy named Kenny to fight because he looked “tough.” They start calling eachother names at recess until eventually they start throwing punches. Olivarez says “you can’t take back punches. punches leave craters between people even when they miss.” Perhaps the most powerful line in the whole poem describes that even not physically hitting someone can ruin friendships or relationships. All a person has to do is attempt to cause pain to destroy a mutual respect among people. As José is getting hit he starts to think about his uncle. He thinks about how he was jumped into a gang, and he says that “you are not your uncle”, but if he keeps getting in fights he will be going down the same road as him. 

While the poem doesn’t have an extremely notable structure, it can be acknowledged that lack of capitalization and the very relaxed language such as “yo”, gives the poem a very casual feel. Almost like it’s just a casual conversation between people.

There is a painting by Henri-pierre Danloux that shows two little kids getting into a physical argument over a piece of bread. The painting compliments the story because it shows the overall pettiness, both in the poem and the painting itself. In the poem, the fight is something that Olivarez does because of peer pressure at school. He doesn’t want to fight it’s just something he has to do because he feels like he has to to prove himself. If he keeps his fighting up he’s not going to end up in a good place, like the kids in the painting. If a brother and sister are fighting over bread who knows what they will be fighting about in the future. Although everyone is young in this scenario, habits tend to stick to a person overtime.

Word count: 636

In the poem “How to Fight” by Clint Smith, Smith starts out talking about how one of his “favorite part of class” was the spelling bee. However, the poem has a deeper meaning talking about the active pursuit of justice that is being chased by many people like himself. Through Smith’s language and the poetic structure being used he is able to create a masterpiece that captures the struggles of oppression and the fear of not being able to fight back.

The poem starts off as Smith describing the spelling as being something that he enjoyed doing. He goes on to explain some of the rules of the spelling bee. The students were not allowed to write the words down, so he would trace the words in the air that his teacher read from the “blue dictionary”. Smith uses imagery in this part of the poem to paint a picture for the readers to imagine themselves as they’re actually there watching students partake in a spelling bee.

The poem takes a sudden shift in tone, as Smith goes on and talks about a deeper meaning to the spelling bee. Smith talks about how he wasn’t allowed to say certain words at home because they were known to be hurtful or offensive towards some people. However, Smith makes the claim that his words were the only way he knew how to fight back in some instances. The phrase “fight back” doesn’t necessarily mean to argue with someone, it means that it’s a way to advocate for yourself in a situation.

At the end of the poem, Smith goes on and talks about how the spelling bee was a “battleground.” When he’s calling it a battle ground he doesn’t mean that literally. He’s referring to it as a place where he learned to use his words as his weapons against those who try to make assumptions about him. Perhaps Smith ended the poem this way to encourage the readers to follow his steps and learn how to “wield language” in order to stand up for yourself.

Smith Structures the poem in a back-and-forth like motion to give the readers some insight into the different swings in tone that there is in the poem. There could be multiple reasons why smith structured the poem like this such as presenting it in a form so that it looks like a spelling bee is going on, to show the contrasting meanings that each stanza has, or even to portray the emotional swings that are happening.  

(Word Count 421)