She reads it better, here on youtube: Carolyn Forche performs her poem "Ourselves or Nothing." It is dedicated to the late Terrence Des Pres, whose book The Survivor,  a much-admired account of holocaust survivors' will to bear witness, entailed a great struggle for the author. Forche, who knew Des Pres later, witnessed forms of that struggle. Des Pres taught at Colgate University and he was one of the first to offer a course in the literature of the holocaust (in the mid-1970s). The poem refers to Forche's own work in El Salvador supporting those who bore witness to atrocities committed there. https://youtu.be/5jIiRvFRj18 

Shona's Shennanigans

Reading Ourselves or Nothing, by Carolyn Forche

I found something to help us with our theme: https://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/04/books/two-poets.html  

A Bleak and Wintry View of Unbeing: City Walkup, Winter 1969

Using TPCAST for "Because One is Forgotten" Thinking Aloud

In this episode, I express my insecurities and try to figure out what ee cummings was talking about and how I'm going to write the model essay for this unit. 

Being and Unbeing Nonsense: Figuring it out with "Forche's On Returning to Detroit"

Be prepared. This is weird. Very, very weird. You probably won't understand it all at first. I sure don't. How will be examine these poems by "being" and "unbeing." I have no answers, but we will roll through the muck and mud of these ideas together. 

Setting your Interpretive Lens with Being and Unbeing

Sometimes it looks like poetry, but reads like prose. 

Poetry that reads like prose: Sanchez's "Reflections After the June 12th March for Disarmament"

No capital letters? Why? Sanchez writes here to reflect on a powerful, personal experience with a real person. Her words became a gift to him. Soak up the words, read more about the man, and then return to the letter to see what Sanchez is saying about walking, peace, bravery, and other things. 

Punctuation, Common Words that Aren't, Poetry in Sanchez's A Letter to Ezekiel Mphahlele

Reading poetry by phrases, singly, and then reading them coherently reveals a focus on phrases and meanings that you would miss without such a dual practice. 

Parsing Sonia Sanchez's On Seeing a Pacifist Burn

Sanchez is a poet, even when she writes prose. 

Hearing the poetry in Sanchez's bluebirdbluebirdthumywindow

Sometimes, I read something and injure myself. I think you'll hear the poetry Sanchez uses to describe her admiration of Norma. 

Hearing Poetry in Sonia Sanchez's prose: Norma

First, I put it into one sentence, then taking it line by line as before, I tried reading the punctuation as if it were a noun. Hmmmm. 

parsing ee cummmings XXXI

Sometimes it helps to read and take it line by line, taking the meanings as they emerge. Perhaps god is a child.  Perhaps god is a child's hand.  Both could be true.  And sometimes, it helps to read the text first without the parenthesis, adding them later when you can figure out the sentence.  And sometimes, you still don't get it when you are finished. Like that ending...

Parsing ee cummings 54

Sometimes you have to take out some words and reorder them. The disorder of the words in the poem seem to match the disorder in thinking that cummings explains at how we have no choice when the government makes a proclamation about war. 

Parsing ee cummings 38

This one has been very difficult. The only thing that seems to make sense in reading it is to consider the verbs as nouns/concepts. The piece takes on a shuddering dread, as if recounting the process where living becomes death. 

Parsing ee cummings 35

How do you even read this thing aloud? I tried it as if pretending to tell a story, realizing that it can no longer be told. 

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Shona's Shennanigans

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