A Re-Examination

   I will admit that the first time reading this through there was not much interaction with the text and I was deeply discouraged at my lack of the ability to focus and “hone in” on what the text was really trying to say.  But after my genius friend Chelsea gave me her brilliant insight on the text, I came to the conclusion that it really did not make any kind of sense at all.

                

   I think that the thing that confuses me the most is how every stanza is completely irrelevant to the previous one. With the way that I think things through and process things makes it difficult for me to read things like this poem. I can deal with the Psalms and with the Bible in its entirety but when it keeps jumping around from topic to topic and is never on a seemingly constant thought, it’s hard to put together what exactly the author, Robert Hass in this case, is trying so intelligently to get across. First, I think we’re talking about a little school girl, who I think might actually be a terrorist, and then we jump to everything natural, and then jellyfish and dogs. I just don’t understand.

              

  It could be the author is transitioning from a metaphorical way of thinking and writing to a more literal and natural form. This is what I don’t understand. Is it considered poetic or artistic? Am I the only one who is having trouble with this? Please trust me when I say that nothing is more frustrating than sitting at Starbucks trying to figure out for the second time what someone is trying to say in a poem they wrote a long time ago. 

   Nature, terrorists, and jellyfish dogs are not exactly my idea of cohesive writing, but maybe I’m just stubborn. I do admire the author’s vocabulary and the texture that seems to jump out of each individual story, or poem. I just wish that they were more relevant to each other.