Relationships

In class we reviewed three poems and each poem showed us different types of relationships.

The first poem that we did was called, “How Is Your Heart” by Charles Bukowski. This poem is filled with negative thoughts and it talks about what the author, Charles, went through. When you read through the poem you can tell that it isn't a happy poem at all. He talks about how he used to sleep on park benches, used to get into fights, and he never found true love because no girl liked him. Even though he was surrounded by people, he still felt alone, he never had anyone to call his own. He never had a perfect life but for some reason he liked it. For me, the whole point of this poem was to say that in life not everything is going to go your way, but you have to learn how to deal with it and smile. If you’re happy with yourself, you can get through anything. My favorite line from the whole poem was “what matters most is how well you walk through the fire.” I connect to it a lot because being in high school, we all have to deal with a lot of drama, pressure from our teachers and parents and etc. But the most important part is how we deal with it. We can either just give up, or we can smile through the difficult times and get through them.

The second poem we discussed was “To a Stranger” by Walt Whitman. This poem is about how Walt imagines a life with a women or a man. We don’t know if he’s seen this person for the first time, or if he’s had a relationship with them from the past. All he wanted was the person to be his because he had already imagined a whole perfect life with them. Everyone one does this. Everyone dreams of a perfect world where the person they love loves them back and that they are happy all that time and that everything goes their way. But that doesn't happen. This poem talks about how you can have an imaginary relationship with someone, and it can be the realest thing to you, even though no one else can understand it.

The third poem we talked about was “Unentitled” by Jennifer L’Hirondelle. This poem talks about how even though she may be far away from home, it doesn't feel like it. She’s with someone who makes her feel right at home. This person makes her forget everything else, and helps her focus on the little things.

Not every relationship is simple and easy. They can have big impacts on people; they can sometimes literally make or break a person.