Jenny Jones
3-3-09
English 101 B

Talking Dirty to My God! My paper will be on 2 different poems and there from the book “Talking Dirty to the Gods”. The first poem is called Silkworm and the second poem is called Janus. Both the poems focus on the culture, beauty of life and history. My paper will in tell about the art of poetry and the art of how to tell a story inside of a story. When slaves were to tell stories, they couldn’t write down there dreams or there life and what they went through, so they were to say it in a story form. So they, meaning the kids would never forget there heritage. Therefore, when they became slaves they would sing songs and they would also make other things to remember there past to show there future. The first poem I chose was Silkworm on page.53 when reading the poem it made me think about love and how it was taken away from a lot of African Americans. In the first line it says “they made a fancy catch for a nightgown out of me”. When I first read this poem I, at first didn’t understand what the book was insinuating, but after reading that line about three times it made me think about the slaves and there body being taken advantage of and body being sold as if we were animals to be bought and used for pleasure. To look at this in a different way would be, were you are made to be someone else’s toy and to also not have a real purpose to have a say in anything. The second line of the poem that I would like to go more in depth is: “against her skin eager fingers fought each other to unhook me, like an unkind thought in a mans brain”. After reading this line I soon came to the conclusion of, a women being wrongfully touched. Even deeper then that would be that would be, having her childhood being taken away from her also that she was not all the way informed or even miss lead. When you think about the cool rules book chapter two about the African heritage and there message is that, you need to keep your faith and don’t ever forget were you come from. And from my people being taken and sold caused a great deal of us to lose and forget and even feel upset because of what was taken from there life and history. The last things I would like to bring to your attention from this poem is: “sometimes, I am a silk bud straining not to bleed open with the rise and fall of her breast. Desire”. To me it seems that this quote is trying to speak on the white people’s side meaning, Yusef Komunyakaa is stating that both cultures had temptations to try to combat. Other wise meaning that white and blacks both had to deal with the same negativity and the displeasure between the two races mixed together. The last lines in the poem that I want to talk about is, “her own fingers, now, I am a little noose around a mother-of-pearl button”. Well after reading this line I ended up with the conclusion that she may have ended up with something that she couldn’t handle/deal with in her day and time. I think she understood how much she should have been valued yet those in her life didn’t understand the true beauty of a mother-of-pearl. You see silkworms help to make your highest quality clothing and it is something that is desired. I guess my thought is how do you compare a person’s beauty to a silkworm? The second poem that I chose to talk about is Janus on page. 13. The first line that I would like to analyze is “Half frozen roots. Balanced there, like spinario’s head that’s at lest one hundred years older then his body he is”. Half frozen roots=not knowing total history but even with missing pieces he is able to be balanced. History that goes back before time, before time like a mirror of at least one hundred years, and this history is older then his body as if time stood still. When reading this poem the message that I received is that history repeats it’s self over and over again. Even though it repeats itself there is a balance that tradition is older, then his body his ancestor’s body and they all stand as he is. The next line is, “standing and bowed before, double door one foot in fire, the other in muddy ice, tomorrow, yesterday, and never”. Standing and bowed before makes me think of a slave praying, and double doors is balanced between good and evil. One foot in the fire means your heart is burning with the desire to be free, while the other foot in muddy ice your life is being held in one position. Tomorrow, yesterday, and never makes me think that if I keep praying life will change for the better. But if my view/anger stays the same, it will always be yesterday. Most important, if I don’t take heed and listen, walk ever so gently, things will never change.
The last lines are, “Again. The new year gazes back to Lot’s wife. Lost in a dream of summer. While the season’s first snow falls.”. My interpretation of “Again the new year gazes back to Lot’s wife” is a biblical piece were Moses told Lot and his wife not to look back or they would turn into a pillar of salt, and his wife didn’t believe because she didn’t have any faith, so she turned to salt. His wife was to materialistic and her heart was still yearning for her past and she was scared to start a new future with nothing. “lost in a dream of summer” imagination comes to mind when summer is in season and in that point of time with the sun shining on you and your body glistens with the raze of the sun its easy to not see reality, and it becomes make believe. While the seasons first snow fall is really talking about reality (the cold hard facts of life). Starting with the contrast would be that Silkworm is more of a sexual poem whereas Janus is more a historic/informative poem. Janus is more of a historical, religious, Greek mythology, capitalism, and materialism, and Silkworm is based more a pone women and desire. On the poem of Janus it is based on the history on Greek mythology and greed. Also lose sex and low morals of women as well. Comparative to the way things were in life then and how it reoccurs in today’s world. In the poem silkworm it expresses a beautiful woman, that is of your finest caliber that falls in to the hands of an uncommitted men. All the men see in her is her outer beauty and she has dealt with this for so long, she hopes she has finally met someone that sees the true inner beauty of the silkworm. Were passion and desire is not just a one night stand with a noose strangling something so beautiful, as a mother-of-pearl button. The things that both poems have in common are, they both talk about slavery and the way we, meaning the “blacks” have went through a lot. Now, I’m not trying to sound like I’m being races or not looking at the whole story. Yet this is about how I see these poems, when I read these poems, right after one another, I saw a really close connection about history and life chooses and even love. When I read a little deeper I saw the relation with the love and betrayal, such as when they both portray how love is like a sin in some sort. Yusef has a very unique way of writing and he has portrayed the way times stays still. When I look today to see how men treat women it is evident that those same mind sets are still being acted out today. For example: Say you go out to a nice restaurant and you are dressed extremely nice and there are men there. The average man actually undresses you with his eyes before he even asks your name. They don’t care how intelligent you are or even if you are a great cook, it’s all about desire. The funny thing is, if you look at the women, she may analyze you from a far yet she checks out how poised you are and compares you to her dream man (the kind of man she dreams of). She also prays he has morels and he treats her like a Princess (the lady she is). The truth is men are like yin and women are like yang. The two yin and yang can not exist without each other so I guess this is the old and the new. When you review Janus we are truly talking about the Greek Gods, just like in Rome men have always been excused for having more then one love. It seems that this is a commonality for other countries even today. It’s ok for the men to have two, four, six wives as long as they can provide because it’s always been ok to share them with your friends. Man has been built on material values and left morels and, God in a different interpretation. Any way you look at it whether, Greek mythology or our current (2009) life style. The same song is being sung just in a different tune. I’m so glade that I have a better out look on relationships I hope that communication between man and women becomes more clear. Life in it self is not a guarantee of love and true devotion. There is one thing that I would do when I come across a man like you I would sit down and talk to God and pray that he leads me in the right direction because if he doesn’t your fired!