“The Gift” By Li-Young Lee

By Cooper Cavicchia

To pull the metal splinter from my palm
my father recited a story in a low voice.
I watched his lovely face and not the blade.
Before the story ended, he’d removed
the iron sliver I thought I’d die from.

I can’t remember the tale,
but hear his voice still, a well
of dark water, a prayer.
And I recall his hands,
two measures of tenderness
he laid against my face,
the flames of discipline
he raised above my head.

Had you entered that afternoon
you would have thought you saw a man
planting something in a boy’s palm,
a silver tear, a tiny flame.
Had you followed that boy
you would have arrived here,
where I bend over my wife’s right hand.

Look how I shave her thumbnail down
so carefully she feels no pain.
Watch as I lift the splinter out.
I was seven when my father
took my hand like this,
and I did not hold that shard
between my fingers and think,
Metal that will bury me,
christen it Little Assassin,
Ore Going Deep for My Heart.
And I did not lift up my wound and cry,
Death visited here!
I did what a child does
when he’s given something to keep.
I kissed my father.

Im this poem on the surface level the author seems to be talking about his wife getting a splinter and bringing back a memory of his father but I feel that this poem goes much deeper than that. Lee Young’s father went to jail for a little while during his life so he was not able to see him much, but yet the way he describes his father is as a calm and loving man. He could be having these memories because he wants to hold on to the good times with his dad and keep his dad in a positive light when the world is trying to put him in a different light, because he is in jail. The memory he has in this story is his dad removing a splinter but doing it in a calming way that made him less worried, so when his wife gets a splinter he tries to do the same thing his dad did to him so she could feel more calm trying to recreate the moment and feelings for his wife. He had learned a lesson from his dad on how to create a sense of tenderness for the person who is in pain. One of the main themes that I saw in this poem is how the lessons you learn as a child influence the person you become, his having this experience with his dad allowed for him to be more tender and caring to his wife, if he did not have this experience he would not have reacted in the same way. This poem also has a theme of gifts can be knowledge and memories not just tangible items, With the title being the gift you would think it was about a present or something but no it is about the good memories and knowledge he learned from his father which could end up being better than any tangible gift that you could get. The last theme that I noticed was to be calm in times of stress or urgency because not only will it help your state of mind it will also help the state of mind of the people around as seen firsthand with the wife and the author as a boy. Another important aspect of this poem is the author’s tone that he speaks in and the phrases that he uses to create a tender and calming voice, he uses phrases like “Low Voice” and “tenderness’ to show the at-home feeling that his father gave him in this memory. He writes this poem in a narrative way writing like he is telling a story just like a memory is a story from the past. Also just like a memory, the author goes from talking about the past to the current to back to the past, which is similar to memories and how they come in phases and in pits and pieces not all at once. The author writes in a free verse and does not have a rhyme scheme wich shows how this is a poem about memory and you cannot control memories or when they come so I feel that is when he does not try and control the poem to much and be strict on the structure and rhyme. All and all I think this poem is about remembering his father, but not just in remembering his father I think it is a thank you to his father. The last line is “When he’s given something to keep. I kissed my father.” he is thanking him for the skill that he has given him. He taught him a lesson and how to be calm and tender in times of stress which he was able to do to his wife it is “the gift” that keeps on giving.

Upward Mobility Jose Olivarez

Cooper Cavicchia

dancing to avoid the fluttering
of roaches, the boy brushes his teeth
with one eye on the sink
& one eye on the bugs
& one eye on his teeth
& one eye on time
& one eye on homework
& one eye on his brothers
& one eye on the future—
years later when his friends joke
about how he has poor people teeth,
his head will shed its skin
to reveal 5000 eyes the size
of cockroach hearts.

In this poem, It is about a boy who has his mind or “eyes” in many different places, because he has many things to worry about and is balancing many things like his family, his schoolwork, and his hygiene. It mentions the future as on of the things that he needs to keep his eye on because even though he has all of his responsibilities he still has to focus on himself and his future. He is struggling to balance all of these different things/ responsibilities that he has, i feel that the word fluttering on the first line also creates a feeling of stress and anxiousness for the reader showing that he is stressed by all of these things. Repetition is used a lot almost to the point of annoyance which could be to show how he has so many things on his plate it could be annoying. The poem talks about how later in life he is getting made fun of for his “poor people teeth”, and then it is revealed his past and struggles that he had to go through, and all of the different things he was worrying about came back because it reminded him of the struggles and responsibilities he had when he was younger. Just because people seem one way now they could have worked hard to be like that or have changed a lot throughout their life that is why you should not judge someone based off their appearance or be rude to someone because you never know what battels they are fighting behind the scene or what they are or have been going through, so do not judge, because if you knew what they had been through or what they are going through you may feel bad for saying what you said. I sort of relate to this because when I was younger I had really messed up teeth and was growing “shark teeth” is what some people would say and it was when they started to layer and when people would say something about them it would really make me upset, and feel less because they made me feel different or not normal. I feel the cockroach is a symbol of two thing one could be of bad hygiene or dirty, wich could show how he was les fortunate growing up. The other meaning behind the symbol of the cockroach could be to show the reader how it felt when people would make fun of his teeth, it would make him feel as less human almost dehumanized. Because people would point out his flaws and when they point out his flaws that starts to be all that he notices. The fact that the poem says years later shows that these types of thoughts can affect people for a very long time and they can think about these things for years. Or they can shove them deep down and try to not have it affect them but deep down they still do and that is why when his friends started to make fun of him all those thoughts and stressors started to come back to him. In my opinion, the main of this passage is that people culd have gone through all types of situations throughout their lives that they don’t know so respect everyone because what you say could hurt them and bring back many bad memories. It also relates back to the simplest theme in the book almost, Don’t judge a book by its cover. The last thing I noticed is that there seems to be no rhyme scheme showing how there is no structure just raw emotions.

“My Therapist says to make freinds with your monsters”

By: Jose Olivarez

we are gathered in truce
to discuss our differences,
my therapist seated between us.

my roadrunner legs point
past the door in case. we
are gathered in truth,

because my therapist said
it was time to stop running, &
i pay my therapist too much

to be wrong, so i am here.
in case my therapist is right.
my monsters, coyotes in the

chase, look almost human
in the sterile office light.
my monsters say they just

want to be friends. i remember
when we first met, me & my
monsters. i remember the moment

i birthed each one. each time
i tried to shed a piece of myself,
it grew into a monster. take this

one with the collar of belly fat
around its neck, the monster
called Chubby, Husky, Big Boy.

i climbed out of that skin as fast
as i could, only to see some spirit
give it legs. i ran & it never stopped

chasing me. each new humiliation
coming to life & following after me.
after me, a long procession of sad

monsters. each monster hungry
to drag me back, to return me
to the dirt i came from. ashes

to ashes, fat boy to fat.
i point my feet to the nearest
exit, all my fire alarms go off.

my monsters crowd around me,
i stare into a no-fun house of mirrors
showing me all the angles i try

to forget. my therapist says i can’t
make the monsters disappear
no matter how much i pay her.

all she can do is bring them
into the room, so i can get
to know them, so i can learn

their names, so i can see
clearly their toothless mouths,
their empty hands, their pleading eyes.

In this poem Olivarez is talking about these monsters that chase him and do not stop interrogating him. These are not real monsters like the ones you see in movies or cartoons, he is talking about himself and his own mind. His mind will tell him things and call himself names “Chubby, Husky, Big Boy” and he tries to escape them but he feels that he cant, and that he is alwasy running for them. He says his therapist wants him to become freinds with his monsters because then they will haunt him less. Whne the therapist says to make friends with his monsters he does not actually mean make freinds he means coming to acceptance with his monsters or insecurities and not letting them effect him or have as much control over him as they have had in the past. This is much eaiser said then done becausethe monster is in our own heads so it is harder to escape, becaue it is always there we can not just take our heads off for a littl eand come back to them so that will be with us forever. He even talks about trying to escape the monster “i ran & it never stopped chasing me.’ While he tries to not listen the thoughts of self doubt keep popping into his head so he cant escape it. Even when he tries to better himself or grow away from these monsters he still finds him in this place of feeling trapped by them even saying “i stare into a no-fun house of mirrors showing me all the angles i try to forget. The author uses the metaphor to monsters because theya re something taht is scary or other worldy so it its trying to show had bad the problems are and how they haunt him just like a monster would haunt him as well. Mosters are also not easy to escape because normally they are much bigger and stronger than humans. I can relate to this poem because I used to get bullied for being fat back in the day, and it took a huge toll on me. Even when I started to slim out I carried those thoughts or monsters with me day to day and let it hurt my self image. So I had to come to relize that these thoughts were just because of my past and I had to let them go and relize that I cannot let these monsters hurt me and I must make them my freind. “Chubby, Husky, Big Boy” relates to some of the exact monsters I was facing. The metaphor of him running is not him actually running it is him trying to escappe these thoughts he is having about himslef with his insecurities. But because they are in his head he is runnig from something that is with him so running is impossible. It is literally attached to him unescapable. In the poem the author keeps reffering back to the therapist so i believe that this therapist has a big impacton their life and how they value themselves and show themselves love. The therapist shows that they are willing to seek help in hard times even when they have self doubt. Having self doubt but signing yourself up to see a therapist is the first step to recognizing issues and poroblems we have in life. The mirros show how he is looking at all angles of himself and how they are all diffrent because of the different self images he has. And could also represent how he may compare himself to other with the many diffent versions of himself. He is reflecting on himself.

José Olivarez

Jose Olivarez Is the son of two mexican imigrants, but he grew up in Calumet City, Illinois. He has two collections of poems, citizens illegal wich was a finalist for PEN/Jean stein award and winner of 2018 Chicago reveiw of books poetry pice. His other poetry collection also got close tow inning awards as well. In these poetry collections he uses his humor, to talk about very strong topics like race, ethnicity, gender, class, and immigration. He also uses strong emotions throught his works He has also done many workshops through the country to teach about these topics as well.