HEY MAYAK
Explanation:
This poem is called “One Today” by Richard Blanco. As I started to read this poem, I thought it was rather inspirational. He doesn't just speak about one group of people, he talks about everyone. He says “All of us as vital as the one light we move through”, which I translate as meaning that we all are living under the same sun, each contributing something to our world (16). Whether we “clean tables, read ledgers, or save lives” we are contributing to something greater (13). He appreciates all of the work people do when he says, “Thank the work of our hands: weaving steel into bridges, finishing one more report for the boss on time, stitching another wound or uniform, the first brush stroke on a portrait, or the last floor on the Freedom Tower jutting into the sky that yields to our resilience” (49-54). Most people just forget about those who build the schools we learn in, create the newsletters that we read, and fix the bridges we drive across, but not Blanco. He also ties the reader into his vision, as he states, “My face, your face, millions of faces in morning's mirrors, each one yawning to life, crescendoing into our day” (7). It makes the reader realize that we are one of many humans traversing through life in similar routines. I sense that he gives a sense of nationalism when he says “One ground. Our ground, rooting us to every stalk of corn” (27-28). Corn stalks are to the ground as citizens are to their country. The nationalism and patriotic feelings we share bring us together even more. On the contrary, the poem got very sad through the lines 21-26. He talks about children “marked absent today, and forever” in schools, which is a very sad topic nowadays, considering how many school shootings have happened in the last decade (21-22). He even talks about the feeling of grief about the death of these children by describing it as an “impossible vocabulary of sorrow” (20). It is such a sad topic, that there aren't even enough words to describe how the families feel. This dark section of the poem really brings the negative aspect of America. It may have started off by giving a good patriotic feeling, but then it hits you with the reality of life and how not everyone is working for the benefit of others. It's something that we can't just ignore.
I really enjoyed reading this poem. It was beautifully written with lots of descriptive words and figurative language to bring it to life. I like how this poem also reveals how America truly is, with both of its positive and negative characteristics. We are all just people with dreams to chase, jobs to do, and families to care for. We each do our part, no matter how small, in order to contribute to the society that we have created. Some people in our country do not follow that standard, and go out of their way to harm us and break our nation apart, and there is no way we can get rid of all of them, because they are apart of this country too. There will always be corruption somewhere in our world, and we just have to keep fighting to keep order.
