When discussing peace and anti-war poetry, I find that the themes, focus, and goals of these types of poetry are very different. What the authors are trying to portray in each of these poems varies because they both do not relate to war. Peace poetry does not necessary deal or express emotions about war and battle because there are many aspects relating to serenity and non-violence. Peace exists in other aspects of life besides conflicts between countries or people; it is a total separate type of idea that does not always have to be categorized with war. Many audiences often correlate peace with war because leaders strive for no confrontation or conflict, then citizens follow their lead, they forget that peace can be settled in their states, communities and even homes. The end result is what peace poetry focuses on in context. Authors create stories or describe acts depicting advancement, so that the resolution shows effectiveness. Poems about peace advocate something more in depth than resolving conflict between two hostile groups; ideas are established through feelings of hopefulness and imagination.
On the other hand, anti-war poetry content is still about ceasing worldwide confrontation. The resistance between people is addressed in anti-war poems because authors want the audience to react in specific ways. When the author writes his or her poem in a violent tone, they can expect that the reader will get worked up and then possibly act in an aggressive manner. The readers think they are getting involved for the benefit of their country or community, yet their actions could still be somewhat forceful. In “Poems for Peace,” Philip Metres talks about how specifically the United States has come to “unwittingly [glorify] and [perpetuate] a culture of war.” The other side of poetry, peace poetry, should be revealed because it expresses other ways of “dealing with conflict, oppression, and injustice and how it may advance our thinking into what a future without war might look like” (Metres). Fighting is what anti-war poetry is against, however it is not always written in a peaceful tone; peace is something much more fragile and it written with harmony not discord.
As a part of a community, our class, it is pretty evident that peace is more conclusive to a group of people. In order for us to enter into a discourse community, we set ourselves up to ‘argue’ amongst one another because we all have different viewpoints. Except we are not arguing to prove one another wrong, we share our perspectives to build off of one another’s ideas. We talk about our disagreements by bringing up evidence from a text or poem, and giving our opinions of the context. The class in interested in progress, we share ideas to get different outlooks on what we are studying. Peace is very goal oriented, and that is what we want to achieve as a community, and we have come to realize that various ideas results in progress, leading us to a final conclusion.
Showing posts with label Kiera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kiera. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Responding to Nowak - Kiera
Coal Mountain Elementary is a collection of different forms of art. It is constructed of a lesson plan developed by the American Coal Foundation for the Coal Mountain students, translated articles from Chinese newspapers, and transcripts from the 2006 Sago, West Virginia coal mining accident. Could anyone call this poetry? Mark Nowak, the author of Coal Mountain Elementary, does not even know. This explains simply, yet perfectly how beautiful and abstract poetry can be. Stanzas and rhyming words may create a traditional poem, however they all don’t have to be written in this format. There is no definition to poetry, therefore the organization and literary elements of Coal Mountain Elementary could be considered poetry in itself. On the contrary, Nowak’s work may be seen as a masterwork, however not a something that expresses feeling about an idea. This leaves us pondering the difference between poetry and prose.
Mark Nowak’s book brings about much discussion and debate. But, this could have been his potential purpose of Coal Mountain Elementary. People can argue that the real encounters are explanations of coal mining accidents, and that the pictures are just demonstrations of coal labor. However, we don’t know if Nowak’s idea was this straight forward. The story of the miners in West Virginia and in China could be looked at in an artistic form. Art can be presented in various forms and is open to interpretation, making this not just a book, but a book of poetry. Poetry is meant to raise questions among the readers, and in Coal Mountain Elementary we wonder why there is a lesson plan about coal flowers, why a transcript follows it, and then why a photo of a Chinese miner comes before all of that information. When analyzing the book this way it is as if a story was created by the four different elements. In this case structure meant everything, and in fact created an emotional message. Nowak wants to get across that new procedures need to take place in order for all the coal mining accidents to cease worldwide. Either way people can argue that Coal Mountain Elementary is a poem in an unfamiliar, yet unique form.
From a different standpoint, Coal Mountain Elementary can be looked at as a collection of works that come together to create an objective, but is not poetry.
Nowak developed prose that educates the readers about coal mining, and the various occasions that fatal and detrimental accidents have occurred. It is a collection of emotions of other people, and he himself did not actually write Coal Mountain. It could be seen as more of a research source that gives factual information from different coal mining perspectives. Everything in the book has a feeling behind it, but it could be considered outside the realm of poetry due to all the facts.
It is definitely debatable whether Coal Mountain Elementary is an element of poetry. On either end there is evidence that poetry exists among Nowak’s work, and that it’s simply sources bound together to make a point. Either way, Nowak is trying to show the dangerous coal mining industry, and whether he does it in a poetic way or not, he gets his idea across. In the newspaper articles, from the transcripts, and by looking at the pictures emotion and feeling are present. Isn’t poetry an expression in many forms? The answer to this question truly depends on the reader. Everything has more than one interpretation, and that is exactly why this “book” brings up such a discussion. There are a variety of opinions, and that is what makes art and literature so unique, a piece of work could potentially mean anything you want it too.
Mark Nowak’s book brings about much discussion and debate. But, this could have been his potential purpose of Coal Mountain Elementary. People can argue that the real encounters are explanations of coal mining accidents, and that the pictures are just demonstrations of coal labor. However, we don’t know if Nowak’s idea was this straight forward. The story of the miners in West Virginia and in China could be looked at in an artistic form. Art can be presented in various forms and is open to interpretation, making this not just a book, but a book of poetry. Poetry is meant to raise questions among the readers, and in Coal Mountain Elementary we wonder why there is a lesson plan about coal flowers, why a transcript follows it, and then why a photo of a Chinese miner comes before all of that information. When analyzing the book this way it is as if a story was created by the four different elements. In this case structure meant everything, and in fact created an emotional message. Nowak wants to get across that new procedures need to take place in order for all the coal mining accidents to cease worldwide. Either way people can argue that Coal Mountain Elementary is a poem in an unfamiliar, yet unique form.
From a different standpoint, Coal Mountain Elementary can be looked at as a collection of works that come together to create an objective, but is not poetry.
Nowak developed prose that educates the readers about coal mining, and the various occasions that fatal and detrimental accidents have occurred. It is a collection of emotions of other people, and he himself did not actually write Coal Mountain. It could be seen as more of a research source that gives factual information from different coal mining perspectives. Everything in the book has a feeling behind it, but it could be considered outside the realm of poetry due to all the facts.
It is definitely debatable whether Coal Mountain Elementary is an element of poetry. On either end there is evidence that poetry exists among Nowak’s work, and that it’s simply sources bound together to make a point. Either way, Nowak is trying to show the dangerous coal mining industry, and whether he does it in a poetic way or not, he gets his idea across. In the newspaper articles, from the transcripts, and by looking at the pictures emotion and feeling are present. Isn’t poetry an expression in many forms? The answer to this question truly depends on the reader. Everything has more than one interpretation, and that is exactly why this “book” brings up such a discussion. There are a variety of opinions, and that is what makes art and literature so unique, a piece of work could potentially mean anything you want it too.
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