Place is endless. What can I say about place except that it is everything and is in everything and is of
everything. And everything is such an
abstract word in relationship to place. It is vague and specific or vaguely
specific or specifically vague. Place has so many possibilities. It’s geographical,
metaphorical, the place between words, the placement of words, and the
relationship between so many possibilities. I look at place as a generic term
for what is intangible and tangible. In this week’s reading I found place
represented endlessly. It was on the page as the lines ran together or broke
until the page itself became another place. It was in the names of places,
streets, histories or what was left unnamed.
I’m fascinated by how place, space, and shape come together
in Asahi’s poems. In “April 14.” acute detail is paid to the placement of
objects; for example, the “small ball of water” on the “short white dresser”
(3). Additionally, the same precise attention is placed on the speaker’s position
in the poem—who is on the second floor of her sister’s house “[l]ying down on
the carpet of a room, surrounded by toys. Between two child beds”(1-2). This seems
to allude that the speaker may be another carefully placed object. It is only her thoughts or language that
appear to distinguish her from the objects placed in the room. We are left
wondering who controls her place? Has she chosen this position, inherited it,
or has she been placed there like the bed and the “plastic fish that bobs mechanically
in circles” (4).
Two questions:
There is tension between movement and stillness in this
piece. Does the speaker want the plastic
fish to stop mechanically bobbing in circles because its movements are forced,
or is it more than that?
The speaker resists two kinds of motion: circles and the
linear propulsion of time. What are your thoughts on shape, space, and place in
relationship to the speaker’s opposition or resistance to movement?
"It was on the page as the lines ran together or broke until the page itself became another place."
ReplyDeleteYes. This happened time after time, especially in Najarro's and Khana's pieces. I'm still trying to interpret many of the line breaks and spacing. But I'm starting to wonder if they are even necessarily meant to be interpreted into exact meaning, or just taken for face value....
Your title is too hilarious, April. The questions are good, more questions than exploration. So we can go a bit further. Let's.
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