Reading No. 2 Poems: "If I Laid Them End to End" & "Sometimes I Feel Like all Indians"

Kimberly Blaeser

Title: "If I Laid Them End to End"

Author: Kimberly Blaeser

Date: 2007

Setting (time and place): Since this poem is composed by three different stories, it has different settings. The first one there is no clear evidence of the time and settings, but it mentions a knife-marred counter in which conversations spills like sunshine. The second story doesn't mention its time either, but it mentions a burned farm, and a Strawberry mountain. The last story mentions two old fishermen that ended up drunk in a canoe; this means that probably they are on a lake or in a sea.

Event (Conflict, important information, touching passage, question): Even though there are three different stories in this poem, there is one specific topic which is starvation. The three stories mention how the characters in one way, or another are trying to survive and find food. For example, in the second stanza in the last line it says: "Sure took the wrinkle-out of our bellies that night." which means that probably some other nights they have been suffer from the worst side of hunger.

Characters:

The poem mentions some characters; for example, an old man, someone's mum, and two fishermen, but it doesn't provide any extra information about them.

Memorable Quote / Favorite part: "The burned farm. That hungry year. The long walk from Strawberry Mountain warmed now with the weight of fresh butchered wiiyaas in your pack."

How did it make me feel? / Can I make any connection to my life? 

This poem makes you feel that even though hard situations may arrive, there is always a way out one just must keep fighting. This poem summarizes all the feelings that people in a condition of extreme poverty may suffer every day; probably they will have something to eat someday, but other days they have starve. There's no doubt that this poem transmits a feeling of sadness basically because the stories mentioned on it reflect the reality in which not only Indian American people but also people in the poorest areas around the world are.

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Chrystos

Title: "Sometimes I Feel Like all Indians"

Author: Chrystos

Date: 1995

Settings (time and place): In this poem the time and place of the events are not mentioned, but it can be inferred that all those events happened in an Indian Reservation.

Event (Conflict, important information, touching passage, question): This poem mostly mentions tragedy. All the people mentioned in this poem died in one way or another but all of them shared the same end. 

Characters: 

Kelly Morgan: This is the only name mentioned in the poem, the complete poem is a narration of her tragic life. 

Memorable Quote / Favorite part: " I close my eyes & keep praying sometimes there's nothing to do but brush back the tears & keep folding the laundry."

How did it make me feel? / Can I make any connection to my life?  

This poem made me feel sad because due to what we have been studying I know that the events described in the poem may be real in these Indian reservations. Just by reading the title, I thought that this poem may be related to someone who is tired of being an "Indian." Then I noticed that somehow, I was right they are tired of the condition and the indifference in which they had to live.

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