I found this poem on the R train, it is titles “Notes On Longing” by Tina Chang. I did come across this poem a few times and it was interesting to see that on the picture it shows a line of clothes hanged up like socks, towels, and what looks like a shirt. I guess when I saw the picture, I imagined the poem to be about clothing or something close to it. Reading the poem, it was confusing because the poet starts of the first two lines with describing the smell after it rain but then quickly jumps ship by saying “Duck bones, a wounded egg on rice” this line is what made the poem confusing to understand for me. The rest of the poem described a series of phased to go threw and in all that there is a family with a mom that brings food to the family. Over all I think the message of the poem shows that you have a family who is there for you to care for you and help you.

In searching for a poem for my blog post #1, I found a poem on the A train titled “Remembering Summer” by W.S. Merwin. My initial reaction to reading this poem was enlightenment at the thought that this poem was here to bring joy to the riders that happened to notice this great piece of literature. All the bright colors and fine lines that flowed around the poems white background was a real attention grabber, but still people just passed it by. I feel this particular poem was chosen for subway riders to read because it is calming and relatable for a New Yorker to long for the summer.

I feel the speaker is a fellow New Yorker, talking about his love of summer and longing for its arrival. This is supported when the speaker says “I can sit here now still listening to it, which is the final line of the poem. This supports the fact that he can still hear this sound that is so pleasant to him at the thought of summer.The poem explores a few themes such as love, Longing, and admiration. The themes are  supported when the speaker says only negative thing about winter and pleasant things about summer. I think this poem is accessible to the general reader because it does not make you think too much about the message. One of the questions I have about this poem is what was the purpose of adding the ninth line “the evenings with the hens still talking in the lane”. How does that line relate to the rest of the poem.
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I have came across many poems while riding the A train, but ” Remembering Summer” by W.S Merwin was the only one that really caught my attention and spoke to me.  While reading the poem I noticed there are no punctuation marks throughout the poem, I asked myself what is the speaker  trying to say or why is the poem written this way. The poem  makes a comparison between the season.  In the poem, it says ” in between is the best because you never give it a thought but it goes too fast ” ( lines 3-4)  the speaker is  referring to spring and how with spring the weather is in between not too cold or too warm. The poem is relatable because in new york, we experience different weathers, one day it might be cold, the next is hot and etc, and the speakers mentions how the seasons goes fast and how she can’t enjoy it.   Something else that caught my attention was the background picture that is being displayed. We see a leaf , with different colors and every color represent the season that the other is referring too, for example black, everyone knows winter marks the absence of color and the background displays black.  . ” the evening with the hens still talking in lane and the light getting longer in the valley (lines 9-10) But overall the poem is referring to summer how the weather is warm , the days are longer and the nights are shorter.

While riding the Lefferts Boulevard “A” express train I came across a poem called “Remembering Summer” written by W.S, Merwin and decided to use it for my Poetry in Motion Blog Post #1. This poem is definitely speaking about the summer and winter seasons because of the title “Remembering Summer”. My initial reaction to this poem was a feeling of warmth and uncertainty as to the speaker`s preferable season between summer and winter. This was because I interpreted the poem as the speaker describing how short the summer season is compared to winter. The poem starts off with “Being too warm the old lady said to me/ is better than being too cold” (lines 1-2). An old lady said to the speaker that she prefers to be too warm than too cold. The speaker says “I think now/ in between is the best because you never/ give it a thought but it goes by too fast/ I remember the winter how cold it got/ I could never get warm wherever I was/ but I don’t remember the summer heat like that/ only the long days the breathing of the trees”(lines 2-8 ). The speaker is saying that the summer is so brief that he/she can’t remember much about it, but the winter is so long that they can almost remember everything because of the difficulties of finding warmth. The speaker feels that if it was between warm and cold, they would be happier and would bring more pleasing memories. The theme of this poem can be the difference in temperature preference. The old lady prefers to be very warm than very cold, while the speaker prefers to be between warm and cold. I think that this poem was chosen for subway riders to get them to think deeper and dissect this poem and look at the true message that’s behind the poem; although it is about weather preference, when you look deeper, I think what the speaker is saying is that the good time such as warm summer days goes by so fast that we don’t even remember the heat that comes with it and because the winter last so long, we can definitely remember all of the days spent trying to remain warm, in other way, in life, one must learn to be in the moment and enjoy the good times for they go by so very fast, then we’re right back to dealing with the challenges and stress that life have to offer. A lot of people ride the subway to  and from many different settings, such as work, school, the hospital and once they get to that setting, they have to deal with so much and therefore that short period of time being in the subway, maybe they can be in the moment and try to have that piece and even meditate because the train ride goes by so fast and many times we forget our ride to school or work but remember the stressors we have to deal with once we’ve reached our destination and depart that train. I think this poem is accessible for general readers because I have googled it and have found it on various webpages. The only question I have about this poem is “Why didn’t the speaker spoke about other seasons such as fall and spring?”.

My poetry in motion poem, “My Words to You” by Jean Valentine was found on the six train. I didn’t really have an initial reaction to the poem even though I came across it numerous of times on my way home. With that being said, this assignment allowed me to analyze what the meaning was. “My words to you are the stitches in a scarf / I don’t want to finish” (Line 1-2). The stitches in the scarf is what keeps the fabric together. The stitches are symbolizing the strength in the bond you and your partner has created. “Maybe it will come to be a blanket / to hold you here” (Line 3-4) represents how you didn’t expect your relationship to get so far but yet it did, so the scarf is no longer just a scarf, you’ve turned the scarf into a blanket. The more time you spend with your partner, the more you grow, the more comfortable you get and you begin to feel at home. “Love not gone anywhere” (Line 5) is basically saying that you made your love go from something small (the stitches in a scarf) to something big (the blanket). You can make it as big as you want but at the end of it all, it will stay with you.

The title of the poem, “My Words to You” brings this feeling of comfort along with the background of the poem. The background gives you this warm fuzzy feeling when you look at it followed by the poem itself. This poem explores the nature of love and what it feels like. As simplistic as it was it was very thorough with the message it wanted to give.

My initial reaction reading the poem for the first time was, why did the author abbreviate some of the words?, but at the same time I thought the idea was brilliant. The poem talks about what you should feel while reading a poem and how that poem should make you feel while reading it. In the poem the speaker sounds like he is kind of trying to direct you in the way of where the poem should make you feel something and where the poem should take you. For example, ” a poem shd happen to you like a cold water or a kiss” (Line 8-10), the speaker is saying that a poem should either shock you,make you feel good, feel bad, bother you or soothe you, all of which happen to you when you drink water or kiss someone or something.

In the poem there is a big visual piece of art that looks like the moon or earth accompanied by the rest of the other planets, i.e (Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune). Those are the planets that the visual art looks like most and they are circle shaped and colored blue, yellow and orange. This poem was chosen for subway riders to read because on your way home or to work or wherever you’re going the poem is not something that is too emotional but its a quick read especially if you are on the train with nothing to do.

Reading poems one time in your life can help you relax, refresh your mind and sometimes can give you memories along with a motivation throughout your life. In Merwin’s “Remembering Summer” found in Poetry Society America, first reading the title of the poem gives a little throwback about summer and the amusing times. As we know summer we feel the warm of the summer heat, the ice cream, the beach and so on. But there’s always the time where it comes to the end, the winter. The speaker tells the reader of the summer and “remember the winter how cold it got” by saying that the speaker couldn’t enjoyed the summer heat and it got cold really fast out of the sudden. In addition, the speaker has only remembered how the summer was warm and “only the long days the breathing of the trees” where the pleasant moment. We can say that this poem can tell us that there are somethings that has the end of the enjoyment. But knowing that waiting can take time to feel the same excitement so the speaker have said,  “I can sit here now still listening to it”. Basically, the speaker feels the cold has arrived and trying to find the ways of getting warm by just flash backing the summer.

 Poetry In Motion                                 

The title of the poem I have chosen is “My Words To You” by Jean Valentine, I found this poem on the 6 line. I have seen this Poem many times before, every time I would see it I would read it and try to understand it. This Blog Post gives me the opportunity to go more in depth and really get a better understanding of this poem. My initial reaction to reading this poem, was the speaker holding on to a loved one and spending more time with them. In line 1 to 3 “My words to you are the stitches in a scarf “/ I don’t want to finish/ maybe it will come to be a blanket”. I think that the speaker wants more time with their loved one, because comparing a scarf to a blanket, a scarf is smaller and takes less time to make. Stitching that blanket together symbolizes the speaker wanting time to say more and spend more time with their loved one.
The two themes I can take from this poem are love and time, Time because the speaker wants to spend more time with their loved ones, they don’t want the words to finish because then time is up. Love because they want to hold there love one and not lose them. I do think this poem is accessible for general readers because there are many different ways to decode this poem because it is short and straight to the point. The image next to the poem is a design of many different flowers within each other, it is very abstract. What does this image represent ? Why do the words have to end?, those are two questions that have been picking my mind.

P.S. Last Line:  I can sit here now still listening to it

The title of this poem is “Remembering Summer” and the author is W.S. Merwin. I found this poem on the R train(line).  My initial reaction to reading this poem is that it gives off a very refreshing vibe. When I read anything, I often visualize in my mind, so when I was visualizing this poem, the scenery and the things the speaker describes puts me in a very happy and relaxed mood. Also, when I saw the author’s name, it seemed very familiar to me because it is written by the same author of the poem, “The Lonely Child.” The visual art that accompanies the house is a white lily and a tree branch. I think this particular poem was chosen for subway riders to read because it has a very refreshing feel to it. Many subway riders are really busy, either heading to work, school, etc., but when they read the poem, they will feel calm.  I think the speaker is a woman and the subject of the poem is the delights of summer. The theme that the poem explores is that summer is the best season because, to the speaker, summer is a very relaxing and peaceful time. For example, the poem states, “and the light getting longer in the valley/the sound of a bell from down there somewhere/I can sit here now still listening to it” (Lines 10-12). This shows that the speaker is very relaxed or calm sitting in a valley and listening to the sounds of bells while watching “the light getting longer.” Some questions I have about the poem is why the speaker could never get warm during the winter and who the old lady in the beginning of the poem was.