The Power of Poetry
Studies in Poetry
5 August 2013
The Power of Poetry
Poetry can be cathartic for both the writer and the reader. The art expression in poetry allows the writer to heal continually over time. The reader gets to experience Ms. Clifton’s life chronologically through her poetry. We get to feel full-circle the wounds, the scab, the debridement and finally the healing that happens after one exposes truths. Ms. McCallum shows a contrast approach to her past by taking a mythical route. Instead of taking a more personal approach, the reader may still connect through Ms. McCallum’s approach by the self-absorbed mother that is exposed in her myths.
Ms. Clifton is able to say a lot with little words, especially in “forgiving my father”. The poem consists of 3 stanzas addressing her father’s ineptness. In the first stanza the reader sees that during Ms. Clifton’s childhood her family was financially unstable. In this poem she gives recognition to her mother because of the mental and physical abuse she had to live with. In an interview with Ms. Clifton and Michael S. Glaser, Ms. Clifton says: “I knew that she was an unhappy woman” (Glaser 314). In “forgiving my father” Ms. Clifton shows heartache for her mother during this time. Ms. Clifton has neither the ability nor authority to speak up to her father; therefore she hopelessly waits in vain for him to change and take care of their family. Ms. Clifton encourages students to write to help heal heartaches in life: “To write because you need it. It will somehow help you get through a difficult life” (Glaser 312). The first stanza reads:
It is Friday. we have come to the paying of the bills. all week you have stood in my dreams like a ghost, asking for more time but today is payday, payday old man; my mother’s hand opens in her early grave and i hold it out like a good daughter. (208)
In the second stanza, Ms. Clifton graciously gives her father the benefit of the doubt by addressing that her
5 August 2013
The Power of Poetry
Poetry can be cathartic for both the writer and the reader. The art expression in poetry allows the writer to heal continually over time. The reader gets to experience Ms. Clifton’s life chronologically through her poetry. We get to feel full-circle the wounds, the scab, the debridement and finally the healing that happens after one exposes truths. Ms. McCallum shows a contrast approach to her past by taking a mythical route. Instead of taking a more personal approach, the reader may still connect through Ms. McCallum’s approach by the self-absorbed mother that is exposed in her myths.
Ms. Clifton is able to say a lot with little words, especially in “forgiving my father”. The poem consists of 3 stanzas addressing her father’s ineptness. In the first stanza the reader sees that during Ms. Clifton’s childhood her family was financially unstable. In this poem she gives recognition to her mother because of the mental and physical abuse she had to live with. In an interview with Ms. Clifton and Michael S. Glaser, Ms. Clifton says: “I knew that she was an unhappy woman” (Glaser 314). In “forgiving my father” Ms. Clifton shows heartache for her mother during this time. Ms. Clifton has neither the ability nor authority to speak up to her father; therefore she hopelessly waits in vain for him to change and take care of their family. Ms. Clifton encourages students to write to help heal heartaches in life: “To write because you need it. It will somehow help you get through a difficult life” (Glaser 312). The first stanza reads:
It is Friday. we have come to the paying of the bills. all week you have stood in my dreams like a ghost, asking for more time but today is payday, payday old man; my mother’s hand opens in her early grave and i hold it out like a good daughter. (208)
In the second stanza, Ms. Clifton graciously gives her father the benefit of the doubt by addressing that her