9/11 Poems

ALABANZA
How is this poem organized? 
Alabanza starts by describing the workers. In the introduction of the online clip, the author describes that these workers were illegal aliens working there (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk21TZlN2u4). The majority of the poem consists of this information. Then, near the end it describes the crash, the deaths, and what sounds to me, to be the interactions of the terrorists and who died there. It is therefore arranged in temporal order. The first focus is significantly longer than the others. (Perhaps this is to create some sort of feeling of suspense or comfort, which is interrupted by the crash. ?) 

How does it make its impact? 
I think that the point of the work Alabanza was that the souls of the two groups (the terrorists and the workers, or perhaps the innocents in Kabul, Afghanistan have suffered under the control of terrorist regimes, the Taliban) get along well after death. He brings attention to this idea by finishing with the conversation between the two sources of smoke, and by again using the word Alabanza when speaking of the spirits.
Another point that I believe may have been intended was the greatness of everyday life (or perhaps specifically daily life which is influenced by religion and heritage).He creates this feeling my using the word Alabanza (praise) when talking about things of cultural influence, and ceasing this practice when discussing the course of the attack.
Both of these points are able to appear clearly because of the underemphasized (through the steadiness of his tone of voice, impersonal imagery, and brief appearance in the poem). Since the crash was what was emphasized by the media, this makes a strikingly different view of the event.

Can you sense how it is related to the tradition of writing that has come before it, and how it aims to make the language new? 
From the recording of the poem, it seems that it alludes to music. I have this feeling because of the repetitive way in which he says the word “Alabanza.” Because of the connotation of the translation of that word, and the history of Hispanic culture and Catholicism, I am inclined to believe that this poem was specifically modeled off of Spanish church songs. I would imagine that this differs from worship songs in that it celebrates the everyday happenings, as well a God. It makes English poetry new by incorporating words of other languages.




TRY TO PRAISE THE MUTILATED WORLD
How is this poem organized? 
It is organized by specificity. The beginning is vague, from there the poem becomes more potent. The middle of the poem seems to hold the main point. The conclusion fades back out, using natural imagery as the author had in the beginning of the poem. In the overall trend, this poem seems to be organized much like a research paper (although I cannot see any reason that would have been intentional).
How does it make its impact? 
It is indicated by the text on the main part of the page which includes Adam Zagajewski’s poem that he views poetry as a way to heal the world (http://www.blueflowerarts.com/adam-zagajewski). The title of the work would suggest that the point is that one should “praise the mutilated world.” Perhaps his hope was that by alluding to peaceful scenes of nature and of people experiencing nature in an everyday environment (e.g. a ship, a room, the park), people will be settled from whatever event has caused separation of the narrator and a loved one, and the positions of refugees and executioners.
Can you sense how it is related to the tradition of writing that has come before it, and how it aims to make the language new? 
This poem likely came at a time in which there were many poems written about the destruction of nature. I am unaccustomed to most of the ways that Zagajewski conveys things. For example, he refers to dew as drops of wine, and uses the phrase “earth’s scars.” I am not sure of the significance of either. I do not feel that I really understood this poem well. Much of the wording seems to be nonsense. Perhaps that nonsense is the narrator’s “mutilated” view of the world. The wording, rather than the organization, causes me to think of stream-of-consciousness writings.




DROPPING LEAFLETS BY JENA OSMAN.
How is this poem organized? 
Jena Osman’s poem is choppy and fragmented.
How does it make its impact? 
I believe that a significant power of this piece lies in its allusion to another work. The organization and content of Osman’s work is reminiscent of Picasso’s Guernica, which contains a jumbled mass of misshapen bodies, a bull, a horse, a lamp, and other images arranged in a grotesque pattern(http://homepage.mac.com/dmhart/WarArt/StudyGuides/Picasso.html). That painting is considered to be an outcry against war. Likewise, the work of Jena Osman has a distinctively choppy feeling to it both in the way that it is read in the online clip and in the way that it is written (http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88v/osman-leaflets.html, https://moodle.goshen.edu/mod/resource/view.php?id=57142). Jena Osman’s piece also seems to be commentary on war, especially near the end, with the words “fight,” “terrorists,” “bomb,” and “warriors.”
Can you sense how it is related to the tradition of writing that has come before it, and how it aims to make the language new? 
Clearly the newspapers which were the source of these phrases predated this poem. Additionally, considering the tendency for United States citizens to speak out about their political concerns. It is likely that the work “Dropping Leaflets” came after many poems regarding political criticism had been written. Jena Osman’s work is striking in that it seems rather blunt. It makes the original statements into a jabbering mess.