Sharon Olds " Sex Without Love"

How do they do it, the ones who make love without love? This is how we are introduced to Sharon Olds poem," Sex Without Love." The speaker or poet,questions how do people have sexual intercourse without love being present. This is a common thing going on in our modern day society which doesn't really get contested if you aren't a religious person. I can see how this question could baffle someone. In our society, the attitudes when it comes to sex are more liberated and not everyone believes that in order to have sex with another person, they have to be in love and the whole nine yards. Olds is showing us how people can separate themselves emotionally from the physical part of having sex.Olds views on this are that she finds it ironic that people can do this. she actually says in her stanza:

"How do they do it, the ones who make love without love?
Beautiful as dancers, gliding over each other like ice- skaters
over the ice, fingers hooked
inside eachother's bodies, faces
red as steak,wine, wet as the
children at birth whose mothers are going to
give them away.How do they come to the come to the come to the God come to the still waters, and not love the one who came there with them,"

Here we see Olds asking how do people do it? how do they have sex without love? how can they do something so beautiful as make love without loving one another. How can two people have this kind of physical contact or get to sharing in eachother's worlds without sharing the emotion of love with eachother? She compares the act of lovemaking to that of " beautiful dancers," who are " gliding over eachother like ice-skaters over the ice,"
She goes on to say that their faces are "red," as steak and that they are " wet" as " wine. Olds describes everything two lovers are doing to be looked at in a loving way but with words clearly questions these lovers intentions if not love then how are they allowing themselves to share this experince with someone who they do not love. In a few lines down Olds answers her own questions with the next stanza that says:
" These are the true religious,
the purists, the pros,the ones who will not
accept a false Messiah, love the priest instead of the God. They do not
mistake the lover for their own pleasure,
they are like great runners:they know they are alone."

Here I feel like Olds is saying these people that can seperate emotional from the physical, they know what they are doing. These people can separate themselves, emotionally/spiritually from what's going on in the flesh, the physical. They don't allow themselves to get caught up in "love," and how it should be the guiding standard to whether they have sex or not. Olds says " they will not accept a flase Messaiah, love the priest instead of the God." Here Olds is saying that these people are loving the physical, the flesh and not the spiritual or emotional that would connect to God. It isn't love in divinty these people are looking for but just to enjoy the sexual pleasure and they know they are alone. "They are great runners, they know they are alone," is the closing line to the poem. Olds is comparem these people to great runners, they are running from the emotional they are great at what they are doing and they know that they themselves are alone in the run for pleasure over love and pleasure.
This is common in society. Many people don't want to get involves with "love," when it comes to having sex. Some people are more liberated and believe in sex before marriage, or having sex with no strings attached or even one night stands. These are all relatively modern attiudes when it comes to that of the topic of sex.I think that society, when it comes to media doesn't send the right messages to the youth or to people in making good desicions when it comes to having sex. I feel like the media,sends out the wrong messages to young minds having them believe that the overtly sexual videos, songs, and commercial ads, are the attitudes they should be having when it comes to having sex. I think that's why there are so many young teenage pregnancies as well, or children born out of wedlock. People aren't practicing the right or moralistic attitutes they should have when thinking about having sex. In religion, sex is viewed as something holy or that it should take place with someone you love or are in fact going to marry. It shouldn't happen before marriage actually. You can see here how what religion expects of people and the modern society today conflict with eachother on the topic of having sex. I feel that this poem was a great poem and can open your mind to different views and thoughts when it comes to the topic of sex. The poet used very good irony and wordplay full of texture. It was explicit in its nature of language where it described the act of sex. The poet shares an intimacy with the audience with the language.

"Facing It" By Yusef Komunyakaa

     In the Poem, " Facing It," by Yusef Komunyakaa, we are introduced to a Vietnam War Veteran who is visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. From reading the poem, we get a feel that he's visited the memorial many times before and that he himself was apart of the Vietnam War. The poem is so raw and in your face, describing this veterans feelings about the war and his feelings about having been apart of it. He seems to have a deep internal struggle with his memories of the war but also has conflict with his present day reality.  Komunyakka starts the poem with " My black face fades, hiding inside the black granite." I believe that Komunyakka is envisioning his memory of himself in the war, his face, "fading," or gradually going away and hiding in the wall. He follows that line with:
" I said I wouldn't,
Dammit: No tears.
I'm Stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me,
like a bird of prey,"
      I feel like the veteran also has a struggle in dealing with his own pride. In our society,boys have been taught that to be men, they are to be strong, courageous,tough, dominating, no pain, no emotions with the exception of anger and definitely no fear. Our society, collectively socializes men to be these things and in doing so, this stanza relates to that a lot.The veteran didn't want to allow himself to cry or to let out his emotions. We actually see him get mad at himself for crying, and a comparison to himself being "stone." Stone is a form of rock, something that is not living, it is dead and is solid. In the same comparison of himself to stone, he also says he is flesh, which means he realizes that he is a living, breathing person with real, raw emotions and feelings. Maybe he feels like a part of him died in the war and a part of him is living in present day society. He keeps getting taken back to the war with each name he reads on the wall. He is almost in disbelief that he is still living in a physical sense after the war, that his name isn't on the wall. That he himself isn't another casualty. In a sense though I feel like maybe, physically he may have survived the war but psychologically, spiritually, he died. 
      This poem relates so much to present day soldiers in Iraq and this whole war going on. Present day soldiers coming back from war, have similar issues trying to readjust themselves back to normal day to day life. Many soldiers come back with a distorted sense of reality, torturous flashbacks of killing, or being attacked. Many soldiers come back with post- traumatic stress disorder, where the simple thought or a memory could trigger a complete panick attack or irrational behavior.
    Instead of this veteran being able to put the war behind him, it seems as if this memorial serves as a constant reminder or a tragic marker of the war he served in.

"The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop

      In reading the poem, " The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop we are introduced to the speaker of the poem and this fish that the speaker caught. The speaker vividly paints pictures for the audience by telling us in great detail about this fish. " I caught a tremendous fish," is how we are introduced to what's going on. Just in reading the 1st line, I already knew that there must be great significance within it. As we continue to look at Bishop's poem, the speaker goes on to tell us about the fish's physical appearance. In telling us about the fish's physical appearance, we get that the fish is an ugly fish but the wordplay the poet uses to describe the fish's " ugliness," are actually beautiful ways of using language. It feels as though the speaker finds pleasure in her use of language and also invites the audience to feel that way; to want to indulge in the beauty of the wordplay, just as the speaker finds beauty in the fish. In the following lines of the poem, I feel like the poet used beautiful word intercourse to compare something "ugly," to something " beautiful". The exchange of words/ colors to describe and compare something ugly to something pretty, shows us how the speaker found " beauty" in the fish.

While his gills were breathing in

the terrible oxygen

— the frightening gills,

fresh and crisp with blood,

that can cut so badly —

I thought of the coarse white flesh

packed in like feathers,

the big bones and the little bones,

the dramatic reds and blacks

of his shiny entrails,

and the pink swim-bladder

like a big peony.

            The fish even through many attempts to be caught, was described as a "warrior" and continued to swim freely in his environment day after day. This poem made me think about some other aspects in society. Beauty for one, the saying goes, " Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." In our society, the idea of the ideal image of beauty bought on by the media, is of being super thin almost waif- like, with no curves. This image is all the media throws at young women, that this is how they must look to be " beautiful."  Society or us the people sometimes have not one idea what these models do to themselves to keep up this look of " beauty". Some of these models starve themselves, sacrificing their health and gaining horrible eating disorders and psychological disorders. The fashion industry uses a lot of photo- shopping and make up to keep these certain appearances or this look of "beauty," up. Women feeling the need to live up to these false or fake standards makes them then too sacrifice their health to achieve this. I feel like just like these women and models sacrifice their health and gain eating disorders or psychological disorders it's kind of like the fish in a way. I say this because the physical scars that the fish gains on his lips, is like the emotional or psychological scars these women gain. Even then a woman overall is a beautiful object in society's standards, hence the speaker still being able to find beauty in this fish too with admiring its " sullen face," or the "mechanism of his jaw." So you see " Beauty is in the eye of he beholder," and everyone has a different standard of beauty. You can find beauty even in the ugliest of matters.

   Looking up what symbolically a fish may mean, I came across a fish could mean " personal growth", or maybe a "deep unconsciousness." I found that pretty interesting and sought to see how I could relate that to our poem. I feel like from the beginning of the poem when the speaker catches the fish to the end of the poem when the speaker lets the fish go, there is an immense personal growth in the speaker that takes place. I feel like when the speaker was admiring the fish and going into detail in a new light about how beautiful the fish was, it was the beginning of the speakers journey into a new found consciousness. Instead of where the speaker was when she found the fish, she was growing to find the beauty in the fish and then towards the end let the fish go back into the water. I think that when the speaker let the  fish go back into the water it signified the speakers personal growth complete. The speaker allowed the fish that had been caught so many times, after admiring it's beauty, it's strength and wisdom, it allowed for it to go freely back into the water. I think the speaker took in the fish's essence for what it was and then decided it was beautiful living and allowing it to live in its own world just as it was beautiful for the speaker to awaken on a conscious level and really be alive and live in her own world.