Monday, October 20, 2008

week of october 13-17. Beyond Heart Mountain

While browsing through Main Street Books I came across Beyond Heart Mountain, by Lee Ann Roripaugh. Considering the fact that I am enrolled in two of her (your) courses I was interested in reading it. After a few weeks of it sitting on my bookshelf, I finally got a chance to read through it. Although the opinions of a lowly student not well versed in the criticism of poetry is not that important, this is what I thought of it. Also, I would like to note, that many parts of this volume of poetry led me to the World Wide Web to look up Japanese words, to better grasp the poems. (Happy early birthday by the way; this could seem strange, but you can find out all sorts of information on the web)
Throughout Beyond Heart Mountain the reader can see the cultural aspects of being part of a multicultural family and of a mixed descent. I myself can, in a small way, relate to some of the emotions involved with growing up in this sort of environment, for my mother is Korean and my father is American. In the introductory poem entitled “Pearls” the speaker harassed by some boys on bikes that “flew down / around me like noisy crows. / They kept yelling Kill the Jap! This scene shows the vicious possibilities of a child’s mind and their rejection of the unfamiliar. Another poem in part 1 of the volume called “A Dance of Wooden Shoes” feelings of embarrassment are present. It reads, “My mother’s in geta shoes, / clopping along the driveway. / Hai. Gotcha. Hai. I hope / the neighbors think it’s kabuki.” Although she is the speaker’s mother, alien to American culture, society has dictated that the actions of the Japanese neighbors are strange, and embarrassment ensues. The child chastised for being different, can sometimes transform, even for an instant, into part of the discriminating society.
Part 2, “Beyond Heart Mountain,” is a chronicle of different people and the time they were forced to spend at the Japanese Internment camp located at the base of Heart Mountain. The greatest part of this section is how some of the characters stories intertwine. The speaker in one is a character in another. Through these poems the reader can see the mistreatment of the inhabitants and the unsuitable living conditions. There are also parts that convey the draft of Japanese Americans and their refusal. Although not all refused, a large number of young men did refuse service and were thus sent to prison. This shows the corruption of the American government in the 1940’s when dealing with Japanese Americans.
The final poem of the volume entitled “Kakitsubata” is by far my favorite. The water lily fable is present in the poem and gives it a surreal feeling I really enjoy. When it reads, “Come to the place of eight bridges / where streams ribbon / around thickets of ghost-bamboo / like the nine tails of a gleaming, silver-tailed fox,” the image of the traveling monk is easily seen. The story of the traveler, the spirit of song, (not sure about all of this information I am speaking of, I read a play version, and a synopsis) and the poem he wrote about his far away love is seen in the lines “perhaps / for a moment / you suddenly remember the face of a woman / you once loved.” I also like the illusion of the kakitsubata spirit emerging into human form, “blossoming / limb by petal, petal to limb.” The final third of the poem I really cannot explain, but the emotions and images in these lines resonate wonderful things in my mind. “when you think I’m only a dream / you had one night, / the song of sparrows will always tell you otherwise.” These last few lines break the confines of reality and what society tells you is real. Images seen in dreams or even spiritual things outside of dreams are just as real as what you see in your waking life. There are no boundaries to the imagination and the mind.
Final thought, I also liked the poem “Ode to Sushi,” because I love sushi, and basically most things involved with Asian culture.

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