Marilyn Chin, Turtle Soup: Page 419-420

Team Leader: Nor Ramdan

For Ben Huang

You go home one evening tired from work, 

and your mother boils you turtle soup. 

Twelve hours hunched over the hearth

(who knows what else is in that cauldron).

You say, "Ma, you've poached the symbol of long life;

that turtle lived four thousand years, swam

the Wet, up the Yellow, over the Yangtze. 

Witnessed the Bronze Age, the High Tang,

grazed on splendid sericulture."

(So, she boils the life out of him.)

"All our ancestors have been fools.

Remember Uncle Wu who rode ten thousand miles

to kill a famous Manchu and ended up

with his head on a pole? Eat, child,

its liver will make you strong."

"Sometimes you're the life, sometimes the sacrifice." 

Her sobbing is inconsolable.

So, you spread that gentle napkin 

over your lap in decorous Pasadena.

Baby, some high priestess has got it wrong.

The golden decal on the green underbelly

says "Made in Hong Kong."

Is there nothing left but the shell

and humanity's strange inscriptions,

the songs, the rites, the oracles?

Exploration of the Text

1. Notice the author's choice of the word 'cauldron' in the line 4. What images or connections does this word evoke? Why might the author have chose 'cauldron' rather than 'pot'?

The word cauldron means a large kettle or boiler. By using the word cauldron, the poet try to symbolises it to the mother. The author chose cauldron rather than pot is to show that the mother is a witch-like characters (who cooked a turtle, a Chinese symbolism for longevity) 

2. Chin refers to 'the Wei', 'the Yellow' and 'the Yangzte'. Why does she reference these rivers in China? Why not include the Nile, the Amazon or the Missisipi?

She refers to rivers in China to show where she came from.

3. What is the tone of this poem?

The tone for this poem is anger. 

Ideas for Writing

'Sometimes you are the life, sometimes the sacrifice'. Write about this quote within the context of immigrant family. Why might a family gain or lose by moving to a new land?

Within the context of immigrant family, this quote means that the fate of immigrant is unpredictable. You can live life normally or you can be sacrificed. Living outside from your country, you either can live life normal or you can be bullied by prejudice's people. By moving, a family might gain experience and lose culture. Person who travelled meet new people who practised different cultures and religions. With that he could gain many experiences rather than person who stayed at home. On negative side, he could lose his own culture as his culture (on food, cloths or tradition) cannot be practised in the new place he live. For example, if a Malay living in London, he cannot wear baju melayu or baju kurung (Malay's traditional cloths). Except if there is special occasions like Hari Raya Aidil Fitri or such. Other example is that, if we look at from the religion angle (related to the culture), Muslim only ate slaughtered halal animals. It is hard for them to find a slaughtered halal animals in London. As a result, his identity is slowly to disappear. 

Countee Cullen, Incident: Page 142-143

Incident - Countee Cullen (1925)

Explorations of the Text

1. What is the nature of the interaction between the two boys?

In a racial atmosphere. 

2. Why does the speaker remember nothing more than the incident, even though he stayed in Baltimore from “May until December”?

He was haunted by how awful Baltimorean treated him and cannot remember any good memories he had.

The Reading/Writing Connection

1. In a paragraph compare your experience of prejudice with the persona in the poem.

I am surrounded by friends who are look down on me when I told them my parents are from Kelantan. They (not all) will immediately assumed that I am unhygienic and only will be friend with all Kelantanese clicks. They even make fun of Kelantanese dialect. Although it is not the 'race issues' I can relate the what Cullen has wrote and it sucks to feel that way.

Ideas for Writing

1. What do its form and rhyme add to this poem?

The poem is in quatrain form (rhyming poem of four lines) and the rhyme scheme is ABCB.

2. What is the power of language? What are the effects of the use of term nigger?

The power of language is when a word that you use produced such an impact to other person. Effect of Cullen use the term nigger is to show how he is hurts by that word (nigger is a taboo word to American African people)

A Poem Inspired to Naomi Shibab Nye's All Things Not Considered

'I instruct you in ten matters for war: Do not kill women, children, the old, or the infirm; do not cut down fruit-bearing trees; do not destroy any town. Do not slaughter sheep or camels except for food. Do not burn bees and do not scatter them. Do not steal from the booty, and do not be cowardly'

                              - Abu Bakr al-Siddiq R.A First Caliph of Islam

This poem was inspired by the character, Mohamad al - Durra in All Things Not Considered by Naomi Shibab Nye but it is told by the mother after witnessing her son's death. 

Where are you Durra?

Tell me where are you now.

Why are you leaving me?

I am knelling on my knees.

How could they be so mean?

When all we have is love not the machines.

I'll shed a tear

That only God can hear

For you my son

I'll do anything (even) if I have to raised a sword

I imagined that Durra's mother was there and she witnessed the killing of her husband and son. She is beyond sad but could not do anything accept to pray for them and later killed the soldiers with pens (when writing poems for people to see how cruel soldiers are)

Let's pray for them :') and thanks for reading my poem. Cheers.

Woman in Poetry

What triggers men to write poems is the same thing what triggers women to write poems. It is an act to be heard, to make a change and to express feelings.

Of all women poets I like, Tanya Davis is the one I love the most. She is not famous like Bronte sisters or Sylvia Plath.

Tanya Davis is a poet, storyteller, musician and a singer-songwriter and she fuses these elements together to make poems. Davis was born in Summerside, Prince Edward Island and move to Ottawa and later to Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 2011, she was named the Mayor's Poet Laureate for Halifax Regional Municipality. (yes I took it from Wikipedia)

She was famous for her poem, 'How to be Alone' in 2009. That was the first time I heard her name. I kind of like her style because instead of reciting poems like everyone else (with rhymes and metres), she just spoke it and best things was, in the poems she wrote, she is not stating how men should treat women (like most feminist poets did) but write whatever comes to her mind as a creative person. 

Since she is still new, she doesn't have many poems (she is currently working on her manuscript) but my personal favourite would be, 

Go and follow her twitter and be her fan. You will love her I promise.

First Exploratory Draft & Notes

All Things Not Considered -- Naomi Shihab Nye

In this poem, the persona talked about how innocent children are brutally murdered because war (in this case, it is the war is between Israel and Palestine). Examples can be seen throughout the whole poem, 

'You cannot stitch the breath

back into this boy'

'A brother and sister were playing with toys

when their room exploded'

'The Jewish boys killed in the cave

were skipping school, having an adventure'

'Mohammed al-Durra huddled against his father

in the street, terrified. The whole world saw him die'

'An Arab father on crutches burying his 4 months girl

weeps,

"I spit in the face of this ugly world."'

Second part of the poem, the persona explained that, as a parent, he or she would do anything so save his or her children from any harm.

'Most of us would take our children over land.

We would walk in the fields forever homeless

with our children,

huddle under cliffs, eat crumbs and berries,

to keep our children.

This is what we say from a distance

because we can say whatever we want.'

Third part of the poem, the persona talked about people are ego and confuse. They never admit their mistakes and the fight for nothing but their own pride.

No one was right.

Everyone was wrong.

What if they’d get together

and say that?

At a certain point

the flawed narrator wins.

People made mistakes for decades.

Everyone hurt in similar ways

at different times.

Some picked up guns because guns were given.

If they were holy it was okay to use guns.

Some picked up stones because they had them.

They had millions of them.

They might have picked up turnip roots

or olive pits.

Picking up things to throw and shoot:

at the same time people were studying history,

going to school.

In the last part of the poem, the persona is describing the uncertainty of future in the Holy Land. There is a baby (new generation), no water, less tree and women who are perhaps lost their husbands to the war. 

The curl of a baby’s graceful ear.

The calm of a bucket

waiting for water.

Orchards of the old Arab men

who knew each tree.

Jewish and Arab women

standing silently together.

Generations of black.

Thesis & Mini Outline

All Things Not Considered. 

1. This poem is divided into four parts; 

- Children are brutally murdered without mercy
- Parents would do anything to save their children
- People are ego and confused
- Uncertainty of future in the Holy Land

2. Theme: war and suffering

3. Tone: sad, angst

4. Title: a symbolism to the theme of the poem -- things = life (all things not considered = all life are not considered; brutally murdered for nothing)

5. Repetition of the word 'holy'

6. The use of asterisk and italic words