Looking at two poems by Juan Felipe Herrera, followed by discussion questions and short response on "Blood on the Wheel". (class handout / copy below)
What is a poet Laureate?
The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry is appointed annually by the Librarian of the United States Congress. Laureates assume a highly visible role as a national advocate for poetry.
On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile was shot and killed by Jeronimo Yanez, a St. Anthony, Minnesota, police officer, after being pulled over in Falcon Heights, a suburb of Saint Paul
On July 5, 2016, Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old African American was fatally shot several times at close range by two white Baton Rouge Police Department officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Slain Dallas Officer Lorne Ahrens
Michael Krol
Michael J. Smith
@ the Crossroads—A Sudden American Poem
RIP Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Dallas police
officers Lorne Ahrens, Michael Krol, Michael J. Smith,
Brent Thompson, and Patrick Zamarripa—and all
their families. And to all those injured.
officers Lorne Ahrens, Michael Krol, Michael J. Smith,
Brent Thompson, and Patrick Zamarripa—and all
their families. And to all those injured.
Let us celebrate the lives of all
As we reflect & pray & meditate on their brutal deaths
Let us celebrate those who marched at night who spoke of peace
& chanted Black Lives Matter
Let us celebrate the officers dressed in Blues ready to protect
Let us know the departed as we did not know them before—their faces,
Bodies, names—what they loved, their words, the stories they often spoke
Before we return to the usual business of our days, let us know their lives intimately
Let us take this moment & impossible as this may sound—let us find
The beauty in their lives in the midst of their sudden & never imagined vanishing
Let us consider the Dallas shooter—what made him
what happened in Afghanistan
what
flames burned inside
flames burned inside
(Who was that man in Baton Rouge with a red shirt selling CDs in the parking lot
Who was that man in Minnesota toppled on the car seat with a perforated arm
& a continent-shaped flood of blood on his white T who was
That man prone & gone by the night pillar of El Centro College in Dallas)
This could be the first step
in the new evaluation of our society This could be
the first step of all of our lives
***************************************************************************
I went down to the river to pray; establishing rhythm
******************************************************************************
***************************************************************************
I went down to the river to pray; establishing rhythm
Blood on the Wheel
Ezekiel saw the wheel,
way up in the middle of the air.
TRADITIONAL GOSPEL SONG
way up in the middle of the air.
TRADITIONAL GOSPEL SONG
1.Blood
on the night soil man en route to the country prison
Blood on
the sullen chair, the one that holds you with its pleasure
2. Blood
inside the quartz, the beauty watch, the eye of the guard
Blood on
the slope of names & the tattoos hidden
3. Blood
on the Virgin, behind the veils,
Behind—in
the moon angel's gold oracle hair
4. What blood is this, is it the blood of
the worker rat?
Is it the
blood of the clone governor, the city maid?
Why does it
course in s's & z's?
5. Blood
on the couch, made for viewing automobiles & face cream
Blood on
the pin, this one going through you without any pain
6. Blood
on the screen, the green torso queen of slavering hearts
Blood on
the grandmother's wish, her tawdry stick of Texas
7. Blood
on the daughter's breast who sews roses
Blood on
the father, does anyone remember him, bluish?
8. Blood
from a kitchen fresco, in thick amber strokes
Blood from
the baby's right ear, from his ochre nose
What blood
is this?
9. Blood
on the fender, in the sender's shoe, in his liquor sack
Blood on
the street, call it Milagro Boulevard, Mercy Lanes #9
Blood on
the alien, in the alligator jacket teen boy Juan
10. There
is blood, there, he says
Blood here
too, down here, she says
Only blood,
the Blood Mother sings
11. Blood
driving miniature American queens stamped into rage
Blood
driving rappers in Mercedes blackened & whitened in news
Blood
driving the snare-eyed professor searching for her panties
Blood
driving the championship husband bent in Extreme Unction
12. Blood of the orphan weasel in heat, the
Calvinist farmer in wheat
Blood of the
lettuce rebellion on the rise, the cannery worker's prize
13. Blood
of the painted donkey forced into prostitute zebra,
Blood of
the Tijuana tourist finally awake & forced into pimp sleep again
I14. It
is blood time, Sir Terminator says,
It is
blood time, Sir Simpson winks,
It is
blood time, Sir McVeigh weighs.
15. Her nuclear blood watch soaked, will it
dry?
His whitish blood
ring smoked, will it foam?
My groin blood
leather roped, will it marry?
My wife's peasant
blood spoked, will it ride again?
16. Blood
in the tin, in the coffee bean, in the maquila oración
Blood in
the language, in the wise text of the market sausage
Blood in
the border web, the penal colony shed, in the bilingual yard
17. Crow blood blues perched on
nothingness again
fly over my
field, yellow-green & opal
Dog blood crawl
& swish through my sheets
18. Who
will eat this speckled corn?
Who shall
be born on this Wednesday war bed?
19. Blood
in the acid theater, again, in the box office smash hit
Blood in
the Corvette tank, in the crack talk crank below
20. Blood
boat Navy blood glove Army ventricle Marines
in the
cookie sex jar, camouflaged rape whalers
Roam
& rumble, investigate my Mexican hoodlum blood
21. Tiny
blood behind my Cuban ear, wine colored & hushed
Tiny blood
in the death row tool, in the middle-aged corset
Tiny blood
sampler, tiny blood, you hush up again, so tiny
22. Blood
in the Groove Shopping Center,
In blue
Appalachia river, in Detroit harness spleen
23. Blood
in the Groove Virus machine,
In low
ocean tide, in Iowa soy bean
24. Blood
in the Groove Lynch mob orchestra,
South of
Herzegovina, south, I said
25. Blood
marching for the Immigration Patrol, prized & arrogant
Blood
spawning in the dawn break of African Blood Tribes, grimacing
&
multiple—multiple, I said
26. Blood
on the Macho Hat, the one used for proper genuflections
Blood on
the faithful knee, the one readied for erotic negation
Blood on
the willing nerve terminal, the one open for suicide
27. Blood
at the age of seventeen
Blood at
the age of one, dumped in a Greyhound bus
28. Blood
mute & autistic & cauterized & smuggled Mayan
&
burned in border smelter tar
29. Could
this be yours? Could this item belong to you?
Could this
ticket be what you ordered, could it?
30. Blood on
the wheel, blood on the reel
Bronze dead gold & diamond deep. Blood be fast.
Discussion
questions
1. Why does
Herrera include lyrics from a traditional gospel song as a prelude to the poem?
2. Using
poetic language, how is the poem organized?
3. Describe
the rhythm of Blood on the Wheel.
4. What is
the dominating rhetorical device throughout the poem?
5. Why
select the word “blood?”
Name____________________________________”Blood on the Wheel”
by Juan Felipe Herrera
From the poem “Blood on the Wheel”, beginning with the
stanza number, write out and explain 5 meanings for the word blood that used
throughout the poem and to what the circumstances the word may allude. These do not need to be in any particular
order.
Model example: stanza 28: “Blood mute & autistic &
cauterized & smuggled Mayan.” This
refers to immigrants from Mexico who to survive must leave their homeland and
silently move into a new, incomprehensible social order to survive.
1.___________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
2._______________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
3._______________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. _______________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
5._________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment