19 Varieties of Gazelle: 19 Varieties of Gazelle & Jerusalem Headlines 2000

    In 19 Varieties of Gazelle, Nye writes highly of the freedom the gazelle have.  She poses her audience to contemplate the freedom of the gazelle by asking "Is the whole air the path of the gazelle?" (88).  Animals truly have freedom to take any path they ca reach.  Nye connects the freedom of nature to the Middle East yet again in section two.
   Nye highlights the collaboration of nature and Arabs in Jerusalem Headlines 2000, how an act of nature brought two divided groups of people to save their people.  The headlines from the unprecedented snowstorm in Jerusalem are weaved into the poem speaking for themselves while Nye adds deep artistic and contemplative text further delving into the complexity of nature and human nature.

19 Varieties of Gazelle: Section 2: The Tray & Trenches and Moats and Mounds of Dirt

The poem The Tray (p.105) is a short little poem.  It’s almost like its explaining what the phrase “every cloud has a silver lining”, that whatever goes on in the day whether it be displeasing or distressing that there are still those little highlights of the day.  Even if that one highlight is sitting down and spending time with people, no matter their own history, or their people’s history, is.  Nobody needs to talk for you to feel a connection with others, just sharing a nice peaceful moment is enough to create a pleasant memory.

The other poem Trenches and Moats and Mounds of Dirt (p. 117) is possibly twice the length of The Tray, but holds just as much meaning.  At first it describes a changed and ruined land, “…a bird rises from the cloth to fly in circles over a scene she does not recognize.  Where is her nesting place, the safe slot between branches?”  This passage may not represent displaced animals but also the displaced Palestinians.  Some people lose their families in a matter in minutes, it is a  saddening fact and worse is that it doesn’t just happen in the Middle East.  People will always conflict with one another, usually ending in fights and wars.  There is such a language “called Mean” that I would gratefully see die (if it could).  While the ‘Mean’ language goes extinct we should all make friends in the least expected of places, making the chances of fighting die of with each friendship that we forge.

19 Varieties of Gazelle: Red Brocad & They Dropped It

Passage from Introduction:

"She wanted people to worship in whatever way they felt comfortable.  To respect one another, sit together around the fire cracking almonds and drinking tea, and never forget to laugh, no matter what horrible things they had been through." (xvii-xviii)

  Nye brings a sense of calm to my thoughts of the Middle East when reading her poems.  I stopped after Red Brocad to contemplate what I had just read.  Post 9/11, many Americans are led to believe that the Middle East is full of people who hate and ridden with terror everyday.  Nye's statement that Arabs use to say to allow a stranger in you home for three days shifted my mind completely out of all stereotypes I am bombarded with.  I pictured and Arab family, Mom, Dad, Children, become great acquaintances with a stranger.  No one was judgmental, ignorant to the stranger's background.  "I refuse to be claimed," really jumped out at me (41).  I live in a country where time is everything and an Arab-American woman is challenging my conceptions about being so scheduled.  

   The author also challenge's people to deconstruct this image of a terror ridden Middle East with her poem, They Dropped It.  There is this idea that one's age, class, or any characteristic can stop one from recognizing and appreciating the beauty nature gives us.  There is a question posed, "Who deserves flowers more? Rich people who never came outside or children stuck all day in school" (83)?  In the end of the poem, the one who enjoys the flowers the most remains ambiguous other than the fact that home is across a sea.  Someone is able to stop and appreciate something that is overlooked by most.  Maybe Nye is referring to herself, appreciating something because she is far away from the source of her culture.

   Both bring this sense of calm and appreciation for people when thinking about the Middle East.  She wrote about the controversy that 9/11 has brought about Arab people in her introduction and refers to 9/11 in poems.  Her Grandmother's morals of acceptance in all comes through in these two poems.  There is challenge to readers to think about judgement and refrain from it.  If you refrain from it you may have something great to appreciate.

Section 2: "19 Varieties of Gazelle" & "Footfall"

19 Varieties of Gazelle and Footfall are both very unique and similar poems because of the use of animals. Both poems depict the animals (gazelles and turtles) in a positive light. Both of the “voices” in the poems speak of how beautiful the animals are and how unique and different they are compared to humans. In 19 Varieties of Gazelle, the gazelle is depicted as a graceful and quiet animal and is even described as a “Gentile gazelle, dipping her head, into a pool of silver grass” (89). The reader is made to think that the observers in the poem are in awe of the gazelle and say that there is “Nothing better than 19 varieties of gazelle” (88).  In Footfall, the turtle is also appreciated but for different reasons. The people that live in the same area as the turtle try and show the animal the upmost respect and consideration. The turtle is sensitive and “She feels your footfall” (114). This footfall makes the residents take their time and slows their movements so as to not disturb the animal and they “…tiptoe through her yard” (115). Even with the tiptoeing, the turtle is still timid and scared.

This makes me wonder why animals are used so often in the poems? Do certain animals mean or symbolize different aspects of the culture? Are the animals trying to tell the reader of the poems something? Lastly, why is the turtle in Footfall so scared and uneasy?

Lost Children: "Biography of an Armenian Schoolgirl" & "For Mohammed On The Mountain"

These two poems were of particular interest to me because they both featured children that are wise beyond their years. In the first poem, a young school girl is trying to make sense of the world around her and her culture. She does not understand why she is being taught certain subjects in school and specifically raises questions about marriage when she says “How will I sleep with him, I who have never slept away from my mother?” (11). The girl has a wonderful imagination and pictures a different life for herself but is never able to achieve it because she is suppressed due to her culture which is seen as she writes on her tablet. “There is something else we were born for. I almost remember it. While I write, a ghost writes on the same tablet, achieves a different sum” (13). Her culture will always have an impact on how she acts, presents herself, and thinks.

The second poem is similar but different in a few specific ways. It features a young boy whom also has a lot of questions in regard to his culture, specifically his religion. He is continually questioning his father about Mohammad and asks such questions as “But why did he go to the mountain? What happened to him?” (25). The boy also starts to question his faith when things are not going well with little sign of improvement. He asks Mohammad, “Are you angry with us? Do you think my father forgot you?” (27).  At the end of the poem, we learn that despite having so many questions and possible doubt about his religion and culture, the boy still continues to believe. He even wishes to one day to be united with his friends on the mountain with Mohammad (29).

While the boy in this poem questions his religion, the girl in the first poem questions her education and her roles as a woman. This is what makes the two poems so different and interesting. Due to the different gender roles in the cultures, the boy and the young girl concern themselves with two different aspects of their culture. In this way they are lost and both are trying to figure out where they stand and what their place in this world is going to be. Since they are of different genders, their answers to these questions will be different. They may never find the answers they are looking for but they both seem rather determined to keep searching.

Powerfull Passage

"I dedicate these poems of my life to the wise grandmothers and to the young readers in whom I have always placed my best faith. If grandmothers and children were in charge of the world, there would never be any wars" (xviii).

19 Varieties of Gazelle: My Father and the Figtree & Passing the Refugee Camp

My Father and the Figtree is a more simple and lighthearted poem compared to the others in Section 1 of the book.  The poem has a specific subject a father and his obsession with fig trees.  In the poem you can also identify a mother character along with the person telling the ‘story’.  The dialogue is actually in quotations in the poem, which is formatted into four block paragraphs.  I like this poem simply because it is a nice poem recalling happy memories, it actually made me laugh; “ ‘Plant one!” my mother said, but my father never did.  He tended garden half-heartedly, forgot to water, let the okra get too big. ‘What a dreamer he is.  Look how many things he starts and doesn’t finish.’”  Both the first and second comments that the mother makes were the things that I laughed at.  The second comment, about what a dreamer he is, was funny to me because it was so true, people can really be like that in real life.

Passing the Refugee Camp was written in a different, darker light than My Father and the Figtree.  The paragraphs made of only two lines (with the exception of two paragraphs) make the words stand out more and make them more profound. “In suits the color of olive trees soldiers stand and stand.” (p. 30) The simple description of the soldiers was enough to create a strong image in my mind.  This poem isn’t about any one person, but more about a feeling, something a group of people had to go through.