My Favorite Poems :San Jos�, By Cynthia Gomez

Joy Harjo’s poem “The Path to the Milky Way Leads through Los Angeles” is written with the intent to reveal the Native American struggle of having to find a way to submerge themselves into a culture that had been forced upon them. In this poem Harjo an Okmulgee Native has trouble when adjusting to the city of Los Angeles; all while still trying to hold on to her Native American heritage. This displacement of culture is what constitutes the separation between a person and their culture. Removing the art and other manifestation from a group that know nothing other than their own teachings will only cause what we see as pre-existing; which is the whitewashing of a culture. The sacredness of the Native culture is quickly overturned when the

In this essay I am going to compare and contrast ‘When we two parted’ a poem of George Gordon, Lord Byron’s written in 1815 and Letitia Elizabeth Landon’s ‘Love’s last lesson’ written in c1838, both poets are British and of the romantic period.

Caught up in the whirl of a gringo society, confused by the rules, scorned by attitudes, suppressed by manipulation, and destroyed by modern society. My fathers have lost the economic battle and won the struggle of cultural survival... I look at myself. I watch my brothers. I shed tears of sorrow. I sow seeds of hate. I withdraw to the safety within the circle of life MY OWN PEOPLE. (Gonzales)

In the essay, “A Literature of Place”, Barry Lopez expresses the importance of nature as it applies to human life. Through this he states that humans’ imagination are inspired by the scenery around them. Lopez revolves around a central perspective; Ancient american literature has always been rooted in nature. By acknowledging that modern human identity has been interpreted by nature, Lopez describes how the landscape of an area can shape the structure of the communities and how it can help with spiritual collapse. Nature writing has often been summarised by being one of the oldest threads in american literature. With our nation's aging one needs to reflect on their literary past; therefore, Lopez insists that we find our path to nature that

Poetry is often used as a form of writing to express emotions or tell a story. The poems “LA Nocturne: The Angels”, by Xavier Villaurrutia and “Meditations on the South Valley: Poem IX” by Jimmy Santiago Baca, are two distinctive poems. In Baca’s poem he expresses the disbelief and the sorrow of the death of a boy named Eddie. While, in Villaurrutia’s poem reveals an expression of secret desire men have. Baca and Villaurrutia’s poems, both use repetition, imagery and metaphors in their poems to convey their message.

In addition to including the most boring of details, Capote uses a great deal of imagery to describe the town and its residents. Focusing mostly on visual appeal, he describes the "sulphur-colored paint" and "flaking gold" to reveal the town's appearance and has-been status. Portraying the area as one that has seen better days, Capote writes about the "old stucco structure" that no longer holds dances, the crumbling post office, and the bank that now fails to serve its original purpose.” Combining visual imagery with hints of desolation, Capote attempts to reveal the gray and boring nature of the town through its appearance. He does not, however, rely only on visual details; in describing the local accent as "barbed with a prairie twang," he uses both auditory and visual appeal to make one imagine a ranch-hand's tone of voice and pattern of speech as he describes the events of his farming days. The "hard blue skies and desert-clear air" contribute to a feeling of emptiness, an emotional vacancy that seems omnipresent in the small town. Finally, even "the steep and swollen grain elevators" that represent the town's prosperity are seen in a solemn and mysterious light, as Capote makes certain to mention that the townspeople camouflage this abundance without explaining why they choose to do so.

Julia Alvarez is an acclaimed American-Dominican poet and author. She has written many successful books and poems, many of which reflect directly on her life and personal experiences. Because of Alvarez’s American-Dominican background, her poems display diverse, cultural themes. These include what it is like to be American and Dominican and the struggles of moving from the Dominican Republic to the United States. Alvarez has received praise for her ability to write a wide variety of styles, including poems, children's books, young adult novels, and essays. Her success, however, has come from her poetry collections, like Homecoming. These collections show her life in the Dominican Republic and her transition to the United States.

When people move from one, place to another, over time that person changes. The way people act; the way the city is run changes the person, whether it would be how they talk how people act to other people. In Toni Morrison’s Jazz, the author shows the reader just how important geography is to a person’s thought process and actions. A character in Jazz named Violet Trace shows the reader just how important a change in geography can be for a person. Throughout the novel, Morrison shows the effect of migrating from the south to the north and how the city changes the way certain people think and what it could lead them to do. The concept of geography and what it does psychologically shows the reader how or why a certain person did something. The settings used by Morrison show the reader what the effect is when moving from place to another and more specifically how Violet moving from the south to the north affected her psychologically.

Richard Blanco is the son of two immigrants from Cuba: he grew up in a Cuban cohort in Miami, Florida. It was instilled in him at a young age that his ancestry and America were one in the same. They were both magical. His foreign home was talked about often, never condemned, while America was their physical home and their place to earn a better life than their previous one could afford them. Blanco’s poem, “One Today,” exhibits his cultural pride, optimism, and gratitude for life and his country: The United States.

Linda Thomas and Joan Didion are both natives of Southern California and wrote about the Santa Ana, a wind that blows from northeast to Southern California every year. Didion, the author of The Santa Ana, mostly writes about the area where she was born in 1934. Thomas, the author of Brush Fire, was also born in Southern California. She has been writing poems, stories and essays for 25 years. Her writing has appeared in numerous print journals like American Poetry Review.

In “The Poem You Asked For” by Larry Levis, he is comparing writing a poem by comparing it to a plant, stubborn person, and toad. Larry Levis, a 20th-century writer is well known for his brevity and surprise approach in poetry. This poem magnifies the complications that authors may face while trying to write something of such importance. The speaker uses an abundant amount of figurative language to personify how writing is so difficult, and can lead to many difficulties and dead ends. The author uses figurative language to portray the theme of difficulties in the writing process such as: difficulties prewriting, writers block, and how hard it is to let go of writing as an author.

Where you from? By Gina Valdez, Legal alien, Elena by Pat Mora, and Here by Sandra Maria Esteves are poems that have a similar meaning. This poems are connected by the same problem, can be cultural or language problems that the majority of the immigrants suffer. Every single poem have a different story and characters, but with the same problem. Those poems talked about the borders that the majority of the immigrants have, some of them do not feel identify with their new culture, however, others poems showed the language problems that the characters has. The points of those poems are basically the problems that the majority of the immigrants suffer: the adaptation to a new culture with a new language.

At the moment of its waking Sacramento lost…its character…” (Didion 173). In other words, Didion is pointing out how Sacramento is becoming more immoral as urbanization and industrialization occur. However, what is most interesting is how Didion expresses Sacramento’s loss of character through her own experiences. For instance, Didion describes her wonderful memories basking in the Californian sun, rivers, fields and valleys as a child, showcasing the real natural Sacramento. However, later on as a n adult when she returns to Sacramento, Didion finds that the Sacramento she has been seeking is no longer there, as a result of industrial development:

The artist most likely feels proud to be part of LA. He depicts it in a joyful attitude that we would all familiarise with. Sunny days with palm trees rising high and people cruising

In Luis Cablaquinto’s poem, “Hometown,” the speaker talks about how he is not himself when he is not at home. He wishes that he can would remain where he grew up, “I have no wish but this place / To remain here at a stopped time / With stars moving on the water” (9-11). The speaker mentioned that he can see the stars in his home because he cannot see it when he is in the city. That’s how I feel when I am at Athens. When I get to go home for a holiday, I just wish time would stand still and that I could stay there forever.