Angel Gonzalez
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22. Gonzalez // Death and the Womb Tim
The poems of Angel Gonzalez have left me intrigued. I really enjoy this process of reading several poems from one author, I feel that I get a chance to become familiar with the writer's style. I thoroughly enjoyed each of Gonzalez' poems, each for a different reason. I will discuss the last poem in the collection "Diatribe Against the Dead" because it struck me so intensely. I started reading this poem with this question: Why are the dead so bad?
The dead are selfish:
they make us cry and don't care,
they stay quiet in the most inconvenient places,
they refuse to walk, we have to carry them
on our backs to the tomb
The word "tomb" in the fifth line ignites this poem, when my eyes reach the 'b' my mind fills the following space. The word 'cry' three lines back, and "refuse to walk" and "have to carry them" just one line back force me to think "womb". I think that the dead are connected to those living in a womb. What is more, the dead are bringing these living in a womb out of that womb and into the world. There is a clue in the next line "as if they were children. What a burden!" this burden at the end of the sentence reminds me of the burden of original sin. The problem with this interpretation is that the children in the poem are the dead, not the living. As I think more deeply, this makes perfect sense. The living are not yet born, they are in the womb, the dead are the children (of God). The dead bring reality to the living, they bring humanity. This poem speaks of the dead passionately and negatively because the speaker is expressing the pain of humanity.
The final line of the poem is especially powerful. "they don't realize what they undo." It seems like there is a kind of circularity within this line; they do (not) realize what they (un)do. 'They do' and 'they do', but each is different. The first 'they do' makes a paradox (I think that's it), in my interpretation the dead bring reality to the world, they realize the world. The second 'they do' is another negative, undo. Here what they undo is the perfection of the garden, the warmth of the womb. I suppose then, that this is a backwards sort of circularity as the first part is making real and the second is undoing the perfection, the opposite of the order of the creation story. Since it begins with the end and returns to the beginning, it completes the circle
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22. Gonzalez // No More Blue Mondays Scott
After reading through the poems by Angel Gonzalez and Paul Celan, I have decided to write a brief entry on Gonzalez's "Yesterday." This was the poem that meant the most to me after the first look and a second and much closer examination. "Yesterday" sounds nice when read aloud. A wonderful piece of writing!
The first thing I noticed about "Yesterday" was the language. Simple and direct. My favorite kind of reading. Immediately, Gonzalez starts a story about an average day, but for some reason I'm drawn in. I want to hear more about what it was that made yesterday so special. What significant event took place? It must have been something big, I assume, if someone is willing to write an entire poem about it. "Yesterday was Wednesday all morning. / By afternoon it changed: / it became almost Monday, / sadness invaded hearts," Gonzalez writes. I’ve always found it interesting that days of the week seem to have a distinct feel about them. Without a calendar or contact with others, I still think I could tell you when it’s Friday, Sunday, or Monday. The air is different. The sounds are different. By simply writing that yesterday almost became a Monday, certain depressing and sad images come into my head. I’m thinking of the color blue - blue is what represents the Monday of which Gonzalez writes. To some, however, Monday may be a happy day. To people who love heading off to work in the morning, Monday may be like Saturday night. Yet, there remains something about each day that gives it a separate identity.
Okay, the day felt a little like a Monday. A bit strange, for sure, but not exactly earth-shattering information presented to the reader. I’m still assuming something crazy took place yesterday…soon I fill find out what it is, right?
Gonzalez continues:
The cold
was unleashed,
someone went outdoors wearing a hat,
yesterday, and the whole day
was like that,
already you see,
how amusing,
yesterday and always yesterday and even now,
Here I’m starting to lose touch with Gonzalez. Monday was cold. Someone wore a hat. Wow! Let me sit down for that one! After my first reading, I feel this poem is a little bit crazy; it’s a little bit country and I’m a little bit rock and roll, you know what I mean? But then a bright light suddenly strikes me as I start to close the book. You know what, I say aloud to myself, yesterday was pretty darn cool, wasn’t it. God gave me the gift of life and I was able to live it yesterday. My gift did not run out - it kept giving into the wee hours of the morning when I was reading in my bed until 2:30. Damn right I was tired, but I never forgot about living. Life is good. Yesterday was good, today is good, tomorrow will be better, I say.
The ending to the poem is so beautiful. I must reprint a portion of it here: "about yesterday, once more / about yesterday: the incomparable / day that no one will ever / see again upon the earth." This is poem that I should read to myself every single morning. Also, in a sense, it relates to the discussion that we had that opened class today. Most of us get too carried away (myself included) with the pressure of life, the future that we want to be living. But it is the small things, the day to day items, where the beauty of life is found. As the famous quote goes, "Life is what happens while you’re making other plans." I feel this poem is trying to relate a similar message. If I can get up in the morning and truly realize how precious each moment of my life is, I will realize that yesterday was the greatest gift of all, never to be repeated. I will be forced to live each moment as though it is my first. In turn, I will look toward tomorrow knowing that all my days can be Fridays if I want them to. I will live each moment, and thank God for those that have already passed…simply inspiring.
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22. Gonzalez // Simply Deep Jeff
"Yesterday"
Yesterday was Wednesday all morning.
By afternoon it changed:
It became almost Monday,
(A short excerpt from Gonzalez, "Yesterday," in Vintage p. 17)
I have written my post with short, simple poems. These poems try to capture the moment that I’m living right now and moments that I have lived. Through this method, I am trying to not only capture further insights into the poems of Gonzalez, but also further insights into my own life, especially important moments of my own past. Here, I find comfort in knowing that there is some permanence to my "yesterdays."
-Jeff Markwardt
"Walk"
I walk to the door of my house.
By the time I turn the doorknob,
I’m almost free.
"Second"
An email sent from a friend two seconds ago was frightening.
I run to catch the second that it was sent.
Upon arriving, I thankfully find time turning again.
The second in my inbox does not tick.
"Food"
The food on my plate is called lunch.
By evening it is already dinner.
At night it turns into a snack.
By morning I awake to brunch.
Jesus’ fish fed only—how many? Five thousand.
"Story"
I wrote a story a long time ago.
By the time I grew up, it was no longer a story.
It was me.
"Time"
1:11 AM
The last I stayed for only one minute.
The I in the middle stays for ten minutes.
The first I will stay for an hour.
The AM combined with an I is permanent.
"Grass"
I mowed the grass last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
While I was mowing on Wednesday, Monday’s grass had already overgrown.
Tuesday’s grass is catching up with Monday’s grass.
Wednesday’s grass will soon want to play in this game with me too.
"Hourglass"
An hourglass replaces an arrow on my screen.
The pixels of grey replace grains of sand.
I used to have an old hourglass.
I think I lost that one too.
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22. Gonzalez // trapped and other thoughts Kate
I decided to write about the poem "The Future." I thought there was an interesting contrast in this poem, starting right in the first stanza. The first lines begin:
"But the future is different / from that destiny seen from afar, magical world, vast sphere / brushed by the long arm of desire, / brilliant ball the eyes dream, / shared dwelling / of hope . . . " Up until this point, there seems a sense of anticipation of the future. It is seen as "magical" and "brilliant." There is "dreaming" and "hoping."
And then suddenly, half-way through the last line quoted above, the poem shifts: the full line is, "of hope and deception, dark / land / of illusion and tears / the stars predicted / and the heart awaits / and that is always, always, always distant." The poet seems to fall from the initial cloud of anticipation and hope, as he realizes he was fooled. This is a powerful shift and one that is only slightly anticipated or warned. The first line of the stanza does say "But the future is different / from that destiny seen from afar," which is the magical one described. But the lines after this seemed to get me caught up in their words about magic and anticipation, making me fall with surprise just like the speaker of the poem seems to have when his hope suddenly changes to a realization of deception.
I was intrigued by the following lines also: "I'm on this line, / in this deep trajectory of agony and battle, / trapped in a tunnel or trench / that with my hands I open, close, or leave, / obeying the heart that orders, / pushes, determines, demands, and searches." There is an interesting conflict here between who is really in control. The speaker says he is "trapped," but he is trapped in a place that he can open with his own hands. So he has the ability to free himself or keep himself where he is, but there is still a sense of helplessness in these lines. He still uses the words "trapped." What exactly is controlling him here?
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22. gonzalez // Yesterday theme?? Jen
"Yesterday"
This poem seems to be about how people in a society react to a drastic change in their environment. The locals of the poem are ignoring the everyday excitements of life, even the children, who don’t look up to see the plane, while the strangers are completely oblivious to the change, enjoying their coffee as usual.
When something drastic changes in a society, the "I’ll tell you about when"s seem to begin. You have the older members of society speaking of how it used to be, how they wish it was, and how bad things currently are. That is the impression that this poem leaves me with. After the complete "sadness invaded hearts", everyone could think and speak only of yesterday.
What occurred to this group of people to cause this change? It could have been their country’s declaration of war or some other political turmoil, which would explain why the strangers are so content. Or it could be the strangers themselves, content in a world that doesn’t seem to appreciate their presence.
I liked this poem, though I’m not sure what it means. I’m anxious to talk about it in class!
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Angel Gonzales link Joanna
I could only find one site on Angel Gonzalez, which is a commentary of a poem. However, the poem is not included, which makes it hard to follow. Anyway, here it is:
http://www.cdc.net/~stifler/cstcc/gonzalez.html
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Gonzalez 1st draft
Kevin Flynn
Great Poets
World Poets Assign
Fr Mark
Sublime Images;
The Secret Identity of Angel Gonzalez
Angel Gonzalez was born in Spain in the year 1925. Much of his young life was filled with turmoil and death. He grew up during the years of the Spanish Civil War. One of his brothers was assassinated. Another was exiled. His poems are filled with imagery and metaphor. Due to the times in which he wrote he was forced to use cryptic images; "Not in what the words say but what they imply, in the spaces of shadow, of silence, of anger, or of helplessness that they discover or cover. The existence of a censorship that was ruthless, and also frequently and fortunately inept, forced me at times to have recourse to an ironical and ambiguous language, and even to transfer to a distant objective correlate many of my more immediate and urgent concerns." (McClatchy, Vintage, 15) Many of Angel’s poems function on two levels; the surface images and phrases about everyday life and its happenings. The second level describes the effects of the conflict on himself and his country.
The poem Yesterday is about a seemingly ordinary day that will never occur again. "Yesterday was Wednesday all morning. // By afternoon it changed: // it was almost Monday, // sadness invaded hearts" These first four lines of the poem introduce the main theme of the poem. Everything seems normal, but in reality there is something sinister occurring beneath the surface. The day started as Wednesday, as it should be. Soon everything changed. The day took the feel of Monday, the most dreaded day of the week. The swimmers are going to the river like always, but there is a distinct panic about their actions. The next stanza contains a repetition of the word yesterday, three times to be precise. Each time it repeats, it serves to reinforce statements. "Yesterday, and always yesterday and even now, // strangers". Angel follows it up with an upbeat statement about how they are happy and eating ice cream, but yet things are not as happy as they seem. The people are strangers not friends or neighbors. The dichotomy of the poem shows up again in the end of this stanza and the beginning of the next. The last line of the first reads "What joy!" The next line reads "Night fell suddenly" Yesterday ended and today began.
I believe this poem is a thinly veiled reference to the times before and after the Spanish Civil War. Yesterday things were peaceful, but not quite tranquil. Today things are different, not better or worse but different. The War was inevitable. The differences were irreconcilable to Angel. "And no one could // impede the final dawn // of today’s day." The monarchy had outlived its usefulness and was a dying institution. "So similar // and yet // so different in lights and aroma" Nothing has changed in Spain. They went from a monarch to a dictator. Either way you look at it the people have no say. For a very brief period Spain was a free republic. This poem is Angel’s attempt to keep that memory, that brief glimpse of freedom alive through his poetry.
Like Yesterday, The Future functions on two different levels. It is a message that our lives are shaped by our actions and a remembrance of the people that fought and died in the battle for Independence. The first two lines deliver a powerful message and set up the rest of the poem. "But the future is different // from that destiny seen from afar," Destiny is something that is traditionally thought to be beyond our control, whether we want it to happen or not it does. Angel is saying that the future is something that we have direct control over. Our actions will all have consequences that will effect the course of our and humanity's existence. "I think, the future is also another thing: // a verb tense in motion, in action, in combat // a searching movement towards life." We are in control of what happens to us and to our world.
At the same time the poem serves as a requiem and a thank you to those that caused today out of yesterday’s future. The third stanza ("I’m on this line...") remains a mystery to me as to its full meaning, but it is full of war images. The most likely interpretation that I see is that Angel is referring to his own agony and puzzling at choices he had to make in the past. The decisions themselves were very much a war of his thoughts and emotions. The next stanza brings the poem back to the present. "Future of mine...! Distant heart // that dictated it yesterday // don’t be ashamed. // Today is the result of your blood," The distant heart is the choices that Angel made in the past as well as all the individuals that died for the cause. He is telling all the soldiers and patriots in the hospital or in the cemeteries that they fought the good fight and that they need not worry they were fighting for the wrong side.
The one line that I have absolutely how to take is, "Tomorrow will not be exactly as God wishes." found in the second to last stanza. It is preceded by three statements of increasing force. Tomorrow the narrator will go forward, he will be content, he will love you. Perhaps Angel is being realistic and realizing that tomorrow may not be ideal. The next lines where he writes that tomorrow might be "gray or luminous, or cold" certainly allude to the fact that tomorrow is uncertain. It may not bring joy and prosperity, and it just might. The future remains an artwork that is forever being drawn by our actions and choices.
Another Angel poem that deals with the deceased is the Diatribe Against the Dead. It reminded me of a Brecht poem I read recently War Has Been Given A Bad Name. Both poems look at horrific topics in very sarcastic, almost satirical fashions. Brecht discussed the Holocaust while Angel looked at death. One of my favorite quotations from all the poetry we have read so far is found in Diatribe, "The bad thing about the dead // is that there is no way you can kill them." As with all the Angel poems I have looked at, this poem can have a double meaning. On the surface it is a comical way of looking at the sorrowful legacy left behind when a person passes on. The second meaning is a message to those in authority, telling them that they may kill the freedom fighters, but they will never silence the ideals they stood for. The dead become martyrs for the cause, and their voices continue to be heard. The final line drives home this point, "With their (the dead) insolence and their silence // they don’t realize what they undo." The dead undo our day to day harmony. They also can be a powerful rallying point for the people around them.
The childhood of Angel Gonzalez saw three different regimes come to power in Spain. Much of his poetry has been influenced by the violent nature of these upheavals and the subsequent oppression that resulted. His poems contain many beautiful and thinly veiled messages for those readers willing to look behind the curtain and delve into his art.
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Gonzalez, Angel // Living characteristics of the Dead Stephanie
In "Diatribe Against the Dead," Gonzalez gives characteristics to the dead (i.e. "selfish") and speaks out against their state of being or lack of it because of how it effects the living. He describes them as "insensitive, distant, obstinate, cold" (Vintage, 21) when really they are inanimate objects at that point, or at least their bodies are. You might be disturbed by what may seem a lack of respect when talking about the dead, but that is exactly what Gonzalez is doing here--he is forcing us, the living, to look at how we view the dead. Usually they are revered and held at high esteem but "What a burden!" (21) as Gonzalez puts it. The dead "don't realize what they undo" (21). Because they cannot do anything, merely by their absence or "insolence" and "silence", they are undoing something. Are they undoing what they did in life? Gonzalez portrays them in the lines before as not caring what they do to those who care about them and so they don't realize how they are effecting these people. Gonzalez is crying out against "people" who cannot answer and at the end seems to depart from his angst and rant to get at the real issue--that he who is calling them selfish and the worst things really cares about those who are dead and wishes they still had emotions since he is prescribing fake characteristics onto them.
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RE: Gonzalez, Angel // Living characteristics of the Dead Anne
I liked this poem as well, so I think I'll throw another perspective in. I agree with Steph that Gonzalez is asking us to look at how we view the dead. However, here are the lines that puzzle me:
Unusually rigid, their faces
accuse us of something, or warn us;
they are the bad conscience, the bad example,
What are the dead people trying to communicate? What are they warning and accusing the survivors of? If the dead are the conscience, then the polarity is the alive are the good conscience. The author seems to focus on the superiority of the alive people, but the alive people have a weakness, they do not know the wisdom of the dead. It is like the dead are trying to communicate something that the alive people do not want to hear, is it a message of mortality? The speaker writes in frustration: there is not way you can kill them. Obviously, dead bodies are dead, but for some reason they are still communicating messages that the alive people are trying to silence. What an interesting concept, the voice of dead people.
Lastly, the other writes: they don't realize what they undo. In the lines previous to this one, the author describes the dead (as Steph mentioned) as distant, cold, obstinate ..... however cold these dead people are, they are still affecting those alive. It is like the author is trying to push away death, maybe the death of loved ones ... trying to place and anger on them so the feelings of loss and grief cannot emerge. However, once again, the dead have power and they undo ...?? feelings of mortality? emotions? grief? Maybe the dead people are trying to awake the alive people who are really dead insid themselves.
"Truth stands outside the doors of our souls...and knocks." Gregory of Nyssa
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