Responding To A Poem

The Two Poems
After reading the poems in the Poetry of Witness tab I found that the two poems that were very moving are, “The Woman Hanging From The Thirteenth Floor Window,” by Joy Harjo and “Immigrants in Our Own Land,” by Jim my Santiago Baca. The reason that I found Joy Harjo’s poem to be moving is because throughout the poem the woman hanging from the thirteenth floor seems to feel lost. Maybe not having full control over her life, the want to speak but she never does. Which is where I can relate to her character because, sometimes I do feel lost and everything that I want is out of reach. Some of it being out of reach because I didn’t speak up for myself. Which Harjo seems to try to explain throughout her poem. It was the woman’s fault that she was hanging from the thirteenth floor, because she never spoke up for herself.

Now the poem by Baca, “Immigrants in Our Own Land,” was different. I liked this particular poem because immigrants come to a new world all the time. Most of them hoping that they are going to have a fresh start in this new world. The poems title though “immigrants in our own land,” tells me that they are the immigrants, but as the new ones arrive. They now become the regular people and now have immigrants in their own “new” land. So instead of being this new world it sort of becomes the old one again. I kind of relate to this poem because I have family that are immigrants, and the U.S. is their new world. Although the poems ending has a message that I can’t relate to, I really can relate to the feelings and emotions that the characters have.

Photo #1 & #2 from Google images
This Link is on Joy Harjo, Short Bio. and List of poetry books http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=2929

This link is on Baca also short Bio. and list of poetry http://www.jimmysantiagobaca.com/biography.html