Communication

Expressing the way one feels is an important and yet an extremely difficult part of life. Letting others understand the way you think and interpret your life is extremely personal and complicated. One might ask: how much do I want to reveal? Is what I feel acceptable? How will people react to how I feel? And so on. In the poems This is Just to Say by William Carlos Williams, l(a by e.e. cummings and the short story “Love Medicine” by Louise Erdrich all have the common theme of how one connects and communicates with others.
This is Just to Say is a surprising poem even by simply looking at the poem itself. It is short with only three stanzas with a few words in each line. There is no real rhyme scheme. However the first and third line in the first and third stanza have words that partially rhyme. For example, in the first stanza, the words “eaten” (line 1) and “in” (line 3) sound similar but they do not rhyme. The same goes for “me” (line 9) and “sweet” (line 11) although that is even stretching this non-existent rhyme scheme. This small similarity however is not in the second stanza, for the words “which” (line 5) and “saving” (line 7) do not sound alike what so ever. This is also interesting because line 7 is also the only line with one word. The content of the poem is humorous. It is a man telling, assumingly, his wife that he ate her plums. It is an apology letter and one can almost picture it on a post it on a freezer. This shows an interesting communication in the relationship. The speaker obviously feels bad and thinks his best route of an apology is apparently to write this little poem. It is also funny that he never says “I am sorry” and although he does say, “Forgive me” (line 9) he immediately states how great the plums were! Showing the speaker does not actually feel bad. This poem is light hearted and possibly reflects on the relationship of the couple.
In l(a by e.e. Cummings the communication one has with himself is explored. This poem also looks very odd just by the general appearance. There isn’t really a rhyme scheme or even obvious stanzas. It first seems like there are just randomly placed letters in a vertical column. One has no idea what it is even supposed to mean. I was about to give up immediately until I started reading it as if it were in a horizontal line. It became obvious of what it was actually saying: loneliness (a leaf falls). Just writing it as such would not have gotten the actual point across even though it straight forward. The speaker is communicating with himself it seems, because it is not written to anyone specific. It also reminds one of how people sometimes write in code so that no one can understand what they are really writing. This code makes one think and try to understand what the speaker is truly conveying. Expressing sadness, especially loneliness is possibly one of the hardest emotions to communicate with others. Not only is it depressing to admit you feel like you have no one to connect to, you probably don’t have anyone to even tell. The image of a single leaf falling also allows the reader to mentally picture what the speaker is feeling. A leaf falling is sad in a way, because it is one single unit literally dropping away from the rest. The order of the words, and the way they are grouped also adds much to the poem. Specially, in lines 6-8 the reader almost sees the idea of loneliness on the page. “one” (line 6) is obviously a word that connotes one person and loneliness. It is also important to note that this is the only complete word, even though it is attached to the other letters in the poem. In line 7 “l” looks like the number 1 and further emphasizes the major themes of the poem. Cummings was able to create a feeling in the reader that is next to impossible. The reader feels connected to the poem and almost actually lonely themselves because it takes them so long to realize the actual message. And after one finally decodes the poem they realize a feeling of guilt almost takes over. Cummings did a fantastic job of forcing the reader to empathize with him. I also think it was a tool for him in which he could release his own emotions in a safe way because once the reader finds the message they feel a real connection and tie to the poem.
Louise Edrich’s “Love Medicine” tells the story of a half European and half Native American family. Set in North Dakota the main characters, Lulu Lamartine, Marie and Nector Kashpaw are involved in a love triangle that affects three generations of the family. Although not a poem the story reads smoothly as one and shows how a family torn between traditions communicates to one another. One of the grandsons tries to make a love potion for his old grandfather, Nector Kashpaw. The potion does not go as planned and the true flaws of humans are put into light. Families have one of the most intricate and confusing forms of communication. Each family has their own buried secrets and inside jokes. This family is no different when expressing themselves. It also tells the struggle of the Native American and their dying culture. This idea is very apparent in my own life. My family has our own way of talking. My dads’ side, which is from my hometown, is huge as my dad was one out of 12. Even though I wasn’t alive for any of his youth I know almost everything there is to know about him during that time. I know the taboo subjects, which aunts and uncles don’t get along, and every other facet of their lives. There is even a certain voice, as strange as that sounds, that my dads’ side talks in. There are key phrases that I have grown up hearing that no one else would understand. There was a huge uproar from my Grandma when my cousin got married to a Jewish man. Her main concern was the mixing of cultures and how that would affect the family. This is very similar to the situation within the characters in the story. My mothers side is directly opposite from my fathers in many respects. She is from a tiny farming town in Iowa and her family is very reserved and almost passive aggressive. I know half as much about her youth as I do my dads’ and all the phrases and stories are different. Despite their much different backgrounds my Grandmother was very pleased when they got married because my mother was Irish Catholic. Even though my new cousin, who is Jewish, had a more similar upbringing to his wife them my father to his there, is some sort of fear of “what could happen?” If there is anything I have learned about the way we communicate with out families is that despite all the complaints we have, what we fear is change in any form.
Communication and emoting are important ideas not just within context of the poems and story but in everyone’s own personal life. What we reveal to others or how we present ourselves are very telling about our personalities. Within Baltimore I feel there are many assumptions because of a miss communication. I assume the worst at all possible situations when I am on York rd etc. because of what I have heard from others. In turn I am sure people probably see me walking on the street, a confused college girl with a suspicious look on her face, and that re enforces a certain stereotype about me. The poems dealt with more specific communication but maybe that is the level where all other communication comes from. Maybe we should all try to communicative and examine ourselves in a different way because there is always a constant miss comunication.