Chicken Killing by Mary Mackey

As we sat in class and listened to this poem, I found it to be rather funny, but yet rather weird. This poem was filled with many different images that you could relate to. In the first line it states, "I was five and the chickens were my friends." Right in this sentence, we can relate it to our own life. When we were younger, I am sure that we were always with our friends, whereas in this poem, this child has chicken who are friends. We can assume that the child is lonely because he has chicken for friends.

In this poem, we see a literary device that is used. It is personification. Personification is when you give nonhuman things, human qualities. "... and stagger around laughing at chicken jokes I laughed at their jokes, I partied hard with those hens." This is showing that hens told jokes and that hens know how to party. Another example from this poem would be, " when the crabapples rotted and fell off the tree into the yard they would gobble them up and get drunk." Once again Mackey is given chickens real human qualities.

This poem has shown me that you could be having a great time, but the next thing is that you could not be here just like the chickens. The chickens had great friends, but before they knew it, the uncle killed them. You're the one who gets to make the choices and you are the one who has to think ahead. Unfortually the chickens did not get this previlege, but they were still dancing because no one really told them they were dead.

Goodbye, New York by Deborah Garrison

In "Goodbye, New York," written by Deborah Garrison, we get the image of something breaking apart a girl and the Big Apple. We get a sense that this girl is leaving all of her memories that she had previously in New York. We cannot tell if a relationship has been broken, but we do know that something has happened causing the girl to leave New York.

In the title, "Goodbye, New York (song from the wrong side of the Hudson)" shows us that the girl that telling us her story is looking at New York saying goodbye. "Song from the wrong side of the Hudson" is explaining that this girl is simply on the other of the Hudson river taking her final look at New York. This girl throughout the poem talks about all the memories that she had while living in New York. An example would be, "You were the balcony bar in Grand Central Station/ the blunt commuters and their destinations."

When reading this poem, we can see the specific images from New York. After visiting New York many times, this images feel so concrete. I think New York is the best place to be and for that reason everytime I leave, I feel like I am missing something, just like how this girl feels. Even though she lived there, and probably had a very hard time saying goodbye, the memories live on. In the last stanza, it states, "now you're the dream we lived before." This is stating that these were just memories that we just dreamed of and they really never happened.

Into The Lincoln Tunnel by Deborah Garrison

Deborah Garrison, who wrote this poem, is talking about a typical day in New York City. The Lincoln Tunnel, as we know is located in New York. Garrison describes how she hopes nothing bad will happen while she is traveling through the Lincoln Tunnel going to a destination. Garrison states, "I was whispering a prayer/ that it not be today, not today, please/ no shenanigans, no blasts, no terror..." While on the bus, in the Lincoln Tunnel, she prays to someone in hope nothing bad will happen.

The background of this poem is an ordinary day when people go about there normal activities, and they think that something bad was going to happen. All the people on the bus, pray that somthing will not happen. "Yes, please smile upon these good/ people who want to enter the city and work./Becasue work is good, actually, and life is good..." We also see a coffee simile, "a cup of coffee, a modest thing to ask/ Abe for,/dark, bitter, fresh,/ just as an ordiary morning." This simile is refering to the day. It could also contrast the construction you can see all around the city.

This poem can relate to September 11th, 2001 because when everyone was heading off to work or traveling to a destination, just like any ordinary day, the event of 9-1-1 happened when we witnessed planes crash into fields and into buildings and towers. The setting of the poem, New York is exactly like what happened on that horried day. We saw people praying while they were on the planes and trying to get in contact with love ones telling them they love them and will miss them and that they will die. The poem fits the event of September 11th exactly.