Cages

Although not all of our readings were identical, I found a common theme running through it of cages and the prisons we find ourselves in.  They're not always physical manifestations and sometimes they're even self-constructed.  Though in the case of Red Peter, his was all too real.

"I had to find a way out if I wanted to live, but that this way out could not be reached by escaping." (561)

When I read of his experiences helping to free him from his cage, it took me a couple of readings to understand that the prison he was escaping was not the actual iron bars, but the mental imprisonment.  When they captured him, they also destroyed his reason for existing.  He was no longer in a setting that held any meaning for him, or that he found meaning in.  Much of his journey to the island was about trying to fid a reason not to go insane in captivity.  In reminds me of a quote mentioned only a few pages later.

"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons.  They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men." -Alice Walker (578)

When we take away that reason for existence or try to substitute something else in, we are playing god.  Is that not rather egotistical?  I think it is.  We can hardly stay in control of our own destinations, so how can we do any better controlling others?  Sadly, it seems to be a very human sentiment- that we always know better for others.  I know I've been guilty of claiming to obviously know the right path for a friend or sibling.  It seems so simple when you're not immersed in the situation. And isn't that what empathy is trying to correct?  By seeing it from their shoes, we take in all the earlier unnoticed complications and dilemmas.  If we can't do that, then we'll just continue the cycle of imprisonment to each other and other creatures.

"Silently, a vision enters, slips through the focused silence of his shoulders, reaches his heart, and dies." (565)

http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&global=1&q=cages#/d69scc

This poem of a powerful cat slowly giving into his capture was pretty heartbreaking.  Haven't we all felt the same at some point?  I know I've gone through times when I felt trapped in who people saw me as.  Or even worse, trapped under a mountain of school work (I'm pretty sure there's not a student out there who can deny this!).  There's hardly an experience worse than realizing how much is being expected of you when you worry you can't live up to such expectations.  Being trapped is more than being physically locked away.

"That is the kind of poetry I bring to your attention today: poetry that does not try to find an idea in the animal, that is not about the animal, but is instead the record of an engagement with him." (Coetzee 96)

The last words I wanted to leave you with are of the more physical realm.  Costello made an excellent argument that poetry doesn't always have to be metaphysical.  It's not always about a hidden meaning or archetype.  Sometimes, the poet is reacting instinctually to the emotions of an experience.  The only time I allow myself to play poet is when something deeply effects me.  It's never very good poetry but it usually speaks pretty clearly of how I feel.  So while school is all about exercising the mind, don't let the heart atrophy.

http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=heart#/demwcy