She reads it better, here on youtube: Carolyn Forche performs her poem "Ourselves or Nothing." It is dedicated to the late Terrence Des Pres, whose book The Survivor,  a much-admired account of holocaust survivors' will to bear witness, entailed a great struggle for the author. Forche, who knew Des Pres later, witnessed forms of that struggle. Des Pres taught at Colgate University and he was one of the first to offer a course in the literature of the holocaust (in the mid-1970s). The poem refers to Forche's own work in El Salvador supporting those who bore witness to atrocities committed there. https://youtu.be/5jIiRvFRj18 

I found something to help us with our theme: https://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/04/books/two-poets.html  

What do you make of this? 

In this episode, I express my insecurities and try to figure out what ee cummings was talking about and how I'm going to write the model essay for this unit. 

Be prepared. This is weird. Very, very weird. You probably won't understand it all at first. I sure don't. How will be examine these poems by "being" and "unbeing." I have no answers, but we will roll through the muck and mud of these ideas together. 

Sometimes it looks like poetry, but reads like prose. 

No capital letters? Why? Sanchez writes here to reflect on a powerful, personal experience with a real person. Her words became a gift to him. Soak up the words, read more about the man, and then return to the letter to see what Sanchez is saying about walking, peace, bravery, and other things. 

Reading poetry by phrases, singly, and then reading them coherently reveals a focus on phrases and meanings that you would miss without such a dual practice. 

Sanchez is a poet, even when she writes prose. 

Sometimes, I read something and injure myself. I think you'll hear the poetry Sanchez uses to describe her admiration of Norma. 

First, I put it into one sentence, then taking it line by line as before, I tried reading the punctuation as if it were a noun. Hmmmm. 

Sometimes it helps to read and take it line by line, taking the meanings as they emerge.

Perhaps god is a child. 

Perhaps god is a child's hand. 

Both could be true. 

And sometimes, it helps to read the text first without the parenthesis, adding them later when you can figure out the sentence. 

And sometimes, you still don't get it when you are finished. Like that ending...

Sometimes you have to take out some words and reorder them. The disorder of the words in the poem seem to match the disorder in thinking that cummings explains at how we have no choice when the government makes a proclamation about war. 

This one has been very difficult. The only thing that seems to make sense in reading it is to consider the verbs as nouns/concepts. The piece takes on a shuddering dread, as if recounting the process where living becomes death. 

How do you even read this thing aloud? I tried it as if pretending to tell a story, realizing that it can no longer be told. 

This one was hard to read. It feels like it is missing words, but I wonder if each stanza functions as it's own part of speech or clause...

If we joyfully navigate ourselves into the future...(introductory dependent clause) 

as lovers who strive for the biblical oneness (appositive to describe ourselves and our relationship)

how do we in our limited understanding imagine ourselves free? (independent clause) 

Even though we don't understand the mysteries, you'll rest and I'll sing to you

while the rest of the world concentrates on their schedules that don't matter. 

We are free in our love.

I don't know. Probably nonsense. 

I'm impressed by how Specter ended the piece. Are you? Even if science doesn't have all the answers, I think I believe in some of the power of nothing. 

We continue to identify and name the ways in which Specter develops his ideas. 

We continue our chunking of the text, but hone in more about HOW the writer is using the signposts and other techniques to structure and deliver the line of reasoning. 

We continue the piece, noting where the text structure changes that help use trace the line of reasoning. Startling statistics continue to be a part of what we see that help us understand the severity and complexity of the problems.