The
poem Common Ground by Judith Oritz
Cofer explains how an individual is reflecting on one’s appearance after aging
and relating her looks to those of one’s relatives. The author states, “These
days, When I look into the mirror I see my grandmother’s stern lips […]”. The
individual is looking in the mirror and noticing how some of one’s facial
features resemble her grandmother. The author states, “flesh thins with age
when up through your pores rises the stuff of your origin”. The individual is
explaining how with age you begin to see your roots, your origin in the way you
look. She is physically seeing where she came from and her relation to her
family. The title Common Ground can
resemble how all people of the same family have a “common ground” or root.
The poem Mending Wall by Robert Frost tells of a wall that separates neighbors.
People and objects come across the wall through its lifetime. Frost writes,
“The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair
where they have left not one stone on a stone, but they would have the rabbit
out of hiding”. Here the author is explaining how hunters at times will knock
down a stone from the wall leaving space where rabbits that were hiding would
be exposed. The wall is only needed in some places because, “He is all pine and
I am all apple orchard”. An apple orchard and pine trees are blocking some of
the house or property causing a wall, so a wall is not needed there. At the end
of the poem the author says, “Good fences make good neighbors.” Which I feel
brings the poem together explaining how even though the wall separates them
they are positive towards each other and good neighbors.
In the poem Slam, Dunk, & Hook by Yusef Komunyakaa basketball is discussed
in depth using imagery and emotional experiences. Imagery is present when
Komunyakaa states, “Off the rim. We’d corkscrew up and dunk balls that exploded
[…]”. Here I can picture an individual playing the sport, from their actions
shooting the ball to when the ball went through the hoop. Emotion is present
when the author says, “When Sonny Boy’s mama died he played nonstop all day, so
hard our backboard splintered.” Here the sport is being connected to how a
person copes with a loss. By playing basketball one can be playing the sport while
also letting out their emotions. The poem ends stating, “On swivels of bone and
faith, Through a lyric slipknot of joy, and we knew we were beautiful and
dangerous.” The poem ends expressing how not only the talent but faith of the
game brings the individual to see their beauty and dangerousness.
The piece, The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice in American Jesuit
Higher Education by Peter-Hans Kolvenbach from a conference tells of ways a
Jesuit education can help others and become a positive lifestyle. He says, “Institutions
of Jesuit higher education are called to serve faith and promote justice.”
These institutions should promote justice and do good teachings for the sake of
others. Technology also helps to solve problems such as feeding the hungry or
sheltering the homeless, mentioned by Kolvenbach. He explains how students of
higher education are involved in every sort of social action in the community.
I feel Loyola University does just that. We help to make the campus, as well as
the surrounding areas a better place. Through Community service the students
can see the poor to learn reality. The author says that the university needs to
act in harmony. Loyola becomes one community by being connected to the people
on and off campus through events or service. The article helped to understand
the Jesuit mission and how faculty and students help to achieve great
accomplishments through a Jesuit education.
No comments:
Post a Comment