Dont Be Afraid We ll Meet Again on the River Someday

Anytime I'll Love Sea Vuong

Ocean, don't be afraid.

The end of the road is and then far ahead

it is already backside us.

Don't worry. Your father is only your male parent

until one of you forgets. Like how the spine

won't remember its wings

no affair how many times our knees

kiss the pavement. Bounding main,

are you listening? The most beautiful function

of your torso is wherever

your mother'south shadow falls.

Here's the house with babyhood

whittled down to a single cherry-red trip wire.

Don't worry. Just call it horizon

& you'll never attain information technology.

Here's today. Jump. I promise it's non

a lifeboat. Here's the human being

whose artillery are wide enough to gather

your leaving. & here the moment,

just later the lights get out, when you can all the same run across

the faint torch betwixt his legs.

How y'all employ information technology again & again

to find your own hands.

Yous asked for a second chance

& are given a rima oris to empty out of.

Don't be afraid, the gunfire

is only the audio of people

trying to live a little longer

& failing. Bounding main. Ocean —

get up. The most beautiful part of your body

is where it's headed. & remember,

loneliness is still fourth dimension spent

with the world. Here's

the room with everyone in information technology.

Your expressionless friends passing

through you like wind

through a wind chime. Here's a desk-bound

with the gimp leg & a brick

to make it last. Yes, here's a room

and so warm & blood-close,

I swear, you will wake —

& mistake these walls

for pare.

Body of water Vuong, "Someday, I'll Dear Ocean Vuong" from Nighttime Sky With Get out Wounds. Copyright © 2016 by Ocean Vuong. Reprinted past permission of Copper Canyon Printing, www.coppercanyonpress.com

Source: Night Heaven With Exit Wounds (Copper Canyon Press, 2016)

Swoop in:

i. The poet uses his own proper noun several times, addressing his younger self. What event does this repetition have on your reading of the verse form? How do you think the poem would exist different if it were written in the first person "I" vocalism?

2. What do you lot think information technology means for a poem to exist "embodied?" What about a memory? Pause for a moment and close your eyes. Have a deep breath. Inhale deeply, in through your olfactory organ and out through your mouth. If yous had to draw a map of emotions over your torso, where in your torso would you locate loneliness, envy, joy, sadness, anger? Write a line for each of those feelings without naming them. Instead, focusing on the sensations and place in your body where you feel them. See if your partner or other classmates can identify which feeling you were trying to convey. Remember, there is no right or wrong answer!

3. Which images in the verse form do you find about stimulating, surprising, evocative, memorable, touching, meaningful? What are your personal associations with those images?

four. Observe three examples in the poem of brusk lines in the imperative vocalization (i.e., telling someone what to exercise: "Stand upwardly. Sit down."). How does the mix of brusk and long lines touch your reading of the verse form when you read it out loud? Which lines crusade you to speed up and which ones strength you to slow down? Why do you call back the poet chose this effect?

5. Who are the other people in the poem? What does the poem propose about the speaker's relationships to them, and possibly most different aspects of his ain identity (race, class, gender, sexuality)?

six. What does the poem advise almost the younger Ocean's customs and home surroundings? What sensory images (colours, smells, sounds, textures, tastes) bring them to life without actually telling u.s.?

7. Imagine yourself at a younger historic period. Brand some notes nearly your life at that time. What fears did you have? What personal challenges did yous face, external (at home, at school) or internal (emotionally, personally)? What brought yous joy and excitement? What did you lot struggle with? What exercise yous recall you were learning? Now, write a love poem to your younger self, offering them kindness, compassion and reassurance. Put your own proper noun in the poem, and repeat it a few times in your poem, as yous would if yous were addressing a younger child. Make sure to include varying sentence lengths, including short imperatives (e.g. "Don't worry," or "Take your time."). Championship the verse form, "Someday I'll Love ________ (your name)"

Useful Links:

Listen to Sea Vuong reading: https://poetryarchive.org/poem/someday-sick-love-ocean-vuong/

pepperthatheriams.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.poetryinvoice.com/poems/someday-ill-love-ocean-vuong

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