Please feel free to go check this poem out and leave your thoughts!
"Grief Calls Us to the Things of This World" is an extremely interesting poem written by Sherman Alexie, in which he discusses the death of his father. The title is extremely important to the poem because it is a playoff of the poem, "Love Calls Us to the Things of This World" by Richard Wilbur. This poem contrasts greatly with the original because instead of relating love to the world Alexie is relating the grief he has found in his own life. He says, "The first call? I choose my father because he's astounded by bathroom telephones," but what is ironic about this statement is that we find out after Alexie calls he remembers his father is dead.
In this case it can be seen how the grief of Alexie's father's death indirectly leads him to want to call. He does not remember his father is dead though until his mother answers the phone and tells him his father has been dead for over a year. It is interesting to understand why and how one forgets his own father's death to the point where he calls expecting his father to answer. Alexie, does not seem upset or embarrassed when his mom answers the phone, but he expresses a small amount of short surprise.
The lines "Those fucking angels ride us piggyback," "Those angels, forever falling, snare us," and "And haul us, prey and praying, into dust" all stick out to me. These lines represent a shift in the poem because before this point he is happy, laughing with his mother, blaming himself for forgetting about his dad's death. Here though he begins to put the blame for his grief and forgetfulness on the angels. It is ironic that he makes the angels out to be evil because angels are always considered to be good. The piece that claims the prey and praying is extremely important because it shows the angels true evil nature that Alexie sees in them and even though they are praying they prey on the weak first.
When analyzing the poem it is interesting the diction Alexie uses and the structure of his poem. He structures his poem into multiple stanzas with two lines each. The poem is structured as if he is just writing down his thoughts. There is no real rhyme or rhythm in his writing, which makes the poem even more interesting because it’s as if he is retelling an event. It allows a more personal connection with the reader and allows more common or normal people to understand his poem. The writing is simplistic and can be understood easily. Most poets have a much deeper hidden meaning in their poems that they hide with complex metaphors and structures.
I wonder if Alexie is better at relating grief to his life than he is at relating love. Does he look at the cup half full or half empty? Is this the only thing in his life grief leads him to or are there other things? I think after I read a few more poems by him I will be able to determine Alexie’s view on life itself and how he views his own life. Does his poetry consistently represent grief and sadness or his he funny and happy? If I had to base his view on life off of this poem I would say Alexie finds more grief in his own world than he does happiness. First of all this is because he takes a poem that was originally about finding love in the world to how he finds grief. If he was content with life instead of altering the original in such a drastic way he may have rewrote or revised the poem to fit his own everyday life.
Overall I find the poem very interesting, but easy to understand. I like this about the poem because I don’t think poetry should always have to have a deeper meaning behind the words. Sometimes a stronger meaning can be presented by throwing it right in your face. By putting it all out there the meaning is clear and obvious making the poem more powerful. Alexie does an extremely good job of this in his poem and the meaning is very clear and strong at the end of the poem.