Learning Experiences
Unexpected bad experiences
have a way of teaching us something in the end. Both poets Eileen R. Tabios and
Hayan Charara utilize this learned experience in their works “Jade” and “Job
Interview” respectively. And although both poets are relatively new their works
speak for themselves. The subjects of their poems have experiences that have a
negative impact on them, and through their shared experience gain a new
perspective on life. Both poems are very similar because of this experience yet
so very different, as one ends with a wary outlook on life and the other as a
closure to a bad experience.
According to Tabios: “Poems may be written in a variety of ways, and I don't
privilege any one approach over others . . . . However, I have found certain
advantages to letting the poem stew internally before it comes out of its own
volition as fully-embodied. This method helps me to maintain the energy of that
initial impetus that would birth a poem.” ("Maganda") From the very start Tabios writes without a set
path in mind. Thus, it can be interpreted without censor. According to Tabios
no interpretation is wrong, and it can be visibly seen in “Jade” as each stanza
significantly differs from one another. Her poem seems like a schizophrenic
retelling of a story, with a different ambience of each personality varying
from stanza to stanza, and finally closing with a chaotic convergence with the
last sentence. As for imagery, her poem can also be likened to Edgar Allen Poe’s
“The Masque of the Red Death.” The colors and moods change from each room,
steadily darkening to a foreshadowing somber tone in Poe’s poem. In Tabios'
poem each stanza changes and foreshadow a bitter end.
Tabios introduces her poem
on a lighter romantic note in her first stanza:
“I can see how I’ve misinterpreted the fall of night. Against a Grecian
Urn, shadows sunder. The clay is ageless and I ache to press my forehead
against it. Once, I stopped a burn on my fingertips by peeling a grape. I
forced perfection on its nakedness. (23)
While it seems like a
jumbled assembly of randomly linked sentences, it is not as it appears. Tabios
uses an unique technique of writing that does not make sense singularity but as
an entire stanza. As a whole, what she is saying is that she misunderstood the
sensuality of the night, because even shadows reflecting on the beautiful
sheens on urns can be romantic and as it ”sunder[s]” it breaks apart and
immerses the area like the broken pieces of a mirror. The “clay” can be a trope
for earth where sensual acts taking place have been there since the dawn of
time, and in the throes of passion after gaining a new found clarity she finds
herself aching to be a part of what the earth represents. She then compares her
clarity from intercourse to an act of peeling a grape, her warm dry fingers
find relief in the wet smooth skin of the grape.
In her second stanza she seems to foreshadow her bitter ending:
It is so difficult to find innocence in accomplished men. There is
always something to be paid. Once, someone asked for my views on fidelity. Upon
confirming the questioner was not discussing radio waves, I nodded and
proclaimed with gusto, “Sexual fidelity is an admirable trait. I believe all my
lovers should possess it.” (23)
The very first sentence
has an odd tone to it, especially when the word “innocence” is introduced.
There is nothing innocent in the cutthroat world of a businessman, even less so
in a successful one’s. This idea is further proven in the second sentence where
the word “paid” is mentioned, meaning there is nothing free in life. She then
moves onto the strange topic of fidelity after an odd joking off topic, then
states the obvious “with gusto”. She makes a hypocritical statement that she
strongly supports it in others while alluding to having multiple partners.
Tabios steadily adopts a darker tone in the third stanza:
I never show my scars, though allow an occasional easing of the pressure
with a flushed countenance. My favorite stone is jade for the impassivity of
its face. Perhaps I will meet an optical illusion that is solid. That would
surprise me like a boulder sporting a black, bowler hat. (23)
She reveals her deep
insecurities about herself, which is only rarely able to elevate. She then
confesses her favorite stone, jade, which comes in many colors that seem to
have cracks in them. Here she’s both comparing how broken she feels inside
because of her “scars” and at the same time admitting to wanting to feel better
because jade has healing properties in them. She further alludes to her
depression in the last two lines in the stanza when she states that she can’t
picture ever feeling better because like an optical illusion is a mirage and
might look just out of reach but in reality was never truly there and can never
be “solid.”
Finally in the last stanza she brings it all together into a setting:
My friends are astounded at my naivete. I met a man attending a party
without his wife. I was the only one who believed there was no foretelling. But
I remember when I, too, paid attention to symbols. I can’t recall the beginning
of when I stopped. And I no longer believe in the humility of monks.” (23)
The first sentence
represents the “misinterpretation”, the second one represents infidelity of
“accomplished men”, and the third one represents the fruition brought on by her
insecurities. All three sentences bring forth something from each of the first
three stanzas, which then all come together to form the “symbol” in the
following sentence. Because of the flaws presented in each of the previous
stanzas she comes to realize that somewhere along the way she has forgotten to
be wary of certain aspects of life. Thus she is now jaded and no longer trusts
in simple fidelity. Such is implied when one is a “monk”, and everything that
falls under its banner.
Similarly Charara also utilizes Tabios’ schizophrenic non-linear tone, and
while seeming a bit more indifferent and no definitive stanzas, still has an
outcome with a jaded view caused by a bad experience. Critic Arden Eli Hill
describes Charara’s work as: “an intensely personal
collection in which the poet intimately relates to the ‘others’ through
examining grief and joy in himself and his family members.” (Sadness of Others)
“Job Interview” is a heavily semi-impassive pessimistic recalling of the male
subject’s life in the past five years. But unlike Tabios’s poem Charara’s
involves a series of unfortunate events surrounding a man.
The poem begins through the setting of an informal interview, and a vital
question being asked:
He drew a
line across the page
and asked
where I expected to be
five
years from here. Honestly,
I had no
clue. And I can admit now,
without
shame or remorse, that it’s always been easier
for me to
go back. (26)
‘Where do you see yourself
in five years?’ Just from this simple yet life altering question the man finds
himself stumped. Then reveals one of his flaws, that he prefers to relive the
past. What does say about a man in an interview, no matter how informal, who
when asked a very important question goes into a dream-like state reliving the
past in his mind? Rather than move forward, he finds himself frozen in time not
knowing how to move forward.
Then in a series of scattered flashbacks going chronologically, he reveals
certain major events in the past five years:
I was still young five
years ago,
drank more, smoked
less,
had significantly more
teeth.
Yes my first wife had
left me
for a man with a thin
nose,
and there was also my
mother.
Could I admit that when
she stopped
visiting my dreams, I
gave up
on the future and
because of this
was sleeping much
better? (26)
He mentions three major
events. The first was about his health and physical body, it seems he traded in
drinking for smoking and lost more than a few teeth along the way. The second
major event was his wife leaving him. He tries to console himself by
criticizing the physical flaws of the man she left him for. And the final event
was his mother finally passing away, and long with her it seems so went his
aspiration for the future. She had a negative impact on his self esteem and
after her death a great burden was lifted and afterwards he could sleep better
He wonders if there is a connection between the two.
In the next few lines he appears to be closer to the waking world:
I wondered if it
mattered whether
the downpour would
come,
which it did, or that
we sat
with our hands folded
at a table
that would outlast us
both. (26)
He is more somber and
melancholy when he question the weather outside. The “whether” could be a pun
on “weather” and also a trope for a foreshadowing of his future. As he
describes his setting in more detail, it seems like him and daydreams, so is he
and his interviewer a part and at the same time separate from the outside
world.
He is finally brought back to reality in the final few lines:
He asked me once more.
As he stared past me, I
breathed
deeply and tried not to
blink.
And a grin broke across
his face,
like a crack in the
sidewalk
patiently waiting for
someone
to stumble and fall.
(26)
The poem ends with the
very question it began with: ‘where do you see yourself in five years?’. And
still he is left stumped, not knowing the answer and left to flounder. Worse it
seems like he is the butt of the universe’s joke when even the interviewer
grins knowingly, as if he already knows he is going to fail and just waiting
for the last fall.
Both poems speak of learning from bad experiences, or more specifically being
forced to. Both poems have a somber tone and steadily grow darker as the poem
progresses. And both poems have an ending where the subjects of the poems are
left jaded. However, while Tabios’s poem simply has the issue of fidelity over
love, Charara’s poem has so many issues that on the only way cover them all is
to banner them under life in general. Another key difference is that while in
“Jade” the subject is left jaded she still found closure, while in “Job
Interview” the man also jaded is left to flounder lost unknowing of the future.
Works Cited
Tabios,
Eileen. "Maganda: thoughts on poetic form (a hermetic perspective)." MELUS
29.1 (2004): 137+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 27 Jan. 2014.
Document URL
Hill,
Arden Eli. "The Sadness of Others." Hollins Critic 44.1
:
21. Artemis Literary Sources. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.
Charara, Hayan. “Job Interview.” The Sadness of Others.
Pittsburgh,
PA: Carnegie Mellon UP, 2006. 26. Print.
Tabios, Eileen R. “Jade” Reproductions of the Empty Flagpole.
23.
New York: Marsh Hawk, 2002. Print.
