Journal 13

The speaker of the poem "Poetry Makes Nothing Happen?" by Julia Alvarez is unclear. It introduces no one in particular, but does list some characters throughout the poem. For example, Mike Holmquist and May Quinn are introduced in stanza one, while Jenny Klein and Naomi Stella are introduced in stanza two, and finally Faith Chaney, Lulu Perez, and Sunghee Chen are introduced in the final stanza.   The actions from this poem are not very obvious, but they do list a few places like Laramie, Wyoming and Afghanistan. "Listening to a poem on the radio, Mike Holmquist stayed awake on his drive home from Laramie..." (Lines 1-2).  "While troops dropped down into Afghanistan in the living room..." (Lines 15-16).  Those are the only concrete locations mentioned in this poem it is hard to tell what the exact significance these two locations but Afghanistan is a place of struggle and war so I believe they are trying to use place that is ordinary, and another that is more known and significant.

I believe this poem is trying to get the point across that poetry is everywhere and is with people in any kind of situation.  Whether it is music, reading, or poetry itself it is literally everywhere.  From singing and dancing, to sitting down and just reading you cannot escape it.  Ultimately I believe that is what the author is trying to do in this poem because she uses examples of the gentleman driving home and the poetry keeping him awake, and the lady using poetry to make the somber news of getting cancer easier, and finally the poetry making the three characters introduced at the top of the third stanza see the world in a different way.  Truthfully I think that this is what the author is trying to establish and very much does so.