Showing 41 - 50 of 730 Poetry annotations

My Uganda--for Sister Concepta Najjemba

Coulehan, Jack

Last Updated: Oct-06-2015
Annotated by:
Donley, Carol

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Poetry

Summary:

An African nun, in Pittsburgh, identifies with her home country of Uganda, envisioning the brutality of the civil war, torturing her father and murdering her brother. Her body is like her country--"frightened / delirious / insensate / and holy." Sleepless, she sits on the edge of her bed and prays--"her prayer is sweet, sweet medicine" both for her own distress and, somehow, for her country’s.

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Medicine Stone

Coulehan, Jack

Last Updated: Oct-06-2015
Annotated by:
Chen, Irene

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Poetry

Summary:

The author begins by describing a "medicine dance" that he attended at an Indian reservation and the stone he keeps as a souvenir. However, back in the city, the stone's healing powers are meaningless, eclipsed by the powers of conventional medicine. Yet, the author keeps the stone as "an aspect of soul that lasts"; a reminder that healing is not confined to the physical body, but is influenced by the mind and soul as well.

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The Man with Stars Inside Him

Coulehan, Jack

Last Updated: Oct-06-2015
Annotated by:
Aull, Felice
Chen, Irene

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Poetry

Summary:

During the physical examination of an elderly cancer patient, the doctor considers the tell-tale symptoms of pneumonia. While the patient is dying, the physician imagines that the symptoms represent the birth of a universe and that the patient is becoming a part of the galaxy.

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Jerusalem

Coulehan, Jack

Last Updated: Oct-06-2015
Annotated by:
Donley, Carol

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Poetry

Summary:

The son narrator of this poem has asked his Jamaican physician-father a number of questions. His father is a great healer, saving thousands of his countrymen through medicine, surgery, and preaching. Although the "Queen receives him in London and gives him the Empire", his father knows how useless that is, and "puts the British Empire into a drawer of memories." All that London pomp and ceremony is a different world from Kingston, "Smoldering under the weight of tin and grease." The father's vision is of "Jerusalem, a black city full of his sons."

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Irene

Coulehan, Jack

Last Updated: Oct-06-2015
Annotated by:
Aull, Felice
Chen, Irene

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Poetry

Summary:

The author poetically describes the neurological deficits left by his patient’s third stroke. Her misshapen words are "small stones and loose particles of meaning "as he attempts to understand her. Her husband, however, states that "her gulps don’t make no sense," emphasizing his perception of the hopelessness of the situation.

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Finches

Coulehan, Jack

Last Updated: Oct-06-2015
Annotated by:
Aull, Felice
Chen, Irene

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Poetry

Summary:

This poem describes the life of a man who lives alone with 122 pet finches. Although he loves them, he imagines a quiet life without them, without the nuisance and esponsibility. He ponders what it would be like to set them free and thus, to free himself.

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The Dynamizer and the Oscilloclast: in memory of Albert Abrams, an American quack

Coulehan, Jack

Last Updated: Oct-06-2015
Annotated by:
Donley, Carol

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Poetry

Summary:

This poem is told in the voice of the quack who creates electronic gadgets that are supposed to cure illnesses. He advertises on the back covers of magazines. Poor, desperate people, whose doctors cannot help them, sell their farms in order to come to the quack for his dynamizer and oscilloclast treatments. He asks, "What could I do but give them hope?"

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The Dust of the West

Coulehan, Jack

Last Updated: Oct-06-2015
Annotated by:
Donley, Carol

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Poetry

Summary:

A blind father, covered with dust, rides through dust clouds carrying camera equipment belonging to a famous photographer of the West. The father believes that each piece of dust has a soul and that if he can sensuously perceive that dust he can release its soul--"Blessings of dirt, gathering and rising"--a kind of resurrection out of the dust.

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Complications

Coulehan, Jack

Last Updated: Oct-06-2015
Annotated by:
Aull, Felice
Chen, Irene

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Poetry

Summary:

This poem describes the deterioration of a man after the death of his spouse, as he ends up drunk, penniless, and in jail. The physician is asked to certify the cause of his death. He decides that the complex social factors leading to his death can only be summarized as "complications".

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Appetite

Coulehan, Jack

Last Updated: Oct-06-2015
Annotated by:
Chen, Irene

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Poetry

Summary:

The poet considers the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius, who recommended "wipe out imagination, check desire, extinguish appetite" in order to achieve contentment. The author sees living examples of the contrary in these tough motorbikers in leather, who are "fifty if they’re a day." There is a note of envy in his voice as he observes their rebelliousness, spirit, and sheer freedom.

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