Hammil Response

Brandy Bigler

English 102

Mrs. Cline

September 19, 2010

Hammil’s Response

            The ideas that Hammil presents have to do with violence, innocence, and ones emotions. The Necessity to Speak relates to the poems of witness because the writing within each expresses deep emotion. All of the poems have something to do with witnessing what our world has become. A good portion of the poems have to do with the violence that occurs in the world around us.  The views that the authors have of our world seem to be very accurate and reasonable.

            Hammil said, “We can’t bear very much reality.” He took the time to repeat this statement because it voices a strong truth. All of the poems of witness have a topic that deals with reality. Collectively, the poems explain how difficult reality has become for the individual as well as for groups of people that have been affected by some sort of disaster. As an example, the poem Immigrants in Our Own Land talks about two immigrant men who left their old “world” for a chance to have a new and promising opportunity in a new “world.” However, their dreams were not fulfilled and ultimately they find themselves imprisoned in their new world. By the end of the poem, the men are saddened because they miss their old world and feel as though they took what they had for granted. The point is that we have a hard time dealing with the events of our own surroundings, but we never realize that what we have is really not as bad as we may think. We don’t want to deal with the reality of our own lives, and we have issues with intervening in the realities of others.

            Once in a while we are presented with an opportunity to help someone in need. We are all witnesses to many terrible things throughout the course of our lives, yet we never muster the courage to act upon those things in such a way that might alter them for the better. Hammil said, “For believing justice is possible out of commitment to a sense of justice, I found it necessary, essential to bear witness.” Our society has become accustomed to tolerating certain levels of violence.

             As one learns or gains knowledge about the world around them, they begin to conform to what seems normal in that world. According to Hammil, “Knowledge is the loss of innocence.” Even though this statement may be true, we must still gain knowledge about the world around us so we can live and function within it. By not knowing anything about our surroundings we subject ourselves to violence and crime.

            In the world we live in poetry is an amazing way to communicate emotions. Many of our emotions can be a direct result of violence. In our world violence is an ever growing problem. We all need to take responsibility for our actions and for what we say to others. “This is the only way we can save victims and executioners, is to bear witness.” We must come clean about violence and speak up to get justice.

 http://www.poetryfoundation.org

 



 photo: Ron McCoy
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/733