Pillow- An Annotation

“The night begins

With the first beheading

Of the jasmine, its captive fragrance

Rid at last of burial clothes”

Author Li-Young Lee in his poem “Pillow” ends with that stanza. Throughout the poem you can understand his symbolism, but what I wanted to know more about was his choice to use the jasmine flower. I did know that the jasmine is a popular flower for women in Asian countries, as they like to wear them in their hair, but I wondered what that had to do with this particular poem. According to Kathleen Karlsen, an internet author, the meaning of a jasmine flower is “attachment, sensuality, modesty, grace and elegance” (Karlsen, web).  Knowing the meaning behind the jasmine, I found the poem making more sense. The entire poem Lee is talking about his life, how he was constantly moving and being whisked away in the night. His family never settled in one place for long. Due to this fact, he was not able to have real freedom. Even his ability to speak was hindered; he did not speak a full sentence until he was three years old. Throughout the poem you have this sense of restriction and a life almost on the run. There was nothing stable in his life. Knowing this and the background of his life, the symbolism of the jasmine is so deep and alludes to his detachment from things. In essence, Lee is saying his nights or moves always start with the cutting off of attachment. These nights were anything but graceful and elegant. Not only does the jasmine have significant meaning behind it, it was also relevant and symbolic to his culture. Jasmines were used as a decoration of beauty, reflecting gentleness and modesty, but he uses it in this story to illustrate the exact opposite of that. Beheading is to cut off from the source of life. Being attached to a place or a person is the source of our emotional life. I believe this could even be taken as far as to say he felt cut off from his culture upon his move to America. Nothing in his life was easy, and for me personally knowing his history and knowing the meaning behind one of his most famous poems, I have a new appreciation for his writings and how they are influential in our society. We may not all have lived a life that we had to be whisked away in the night, but we can all relate to the point that at one time in our lives, we felt detached from our culture, our family, our friends, and even our own selves.

                                                

                                                                  Works Cited

Karlsen, Kathleen. Livingartsoriginals.com. Living Arts Enterprises, LLC 2007-2010. Web. 24 February 2011. 

(I have NO idea if this is cited correctly. I was not sure exactly how to do it, if it is wrong, please tell me so I can fix it and not get fined.) 

A Work of Artifice

Does a bonsai tree know when it's "growing in an attractive pot" instead of "on the side of a mountain"? Something that appears to be so beautiful and luring, as the gardener sweetly tells the tree it's better off restricted. And that is how it starts. Slowly, in disguise. The gardener makes this life look so promising, using manipulation to gain your emotions under his control. Everyday he whittles back your freedoms. Little by little, taking away your right to have an opinion, to think for yourself, and using twisted lines, like "If you loved me, you'd do it". 

This weeks reading hit a soft spot in my heart. Our discussion in class on how the bonsai tree represents a woman and the oppression that she is going through was very revealing. Each line has a specific purpose and it builds up to this message, almost in code, of what is actually happening. And how true that can be. Women who are in abusive relationships use a code to say something without saying it. 

People in our society who live in oblivion to abusive relationships are just that: oblivious. They "don't understand how the girl didn't see it coming" or if "that was me, I would have gotten out sooner". Do they ever stop to think that maybe that girl or that woman did not choose to be in an attractive pot and cut down to nine inches tall, when she could be her full height on the side of a mountain with room to grow? 

What people don't know is- I was that girl. I was that bonsai tree being sweetly crooned too, slowly, and assuredly having my freedom taken away. You don't ever plan to be in that situation. But all the while, these gardeners see what their doing. They want to make you small and weak, masking the abuse in what they call love. 

Throughout the entire poem and through our discussion in class I found myself relating. I wonder how many people in our class actually know what it feels like. I wonder if they all walked away the same. Or maybe, just maybe, they walked away wondering how to improve their own relationships, maybe even thankful for the ones they have. Its stories and poems like this that should help us evaluate the good we have in our lives. For me, it made me realize just how far I've come. I've been uprooted from my pot and I'm on my way to my side of the mountain.