Poetry Reading Response

“It’s easy sitting in the sun / to forget cold exists / let alone envelopes / the lives of people”, Nikki Giovanni writes in her poem, “Photography”. I love this line because it is so true. In warm weather do we think of cold harsh winters? We naturally are so caught up in the moment that we don’t think of how lucky we are. The author portrays life as a camera to show the readers to value or “capture” the beauties of life while you have them. This poem also shows the readers to think on the bright side and see both parts of life (look outside the ‘camera’ frame) : the bad and the good.

This poem made me realize that we forget one feeling when we are feeling the opposite. For example, you might be feeling sad because you got a bad grade but you don’t think of the other great grades you have gotten. You focus on the bad things.  However,  when you think about it, maybe this grade that you got could be considered a good grade for somebody else. “it’s easy sitting in the sun /  to forget the ice and ravages / of winter yet / there are those who would have / no other season”. This line shows the readers that not only you don’t think of the future bad weather but you don’t think on the bright side of the weather. It could be somebody else’s favorite season so there must be something good about it. I think Giovanni is trying to tell us to look on the bright side of the bad parts of life even if you (at first) don’t see any good in it.

I thought it was interesting how Nikki Giovanni portrayed life as a camera. The film is the heart, and the eye is the camera. I interpreted this as a way to show the readers to question their perspectives or look outside the camera frame. “watching the red sun bleed / into the ocean / one thinks of the beauty that fire brings”,she writes. This teaches a very good moral. Bleeding and fire are not peaceful or beautiful but Giovanni turns both of these things into something to admire the beauty of.

This message is something many people (including myself) should learn because there are others who really want the things you have. Don’t take advantage of your luxuries but capture the things you enjoy, as well as see the beautiful sides of things that may not seem beautiful at first.