By Elizabeth Hsieh
As this summer 2020 comes to an end, I believe now is a time when everyone needs to do a lot of healing and a lot of hurting. We have all been on this journey of a summer together, yet each of us must struggle, reflect, educate, and learn in our own individual way, alone. It is in such times as these and such growing processes that we can especially find comfort and empathy in Art. Regardless of the details, I believe Art is made to shake us from the patches of life we are pigeonholed into. Here are some of the pieces, texts, and songs that I have let into my life:
Excerpt from “It Is Difficult to Speak of the Night” – Jack Gilbert (1965)
Suddenly in midpassage I come into myself. I leaf gigantically. An empire yields unexpectedly: cities, summer forests satrapies, horses. A solitude: an enormity. Thank god.
Although I have never been to Europe or married, I found that I could connect and be moved by Jack Gilbert’s poetry, regardless of the topic he takes at hand. Many of his poems center around small narratives from his lifetime, like a single night on the beach or suddenly remembering a past love. I love Gilbert’s poetry because it speaks to emotion with clarity and frankness. He prostrates himself to the tangled, ambiguous, and vulnerable sides of life, which gives me courage as a reader. I believe that fully “understanding” a poem is only part of the details, whereas connecting on an emotional and personal level, finding comfort or compassion, is what makes poetry so special.
“Don’t Look Back In Anger” – Oasis (1995)
“I'm gonna start a revolution from my bed 'Cause you said the brains I had went to my head Step outside 'cause summertime's in bloom Stand up beside the fireplace Take that look from off your face 'Cause you ain't ever gonna burn my heart out”
I think everyone has a favorite song they can sing (almost) all the lyrics to. I don't remember exactly when I memorized my favorite song. It was just that one day–between cleaning my room, showering, being with friends, being alone–I had listened enough to know all the lyrics. “Don’t Look Back In Anger” from the band Oasis is one of those songs. Things close to the heart must come easiest, and I think this is why it’s so easy for us to internalize the music we love. Suddenly, when you’ve got a lot on your mind or have had a hard day, you reach for a song without even realizing it. I am on the “music-is-poetry” ship; music provides the anthems we need to hear and gives us a space to heal.
My Ántonia (1918) by Willa Cather
“I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.”
I first picked up My Ántonia on a complete whim when I was volunteering at a book drive, but looking back, I can only consider it a happy coincidence that I did. The novel tells the story of Ántonia Shimerada, a young girl who immigrates to the Great Plains of Nebraska with her family. As a coming-of-age story, My Ántonia doesn’t skimp on any of the tenderness or pain that comes with growing up and finding your place in a new country. This is a book I am thankful to have read because it manages to confront many painful and real parts of life, while still cherishing the memories made throughout the hard years. For my younger self, the loud, kind, and hopeful character that is created in Ántonia was like a light post to guide the way.
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