Max Ritvo

In just a few short hours, over 15,000 students will gather in the Bryce Jordan Center in a 46-hour event with one focus: FTK. The kids being celebrated and supported in this event all have one thing in common; they all are currently battling or have either beaten or lost the battle. Yes, even families who lost their children still come to this event - these kids are honored in a special part of the marathon.

THON is such an integral part of the Penn State experience, and the underlying theme is an even more prominent part of many of these students' lives. I guarantee you've come into contact with someone battling cancer or someone with a loved one battling cancer, and yeah, it is really the worst feeling. So, in honor of the upcoming event at PSU, I thought I'd focus on a less famous poet this week, but one whose battles are extremely relevant given the timing.

Max Ritvo in 2014 by Ashley Woo CrediAshley Woo

Max Ritvo, 1990-2016, bravely and candidly chronicled his battle with Ewing's Sarcoma when he was 16, and after a year of treatment he was able to complete high school and attend Yale University, where the cancer returned his senior year. He still completed a MFA from Columbia University, all the while suffering from what had become an incurable reality. Ritvo's poems focused on his experiences with battling cancer but he did not want to be the "inspiring" victim of cancer. He even served as a counseling resource to other families dealing with the same illness - he seemed like a pretty good guy. I couldn't wait to read one of his poems.

The first poem of his that I read is called "Dawn of Man." It's not super long, written in two-line stanzas, and it basically REALLY gives insight into what it's like to battle such an overtaking disease. I don't know about the rest of you, but I did lose a close family member to cancer - it's actually what I did my TIB podcast about  - and I've always wondered what it was like to actually be suffering from such a disease. To feel your body giving out from under you. To know that you're dying. To wonder about what will happen after you die. These are all things that I can't imagine.

I'm going to focus on a few specific parts of the poem. He writes "After the cocoon I was in a human body instead of a butterfly's. All along my back there was great pain -- I groped to my feet where I felt wings behind me, trying to tilt me back. They succeeded in doing so after a day of exertion." Cut to "My thoughts remained those of a caterpillar -- I took pleasure in climbing trees. I snuck food into all my pains. My mouth produced language which I attempted to spin over myself and rip through happier and healthier."

I find the caterpillar metaphor so powerful - not only is it significant in a rebirth sense, but it captures the emotions that Ritvo was experiencing as he grappled with the harsh reality he had been thrust into. The cocoon, I believe, is his life before being diagnosed, when he was protected from the world, and the new life is where he's a human battling this disease. The language produced by his mouth is like the silk (I think that's what caterpillars do to make cocoons?) that he's trying to use to put himself back into the previous state of happiness and oblivion, but he cannot do so - just like a butterfly can't return to a caterpillar, he can't return to where he once was.

Although Ritvo and many other people who valiantly battled cancer are no longer with us, their legacies are often significant and can be used to help give strength to others. And now, with THON upon us, I hope that we all can draw strength from others - and give strength to those who need it more than us.

Why I decided to write this blog

Do you ever read something that completely changes your perspective? Imagine reading a couple lines of text that completely transform an emotion or state of mind that you feel but could never put into words. Now, this emotion has been completely put into words and from that, there's something even more powerful that emerges.

Someone else feels the same way. And now not just one other person understands, but everyone who's read those words arranged in a certain way can relate - or at least acknowledge that the feeling is valid. It's like someone's diary has been publicized, and somebody had just as bad a day as you (or if you're lucky, just as good a day as you). 

Emily Dickinson captures so many emotions in her poetry because her poetry was her diary. All of her poems were published posthumously after being discovered by her siblings. When I read a lot of Emily's poems, I felt like I could relate - mostly because although we are from two separate eras, I think we're similar. A lot of her poems deal with themes that are pretty heavy, like death and grief, success, and truth.

As college students, we are faced with a lot of harsh realities, but we're also still sheltered from a lot. For example, many of us are still reeling from the death of a fellow Penn State student, which has created shockwaves in the community - for both members of the Greek community and those that aren't. Emily Dickinson was reclusive but very intuitive and insightful. Instead of using her reclusiveness to delve deeper into herself, she used her own introspection as a way to extrapolate her knowledge into other situations. She was so smart and her poems show it - nothing is explicit, but her message is so apparent.

One of my favorite poems of hers is "I'm Nobody! Who are you?"

I’m Nobody! Who are you?

Are you – Nobody – too?

Then there’s a pair of us!

Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!

How dreary – to be – Somebody!

How public – like a Frog – 

To tell one’s name – the livelong June – 

To an admiring Bog!

I think we all have probably read this poem at some point in our lives - either as an assignment in school or when researching for a different assignment in school. A lot of times, we don't go searching for old poems that are overanalyzed and are the favorites of our 65 year old high school English teacher - but I think this one is a classic. We have all, at some point, felt alone. Whether it's in a new situation or holding an unpopular opinion in a crowd of likeminded people, loneliness is an omnipresent emotion. However, when we find someone else who's lonely and in the same situation, we jump at the chance to be their friend - finding a secret solace in this partnership, but still keeping it under wraps to protect from the judging others.

She also uses this poem to discuss how she lives in recluse, and doesn't really enjoy the public life, since she sees this as a form of people living for other people - displaying their life for the public's feedback and opinion. Since many people do base their worth off of the opinions of others, Emily provides a clear commentary about how she feels about people who live really public lives.

Google some of her poems, if you want. I guarantee you'll find some that resonate. If not, you'll have at least read something new, and now that makes you... more well-read? There's no downside to it.

Jean Toomer

The poetry that I like to write about is the kind that makes me feel emotions - hope, sadness, happiness, etc. I mean, if we don't feel anything, we're just reading words on paper. A lot of what makes poetry nice to read, in my opinion at least, is really vivid and colorful vocabulary. And I don't mean cursing at people. (Although that can be nice too sometimes :) ). When a poet can take their natural talent with words to craft scenes, feelings, and situations, and combine that with a greater societal purpose, those poets elevate their works to transcend just poetry. Instead, they contribute to a greater movement through their words ad their ability to reach a wide audience.

So, today I'm writing about a poet who was relevant in a time that, if you're like me, you witness the effects of daily but may not know much about it. I'm talking about the Harlem Renaissance.  Between the end of WWI and the mid 1930's, Harlem was an epicenter for an absolute explosion of black culture, art, and music. This time period inspired many famous poets, artists, and musicians to escape the oppression previously placed upon them and used their combined experiences and collective spirit to skyrocket the culture to a new level.

Taken from http://www.robinurton.com/history/20th%20c/American/BeardenJammingAtSavoy.jpg

You'll probably recognize popular names from the Harlem Renaissance like Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston (who I fell in love with when reading in high school) and Jean Toomer. Last semester I discussed Hughes in detail, who transposed the black culture into words that captured the struggles and overcoming of obstacles that many black people had faced. However, Jean Toomer, whose poetry I will briefly discuss today, focused more on capturing the struggles in a way that lent strength to the black community, especially in the context of slavery.

Taken from http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/toomer/toomer.htm

One of Toomer's poems that I have recently become acquainted with is called "Cotton Song"

Cotton Song
Come, brother, come. Lets lift it;
come now, hewit! roll away!
Shackles fall upon the Judgment Day
But lets not wait for it.
God's body's got a soul,
Bodies like to roll the soul,
Cant blame God if we dont roll,
Come, brother, roll, roll!
Cotton bales are the fleecy way,
Weary sinner's bare feet trod,
Softly, softly to the throne of God,
"We aint agwine t wait until th Judgment Day!
Nassur; nassur,
Hump.
Eoho, eoho, roll away!
We aint agwine to wait until th Judgment Day!"
God's body's got a soul,
Bodies like to roll the soul,
Cant blame God if we dont roll,
Come, brother, roll, roll! 

There are a couple things about this poem that really stuck out to me and made this poem unique and different than really any other I have ever read. He utilizes religious allusions and visual and tactile imagery to further emphasize the idea that hard work in the cotton fields would be the one and only way for the enslaved people to reach Heaven. 

The speaker of the poem at some points speakers in colloqial language.  The lines are in quotes, so the speaker is quoting another character or facet of himself who speaks with a dialect. These lines begin with the the line “We aint agwine t wait until th Judgement Day!”  This line, which restates the idea that the characters are not going to wait for Judgement Day to be good souls, is written phonetically in an African-American slave dialect, which both draws the reader’s eye to this section and also forces them to spend more time to understand it.  The next line, “Nassur; nassur” is a phonetic spelling of No sir, no sir, and after than, “Hump.” greatly resembles the exclamation “Humph!” The following line, “Eoho, eoho, roll away!” also uses onomatopoeia to express the shouts that are part of the song, and the section of colloquial language ends with the speaker restating the line “We aint agwine to wait until th Judgement Day!” 

Through these different visual interest points and auditory tricks, Toomer creates a unique poem that captures the complexities of a seemingly simple song that the slaves used during the days to help pass the time. It's so interesting to me how people can transpose such horrible pain into a beautiful poem that conveys so much emotion and intelligence in very few words, and now I feel like I need to try a little harder!