My Response to Hamill

The Necessity to Speak by Sam Hamill can release a person from the bonds that tie them, for “writing is a form of human communication expressing ideas regarding the human condition”. (Hamill) One may agree/disagree with his philosophy, but then he/she may still not be willing to come forth with their truth. For some the written word may be a foreign land for which they had no plans to venture. For others there may be a path they turned on that happened to have less of a wind, the fortunate thing with them is they can be easily enticed to scope out a new direction. “Knowledge is the loss of innocence”, the lack of worldly experience is often the price for knowledge. (Hamill)
Alicia Ostriker’s poem Daffodils touches on this sort of sacrifice of purity. A photographer is seen as someone who has an artful eye for beauty, splendor is found but in the most abstract way and looking for innocence “we can’t bear very much reality”. (Hamill) There are those who would rather turn a blind eye to the thought of cruelty than fight for their philosophies on life. Our conscience often bogs down communication; we are not willing to stand up for a cause for it may offend. Hamill says, “Before the first word is written, the writer is a witness who struggles not to flinch, not to look away.”
That statement also held true in Sharon Olds, Rite of Passage, the poem of a mother’s observation of a young son’s birthday. Her vision of these boys gathered to “celebrate her son’s life”, is one of tiny grown-up men. (Olds) These boys “seeing themselves tiny in the other’s pupils”, begins the ceremony in the transition of their progress of aging. Olds as the poet “invents a being, and that being is her child as a man, stands before her world naked and feeling”. (Hamill) Perhaps the mother is exposing her fear of losing her baby to a harsh world.
“We find poetry embarrassing”; perhaps for the reason of becoming belittled stating that one finds it fascinating or worse neurologically stimulating. (Hamill) In The Necessity to Speak, Hamill discusses various avenues of when/how a person may not want to be touched. Many might say that words are not capable of physical touch, but emotionally they tap into the senses. “Touch is a primary language in the discourse of emotions”, said Hamill for “we think poetry is about emotions, poetry in not about”. (Hamill) Poetry comes from a deeper part of one’s soul, a place that many not visit enough.