![]() ![]() I also noticed that the chickadee in the last stanza of the poem was described as giant even though chickadees are usually small birds. Something that I think I notice from your poem is that the snow-covered tree branch might represent something else than what it literally means but I am not sure if that is true. I like playing the piano, basketball and chess. ![]() My name is Ahikara and I am a freshman at New Explorations into Science, Technology + Math (NEST+m) in Manhattan, New York. May this very moment be perfect for your writing, Let me end by saying that there are few rewards more satisfying for me as a writer (and a writing teacher) than to hear that I have inspired you to write again, as you mention at the end of your letter. It’s not entirely comfortable (because who wants a giant bird to deposit anything in their ear), but it’s not meant to be, just like I think writing isn’t supposed to feel 100% comfortable, but rather a bit jarring, making us alert enough to see differently. A lot of this is intuitive for me: the chickadee puts a word-like a sunflower seed-in my ear to nurture my writing so I can better understand the unspoken snow, the human silences, in the house. Since the chickadee in the poem has ventured to the interior, to a living room, I made the bird resemble another item in my childhood home, my mother’s needlepoint. Rumor has it that longtime Mainers used to tame the bird to the point where it would eat seeds out of their palms! My childhood memories of days off from school because of a heavy snow storm are imprinted with pine boughs and the black and white movements of these birds. These birds are inquisitive, diving their black-capped heads toward bird feeders for sunflower seeds. Do you know chickadees? They’re rather small in the bird scheme of things and make a sound like chic-a-dee or if they’re particularly communicative, chic-a-dee-dee-dee (who ever named the bird was definitely into onomatopoeia). Let me address the giant embroidered chickadee that tilts its way into the end of “Like That.” I spent my childhood in central Maine where chickadees were a sonic and visual staple-starring as the state bird, no less. Your interpretation that the “branch is something unspoken that threatens the peace of the home” is spot-on, along with what you say in your follow-up sentences. I think a poem requires a thoughtful recipient like yourself, and I feel that you and my poem are now friends.Ĭlearly, your effort to dig into the poem and find meaning yielded results. How lucky I feel to have my poem read by such a dedicated (ten times!) reader. Thank you for writing this poem, for making me think, and for inspiring me to pursue a dream I had long forgotten. How do you, as a poet, use figurative language to enhance your work and its meaning? After reading your poem, I feel inspired to write again. You built your poem around snow-covered branch and its place in the home (more specifically, how it disturbed the home). I still have a few questions about you and “Like That.” Was my interpretation of the poem correct? Or have I missed something? What was the giant embroidered chickadee? What was its meaning within the poem? Your use of symbolism in this poem was purposeful. Overall, I find this poem extremely thoughtful. The meaning of the last stanza still escapes me, but the mystery behind those last few lines (specifically the giant embroidered chickadee) adds to the somber tone within the poem. You, your brother, and your sister shake the branch and cause the snow to fall. Its disturbance is already felt, which is seen with the dead oak leaves in the doorway. If the branch is messed with, it will ruin the peace and cause a large disturbance within the home. The branch is something unspoken that threatens the peace of the home. Who, or what, was the branch? What purpose did it serve? Only after thinking about the poem in the most broad terms was I able to slightly understand the answer to those questions. I probably reread this poem ten times trying to gain more clarity into the meaning. I did not know what the branch was at all at first glance. Your use of symbolism, particularly with the snow-covered branch, was so interesting to me. Your poem, “Like That,” is probably the poem that has forced me to think the most about the purpose of words and figurative language. My biggest struggle as an aspiring author was that my words often served no purpose and added no meaning to my work. Part of this desire was inspired by poetry since poems and their meaning often elude me unless I think deeply on it. ![]() I wanted to write novels that forced the reader to look deeper into the meaning of my work, to dive deep and dissect the purpose of the words and language I used to build my fictional worlds and my characters. Throughout middle school and the early parts of high school, I dreamed of becoming an author. Hello, my name is Ashton, and I am a senior at Bishop Kenny High School.
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