Poem Interview

      I walked into my fathers bedroom, the scent of dinner and chocolate cake followed me in. My father huge bedroom, surprisingly empty looking seemed welcoming. I sat on the comfy king size and laid my laptop upon the white comforter and walked for Melanie to walk in the room. When Melanie walked in, the fan blew through her hair sending her black hair flowing behind her. She had a light tan stain on her white t-shirt and came and sat on the other side of the bed. I turned my computer over for her to read the poem for the first time. When she read the title, the first thing she did was tell me that the title tells most over every poem or story, and that this seems to be the same way. She got into a comfortable position, sitting criss-cross, ready to start the interview.
      When asked to read the poem The Bridge by Octavio Paz, Melanie Thomas Rogers responded with what she thought of the poem. “I think it sounds lonely but at the end, peaceful. It sounds like a big long question someone is trying to figure out.” The poem is a representative of how people perceive the world. A bridge often leads somewhere different. The author has the optimistic outlook on life that with every step you take, it can be representation of a bridge. The choices you make can play a part in how you perceive and look at the world and what the world gives you. Melanie’s reaction is close to mine. Overcoming an obstacle could involve a difficult decision. The decision could be an answer to a long question. The representation of how the author perceives the world is also similar to mine because I feel as though the author was talking about communication. In order to be able to perceive the world, you need to be able to communicate to people.
Melanie noticed the poem was very sad, and lonely. Even though, the poem is about learning to communicate, it is sad that he even has to learn. Communication comes naturally to people. When you are born, you understand the communication of your mother. This is the first form of communication. When you begin to learn to speak, you are about to Communicate back. The author feels as though he needs to learn to communicate, which he already knows how to do. He is still alone, but he still has optimism. He is making this whole communication issue, a metaphor about life. When overcoming an obstacle, you have a bright view on what is happening next. It leaves you peacefully looking into the future, leaving a good wonder and no fear.
The inspiring thing about this poem was the end, it’s a happy ending. He overcame that obstacle and sleeps beneath the rainbow, “I’ll sleeps beneath it’s arches.”(Paz, 12). This gives the reader a reminder to keep looking at the bright side of life. Melanie thought the poem was about a man trying to look at all the sides of a difficult decision. Overcoming an obstacle, or a question helps get you to your destination. “The author’s choice of using a rainbow could mean that he originally thought the obstacle was bad and dangerous, but once he found out is was good and kind, he felt safe.” (Melanie). He is connecting himself to the world when he discovers the truth behind the obstacle. When he finds this connection, his whole outlook on the world becomes different. In the end, he is no longer scared of the rainbow, because he sleeps below it. In order to keep the optimistic outlook and to keep going each day, you’ll first need to learn that every step you take, leads you to a different bridge.
The poem if it had to be a color, would either be an orange or a deep blue. Orange represents a sunrise or a sunset, something that welcomes each new day, or something that wraps a day. Sorta of like a beginning and an ending. The sunset starts the day, which makes a new obstacle, and the sunset is the reward to the completion of obstacle. Another color that would work is a deep blue. Blue is a very vibrant color, and the darkness adds a lot of mystery. Deep blue can either good good or bad. Like the ocean, it can either be pretty or a storm. Melanie said that if this poem reminded her of any movie, it would either be Forrest Gump, or Finding Nemo. In Forrest Gump, there is always the things he decided to do, obstacles he wished to overcome, that you don’t think he could do, but they all work out. In the Finding Nemo, Dory continues to tell Marlin to “Just keep swimming.” To continue to get over the obstacle of finding his son.