Reading Response 3: My Alexandria - Essay Example

Response to Mark Doty’s My Alexandria There was a certain emotion as one reads each poem. Though one poem is different from the other, collectively the work was about acceptance and contentment. It was acceptance that things change and it is the only constant thing that this world has. What happened a year or two ago, may not happen now or in the next few weeks. People on the streets might not be there anymore when we return to that place. It is also about accepting people regardless of their race, gender and wealth.

Everybody should be treated equally not because of what some famous person would say but because they are also human. It was contentment because one thing that constitutes change is the desire to make something better. However, there are times that when a person has what he desired but still he does not feel any contentment. He would either go for more or go for less. Having everything does not mean that a person is contented with what is happening. Sometimes, having just enough is what that person really needs.

The first poem entitled “Demolition” is about the physical change that a person or a place experiences. The change` s that transpire are always influenced by another. When it is said that an entity did change, it is not a guaranteed change for the better but for the worse. When the changes occur, there is no turning back. Even the strongest entity has no assurance that it will be where it is in the next couple of years. There are a lot of factors that enable change in this world. As Doty states on his poem that “the enormous, articulate shovel nudges the highest row of moldings and the whole thing wavers as though we’d dreamed it, our black classic, and it topples all at once” (Doty, p. 3). Contentment is seen at the next 2 poems which are “Heaven” and “Days of 1981.

” It does not matter where a person is in this world, even if that person is living in a middle-class suburb or in a luxurious hotel suite. What is important is who is with that person. People surrounds a person every hour everyday of their lives. They will change from day to day and from places to places. But there is always that person who would make it in that place referred to as heaven. It would not matter how many people interacts with each other because in the end that person will be in heaven with somebody who makes him feel that way.

This is regardless of their stature in life, race or even gender. A line in “Days of 1981” goes: “The man I met, slight as and dark as Proust, a sultry flirt, introduced himself because he liked my yellow skirt. I don’t remember who bought who drinks, or why I liked him; I think it was simply that I could” (Doty, p.7). “Human Figures” shows that people are not treated equally. People should be accepted regardless of the amount of money that they have in their wallets. There are times that people who are called “homeless” often are treated as if they are not human at all.

They are just being left on the streets and others who are more fortunate than them are just disregarding their existence. This should not happen. They should be accepted not because of laws governing them but because they are also human just like everyone else. This can also be said for those people whose roots are considered as minority. They should not even be considered as that because they are just human as those in the majority group. They need not try to be like those who have fairer skin than them but instead be proud of whatever their race is.

As Doty put it, “And the man in San Francisco twists his papers into dolls, tiny human forms – like ginseng roots floating in Chinatown windows, long limbs streaming out behind them – figures molded into something intimate, something to hide” (Doty, p. 13).Works Cited:Doty, Mark. My Alexandria. Illinois: University of Illinois Press. 1993.