Where there’s a wall by Joy Kogawa is a piece that contains several layers of meaning. But according to Joy Kogawa’s past of adversity against the Canadian government and her experience in Japanese Interment camps, her poem touches on war and brings into focus the sense of hopelessness and hope that seems to contradict with each other, mirroring the emotions that she has experienced through encountering adversity within life. Therefore, this poem is about responses to adversity that individuals can either willingly or unwillingly succumb to.
I chose to respond to this poem creatively with my own version of the poem; reflecting the diversity I have encountered in my own life, and how there is a constant struggle between persisting and giving up.
…
where there’s a wall,
you say
break it,
crush it;
til it can be seen no more
til it can stand no more.
til it can be built no more.
where there’s a wall
you say
go round, over or through
but how do you expect to get in?
there’s a gate
perhaps a ladder,
but never a door.
a guardian, though
she always sleeps
though her eyes remain closed
til she sees the enemy no more
to the point
where he slips past the boundaries
and
over the wall
til her world becomes black as
night,
a guardian:
she protects the secret password
from your wretched grasp.
I overhear
the methods of pleasure
of longing
a trap
for extracting clues
to the maps of underground passageways
and air-tight grounds of path
you use
to wear down the wall.
Whose attack
and armies with trumpets
Whose all at once blast
shatters the foundations.
there are knives,
spoons, forks
and spade
the spoon to scoop,
the fork to pike
the knife to slice
and spade to dig in
to feast upon
my flesh:
the wall.
carving skin
imprinting marks
embedding
prolonged hunger
and lust.
Ears lean in to the right direction
and cannot hear,
because the voices
cry faint as a whisper
from your belly
filled
with the remains
of me.
~Timi