The first time I read “Immigrants in Our Own Land,” I wasn’t certain what it was about. I thought it had something to do with immigration. After the first three stanzas I thought it was quite whiny. When I got to the last few stanzas I actually became somewhat angry. Reviewing the first three stanzas it almost sounds as if people have chosen to go to prison to better their lives. It had nothing to do with the fact that they broke the law and were found guilty by a court of law. All I can say is that this whole poem screams of someone feeling victimized. First, the speaker makes these people sound very innocent, as if they have chosen to do something to better themselves. Then he makes it sound like that choice has led them to be abused by the system. Oh, wait! This is prison and they didn’t choose to go here they were sent by those horrible cops that were doing their jobs.

I agree that the penal system is less than ideal. Many people who go in come out better criminals than when they went in. The system is not perfect and chances are against people being rehabilitated. However, this whiny, victimized poem can teach a lesson. Don’t break the law and stay out of prison!

The other poem I chose to review was “Daffodils” by Alicia Ostriker. I had to read this poem a couple of times to make sure I understood what the speaker was getting at. It seems to me that the speaker is in pain because the Iraq war started and has gone in search of something to take her mind off it. While I agree that war is not a good thing and not always the answer, it is sometimes necessary.

Personally, this poem came across as very arrogant and judgmental and as a veteran of that war, I find it very offensive. In a way, the speaker is saying that her pain caused by the start of the war is greater than the combined pain of the Iraqi people under Saddam Hussein’s regime. All I can say to this is that I, along with many other people, suffered more pain the day the war started and every day after for many years, than the speaker in this poem. Hitler was only worse than Hussein when considering scale. If it was wrong to remove Hussein then maybe it was wrong to remove Hitler from power as well. In the end, good people are the ones who do not sit idly by and allow evil to prevail, not the people who mask their ignorance behind eloquent closed-mindedness. Regardless of the conspiracies people believe lie behind the Iraq war, some good was accomplished. Things certainly could have been done better during the war, but if the good does not outweigh the bad, then the lives of my fallen comrades become even more tragic.