Ellie PAP Week 6: "Christian's Calling" Nicole Blackman

 The poem “Christian’s Calling” by Nicole Blackman is about a suicidal man named Christian who faces many hardships during his everyday life. This poem brings light to many mental health problems many people struggle with today. In the poem, some of the struggles he faces are small and unimportant, but make him miserable. This is a common reaction in people who may be facing depression or mental health problems and they will overnanalyze small issues and magnify them. The poem also references a few metaphors with lions. “The lions pick their teeth clean with your bones.” and “The lions smell your blood and breathe in your dust.” refer to Christian feeling hopeless and worried, much like you would be in either of these situations with a lion. My favorite quote from this poem is “Christian is just learning to speak.” This sentence gives Christian a more naive and inncoent persepctive. He’s probably “loyal to the wrong friend” and is “in love with the wrong girl” because he’s naive and innocent, and has to make these mistakes to learn from them, even though they hurt in the moment. It’s not explicitly known if Christian does actually kill himself, but the final line of him saying “I have come to Los Angeles to die” can only give you an idea of how he’s feeling and what he might’ve done after he hung up the phone call. I think this is a great poem to spread awareness about people who are depressed or suicidal and to highlight the negative mental health issues many people in today’s world may struggle with.








Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 5, 2021 at 8:25 AM

    Hey Ellie, I read this poem, and I cannot begin to describe the emotion this poem evokes. The author's use of metaphors to describe how Christian is feeling provide a visual image of his mental state, such as Christian chipping away at himself like china. I seriously think this is one of the most emotional poems I have ever read; it is so short yet somehow offers a completely new outlook on life. The author's word choice is just perfect. This poem is a major wake up call to make sure to look out for your loved ones, check in often, and always be kind and supportive to everyone because you never know when someone needs it most.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousDecember 1, 2021 at 7:03 AM

    Hi Ellie. Wow, this poem was amazing but very complex. The messages behind this poem, dealing with mental health, are very important to draw attention to and the format in which it was presented was very nice.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Isaac Week 1 - "1969" by Alex Dimitrov

Image
  The poem "1969" by Alex Dimitrov looks at the moon landing and uses it to symbolize how everyone is looking at the future as if they are living in it in the present, and how everyone looks towards living in peace even though they constantly live in war. Dimitrov describes how we came to the moon "in peace for all mankind then returned to continue the war".  The title "1969" signifies the date of the moon landing, but does more in that it is a past date that looks forward to a bright future. It is a year where it was shown that certain things that may have seemed impossible may become possible in the upcoming years in the future. It is a title that both looks back at the past, but also looks forward to a bright future.  I agree with the message of the poem of looking forward to the future, but I also think that focusing on the present is very important which I think is something that the author emphasizes. We are living in a world that is not reality, and...
Read more

Ethan Week 3- “Looking at a Coyote”, by Javier Zamora

Image
“ Looking at a Coyote ” by Javier Zamora is a symbolic poem about the relationship between an Illegal immigrant, such as Javier Zamora coming from Mexico, and a Coyote. The title, “ Looking at a Coyote ,” is very significant as it conveys the underlying message of the poem. More specifically, when looking at a Coyote, one observes an animal that is a vicious predator who, at the same time, is a scavenger, always moving and searching for food as well as a better life. The author is trying to illustrate a comparison between how many Americans view illegal immigrants, at first sight, today, and how they actually are. Many Americans view them as animals, predators, not humans. They view them as invasive species that must be gotten rid of. They feel that the illegals are coming to steal their resources and their jobs, similar to a Coyote stealing another animal’s food. In my opinion, we should have a legal path to citizenship and, at the same time, we as Americans need to also be more compa...
Read more

Dan Week 1 - "Grief Calls Us to the Things of this World" by Sherman Alexie

 In his poem "Grief Calls Us to the Things of this World," Sherman Alexie describes a call with his mother through a hotel bathroom telephone and their shared conflicting emotions about Alexie's father that arise from the conversation. The tone of the poem shifts from a simple decision to call his father because "he's astounded by bathroom telephones" to a deep sense of self-reflection from both Alexie and his mother, asking themselves how they possibly could have forgotten that Alexie's father is dead.  While Sherman and his mother's initial reactions are to feel guilty for their forgetfulness, their mistakes are actually a result of their undying love for their father/husband. When Sherman decides to phone his father, he isn't even thinking about the incredibly obvious fact that his dad is dead (rendering him unable to answer a phone call) because all he is thinking about at the moment is that he is u sing a bathroom phone and he needs to tell ...
Read more