Major Poets and Awards: Multicultural Poetry- Dizzy in Your Eyes by Pat Mora

Dizzy in Your Eyes by Pat Mora

Bibliography 

Mora, Pat. 2010. Dizzy In Your Eyes. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

ISBN: 978-0-375-94565-6

Review

Dizzy in Your Eyes opens with an informative yet sincere letter to the reader. The letter explains that the book begins with free verse style and then progresses to stylistic forms such as haiku, sonnets, and clerihew. The letter continues with an example of a clerihew titled Pat Mora. To keep with the nature of the poems form, Mora's clerihew pokes gentle fun at herself as a poet. Following the delightfully explanatory letter, comes a book of poems that reach every emotion love has to offer.

As promised, Mora begins the book with a free verse poem titled "Weird" the poem, like other poems in the collection, Weird captures this minute feeling a person has as they attempt to reach out to another person of interest for the first time. Continuing, Mora writes poems that find these indiscernible feelings a person has as they are exploring the different angles of love in life, and she flawlessly strings words together to personify those emotions.

The poems are published on only the odd numbered pages with abstract graphic art on the even number pages. The upshot from publishing the poems on odd number pages is the flow that is created for the reader. As the reader finishes one poem the flow to the next is seamless and effortless. There is a sense of desire to see what emotion Mora is going to explore next. Another repercussion of printing the poems on odd pages is the helpful definition of the poetic form that is sporadically printed on the even numbered pages. Just as Mora mentioned in the letter to the reader she explores different poetic forms throughout the novel, and on the even numbered pages she defines the poetic form and indicates its usage in other poems throughout the book.

One of the most unique qualities to Mora's poems is the fact that the speakers of each poem changes from poem to poem. The reader is never really sure if the speaker is a boy, a girl, an older speakers, or a younger speaker. The poems are also just as wide as they are deep. They expand from the idea of "boyfriend" "girlfriend" love to sisterly love, to blended family, and split family love. However, the poems are open to personal interpretation. For example, the poem titled "Back Then" captivates the feeling someone has as they are remembering the feeling of excitement. The line "...and I'd feel like I'd swallowed a slice of sun" is written in past tense and allows the reader to interpret that as either a loss of the feeling or as a simple remembrance of person and the feeling they evoked for the speaker. Mora recreates this idea of personal interpretation throughout the collection which makes Dizzy in Your Eyes a collection that can be read over and over again.

As a side note: I got this book from the Euless Public Library and as I was reading I found that three poems were torn out of the novel. I think this fact alone proves that the poems speak to its readers and even motivates them to keep the poem for themselves. 

Spotlight 

The poem titled "Broken Home?" is a tanka poem that Mora notes is purposefully divided into two sections to show the passage of time. The first half of the poem highlights the traumatic experience children often experience as their parents make a decision to be co-parents and to not remain husband and wife. The word choice in part one reflects the voice of a young child trying to navigate the idea of what it means to be from a broken home. In part two the word choice reflects a young adult who understands that labels are for onlookers not for participants.  

Broken Home?

I

Long, sad, first weekend, 

my strange room: a cold, white box.

My brother pouts, cries.

Another first: Dad cooking. 

Is our home really broken?

II

Two houses, one home. 

Birthdays pull us together.

Singing heals our hurts.

Us four, always family, 

a home we make for ourselves. 

Follow-up lesson 

For this poem a follow-up lesson would be a more serious lesson for students and children that revolves around the theme just because an aspect of your life isn't considered "ideal" doesn't mean your life does have value or purpose. I would have the students identify something about themselves that they would consider atypical including: divorced parents, a blended family, an LGBT family unit, also including personal irregularity such as: attention deficient disorder, dyslexia, dysgraphia, too tall, or too short, anything the student feels makes them different, Then I would have them plot out a tanka poem of their own that captures their feelings about their difference.