Peer Response: An Almost Pure Empty Walking Essay

Selected Poems: â€Å"Immigrant†, â€Å"Almond Tree†, â€Å"Watering†, â€Å"I Will Sweep†, and â€Å"My Mothers Room† In Tryfon Tolides poems he alternates his life experiences in his homeland and in the United States. The author does this by choosing careful words to describe his experiences in such a way that allows the readers to imagine the image he is trying to display. The author conveys the new world versus the old world as he explains his life in Greece and in the United States. He tells stories of his mother’s pain as an immigrant and his joy of living in the ordinary world. The author also introduces us to his mother’s disease of cancer and he describes it as if he was reliving that moment in his life again. The author writes with honesty and humanity, he relates his poems to the every day person and the every day life of an American or a Greek. We all experience sorrow, pain, happiness, joy, and loss. Any one can relate to one or more of this authors poem. Any reader can enjoy his remembrance of his delivery days as a pizza delivery boy, or his mother’s pain of both being an immigrant and a cancer patient, or even the every day ordinary things the author chooses to write about. The immigrant touches the issues of his mother’s grief of moving to America, she states that America has brought her nothing but poison and illness. From this we can tell that the author’s mother blames America for disease and believes if she did not come to America then she would not have become sick. In part we can also conclude that her life in America is not as easy as she thought it would be. People always talked about the wonderful life of an American but from this poem we can tell that the author’s mother has had a hard life in America and misses her life in Greece. In an almond tree we can conclude that the author also misses his life in Greece, the author conveys this by explaining his memories of smashing almonds. The author continues by stating all of the things he misses from when he was in Greece, such as the spring water, the black skies, and the outhouse. He is also conveying that even though his life was harder in Greece he remembers his memories in joy. The author doesn’t remember his life as being difficult he remember it as being wonderful because that is what he was used to. These two poems meant the most to me because both the author and his mother remember Greece as being their joyous home and in some ways wish they have never left it.