“The piercing chill I feel” by Taniguchi Buson
This poem is so short, yet leaves you with such a significant feeling as if you know exactly how the man in the poem felt. It is about a man who is perhaps just walking into the bedroom that he shared with his now dead wife, when he steps on her comb. It portrays the feeling of the cold comb under the man's foot to death and how it must have felt to him. I can relate to the feeling of doing something so insignificant like stepping on a comb, yet that action making you remember every detail of something that happened or someone that you have lost. A poem is given power when it touches you in some way and you can relate to it.
“Embrace” by Billy Collins
This poem is about perception and the way in which we view others and how we view ourselves. It is about the “old parlor trick” where you “wrap your arms around your own body”. It says from the back it looks like you are holding someone close to you and therefore not alone in this world. From this view, people perceive you as desirable and normal. However, if you look from the front, it looks as if you are waiting for someone to fit you for a straight jacket. From this view, people perceive you as looking ridiculous and alone. It is all about how people see things, not necessarily the action that is actually taking place.
“Even the croaking of Frogs” by Hakuro Wada
This is a very powerful poem because it was written by a Japanese man who was confined to a federal internment camp. It is about hearing the croaking of the frogs on the outside of the barbed wire fence. It is not fair to him that something like a frog is able to croak on the outside of the fence when he is caged. It shows the deprivation that these people must have felt being caged like animals. It says “Even the croaking of frogs”, like everyone else was free, even the most menial animal like a frog. These frogs were free to do as they pleased and say what they wanted, but not them.
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