Bleeding+Heart-POL

__Biography __
Carmen Giménez Smith was born in New York and earned her BA in English from San Jose State University as well as a MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa. She writes poetry, lyrical essays, novels, and memoirs. She is the publisher of Noemi Press, editor of //Puerto del Sol//, and currently works as a professor at New Mexico State University. Her book, //Milk and Filth//, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is an accomplished author of a small poetry collection titled //Casanova Variations// (2009) and a full-length collection, //Odalisque in Pieces// (2009). She was recently featured on the Poetry Society of America's website as a New American Poet. Through her flowing free-verse, she explores problems faced by women and the Latina identity. As a contemporary poet, she often explores the issues concerning the world around her intertwined with her own perceptions of herself. She declares that she writes poetry to better communicate with herself. Smith claims that poetry allows her to explore her subconsciousness to achieve a deeper understanding of her emotions and thoughts.

Bleeding Heart BY [|CARMEN GIMÉNEZ SMITH] My heart is bleeding. It bleeds upward and fills my mouth up with salt. It bleeds because of a city in ruins, the chair still warm from sister's body, because it will all be irreproducible. My heart bleeds because of baby bear not finding mama bear and it bleeds to the tips of my fingers like I painted my nails Crimson. Sometimes my heart bleeds so much I am a raisin. It bleeds until I am a quivering ragged clot, bleeds at the ending with the heroine and her sunken cancer eyes, at the ending with the plaintive flute over smoke-choked killing fields. I'm bleeding a river of blood right now and it's wearing a culvert in me for the blood.My heart rises up in me, becomes the cork of me and I choke on it. I am bleeding <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">for you and for me and for the tiny babies and the IED-blown <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">leg. It bleeds because I'm made that way, all filled up with blood, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">my sloppy heart a sponge filled with blood to squeeze onto <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;"> any circumstance. Because it is mine, it will always bleed. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">My heart bled today. It bled onto the streets <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">and the steps of city hall. It bled in the pizza parlor with the useless jukebox. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">I've got so much blood to give inside and outside of any milieu. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Even for a bad zoning decision, I'll bleed so much you'll be bleeding, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">all of us bleeding in and out like it's breathing, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">or kissing, and because it is righteous and terrible and red.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #404040; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #404040; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%; vertical-align: baseline;"> Diadem with Kinnaris (Half-Bird, Half-Female Creatures) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'The Met Serif Web',Georgia,serif; font-size: 18px;">Date: 9th–10th century <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'The Met Serif Web',Georgia,serif; font-size: 18px;">Culture: India (Jammu & Kashmir, ancient kingdom of Kashmir) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'The Met Serif Web',Georgia,serif; font-size: 18px;">Medium: Gold inset with garnet <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'The Met Serif Web',Georgia,serif; font-size: 18px;">Classification: Jewelry <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'The Met Serif Web',Georgia,serif; font-size: 18px;">Credit Line: Gift of Evelyn Kossak, The Kronos Collections, 1988

__<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Discussion Questions __
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">What type of imagery does Smith use throughout her poem? What emotions does she invoke along with it, and why does she choose these reoccurring images?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Describe Smith's diction. How do her connotations and poetic structure contribute to the overall meaning of the poem?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">What literary devices does Smith utilize the most? Why does she repeat these rhetorical strategies?
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">In line 5, Smith states that her heart "bleeds because of baby bear not finding mama bear"? Why does she choose this coupling? Beyond the literal interpretation, what does this line mean?
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Why does Smith compare "bleeding", "breathing", and "kissing" at the end of the poem? Why does she choose to describe all three as "righteous", "terrible", and "red" (line 22).

__<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 150%;">Analysis of Poem __

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Through somber, beautiful word choice and imagery filled with death and destruction, Smith draws attention to the hurt people cause others and the immense pain in the world while reflecting over her own resentment and despair of people's actions. Smith avoids placing blame on any singular person or even society in general. Through her confessional poem, she expresses the heartache she experiences due to all of these atrocities in the world. Through parallel structure, repetition, and flowing rhythm, Smith unifies her poem to signify the force that one person's actions have on the universe and to exemplify the trickling down of pain. By reflecting on her own painful past, Smith reaches out to those who have been in similar scenarios and opens her memories to broader interpretations. Smith invokes detailed and bloody imagery to demonstrate the desolate nature of war and how it affects not only the soldiers but also civilians. Furthermore, she struggles with accepting that horrid events can happen to even the most innocent: the young. Although she does not claim that she despises being able to deeply empathize with all the pain around her, she demonstrates how she is easily able to relate to the remorse and sorrow of others. To her, this is both a gift and curse. To feel this great passion can be righteous and humane, but it can also lead to her own destruction if she lets it overpower her. She advises people to abstain from letting the world's tragedies prevent them from enjoying life's gifts or else it can lead to their own self destruction and a new mentality filled with blood and death.