The Arm and The Poet

After getting a better understanding for "The Poet" by Tom Wayman in my previous entry and the discussion in class over the poem "The Arm" by Stephen Dunn, I immediately was able to make a connection in these two pieces. Both of them seemed to be describing how people view things, whether in deep detail like in "The Arm" or they view and classify certain groups of people a certain way like in "The Poet". Once I got a better understanding for "The Poet" I was able to come to the conclusion that, what he was writing was stating how a vast majority of society may look at a minor group of people or a particular person. It showed how someone could be classified to have learning disabilities using a checklist of items the person may not be capable of doing such as, "Cannot give clear verbal instructions Does not understand what he reads" (Wayman 3-4). So even though society may view this person at a lower level than they would view someone who is 'normal', they are still rejected by the vast majority or are a very small percentage of society. Similarly in "The Arm", the man stops to look at the broken off doll arm for a long time, playing different scenarios in his imagination of the possibilities of how the arm got to where it was floating in the pond. Eventually the dog he was taking for a walk began to pull on its leash urging the man to move on to continue their walk, being bored of standing there on the leash while the man just stopped to look at the arm. During our in class discussion over this poem, I instantly thought of "The Poet" when we said that the dog could be viewed as the rest of society not stopping to take the time to imagine how that arm got there, how most people are living too fast paced to stop and appreciate little details. Little details that could have potentially changed one person's life. From my opinion of each of these poems, I feel that is shows that everyone is different. Whether they are literally considered to have learning disabilities, or perhaps maybe they are just someone who has a hard time fitting in with everyone. Whether they occasionally stop to appreciate the small details surrounding them in everyday life, or walk right past them going about their day. Everyone one views themselves and others differently, just how no two snowflakes or no two fingerprints are exactly alike. Some may be extremely similar to another, but they are never quite exactly alike.