Poetry Reading Response (Final Draft)

When you take a picture, you can see only the photographer’s point of view of what the things are like in the photo.  In the poem Photography by Nikki Giovanni, it shows how people assume that their lives are perfect and so are everyone else’s, by using the symbol of the camera.

In the poem, the author uses metaphors and symbols to show how people struggle and other people don’t notice.  For example, take the lines ”it’s easy sitting in the sun/ to forget the ice and ravages/ of winter yet” (Giovanni, 12-14).  This shows that the sun (which symbolizes the good things in your life) is a place where you ignore and don’t help other people and the ice and winter symbolize the bad things that could happen to you and other people.

Although you might frown upon other people’s ways, they might love the way they live, struggles and all.  In the poem, it shows this by saying, “yet surf or sea each has/ its lovers and its meaning/ for love”(Giovanni, 20-22).  “Surf or sea” represents different people and “lovers” and “meaning for love” represents people’s lifestyles that they choose to have.  So basically, the quote says that different people have different ways of living and are fine with their lives.

No matter how different people are, we all work together to make the world what it is.  “…/and our hands joining/ those that reach/ develop the product” (Giovanni, 5-7).  This means that if we choose to work together, we will “develop the product” or make this world a better, more equal place.

            After reading this poem, I realized that life really is like a photograph.  We can choose to make our “photo” whatever way we want.  We can either choose to ignore any sadness; “ice”, “winter”, or “cold” or we can show people that there is beauty in “fire” and help them understand that even though some people live different lifestyles than you, they can be just as happy if not more happy.