Making A Fist By Naomi Shihab Nye Analysis

My first poem “Making a Fist” by Naomi Shihab Nye I instantly thought of fighting someone, but I was wrong. In the first stanza Naomi tells us she felt the life slipping out of her, indicating that she was losing hope and her will to fight through the difficulties of life that we all face. She then starts to tell us a life story about being in the car with her mom feeling sick and watching all palm trees pass. I feel as though she picks this memory because she wishes life was as simple as it was when she was younger and all she had to worry about was a tummy ache. In the second stanza Naomi begs her mom how would she know if she was going to die and after traveling for a couple of days her mom tells her that she will die when she can no longer make a fist. Naomi’s mom didn’t mean making a fist to fight someone, but mentally
There is so much more to life than what meets the eye. We don’t appreciate it enough, because some people try to make a fist and fight through it but aren’t able to.
The song “Dark Angel” by Gretchen Peters reminds me of an addiction. In her first stanza, it talks about how there is nothing but her dark angel, the addiction. There is no music, no heaven, no hell. In the second stanza, she talks about how the addiction tempts her and cripples her. The addiction calls to her like a bell and consumes her, again the addiction is the only thing that matters.
Moving on to the third verse, she says that this is nothing but the present. No past and no future and to me that indicates that nothing besides right now is what she’s thinking about. She isn’t thinking about any consequences that might happen. She states that “life is a beautiful disaster” and there are no words to describe how life is. It’s a disaster but at the same time there are times you enjoy