Bodies in Space: Diaz and Davis

In this short essay, we will consider how certain writers and their fictional communities address and represent specific bodies in public. The source material will include Natalie Diaz’s “Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym Subjugation of a Wild Indian Rezervation” and “No More Cake Here” as well as Frank Marshall Davis’ “Chicago’s Congo.” A unifying theme across these works is the friction between bodies and their environment. In each poem, there are frequent allusions to people (bodies) who are experiencing some dissatisfaction or another—grief, anger, discontent, etc.—which is spurned from or relational to their public environment. In most instances, this friction is caused by a misalignment between the body and the body’s culture or voice and the environment in which that body rests and acts.

“Abecedarian”

The full title of “Abecedarian” gives an impression of tension from the very beginning; the title more or less translates to an alphabetical poem (each line begins with successive letters of the alphabet: a, b, c, …z) that asks the reader to scrutinize the subjugation of an Indian reservation by white angels (Anglikan Seraphym). Phonetically, the title embodies a high degree of scholarship but the strategic misspellings belie a simplicity and even an implied scorn for the object of the poem. The spelling of “rezervation” is crude, but the spelling of “seraphym” alludes to pre-standardized English where “y” would often be used rather than “i”. This cleverly takes the language—which is not synonymous with voice but still inextricable from it—of the oppressor and subtly subjugates it to the purposes of the author.

Bodies also play an interesting role in this poem because of their absence—the author repeatedly states that she has never seen an angel on the reservation. There is a certain implied incompatibility between the body of an angel and the reservation. The author thinks that they ought not to occupy our thoughts, although she’s also sure that if they did come, they would be villains. She mocks the western tradition of angels by comparing the Angel Gabriel (of the Annunciation) to a man named Gabe who steals cars, flies around, and impregnates all the women he comes into contact with. The author’s own proximate environment is the influencing factor of the extent to which she can imagine angelic bodies, showing how our cultures tend to frame our attitudes about the world outside of us.

“No More Cake Here”

In this poem, Diaz creates tension and friction between the bodies on the “inside world” and those of the “outside world.” The inside world of Diaz in this poem is a sort of paradoxical party where everyone celebrates the violent, meth-addicted brother. Colorful characters all (at least attempt to) “invade” the inside world—magicians, dogs, clowns, etc. Eventually, when the cake runs out, she must refuse them.

It’s difficult to say exactly what the cake represents, or if it represents many different things. But what is clear enough is that people want it, and that if it isn’t there, they aren’t really interested in “coming inside.” This speaks to victimization and to abuse of persons, i.e., treating them as means and losing interest when they can no longer provide something that was desired. There is an incredible lack of agency and voice from the author in this poem.

But bodies also play a role in this inside/outside world dynamic. Near the end of the poem it becomes crystal clear that the party was imagined, and in this, we see that the author is really resentful of her brother who brings this to her attention. If the worst thing about the whole affair is that she can still taste the cake, then the cake seems to allude to some interior peace—some peace that a body cannot have in public—that is revealed to be a fiction itself. All of the interior celebration isn’t just in vain, but it makes things worse because the body has had a glimpse—or a taste—of a better thing that simply isn’t available once their body enters the public.

“Chicago’s Congo”

This poem begins by suggesting a symbiotic relationship between public life and bodies. It is not a particularly enjoyable image of Chicago as an overgrown woman, but it nevertheless attempts to make this point. However, as the poem progresses, a wedge is driven further and further between the bodies in the city and the city itself. This is first done by appealing to the Congo against Chicago, and then the author begins to describe how everything he is describing cannot be understood by everyone.

Eventually, the city is revealed as being occupied by these bodies—many of them—who do not really belong to the city. They are a “part” of the city, and even personified as being a part of it. But they are still distant from it, so distant that it is impossible for everyone to even understand who they are or what the poem is about (by the author’s own admission). This sort of life within the city that is an inextricable part of the city but which still eludes explanation or understanding on the part of the city is the conflict between the body, voice, etc. and the public space. It is a sort of paradox that is encapsulated well near the end of the poem where Davis refers to songs without words or tunes without humes.

Conclusion

In each of these poems, there are instances where bodies are in tension against the public space they inhabit. Bodies and their voices are heavily informed by their culture, but cultures and bodies do not always get along. Often there is friction between the body and the public due to one or the other having conflicting sentiments.

The friction in Diaz’s “Abecedarian” is one which colors her worldview so that she can only imagine something celestial as being decadent. The friction in her “No More Cake Here” is an intense and intimate friction between the interior self and the outside world where the interior self-attempts to protect and preserve some good attitude or thing, but is then overcome by the outside world which extinguishes it. And Davis’ “Chicago’s Congo” describes how so many bodies can exist within a space that doesn’t really consider them as belonging to it.

These tensions are not easily resolved. In fact, they aren’t resolved at all in any of these poems. On the contrary, if anything, these poems end in a way that suggests that nothing will change. They are a glimpse into a moment of time of suffering and discontent that captures the suffering and discontent, and also impart the sense that these negative experiences will continue. The normalcy of such tensions goes to show that even when we are aware of such tensions, we tend to put them into ordinary terms and to begin to consider them as simply a part of life even though it’s very disordered (for people to live and act in an environment that is hostile). In doing so, we can remove or at least render remote some of the pain that ensues when critically examining such dynamics.

Works Cited

Davis, Frank Marshall. “Chicago’s Congo.” Poetry Foundation. Accessed 13 July 2017 from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43438/chicagos-congo

Diaz, Natalie. “Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym Subjugation of a Wild Indian Rezervation.” Poetry Foundation. Accessed 13 July 2017 from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56353/abecedarian-requiring-further-examination-of-anglikan-seraphym-subjugation-of-a-wild-indian-rezervation

Diaz, Natalie. “No More Cake Here.” Poetry Foundation. Accessed 13 July 2017 from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56356/no-more-cake-here