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Ada Benjamin

1) Jeff Sirkin and Daniela Armijo presented their books of poems at a UTEP event on November 18th, 2016. 2) Daniela Armijo presented first in Spanish and read from a poem about a young boy named Luciano dealing with the death of his chicken. 3) Jeff Sirkin then presented in English and read from his book "Traveler's Aid Society", including poems about societal individualism, and observing a dark and barren urban environment.

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63 views

Ada Benjamin

1) Jeff Sirkin and Daniela Armijo presented their books of poems at a UTEP event on November 18th, 2016. 2) Daniela Armijo presented first in Spanish and read from a poem about a young boy named Luciano dealing with the death of his chicken. 3) Jeff Sirkin then presented in English and read from his book "Traveler's Aid Society", including poems about societal individualism, and observing a dark and barren urban environment.

Uploaded by

api-317795126
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Ada Benjamin

RWS 1302
CRS 15336

Reflection paper
Nov 20th 2016

Travelers Aid Society

A Collection of Poems By Dr. Jeff Sirkin

On Friday, Novemeber 18th 2016, I attended the UTEP book release of


Jeff Sirkin and Daniela Armijo. Although the presentation was in the night
time, and Daniela Armijo presented in Spanish, I had a very good learning
experience. It was highly informative and exposed a lot of information
through a series of poems. Daniela Armijo was first to present. Her story
centered around Luciano, who felt the harshness of the reality of his familys
situation. One of his chickens, whom he was very fond of, was killed and
cooked by his father in order to provide food. Specifically, he killed his
chicken, Pinto, in order to make a specialty Mexican dish called Mole for
the celebration of a Baptism. The story explains this occurrence through the
eyes of Luciano and expresses the difficulty of having to accept certain
discomforts or traumas in childhood life.
The main presenter was Jeff Sirkin who presented a series of different
types of poems from his newest book, Travelers Aid Society. He read a
number of poems from his book about the modification of our culture,
environment, and our lives in general. Another general concept that it talks
about is traveling as a gateway to freedom and how it has been transformed

into a modified and closed in approach to our notion of freedom. Although


these might be interpreted as having a dark view of the world, one cannot
deny the truth that is brought up in each poem. The first poem, which is
titled Last Call, focuses on the individualism that is promoted in todays
society. The protagonist, who is a bartender, is analyzing his environment
and the people walking by as he waits for the last call. Although he harshly
criticizes the pedestrians, he is not necessarily judging them but is rather
being consciously aware of the events occurring in his surroundings. The
poem is not always dark, there are certain moments of comic relief that keep
the listener entertained and wanting to hear more.
Another poem that Jeff Sirkin introduced was about a traveler who
vividly describes the barbarous conditions of traveling and the city life.
Abandonments of buildings, empty parking lots, people wandering without a
purpose, and people just wondering what is next. The poem displays a very
morbid view of what the utopian technological society that was very well
promoted during the 1960s. Now the harsh conditions show what truly came
about this idea. The loss of our connection with a path or direction in the city
life is what this poem was mainly about.
In conclusion it was greet, I really enjoy all their story and I believed
that everyone enjoys it too because he was making people to laugh a lot, no
one was a sleep everyone was concentrating on them when both of them
was presenter their books, I also we were giving food after the programs and

I do enjoy their meal it was so good its also saved me money for my dinner
that night.

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