Appreciation of Literature and Film

Doors by Choi Jeong-Hwa – A sculpture featuring 1,000 doors arranged in mosaic fashion on a building

1,000 doors, but which to choose?

We all want freedom until it’s time to choose.

A white, wooden door opens up

Revealing a room disheveled and unkempt.

I recognize it as my own,

But back away to continue searching the unknown.

Glass and hardwood for the next one

And I don’t know why it draws me in.

Voices on the other side quickly reply,

But those memories need to be kept far from the eye.

A new door, decorated, red, and shiny, beckons next.

Something new, something complex.

On the other side is a city filled with busybodies and bustling with life.

But would the flurry and loneliness bring me too much strife?

Another one, plain and comfortable

catches my eye and seems approachable.

I see myself and kids, laughing, running, then crying.

But I look so young, could I be happy in something less binding?

I reach the top floor, where whipping winds wreak havoc,

Where most do not dare to go.

And one door, the knob barely hanging on calls forth.

Of this one, the voice is demanding and shakes me to my core.

I reach the end of the hallway and can see straight through.

This door wouldn’t stop the weakest of intruders.

I grab the handle and pull and push, waiting for something to happen,

But on the other side, there are still 10 stories to concrete.

I walk back down, cursed with the choice of 1,000 doors,

Hoping the freedom of choice doesn’t lead me back to the top door.

This poem does not, in any way, match up with the meaning intended by the artist. The actual meaning is quite ambiguous and has been interpreted in several ways. My take was interpreting the doors as choices. A thousand doors are a lot of doors. One interesting aspect of this sculpture is that, from far away, it looks like a pixilated image. The doors themselves get lost in a broader view of them. I was also drawn to how the doors change as you get closer to the top. The removed windows are filled on the lower floors by the building behind them. The doors near the top, however, have nothing behind them, making them look more like an empty frame than a door. I chose to use rhyme schemes in the parts with “normal” choices but to break it off towards the end to make the reader feel uncomfortable.

It is dark out now, but it doesn’t feel like it

The stars shine bright enough to paint the sky light blue

Bright, but calm

And ever so still.

The clouds and sky swirl into itself, causing an array of loops and turns

Each going on its own journey

And guiding each passerby’s, safely on their own journeys 

And making them wonder

Why the stars are shining so bright tonight.

The moon is the real “star” of the show though.

Orange and Yellow, 

If you stare at it too long you might go crazy, or it might just help you stay sane,

So you stare at it for hours, and test your fate.

I wasn’t sure what to pick for this assignment, so I was thinking about paintings that are popular, and have always instilled longing in me. I could look at this painting for hours, observing every swirl, and how they move around the stars and moon. I can look at the different shades of the stars and the moon, and the sky. In the beginning of the poem, I focused more on the art, and then moved to the artist, Vincent Van Gogh. He created this painting while he was in an asylum in France, being treated for mental illness. This was his view from his window, just before sunrise. He wasn’t allowed to paint in his room so he did this off of memory at a later time. Because of this he was truly able to make it his own, in ways like adding a village below, which at first glance, some people miss. I think that him being able to paint was what kept him sane for the meantime, as there was clearly a tough war going on in his head, that he was unable to silence, but this night was a calm and silent night. 

I did not use generative AI to create this poem

The Embrace of The Redeemer 

With his arms spread, He stands really tall,

A beautiful sculpture for us all.

He watches over the city with a gentle stare, 

A city full of emotions like joy and despair.

Bellow him the streets are bustling,

Plenty of his people are running and hustling.

Just some stone so he cannot speak,

But still keeps people from feeling weak,

When the sun sets, the light goes thin.

But his light will never die from within,

A sculpture of Jesus watches over the night.

Guarding all of us sinners with all his might

I picked the Christ the Redeemer statue because it’s such a powerful symbol that stands over Rio. I have never been to Rio, but I can assume that the people feel like the statue is always watching over them. My main idea was to capture how peaceful and yet powerful the statue is while people live there own lives underneath. The line “With his arms spread, he stands really tall” shows how his arms feel like a big embrace, welcoming the people of the city.

The poem contrasts the busy life in the city with the peace of the statue. I used lines like “Bellow him the streets are bustling, Plenty of his people are running and hustling.” to show how the city is always active, while Christ remains peaceful and calm. I took breaks between the lines in certain places to give the reader a second to really think about what’s being said.

The last part focuses on the light because while looking the statue up, it is almost always shown in front of a sunset. I wanted to end with the idea of Christ watching over the people, protecting them even as the city quiets down.

I wasn’t trying to explain the statue or its religious meaning too much, although I am a Catholic and I believe the religious aspect is a huge part; I understand plenty of people who love this statue are not religious. I focused more on how it makes people feel, calm, safe, and connected. The way the poem is structured, with shorter lines and steady rhythm, is meant to match the steady calm of the statue.

I did not use generative AI to create this poem.

Nothing else in the world seems so calm

No wind to break the water

The fresh smell of the flowers surrounds you

The only sounds you hear are the creatures 

that make the garden their home

A white bridge sits over the water

You can see the bright lilies below

There are delicate white petals

Reflecting in the water they lay on

Time feels like it slows here

You can pause and breathe

Feel your feelings

and hear your thoughts clearly 

Here the water carries everything away

Giving you a sense of clarity

and relaxation

Even though nothing is moving at all 

I don’t think I was trying to emulate a certain poem or anything like that. I was just trying to keep to the four lines per stanza. I was trying to show how the painting made me feel and how it would feel to walk through the gardens. I think when I was younger and I went to France I got to visit Monet’s gardens and it was really gorgeous and relaxing. I love going to gardens and places where there aren’t a lot of people and all you hear are the sounds of animals hiding and the water moving. I also love the smell of everything like the flowers and the water, everything smells so fresh and clean. I feel like it makes time stand still and it gives you the best opportunity to think or turn your brain off for a little bit, which I love. I mainly focused on the art itself and not the artist. I also did not have any specific reason to break lines where I did either, I just did it where I thought it sounded good, even though sometimes I would break them halfway through a long sentence. 

I did not use generative AI to create this poem. 

The Lady of Shalott 

Ethereal skies and veiled sanctuary

bound in the borders of a reflection. 

Chained by a curse and suspended in time,

Until her daring gaze parted the glass,

Shattering stillness and breaking her past.

Now this river winds through mist and trees,

waters dark but still at ease. 

Her frail boat drifts along the tide, 

with lips parted to sing in kind.

Stories of old woven in that dress,

And a clutched chain carrying her duress.

Two small swallows follow closely behind,

Watching, waiting, biding their time.

Two candles blown, only one stays lit,

Fighting, clamoring at the bit. 

Dreaming of reaching Camelot 

before her final breath beckons,

Or her chance at love 

will die with her last few seconds.

I wrote this poem to both relay/explain the tale of The Lady of Shalott, while also pulling key characteristics from the specific moment in her story that this painting captures. I focused on certain parts of her story, but also instrumental artistic choices found in this painting. One key detail I believe was that the three candles in the painting represent the three fates from Greek mythology, two snuffed out to show they decided she will die and one holding out hope. I also believe that the chain represents how she carries the curse with her despite having broken it. This ties into how I describe the artistic choice of the sparrows as I think the artist included them to allude to how the woman was dying, as “sparrows flying low” is symbolic of an ominous meaning. While most line breaks were intended to aid with the flow of the words, the second to last line broke after the word love to highlight the weight that finding love had in her story. While I wrote the piece from a third person “objective” perspective, it is intended to be reflective in a tragic, yet illustrative way similar to some of the other pieces we have read in class. 

I did not use generative AI to create this poem.