Entry Number One, Week Eight: Review a poem. "I Went into the Maverick Bar."

For a group assignment this week, I was asked to explicate the poem “I Went into the Maverick Bar” by Gary Snyder. Honestly, if I would not have done some research about the Black Mesa issue and the song “We don’t smoke Marijuana in Muskokie [Muskogee]” then, the meaning (or what I perceive to be the meaning) of the poem wouldn’t have registered within my own mind. That is not to say I did not enjoy the reading. In the poem, the narrator goes to the Maverick Bar in Farmington, New Mexico. He hears the song “We don’t smoke Marijuana in Muskokie [Muskogee]” and watches an older couple dance. The narrator begins to recall a simpler time when he had “short-haired joy and roughness.” After the short-lived nostalgia, he leaves the bar and receives a “dose of reality.”

Even though I don’t see the poem as becoming a well-loved classic, I appreciate it. I do not think it will be extremely popular because it will be misunderstood. Some may mistake it for unpatriotic or cynical. If proper research is done, then readers may gain new insight. The narrator is headed to New Mexico to speak about the Black Mesa issue. While on the way, he hears a song about living a "good," pure (basically, Christianity's view of pure) life. He remembers being sheltered and turning a blind eye towards serious issues occurring in the world. Then, when the narrator leaves the bar, he remembers his focus on what needs to be done. I loved the nostalgic, mysterious language. It also seemed nonchalant. I pictured a calm, lonely bar in New Mexico during a cool, desert night. The line, “What is to be done” leaves readers pondering several questions: What does the narrator need to accomplish? And What do I need to accomplish?  After my little research session, the poem became relevant to me. I think the theme could be seen as “What is to be done” is not always simple and enjoyable. Perhaps, it (our short- or long-term life mission(s)) cannot be discovered until some of our innocence has been shattered, until we see the world through clear, unsheltered eyes and realize there is evil and badness.

I love the lines:

            “America- your stupidity

I could almost love you again.”

I think the lines are powerful, so brilliant. At a young age, I remember teachers, family members, older members of our community, trying to instill a deep-rooted pride in America. So deep, it could almost have been considered ethnocentric. My whole life I have tried to maintain that pride, yet often it falters: the current president will do something upsetting; a new group will form out of ignorance; or some unspeakable crime will be committed. I try to love America in the purest sense, then our country does something foolish, and the love seems out-of-reach. Like the “love jar” was moved from the first shelf to the tenth shelf, and suddenly, I can’t just stand on my tip-toes to get it.

-Abigail Lawrence J