Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

June Jordan’s "Mid-Year Report: For Haruko" is a poignant and powerful reflection on personal and global tragedies juxtaposed against each other. The poem is structured around the refrain "By this time," which serves as a temporal marker and a reminder of the passage of time amidst ongoing events of violence, indifference, and personal sorrow.

The poem begins by noting the massacre of 20,000 Tutsis by Hutus in Rwanda, setting a grave and tragic tone. This event, a significant and horrifying part of the Rwandan Genocide, anchors the poem in a specific historical moment of violence and atrocity. The speaker immediately juxtaposes this global tragedy with a personal memory, "I could not remember exactly the last time I held you in my arms," drawing a parallel between the personal and the political.

Jordan’s use of contrasting images continues throughout the poem. The mundane and commercial, such as the sale of 100% cotton T-shirts for O.J. Simpson and his new girlfriend's declarations of his innocence, are placed alongside the ongoing genocide in Rwanda. This contrast serves to highlight the disparities in what captures public attention and concern. The trivialities of American pop culture and consumerism starkly oppose the brutal reality of mass slaughter and suffering in Rwanda.

The poem’s structure, with its repetitive "By this time" refrain, underscores the relentless passage of time and the accumulation of events, both trivial and significant. This repetition also conveys a sense of helplessness and inevitability, as each new line adds another layer to the unfolding tragedies.

Jordan touches on various forms of violence and neglect. The personal violence in relationships, as hinted with the "legal violence of in-house abuse," is mirrored by the larger-scale violence of genocide and the systemic violence of governmental neglect and indifference. The mention of "ten attorneys" hired by O.J. Simpson, each at a significant cost, contrasts sharply with the lack of intervention in Rwanda, highlighting the skewed priorities and injustices within the legal and political systems.

The poem’s emotional core is the speaker’s personal loss and longing, which is intertwined with the broader themes of global suffering. The lines "I couldn't look anymore / at old photographs of your body soft against the trees about to fall" and "I couldn't look anymore / at new photographs of babies pulling at the arms / of dead mothers and dead brothers" reflect the speaker's struggle to reconcile personal grief with the overwhelming grief of the world. This blending of personal and collective sorrow deepens the poem’s impact, making the personal losses feel as significant and tragic as the larger historical events.

The final lines of the poem, "Oh my love / The extinction of a people / The extinction of a life / The extinction of a love," bring the themes of the poem full circle. The repetition of "extinction" emphasizes the finality and irreversibility of loss, whether it is the loss of a people, an individual life, or a personal love. The inability to "remember exactly" what has been lost speaks to the numbing effect of continuous tragedy and the difficulty of processing such overwhelming grief.

In "Mid-Year Report: For Haruko," June Jordan masterfully weaves together the personal and the political, the mundane and the profound, to create a moving and thought-provoking reflection on loss, indifference, and the passage of time. The poem challenges readers to consider the ways in which personal and collective histories intersect and to reflect on their own responses to both personal and global tragedies.

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