26 lines, 2 stanzas

The poem compares Gander’s feelings about losing his wife to the post-fire scene in Santa
Rosa. He talks about the way the dead and decaying trees and nature around Santa rosa
replicate his feelings for when his wife passed.

Intro:
Title: Author:

Hook “In their absence, we can feel like a much smaller thing because it is
relationships that make us what we are” said Forrest Gander in his
interview in Delhi, 2020.

Literature info Born January 21, 1956, in California’s Mojave Desert, Forrest Gander, is a
and orientation renowned poet, translator, essayist, and novelist with MA in creative
writing from San Francisco State University. He won the Pulitzer Prize for
poetry in 2019 and is the chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
He is best known to college students for his works “Be With (2018)” &
“Twice Alive (2021)” that talk about his feelings and emotions when his first
wife Carolyn D. Wright passed away in 2016 due to thrombosis. Later he
married Ashwini Bhat, who is a sculptor and worked together with Gander
on a project earlier, and have been living together in the USA since then.

Premise

Elaboration
leads to focus
issues

Thesis Forrest Gander compares the loss of his wife to the remnants of the post-
statement fire forest, revealing that one must eventually move on from the trauma of
the past.

Para 1: imagery+

Topic Sentence Gander uses natural imagery throughout the poem to compare his
emotions for his late wife to the post-fire situation in Santa Rosa.

Elaboration

Context

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Author Last:
Staples
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 Commentary 1 sentence or your personal views
But don’t use I or me

Concluding Link back to the thesis

sentence:

Para 2: feelings

Topic Sentence

Elaboration

Context

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Page:

Commentary

Concluding
sentence:

Para 3: her

Topic Sentence

Elaboration

Context

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Commentary

Concluding
sentence:
Para 4:

Topic Sentence

Elaboration

Context

Quote Author Last:

Page:

Commentary

Concluding
sentence:

Conclusion:

Move forth from the fires of the past, the ambers not the ashes.

Utterances in a tongue…fire means whatever regret he had for saying anything trivial to his wife
or anything now turned to ashes/unimportant
Repetition in (everything trivial)- emphasis
Black paroxysm- means the disease she had thrombosis (metaphor) morning ceremony,
describing the beauty of sun,
If the landscape…basically gander in denial, hoping it’s a dream, she just wakes up
The last paragraph- everyone notes are people at the funeral
Walking through the wreckage- symbolism for his grief
Woodpecker – the reaper who takes away souls
His wife is gone taken by the crow thing, and now he looks for another woman, ASHWINI BHAT