Sex Without Love by Sharon Olds

         Sex without love is a nice way of saying that people can be intimate without any emotional attachment to the other person.
            One part of the poem that stood out to me was "They do not mistake the lover for their own pleasure, they are like great runners: they are alone with the road surface, the cold, the wind, the fit of their shoes, their overall cardiovascular health-- just factors, like the partner in bed, and not the truth, which is the single body alone in the universe against its own best time." This means that even though people may be sexual involved, without love and emotions they are just alone in the world with no one to care for or anyone to care for them.
        That feeling will eventually take a toll on the individuals involved because no one wants to feel alone or be alone. By having sex with a person that you have no feelings for can put a strain on the sexual part of the relationship.

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

        My favorite part of the poem was the beginning when Bishop states, "The art of losing isn't hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster."
        This was interesting because of the symbolism in it. She's saying that things or people are meant to be lost and its not a disaster for the fact that the loss was expected. In my opinion, I think Bishop is speaking of the loss of a loved one.
        Although the loss of the person might have been painful, it wasn't a disaster because all things get lost and we lose people close to us.

The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop

           One specific part in the poem that I liked was "five old pieces of fish-line,or four and a wire leader with the swivel still attached, with all their five big hooks grown firmly in his mouth." This particular part had my attention because it suggests that the fish has been caught numerous times and was thrown back like he wasn't wanted.
           I applied this to my personal life by stating I have felt like the fish by having the feeling of not being wanted or appreciated by the people around me. My friends contsantly take my kindness for a weakness and aren't thankful they have a friend like me.
            For example, I'm always doing favors for my friends and when I need my friends to do something for me, they shut me out and treat me bad until they feel like tossing a hook into me and pull me in to keep doing things for them. Once the favor is done they toss me back out into the water, leaving the next friend to put their hook in me and do the same thing again like a cycle.