Green Blue Poem By Francisco Rivera Summary

I. Biography of Poet: Francisco Rivera Francisco Rivera was born in 1973 to debt ridden subsistence farmers in a war torn Central American nation. While times were tough, family life and the natural beauty of the nearby beach and country side provided solace and happy memories. Then war returned to the land. His parents along with three of his siblings and eventually his wife were among the large numbers of civilian casualties in a long civil war which ravished their nation and resulted in the death of over 75,000 civilians. Rivera was left to fend for himself at the age of thirteen. He survived and, by the time he was 20, he had married, fathered a son and buried both his wife and infant son, Mateo. Several years later in Rivera immigrated …show more content…
For example “Lapping their green-blue froth over grey / Transforming the boulders into sparkling black” (Rivera) the specific adjectives used to help emphasize the visual nature of the poem are “green-blue”, “grey”, and “sparkling black”. The connotation of the specific adjectives used to help emphasis the shape and form of the image. It also invokes the feeling of happiness due to this being a description of a happy childhood memory. It makes the reader connect to images of thoughts about warm beaches on sunny days with their parents when the readers were kids or older. It also points out how Rivera struggles to find the good in his life when he has gone through so much he briefly remembers one good memory. Rivera even states in the beginning “So many happy memories have faded with time / So many promises of hope are now lost” (Rivera) this points out how Rivera struggles with trying to find good and hope when all seems lost. He uses adjective “lost” “happy”, and “faded” to help with visualizing and feeling the emotion behind …show more content…
He also uses connotation to show the cycle of Rivera’s hope and loss. For example “ I tried to recall the Mirasol Amarillo / Which sprang from nowhere to paint our hills / Long trodden by winter, ashes and blood” (Rivera) in this the connotation of the symbolic meaning of the Mirasol is shown during the spring, the Mirasol sprang up, which symbolized hope rising. However, when the long winter hit it symbolized the hope being lost. Rivera repeats this cycle throughout the poem. Where he is given a hope and then loses it along the way during his journey in life. Another example of this vicious cycle is “I struggled to recall my son Mateo / His little face the hope of our tomorrows / Until those tomorrows were buried with him / And the Mirasol Amarillo on his grave died with my heart” (Rivera) Rivera here uses the connotation of his son and seeing his face bring the hope until his son died and the Mirasol Amarillo which is symbolic for hope died on his grave. At that point Rivera’s hope died when his son