Boundaries that divide us

The word boundary evokes a variety of images and connotations. To some people, a boundary might be a way to keep people out; whereas to others it might create restrictions or limitations. Robert Frost, Yusef Komuyakaa, Judith Ortiz Cofer and Jane Jacobs all have written wonderful poems and stories about different types of boundaries and boarders one may create throughout their life span.
Each author tells their own unique story with the similar concept of boundaries and boarders to connect them. In Robert Frost poem “The Mending Wall,” he speaks of a stone wall that separates the speaker from his neighbor. The speaker of the poem says there is no reason for the wall to be kept up anymore because there is “no cow” to keep out, but the neighbor wants to keep the wall up. In the Judith Ortiz Cofer poem “The Game,” she speaks of a little hump backed girl who is not respected by her mother and brings shame to her family. Her mother does not allow her to go to school and makes her help out at home. The Yusef poem, “Slam, Dunk, and Hook,” speaks about the narrator’s love for basketball and the way it makes him feel good inside and brings him away from pain. Finally, Jacobs speaks of boundaries that are set up in our everyday cities. He talks of how most cities are divided into good or bad boundaries.
In all these poems, it is important to understand that boundaries can create a positive or negative atmosphere for someone. We also must realize it is good to experience new things. Sometimes we are too quick to put up walls and if we wait, we may realize what is out there. In Frost’s poem, if the speaker would have waited and meet the neighbor first, maybe the wall would not have been built. In “The Game,” if the little girls mother would have given her daughter a chance she might of saw all the wonderful things she could offer the world. Also maybe if the speaker of the basketball poem did not put all his love in one thing he could have opened up other boundaries in life. Finally it is important to put equal effort into breaking down boundaries. Just think, if we focused on the bad parts of the city as much as the good, would there be a bad boundary?