I was not too sure what to do my Writer’s Choice writing on, but our discussion in class today of the Ari Banias poem really had me thinking of the different interpretations of “we” in the poem.

In her poem, Being with you Makes me Think About, Banias presents a quite ambiguous writing in which many interpretations can be pulled from this work. Banias essentially discusses the idea of individuality and the strength of a bond that can be created between two individuals. This can be seen in the opening lines of the poem, “We is something like a cloud,” in which we—being a couple or group of individuals—is discussed as singular. Looking at this first quote from the novel and looking back at the title, I quickly felt a connection this writing had towards the idea and concepts of marriage. This may seem quite odd considering that in class there was a very deep discussion on how this text can be seen in relation to government, however looking at the title and back at the text I am able to see more of the idea of marriage. The reason being is because in a marriage, two individuals have essentially committed into fastening such an unbreakable bond in which they are now seen as one in a sense. As we look at the quote, “A cloud is a changing thing… Other times we spread out so thin we almost don’t exist,” this can be seen as the ups and downs in a marriage which essentially strain the integrity of that bond, whether this is strain due to a number of possible sources of resistance, however it still remains unbreakable. 

As we move along towards the final lines of the poem, it seems as if Banias paints a picture as if marriage, although it is quite beautiful in a way, it does not always end up perfect. Banias writes, “Putting together so many small things you have a better, bigger thing…” which can be viewed as marriage being something of beauty because it makes each individual grow in a much more positive way, hopefully, but this view is not necessarily concrete.  Looking further into the text, Banias also states, “And aloneness only keeps getting bigger. One day we will tell you all about it. At our own table. There are things we cannot see,” which if we were still viewing this in terms of marriage then we can argue that marriage is not always perfect. There are problems that may arise and although they are not necessarily seen, they still strain the bond the two individuals are trying to uphold.