{"id":4577,"date":"2024-07-03T00:54:17","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T00:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/?page_id=4577"},"modified":"2024-12-31T21:16:49","modified_gmt":"2024-12-31T21:16:49","slug":"lessons-with-unspoken-questions","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-5-winter-2024-2025\/lessons-with-unspoken-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons with Unspoken Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Jessie Yi<\/em><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

I lay witness to the ones that use busyness<\/span><\/p>\n

As the excuse that \u201cit\u2019s not my business\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But the pages, projects, and performance<\/span><\/p>\n

Never really pause<\/span><\/p>\n

Because we perpetually drown by the work<\/span><\/p>\n

We wanted<\/span><\/p>\n

To keep us awake, but wealthy.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But when will a time come when the riches we seek<\/span><\/p>\n

Are not what makes the poor impoverished<\/span><\/p>\n

But what makes the humble man happy?<\/span><\/p>\n

Because \u201cwhat is essential is invisible to the eyes\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And to seek with our eyes<\/span><\/p>\n

Will only garner a materialistic prize.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We\u2019re no different to this indifference,<\/span><\/p>\n

We add, multiply, and divide with our eyes<\/span><\/p>\n

And subtract<\/span><\/p>\n

Until we find those differences between our features<\/span><\/p>\n

And let it become our teachers, our past, our futures<\/span><\/p>\n

Then we are the preachers that screech and squawk<\/span><\/p>\n

A cacophony of creatures, all claiming to be human.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Professor, will you tell me?<\/span><\/p>\n

Who are our enemies?<\/span><\/p>\n

Why do we fear our foes<\/span><\/p>\n

Before we ask of their woes?<\/span><\/p>\n

Professor, I just want to know,<\/span><\/p>\n

Will the happiness of humans<\/span><\/p>\n

Hide behind heaven\u2019s walls<\/span><\/p>\n

That we raise for warfare and the weary?<\/span><\/p>\n

Or behind hell\u2019s trenches<\/span><\/p>\n

That we dig for duty and the dead?<\/span><\/p>\n

Professor, what can we do<\/span><\/p>\n

So that the arms that we use<\/span><\/p>\n

To survive, save, and support<\/span><\/p>\n

Do not become arms armed<\/span><\/p>\n

With the benign discoveries designed by doctors<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Signed to be devices of destruction?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I sit in the bleachers,<\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond the back of the bus<\/span><\/p>\n

And guilt grasps me as the ghosts<\/span><\/p>\n

Of people\u2019s presence pressed upon their phones<\/span><\/p>\n

Makes me reflect of my own.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Professor, how do we explain to the young<\/span><\/p>\n

That yesterday is not the past<\/span><\/p>\n

But our present that we must patch, and put right?<\/span><\/p>\n

How do we unlearn the unawareness,<\/span><\/p>\n

Un-assume our understanding,<\/span><\/p>\n

And learn to lose, labor to live, and love Unconditionally?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Jessie Yi<\/strong> is in the class of 2026, and is from Ridgewood, NJ. She’s pursuing a bachelor\u2019s degree in cell biology and neuroscience and a minor in psychology. She writes, “I love pondering the unanswered questions in my mind just as much as I like asking\/talking about them; I wrote this piece thinking of our education system: the questions I feel are at the foundations of education and what we seek to learn. I\u2019m deeply interested in how the world connects in so many ways–philosophy, history, science, the arts–and how all individuals and beings are one but also idiosyncratic and valuable in their own ways, if only we are brave enough to ask questions and understand a little deeper.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Jessie wrote this poem in a course taught by Lindsay Haber, who selected the piece for inclusion in WHR<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jessie Yi   I lay witness to the ones that use busyness As the excuse that \u201cit\u2019s not my business\u201d But the pages, projects, and performance Never really pause Because … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2513,"featured_media":0,"parent":4318,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4577","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLessons with Unspoken Questions - Writers House Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-5-winter-2024-2025\/lessons-with-unspoken-questions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lessons with Unspoken Questions - Writers House Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jessie Yi   I lay witness to the ones that use busyness As the excuse that \u201cit\u2019s not my business\u201d But the pages, projects, and performance Never really pause Because … Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-5-winter-2024-2025\/lessons-with-unspoken-questions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Writers House Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-12-31T21:16:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-5-winter-2024-2025\/lessons-with-unspoken-questions\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-5-winter-2024-2025\/lessons-with-unspoken-questions\/\",\"name\":\"Lessons with Unspoken Questions - Writers House Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-03T00:54:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-12-31T21:16:49+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-5-winter-2024-2025\/lessons-with-unspoken-questions\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-5-winter-2024-2025\/lessons-with-unspoken-questions\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-5-winter-2024-2025\/lessons-with-unspoken-questions\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Vol. 5 \/ Winter 2024-2025\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-5-winter-2024-2025\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Lessons with Unspoken Questions\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/\",\"name\":\"Writers House Review\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lessons with Unspoken Questions - Writers House Review","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-5-winter-2024-2025\/lessons-with-unspoken-questions\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lessons with Unspoken Questions - Writers House Review","og_description":"Jessie Yi   I lay witness to the ones that use busyness As the excuse that \u201cit\u2019s not my business\u201d But the pages, projects, and performance Never really pause Because … Read More","og_url":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-5-winter-2024-2025\/lessons-with-unspoken-questions\/","og_site_name":"Writers House Review","article_modified_time":"2024-12-31T21:16:49+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-5-winter-2024-2025\/lessons-with-unspoken-questions\/","url":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-5-winter-2024-2025\/lessons-with-unspoken-questions\/","name":"Lessons with Unspoken Questions - Writers House Review","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-07-03T00:54:17+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-31T21:16:49+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-5-winter-2024-2025\/lessons-with-unspoken-questions\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-5-winter-2024-2025\/lessons-with-unspoken-questions\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-5-winter-2024-2025\/lessons-with-unspoken-questions\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Vol. 5 \/ Winter 2024-2025","item":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-5-winter-2024-2025\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Lessons with Unspoken Questions"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/","name":"Writers House Review","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4577"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4823,"href":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4577\/revisions\/4823"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}