Date & Time Analysis #1

         In the book Date & Time, the author, Phil Kaye, uses poetry to tell stories about various aspects of life. He reflects on the memories he has about his past and elegantly describes them to the reader. The poems in this book put familiar experiences into beautiful descriptions that the reader can sympathize with. He utilizes the passage of time and describes both the pain and beauty involved in growing up.

After starting with a conversation between him and his 7-year-old self, Phil Kaye introduces his cultural heritage and explains the effect that it had on his life. In the poem “Canyon”, he mentions that his family used to speak Japanese regularly. He describes the influence the English language had on his family, causing them to stop speaking their mother tongue all together. Growing up in America, many people can relate to the struggle of adapting to the English language to feel more accepted into society. The author then goes on to recount his experiences with love. In “Succulent”, he recalls a long-distance relationship he had in the past and compares it to a plant he once owned. A variety of people can relate to the strain put on a relationship when they cannot see each other often. He compares the ease of buying a new plant instead of trying to revive the old one to this relationship that he lost. Finally, Phil Kaye presents the reader with another important theme in this story. He explains that every story has a beginning, middle, and end, however, it does not matter what order they are in. Life consists of many moments and a set order of these does not exist. The story Date & Time efficiently provides an example that the order of events in a story, or in your life, does not matter because in the end, it all happened despite the sequential order they occurred in.