Poem help please, I'm a dummy.?

Question

I have this poem below its called "My Father in the Navy: A childhood memory" y Judith Ortiz Cofer" I totally dont understand this poem, can somebody translate it for me? Thank you I really appreciate it.



Stiff and immaculate
In the white cloth of his uniform
and a round cap on his head like a halo,
he was an apparition on leave from a shadow- world
and only flesh and blood when he rose from below
the waterline where he kept watch over the engines
and dials making sure the ship parted the waters
on a straight course.
mother, brother and I kept vigil
on the nights and dawns of his arrivals,
watching the corner beyon the neon sign of a quasar
for the flash of white our father like an angel
heralding a new day.
His homecoming were the verses
we composed over the years making up
the siren's song that kept him coming back
from th bellies of iron whales
and into out nights
like the evening prayer.

Answer 1

http://www.ovpr.uga.edu/researchnews/fall98/quilt.html

Answer 2

The father is in the Navy and is away for long periods of time. While he is away, is it almost like he doesn't exist; he is in "a shadow world". He is real only when out of the sea "from below the waterline". His periodic returns changed the family "a new day", and each return strengthened the family and gave the feeling that it kept these returns coming "kept him coming back". The last lines should read "into our nights like the evening prayer".

Answer 3

the first three lines are a description of the speaker's father in his navy uniform. the next 5 lines say that he was like a ghost when he came up from the lower levels of the boat he worked on. the rest of the poem tells how the speaker and his family would eagerly wait for their father to come home from work. however, he would always have to leave again. hope this helps.

Answer 4

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I could not locate Cofer's poem, but I found Hayden's. The speaker looks back at his father with appreciation and newfound awareness. His father was a hard worker who never received appreciation for all he did. The speaker recognizes this now and feels regret for the way he took his father for granted. Look at the 3rd stanza. The speaker was once indifferent to his dad. His father used to polish the speaker's "good shoes." The speaker selfishly accepted all the gifts he received without acknowledging the way his father worked to "drive out the cold" and make life better for his family.

Answer 5

He's being compared to a creature of divinity, superhuman, almost machine like, only giving the appearance of human when he's off the clock. His arrivals were obviously late, his departures obviously abrupt, he represented something new and pristine each time he came home. Point is he always made it home, hence the reference to the sirens song, the irresistable lure always brought him back home. Drawn as he was, he balanced his obligations, not letting any aspect of his existence fall to the wayside, his priorities mirrored his place at any given moment, but his heart was with his family, or so it seems to me.

Answer 6

He was out on the seas for a long time, so his family would keep watch for his rare returns, thus the rather fleeting memories one has of him

Answer 7

I can't translate it that well for you, but the general idea it's giving me is that every time he's expected back the family waits and is in awe of him.

Answer 8

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15984