Poem for the....

From Totems to Hip Hop (which is a really incredible title!) I feel like I am the audience he is writing for. In other words I feel included in his references. I didn't feel shut out or ignored through his sentences. There is a familiarity that strikes a chord in me. I can’t say that for any of the books I had to read growing up. Its always been this awkward relationship. I desire the balance of knowing my history, and at the same time documenting and writing in an academic tone. "And where does this leave my Mexican student, whose education has trained her to become white? What is the cost of her becoming white?" What does it mean to become white? When I read works by writers who share my experiences, they come from different cultures. I am intrigued when I see a Latina writer in print. What is her story? When I read House on Mango Street in my 9th grade English class I was recognized for the first time. Later on when I found out that Lorna Dee Cervates was raised in San Jose and went to the same high school as me (Lincoln High) I was intrigued. She made it. She writes about her family and her experiences in academia:

there are snipers in the schools...
(I know you don't believe this.
You think there is nothing but faddish exaggeration. But they
are not shooting at you.")
“But they are not shooting at you” addresses the blindness in the classroom. The unspoken, the anxiety that curls up in my lap, familiar. I felt like this last year in one of my literary studies classes. I have been used to writing prose and poetry in my tone and vernacular. I resisted. I didn’t get it. I was lost. I needed help with writing essays. I wanted to sound like myself but better. I did my best. Cecil Brown’s poem, Integrating the Strawberry Swimming Pool in 1998 is a poem that is in the now and speaks to racism, even if it means just swimming. The repetition, and rhythm and tone takes on a blues song or a spiritual. When he first says “Ain’t goin’ there no mo’” and then it changes to “ain’t been there befo." I feel that this shows the poet associating himself with the university and then feeling like he never belonged to it.
Ishmael Reed states, "It's when a writer, through the use of their talent, connects to readers who might not share that writers background, that the writer's work becomes universal."

I look forward to that harmony in my writing. Its interesting that among all of these poems I choose to write about Lorna Dee Cervantes first. I am just honoring the appreciation I have for her writing and I really admire her as a person. I took a writing workshop with her two summers ago. It was amazing! And so I do hunger for these political poems.
I love “Eli, Eli” for its darkness and innuendos! Even though many of these poems were written many years ago their themes are ever present.