I'm not mean, I'm just sarcastic

I can almost feel Joel Brouwer echo my title if I were to speak to him about his poem. Exceptionally brillant, Brouwer wrote the ultra unorganized Lines from the Reports of the Investigative Committees with such a tongue-in-cheek- sarcastic tone towards a serious issue, almost make you feel like you've been slapped in the face, then given a lollipop: So bittersweet it's addictive.

Don't get me wrong, Brouwer's tone is extremely professional, especially in his skills to keep his frustrated undertone hidden while delivering his narratives. However, it is the fact that I'm old enough to up pick up sarcasm, and also the stupendous nature of BP's fake attempt to try up clean up the ocean that gives me not choice BUT to laugh. It just feels good to see them as foolish and incompetent, it just feels good to demonize their lack of foresight and ignorance.

But when the sky turns from gray to black, and while you sit back and enjoy whatever you tend to enjoy while sitting,  and seriously consider the truth of the matter, you become fully aware of the "wholly black" of the ocean, the "snort of air" that rams and seabirds will never survive to take while trapped in that pit of tar, and the continuous incapability for us to do anything, but just tell Brouwer how useless you feel after reading his poem.

Awww... Cool.

If you are having a hard time finding some romantic/mushy love poems to read to your loved ones during Valentines Day/Father's Day/Mother's Day/I-love-my-bros-Day. Go and take a look at Jimmy Santiago Baca's I am Offering this poem. Recite it, and I guarantee you that your receiver will have one of the following responses: "Awww..." and "Cool."

Essentially that's what it is, a heartwarming,  son-of-a-gun-I-need-to-punch-a-wall-to-gain-my-manliness-back type of deal. And you don't need to be ashamed. But since I was reading this for literary analysis purpose; I withheld my femininity and analyzed the crap out of it.

What surprised me the most after reading his writing, is to find a small biography on his upbringing. A man of his past is shockingly capable of such emotional words and passionate lyrics. If anyone is interested in understanding more about this man, feel free to read the biography on his website (below). Chances are, you'll learn to appreciate what you have as a youth.

http://www.jimmysantiagobaca.com/biography.html 

The Who & The What

It's really nothing personal in terms of why "Somebody blew up America". No, it really isn't. Because we already know. It's just created so that the selected few of "us" can make our millions, we can gain our homeland security, and we can make you panic while sipping hot cocoa during 9/11. In a world of the highest technological advancement, it seems puzzling to Amiri Baraka that the Government would not have obtained firsthand information on the status of 9/11 prior to the happening. What he is concerned with, is the who/what, that messed up America.

Conspiracy Theory? Maybe. Understandable doubt? I think so. With a man as free as a poet, a investigative nature comparable to Sherlock, why can't a man question？ Instead he must be regarded as a man who criticize the Jew, the Super Rich, the whitey almighty. Try finishing his poem perhaps you will understand, man, this dude's got a point.

If one day you find the time away from your financial/marital/sibling/family/boyfriend/girlfriend/menstruation/masturbation/ AKA "ME" problems. Take a second and consider, who is the true terrorist that messed up America? What is the true terroristic events of America? Your answer would probably be something better, more historical than 9/11 itself.

Explosion not Deferred

I for one, am a huge fan of Jazz poetry. Therefore you can only imagine how estatic I am when I see Langston Hughes on the syllabus... 

 One of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the period that the experiences of negro culture. The oppression and subpression towards African Americans during the Great Migration is most evident in Hughes poem Harlem and The Negro Speaks of Rivers.

What I love about Hughes is not only his academic achievements (He went to Columbia which for a minority, that's very impressive.) But what is even more impressive is his quality of empathy:

I am a Negro:
    Black as night is black,
    Black like the depths of my Africa.

Hughes is no like some others who disregards his ancestry. He empathies with his heritage, speaks for them, and celebrates them. He might not take action as radically as MLK, but his "explosion" of frustration, certainly does not wait...

People forgetting their shoes

When you continue to compose

           you start to forget the structure one should

                  start writing a piece of poem.

Writing in ways dissimilar to the norm

              in hope that others follow your pattern instead of the

                                    others expecting familiarity from you. 

Speaking the truth to what is truth to you.

Ferlinghetti in his poem "People getting divorce" is one such literal inventer

that re-envisions the flow of words. From his poetry I see not only the brilliancy of

story-telling (how he could assimilate the emotions of divorce in comparison to the lost

of a pair of shoes) to the ingenious of his structure. Just by looking at his poem we know that his story is different. His story is not going to be boring. 

He extends poetry to as much a visual experience as it is an auditory one. As his words engulfs me with fascinating delights.