Mecca+Sharrieff

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF POETRY: "Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash." ~Leonard Cohen  Caption: "These Hands Construct The Truth of Life, These Hands Construct Poetry" - Mecca Sharrieff


 * ﻿Memory Poem: Vodka Was Her Name **

// Why was I so Simple Minded // // Confined in this backwards violence // // My youth was nothing but silence: // // So they say I know better //

// But what was worse is that // // Better never existed // // And all of my thoughts remain conflicted // // By the bottle's pressure to tip lower // // Dig your own grave until it is a tunnel //

// The first initiation to failure is blindness // // To your own success in its failure // // Because we stop trying // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> We give up because we believe // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> That since we didn't make the goal // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Then we fail to achieve //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> I failed to believe that I was important // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Because smarts isn't an art when we're apart from the classroom // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> But when the classroom and the streets meet // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> My heart hit solid finger scripted concrete // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Hands that carved concrete told me "I Fucked Up" //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Because I didn't use my brain to rearrange the truth // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> The bubbles sizzled down my throat to the core // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> I put the bottle down and smiled with awe // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> I thought I was on top of the spinning world // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Until my head began to spin along the same axis // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> There is no monster hidden under the mattress // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> It is just your own reflection //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> I never reflected on my encounters with her // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> I hit it once and dipped her // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> In fact, I have to admit I kissed her // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Her name was Vodka- // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> And Vodka Was Her Name //


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> My Ode to Silverware: Knives and Lives **

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Every time my feet linger into the kitchen // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> I sit and reminisce of the sharp blades // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Incisions of life inflicting death to my skin // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Uncontrollable bleeding pulls me closer in // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Calling me with every waking moment that I resist //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Resisting temptation to use your face as the center target // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> With these knives I hold the power to silence your ignorance // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> If only you would allow me to precisely save you from you // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Because the words you utter make me shutter at your lack of knowledge // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> In my eyes you have no power because you let sorrow scar you // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Baby, I don't want you to be another negative statistic // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Because the drugs don't lift you when you get lifted // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> These knives told me about you missing in action // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> The way you used our kitchen knives to cut through that plastic // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Contaminating this bloody silverware with your ignorant investments // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> These substances cannot substitute the truth of your wrong doing // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> You lose conscious of the world around you for as long as the high holds // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> But when the high unfolds all you are left with a world of subconscious fear // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> You fear that your peeps in these streets won't praise you anymore // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> That these hoes will no longer hither to your unspoken commands // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> But I'd be damned to sit around and watch you roll up a blunt of regrets //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> I love myself enough to leave you before these knives turn on me // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> So I'll put them back into the carved wooden holders on the marble counter // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Shove the weed down the drain with my bare hands as these knives witness // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Me taking my life back from all the days you strayed away from the truth // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> The truth is at home where you build your sanctuary of wisdom // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> A kingdom where I used to be the queen and Love was the princess // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> But these knives have become a mistress to my mind // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> As you neglected reality and the smoke made your internal cloudy // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> I took these knives and made them a sector to the nectar of my journey // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> This is an ode to the silverware, because you have proven less worthy. //


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Riff Poem: Dear Mr.Intentional, **

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> I purposely run into on coming traffic // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> As if the world revolves around my shoes // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Because I run with the intentions of not stopping // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Like my heart as it bursts inside my mouth when I laugh // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> For with you, I feel time should be as infinite as our energy //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> People say that their heart skips a beat when love is of first sight // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Yet my heart has never skipped; it shuffles without a song list // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> We are as unwritten as the laws of creating laws // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> My flaws dissolve inside a wound called my heart //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> The way you observe my shaking body as art; I don't understand // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> You make my flaws sound like the sun-sweet berries of the earth // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> And I come to an abrupt stop like the cars in traffic // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Because I run with the intentions of not stopping //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> I run the minute you think an hour will develop of our time // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> The ways our spiritual becomes physical corrupts the room // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Veins collapse opening like the small fists of sleeping children // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Shhh- Let's not wake them with our anxious intentions releasing within the vicinity //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Unleashing the lies from so many years of doubt I had in you // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Your face softened like chewed gum after two days // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> And you spat the gum on my face, and I laughed, // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Gotta love it when your face is so close to mine, my inner unwinds //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Intwined as your arms grasp my thoughts and display them beneath the world // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> You put me on top of your kingdom to ride past every girl - // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> But I am not yours, nor are you mine, but in my mind //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Because I run with the intentions of not stopping // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> As if the world revolves around my shoes - // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> I purposely run into on coming traffic //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Sincerely, //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Miss Intentional //

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> (Veins collapse opening like the small fists of sleeping children - Maya Angelou's The Lesson)


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">I Was Raised By Poem: Youth Exposure **

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">I Was Raised By... // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">The candy yam pac man tongue twisting liars // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Sorts of folk who crowd in circles of alliance // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Blinded blatantly in ignorance ignited misery // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">"Do you wanna take a ride with me?" // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Kind of so-called gangsters. //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">The fast-moving ever grooving weaves on heads // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Quick to remove clothing showing skin trends // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Wanna be thick and juicy lip-gloss popping lips // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Dipping low for the bro kind of shit // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">"Don't play with my heart, play with my body" // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Booty shaking illiterate chicks. //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Sweet steamy passionate grind for the money // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">"Never let them see you break a sweat" // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">High-heel hard handed honey sickle homegirls // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">And authority oriented half oriental homeboys // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Those who trying to make it out the hood, kind of folk. //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Head bobbin, street knocking old-skool be-bopping // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Down with O.P.P. you already know me // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">"I love it when they call me Big Poppa" // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Laid-back afro-comb, radio loud estereo // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Confused about the new generation kind of people. //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">I was raised by a nation of many generations // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">We could all be better, but it takes concentration // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">"And still I see no changes, // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Wake up in the morning and I ask myself, // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Is life worth living? Should I blast myself?" // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Don't let fear stand in the way of your gain // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">I was taught by the strongest, hold your head above shame. //


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Sonnet: Untitled (Words I Never Said) **

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">And my throat feels like a shattered coffin //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">With walking words that scratch my throat bloody //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Drip from my neck to my quivering toes //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Until I am waist high in unsaid words //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Screeching against my lips to tell you this //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">But every time I try, these unsaid words //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Wrap a choke around my neck till I cough //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">I'm gasping for breath in this airless room //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">No, I cannot simply shake these words off //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">They must roll down my tongue and splash on I //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Don't despise that love is after my eyes //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">And all the words I wish to say to You //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">But my throat feels like a shattered coffin //

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">It's your eyes that one day, I'll get lost in //


 * Audible Link:** []


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Self Analysis: **

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Since I do poetry outside of the classroom regularly, I do have my own name as a poet. Even though it’s unfinished, my name is Upendi Ohana. Long story short, “Upendi” means love and “Ohana” means family. Most of the poems are about love, life or family. As a writer, I have many different characters. Ohana and Upendi are two of those characters, but they are so much like myself that I made that my name. I can closely relate to Upendi and Ohana, because my inspiration comes from my own life, either from the past or present (sometimes the future also). Ohana is the new layer of Upendi. Upendi has been heart broken, and all of the poems go in order. Ohana falls in love again, as told by the sonnet poem. The first poem, Vodka Was Her Name is told by Ohana and was inspired by my own personal experience. Ohana is more mature in wisdom, “I failed to believe that I was important Because smarts isn't an art when we're apart from the classroom” was a reflection of being in grade school, fifth grade to be exact. There is a rhyming scheme within the poem that exists, but it isn’t the main focus of the story. Some parts are in the present tense for things that still apply to Ohana to this day, but the action was of the past. The mood was interesting, because Vodka became a person, a very bad person. Ohana felt as though having one drink was absolutely horrible and that her future was ruined, but in reality, she depleted some of the temptation that she would have to drink later on in life. This was before Upendi was heart broken.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Upendi’s next poem, an Ode to Silverware, basically talks of a girl, Upendi who had a friend who she was interested in, but decided not to pursue him, because of the guy’s drug addiction. “I love myself enough to leave you before these knives turn on me” basically says that Upendi has learned to put herself before others and set boundaries of tolerance for herself, because she’s learned from the ways of the past. “Because the words you utter make me shutter at your lack of knowledge” means that Upendi’s expectations of him were higher and he couldn’t stimulate her mind in any other way, so she believed that he wasn’t really worth her time. It was a situation in which Upendi took a chance, because of her accepting personality, but realized there is another boundary that shouldn’t be crossed. There was a road ahead of her that she wanted to avoid. The poem “Dear Mr.Intentional” was inspired by a Lauryn Hill song that had a theme of love. Mr.Intentional is a very persuasive person, slick with his words. He wants this girl, but he has a history in a way to seduce her only with his presence. So, I took the opportunity to use Ohana and turn her into Miss Intentional, meaning that two can play that role. Ohana uses her own similes throughout the poem instead of metaphors, such as “We are as unwritten as the laws of creating laws” means that there is a story that is being written as time goes on. This poem was told in present tense, as Ohana responds to Mr.Intentional, intending to make him love her. She runs with the intentions of not stopping, because once she sets her mind to something, she does it.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> The “I Was Raised By” poem was written by myself, in my own perspective. It wasn’t a super personal thing, because I am very good at expressing my past and I am sure of the environments I grew up in, because they made me who I am today. The mood of the poem is more calm and laid back. It’s supposed to sound more like a casual conversation with someone. I enjoyed using alliterations in the poem, because it helps with memorization. The rhyme scheme was there throughout the poem, and it helped the tone of the poem. That had to be the most fun poem for me, because I was able to express myself in a different way.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> The last poem, the sonnet, is told by Ohana. It is one of my most recent poems for Ohana. “Until I am waist high in unsaid words Screeching against my lips to tell you this” was inspired by Lupe Fiasco’s, “Words I Never Said”. You can’t take back words you never said. Ohana was trying to tell a guy that she loved him. She didn’t know how to, because she felt like a shattered coffin from Upendi’s heartbreaks (because they are still one person, Ohana is just “grown up”). The past began to hold her back, because she choked on her own words. It’s almost like Upendi was broken so much that she held Ohana back from becoming all that she could be, even loving again. “It's your eyes that one day, I'll get lost in” was inspired by Joh Legend’s, “Ordinary People”, because we’re all just ordinary people who should take things slow and pace ourselves. Ohana is more hopeful but can’t be fooled as easily as Upendi.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> These two characters express the changes that girls go through as they turn into young women. The young women become responsible, more alert and wise. Independence is one of Ohana’s strengths, as she tries to live fearlessly, but with better views and more responsibilities. Upendi was more weak and fragile, being that the world was new to her fingertips. Ohana doesn’t know the world either, but she knows what is made of, so she makes the best of it.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Detailed Study on Amiri Baraka (LeRoy Jones): **

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Amiri Baraka was born as Everett LeRoy Jones (October 7, 1934 - present) in the United States. He later changed his name to Amiri Baraka, because he wanted to get rid of his “slave name” and his new name is that of the spirit. Baraka has many careers, because of his many talents. Some of those occupations include being an actor, teacher, theater director/producer, writer and activist. Baraka was married twice and has nine children, one of which was named after him (his new name). Some key things to know about him is that he studied philosophy and religion at Rutgers University (where he got a scholarship to and then became a professor at) as well as many other colleges. He joined the Us Air Force in 1954 and ranked as a sergeant. He was removed from the position that same year for reasons that are left unknown by credible resources.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> As a poet, Baraka expresses many different writing styles. The meanings behind all of them sometimes are unclear, because they are like stories. He doesn’t tell the reader every detail about the situation (no real background info). He gets straight to the climax of the stories, leaving the reader with many questions and assumptions. Baraka doesn’t hold back in his writing either; profanity and other things weren’t held at a pause. It’s almost as if his writing were actual conversations with the reader- he doesn’t use too many intricate words nor rhyming words. A lot of the poems refer to a darkness or death. Being that he was in the air force, I can imagine the different types of violence he had to endure. Being around that kind of environment can change the writer in so many ways. Experiences that you cannot forget sometimes are inspiration for poetry, and that is clear in his writing. The poems are symbolic, written in sentences and full of suspense. Sometimes, there are characters portrayed within these poems and he doesn’t reveal if it is himself or someone else. This again creates a second reason for the reader to keep reading.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> One of the most intriguing poems by Amiri Baraka is Babylon Revisited. A direct quote from his poem; <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">“The gaunt thing <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">with no organs <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">creeps along the streets <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">of Europe, she will <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">commute, in her feathered bat stomach-gown <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">with no organs <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">with sores on her insides <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">even her head <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">a vast puschamber <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">of pus(sy) memories <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">with no organs <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">nothing to make babies <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">she will be the great witch of euro-american legend <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">who sucked the life <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">from some unknown nigger”

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> This poem in particular tells a story about a gaunt thing. The first word that may be of interest is gaunt. Gaunt means thin or lean. So we have a character who creeps along the streets of Europe. It’s a female with no organs. The immediate reaction is, “how can you be a human with no organs?”. This makes the reader think that possibly, Baraka was saying that this girl is heartless, maybe even without a soul. Then he goes on to say that she has sores on her insides. Then in analysis, the source is of interest, because the next line talks about the female’s organ again. In particular, her vagina. Concluding that it has sores, it wouldn’t be something to make a baby with (words from poem). Baraka calls her a witch, meaning of some sort of evil possessiveness, and then she will be a legend. She is euro-american. But, she walks along the streets of Europe, therefore she was born in America with European ancestry, which would make her Euro-American and then she moved back to Europe to suck the life from some unknown nigger. Again, the assumption is that she must have controlled him some how, maybe even seduced him.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> The point of the analysis above is that Amiri Baraka is a very interesting poet who doesn’t hesitate to give people what they want. And with giving his readers what they want, he leaves them with many questions. Obviously the main character in that poem was not him, but who was/is she? What made her this way? What is her motive? Why does she do this? These types of questions crate suspense. He’s very interesting, because he doesn’t have the same writing style as everyone else. He can relate to people of all social classes and still create deeper meanings behind his poetry. The poem analyzed was symbolic for the way she was depicted in the story. He is different from every other poet, because you never know what to expect from him. Most of his poems leave the average person breathless as well as confused. You can’t pinpoint what makes him so incredible with just one phrase. Such as “he creates good metaphors”. It goes beyond immediate perception. The lack of intricacy makes it easier to break down the poem and get to the meaning. He doesn’t use fancy writing to flaunt his poetic skills. In his poem As Agony. As Now, the first stanza creates a story line;

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">“I am inside someone <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">who hates me. I look <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">out from his eyes. Smell <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">what fouled tunes come in <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">to his breath. Love his <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">wretched women.”

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> He already talks of more than one person, and creates some confusion. On the inside, he is someone who hates himself, which makes the reader think that from the outside it isn’t detectable. Then he says “I look out from his eyes”, which makes the reader think that the person inside of him, who he hates, also has control over his vision, which in turn means control over his mind. Is this alternate person taking over? That is for the reader to conclude. That is one of many examples of how Amiri Baraka is unique. Some other poems that are very interesting include: Death Is Not As Natural As You Fags Seem To Think. (Which further explains this theme of darkness and death).