Manna-Symone+Middlbrooks

“ That’s not really the question. The question is when did you stop being a poet?” -William Stafford
When asked when did you become a poet William Stafford replied, “ That’s not really the question. The question is when did you stop being a poet?” This quote is what I used in this poetry endeavor. At this point in my life I do not consider myself to be a poet. In fact I am not a very big fan of poetry. All of the poems featured below are my attempt of regaining the poet that lies within or was lost with age. In all of the poems featured below there is some sort of disappointment. Whether or not that that disappointment comes in the form of a person, idea, or time, it still stops the one it is disappointing and makes them reconsider. In the poem Fly?, there is a child that dreams of growing up. They dream of reaching for the sky and accomplishing all of their dreams. When the child finally felt like they had a chance to touch the sky and reach their dreams, beside them is a grown-up. The same grown-up that told them to fly now has their feet on the ground. The poems also demonstrate a lot of punctuation usage. The purpose of this appears to be to conclude an idea and begin the next. In the poems My People and Mickey, there are conflicting ideas that form one understanding. Periods, exclamation and question marks, and use of the ellipsis separate the opposite ideas and transition into the next. The poems also demonstrate very subtle metaphors. In some cases the metaphors are not even there until the reader takes a second look. The poems do no demonstrate many other forms of figurative language, but they hit ideas that just about everyone can relate to. They describe experiences that are unique to just one person, but to a variety of people.







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 The poetry of Ms. Rita Dove is highly influences African-American history and the empowerment of women. She focuses her poetry on the little things in life then connects them to difference aspects of history. Her use of metaphors, similes, hyperboles, and personification give her poetry life and meaning. She speaks on life through the eyes of an African-American and a woman.   In her poem //Wiring Home,// Dove describes the simple experience a women has walking down that street. Each individual that the woman encounters is chasing after her attention for one reason or another. This woman cannot even do something as simple as walking down the street without being hassled and expected of. She becomes stereotyped. She is no longer an individual.   Dove also expresses her feelings toward the language of African-Americans by incorporating quote into her poetry. By doing this she adds character and life to her poetry. She allows the reader to hear the story in view of the one who experienced it and is now telling the story.   In her poem //Golden Oldie,// Dove italicizes a line to give it emphasis and voice. By doing this the reader can now feel the pain and emotions that were associated with the words that came before. They can understand the message that she is trying to convey because of the sense that has now been added to the poem. The quote adds another dimension.  **// Golden Oldie  //**//     //   I made it home early, only to get  stalled in the driveway-swaying  at the wheel like a blind pianist caught in a tune meant for more than two hands playing. The words were easy, crooned  by a young girl dying to feel alive, to discover  a pain majestic enough to live by. I turned the air conditioning off,  leaned back to float on a film of sweat,  and listened to her sentiment:  ** //Baby, where did our love go?// **-a lament  I greedily took in  without a clue who my lover might be, or where to start looking.   Dove’s poems also demonstrate different uses of punctuation. When she uses a period it is usually to conclude one idea and start another. Following that conclusion is the connection of the two ideas. When she asks a question in her poetry the answer is never direct. It usually must be discovered from the information that she gives. The answers can be interpreted multiple ways. In the poem // Lady Freedom Among Us //, there are no capital letters used//. // It seems as though this is done to emphasize the power of freedom in society.   ** // Lady Freedom Among Us  // ** don't lower your eyes or stare straight ahead to where you think you ought to be going don't mutter oh no     not another one get a job fly a kite go bury a bone with her oldfashioned sandals with her leaden skirts with her stained cheeks and whiskers and heaped up trinkets she has risen among us in blunt reproach she has fitted her hair under a hand-me-down cap and spruced it up with feathers and stars slung over her shoulder she bears the rainbowed layers of charity and murmurs all of you even the least of you don't cross to the other side of the square don't think another item to fit on a tourist's agenda consider her drenched gaze her shining brow she who has brought mercy back into the streets and will not retire politely to the potter's field having assumed the thick skin of this town its gritted exhaust its sunscorch and blear she rests in her weathered plumage bigboned resolute don't think you can forget her don't even try she's not going to budge no choice but to grant her space crown her with sky for she is one of the many and she is each of us   