DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "Steel" by Kwame Dawes Originally read: July 26, 2013 More information about the Poet: Kwame Dawes The prophetic, Whitman-esque, voice appears in this poem, but in a more grim context.  But the beginning of the poem feels expansive when discussing items and place. The initial image is of, "A truckload of fresh watermelons,"  which is innocuous enough and then the movement comes in, "cutting through so many states: Arkansas, West Virginia, Maryland, into the smoke-heavy Pennsylvania cities;"  the places listed are so specific as though the poem addresses them, but note the semi-colon at the end of the expanse. "from red dirt like a land soaked / in blood to the dark loam of this new / land"  high metaphor here.  In these lands it's the interpretation rather of the place, but note the simile used for comparison noting what it looks like instead of is.  And it is in the comparison that the speaker pinpoints a...

Original poem reprinted online here:  "Death" by Kwame Dawes Originally read: July 14, 2013 More information about the Poet: Kwame Dawes Here's Kwame Dawes reading "Death" .  And there is a difference of how I read the poem in my mind versus how Kwame Dawes read the poem.  For me, the violence and the viscera stood out for me, but when I heard Kwame Dawes read the poem -- it's not the violence, it's what's learned through progression. The poem itself uses narrative technique, but also reinforces a sequence with first couple of lines, "First your dog dies and you pray / for the Holy Spirit to raise the inept / lump in the sack,"  For me, the language of "dog" and "inept" has more of a cynical view already set in the beginning.  But when I heard the poem, the line seems more innocuous, and the focus is more towards:      [...] but Jesus's name      is no magic charm; sunsets and the      flies are gathering.  That ...

Original poem reprinted online here: "News from Harlem" by Kwame Dawes Originally read: May 19, 2013 More information about the Poet: Kwame Dawes This poem plays with the definition of a man from race mentality to group mentality, and through all the definition the poem weaves in history and vernacular.  Furthermore, by the title, "News from Harlem" there's already a racial slant in which the speaker states. So I'm going to list the various types of men from the first ten referenced of the poem and discuss how the definition shifts and changes through context: 1) African man 2) Black men 3) those men 4) a man 5) knife men 6) cutlass men 7) roots men 8) Congo men 9) yellow eyed quiet man 10) white man The lines open up with the focus on lineage -- African man which brings a sense of heritage to the poem with the unbecoming description of "fat-faced."  And so there's the tension of what people and speaker sees an African Man through language and ...