Carly Calloway

In Eve Ewing’s poem, “testify”, Ewing is describing the challenges of the law and how hard it is to fight for your voice when the judges have already made up their minds. I connected this poem to the very famous poem, “All the world’s a stage” by William Shakespeare. Ewing has a very strong voice in this poem and uses a special syntax throughout the entire poem. She begins with lower case letters to establish the lack of attention brought onto this topic. Ewing repeats the pronoun “i”, to highlight her experience of testifying to save herself. Shakespeare closes his poem “sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” repeating “sans” similar to Ewing’s ending “we are not dead” as she repeats the phrase to influence the youth to believe in a change. Shakespeare connects his idea to a “cannon’s mouth” and soon justice will come, Ewing makes a similar connection to a “horn rose, an organ, a voice, a chorus” all are here to tell us that we have justice coming for us. The entire tone of Ewing’s poem is sacrifice and dignity, Ewing uses metaphors and repetition to sympathize with the reader and allow her audience to feel it with her. Shakespeare is discussing his thoughts and emotions on human society and how he believes we are all living the same life. 

Ewing discusses a spiritual and religious outlook when she is “thanking god” for allowing her to live another day. She talks about “just wanting to dance” and how good it feels to “have a belly full” all of these characteristics are things we do not get to experience when in jail. Ewing wrote this poem talking about how scary it is to testify, yet she is making a testimony herself as she teaches her audience to believe in change. Ewing uses very descriptive language to add to her claims and uses several personal examples to allow each reader to sympathize with her in some way. Ewing states “it feels good to be home even when home is the space between metal shapes” elaborating on the sense that some people call jail their home because they are too afraid to testify to save themselves. Yet, also on the claim that the judges and officials listening to this testimony already have their decision on your fate based on your looks. “Lost days come towards her in the street” claiming that she has lost time, being locked up you lose so much of your precious time on this Earth. This counterclaims Shakespeare’s poem in his belief of humans having directions on life, however, if we had these directions no testimony would need to be given due to the lack of sin. If we were told how to live our lives day-by-day, there would be no such thing as jail, because we would know the difference between right and wrong. 

I think the poem “to the notebook kid” by Eve Ewing shows a woman telling a child to hold onto those childhood moments and write everything down. At a young age, teaching a child to write down all of their memories will inspire them to keep writing as they get older. Her purpose of this poem was to inspire young people to keep the art of poetry alive, she was explaining how to deal with every situation: write it down. In the song “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield, she is talking about writing and how difficult it can be. However, she is explaining that once you start writing things down your life has begun and “today is where your book begins, the rest is still unwritten.”

Eve Ewing uses a different poetic syntax with all lower case letters in her sentences to be visually appealing to young eyes. Eve Ewing reaches out to her audience by telling her readers that every accomplishment they get as a child to write it down; use it as inspiration to turn it into something else phenomenal. No matter the situation you are going through, Ewing is inspiring every kid to turn those bad circumstances into something incredible. In the song she says “the pen’s in my hand, ending unplanned, staring at the blank page before you.” sympathizing how hard it is to begin writing a poem, story, or even a song. Ewing explains that it is very difficult to begin these writings and hide them from your cousins or other immature peers who would make fun of you. There are many shifts in the poem like talking about childhood and how to savor it, to talking about how to hide your notebook from family. Just like the song also shifts from talking about not being able to understand your own mind to talking about how everything in your life is in your own hands. Ewing starts the poem off by saying “yo chocolate milk for breakfast” talking about the easy parts of childhood like getting excited for a glass of chocolate milk and how easily children take that for granted. It takes a serious dramatic shift in the middle when she talks about shooting and the things you can think about when trying to get your mind off that. Although she is talking about the stress-free life we live as children, Ewing says “think of Alaska when they shootin”, changing the tone of the poem into something serious really fast. The song and the poem are both teaching children the same lesson: our childhood does not define who we are and all it takes is a pen and paper to begin your book.

Eve Ewing has several poems but some of them for me were either very hard to understand or very easy. In her poem “Affirmation”, she is discussing that everyone’s life matters and that even when going through a rough spot you have to believe that the sun still shines elsewhere and it’s up to you to decide if you want to follow that sun. I did not choose to talk about this one because it was very easy for me to dissect and Ewing’s word choice was simple. In her poem “I come from the fire city”, I think that it’s very hard to understand and I am not quite getting what she is trying to explain to the reader. I think the poem is beautiful, however, I don’t get the impact she is trying to convey. I chose this poem because I love history and I was able to understand this poem even though it had some difficulties. 

The poem I found that is “just right” is:  “I saw Emmett Till this week at the grocery store” by Eve Ewing, she discusses the hardships of Emmett’s life and how no one quite understands the livelihood of this child. For background, Emmett Till was a young African American boy who was murdered for “flirting” with a white woman at a grocery store. His body was demolished and was going to be buried right away so the police could hide what the white people did to such a young boy. However, his mother was in disbelief over her son’s death but she wanted to make sure everyone was aware of this tragedy and honored Emmett by having an open casket so people could view the damage the people did to his poor, tiny body. 

Ewing discusses the complexity of his life and how no one ever will understand what the young child went through and compares it to fruit. The fruit in the grocery store that is bruised and rotted and how small children don’t understand that when throwing the fruit they have to be careful. When handling fruit in the grocery store people have to be very careful that they don’t bruise it when placing it in the buggy, or that they choose fruit that is already rotten. Nonetheless, his mother still placed his body for everyone to see, even though it was completely bruised and rotted. After they brutally murdered Till they threw his body into a river and the only thing that was recognized on him was a ring that he never took off. This connects that to the fruit and how when fruit gets to a certain point it’s hard to tell rather it’s an apple, pear, plum, peach, etc. because it removes the color by adding black and brown when it gets old. His family did not care about the amount of bruises or “rotten” places on him, they just wanted to make his life a legacy.

Leading to the end of the poem she discusses that Emmett said “Hello” to her in the grocery store and was rather friendly like a child should be. At a young age, kids are filled with glee and are very positive. By the way his family describes his personality, I believe that Till was a very positive boy and always had a smile on his face. “he smiled. well hello young lady.” She is describing his radiating positivity and his ability to talk to people with a smile on his face. Eve is imagining herself talking to him because the fruit at the grocery store reminds her of him. (600 words not including picture and caption.)

In Clint Smith’s “On Observing My Home After the Storm”, Smith makes it easy to connect with how life was in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. He uses several literary devices to create this feeling of what it was like to live where the storm hit. Hurricane Katrina came fast and hit some families harder than others. These families include: African Americans, the poor side of the city, poor whites, and even middle class families. Not to say that it didn’t hit rich people hard too, but the rich had an escape. The poor and blacks did not, they had nowhere to go, and not to mention the fact when their homes were demolished it is like no one even cared or noticed. It is exactly how Smith recalls seeing a home, not much of it being left, but it is still your home so you have to feel some connection to it. 

Many people have lost things and been upset about it, but there is no feeling like losing your house and all of your belongings with no one to turn to. The style and organization of the poem is a mess just like the way the city was to them. The city was demolished and in ruins. Smith makes that connection by having each sentence scattered out all over the page like it was the poem that had just gotten hit by the hurricane. Smith is very descriptive with this poem and when the reader is reading it they feel as if they are the ones being affected by the storm. Smith is very heavy on using personification in this poem and gives each item that was destroyed in this house a different feeling. It helps emphasize that everything was hurt and broken. 

The speaker makes sure to add very vivid details that express many emotions. One thing in particular about this poem is he uses all five senses to help engage the reader. The reader may not have been affected by the storm, however, it allows the reader to really use their imagination to dissect the poem. My favorite part of the poem is “The floorboards do not creak, they whimper-”, to emphasize the fact that everything was destroyed in this hurricane. It personifies the floorboards and allows the reader to create that sympathetic feeling towards an object. After rereading the poem several times, I begin to understand it better each time. The word choice he uses is impeccable and connects the audience to times when they weren’t around. I think it is amazing how much Smith allowed me to visualize something I never experienced and how he created feelings in me like no one else has when describing Hurricane Katrina.

Everyone looks in me every day,

yet no one is pleased with me.

They choose to pick at everything I reflect for them.

They want to change my image.

Although I think my image is perfect.

When they break me they freak out,

but they are constantly condescending me.

They hate the way I reflect back to them.

As if it was me that changed the image for them,

yet still, everyone looks in me.

Waiting for the day they finally like the image.

I will wait too: for them to finally love me.