Category: McCoy 337 Spring 2019

In the poem “Floodsong 2: Water Moccasin’s Spiritual,” Douglas Kearney begins with the familiar refrain of the song “Wade in the Water,” which we have read and listened to many times in class. The first two refrains resemble the song we heard in class: “wade in the water / wade in the water, children / wade in the water / god’s gon’ trouble the water.” After that, however, the familiar verses seem to fall apart. Meaning shifts as words disappear and reappear. To me, the poem takes on a feeling of urgency or even panic: “children / gon’ / in the water / trouble / in the water / trouble / in the water.”

This poem reminds me of the practice of “blackout poetry,” a popular exercise in which a poet takes a piece of existing text—the page of a book or a newspaper article—and blacks out the majority of the words until only their chosen words remain, building a poem through elimination. Continue reading “White-Out Poetry: Water Moccasin’s Spiritual”

When I was flipping through the anthology, I noticed in Ntozake Shange’s poem “my father is a retired magician” that in the speaker’s idolect, certain graphemes are omitted from words, even though they make certain sounds. The title of the poem allude’s to the speaker’s father, while the poem is also dedicated to Shange’s siblings Ifa, P. T., and Bisa. Within the poem, the words with omitted graphemes are smaller, common words, often recognized as sight words.

Continue reading “A Tale of Two Tributes”

When I read a work of literature in my downtime, I tend to stray away from poetry. Personally, I’ve always held the assumption of poetry being abstract and meant for modern philosophers who could waste their time on figuring out the meaning behind every other word that rhymed in a stanza. I am aware that this is a weird mentality to have, but I was ignorant and chose not to educate myself to appreciate the art behind poetry. After reading through the packet of poems Professor McCoy gave us in class, I’ve come to realize that poetry doesn’t have to follow the typical sonnet format or rhyme in order for a reader to appreciate the story for its worth. I had also learned more about my culture in the sense that Caribbean writers had a space to exist in during a period of history when many voices were ignored.

Continue reading “My Newfound Appreciation of Claude McKay and Poetry as a Whole”

When Dr. McCoy had asked us to find our favorite poem from Angles of Ascent I thought it would be a daunting task as there were so many poems to look through, however after glancing through the anthology, one quickly stood out to me which was Thomas Sayers Ellis’ “All Their Stanzas Look Alike”.

Ellis’ poem stood out to me the most because of its placement on the page. It is not arranged in the “traditional” manner that I have become accustomed to seeing through my educational experiences which is in formal stanzas. What then appealed to me was the content of the poem. Ellis’ poem is calling for diversity not only in poetry but also in society. In this post I will only be focusing on the poetry aspect. Continue reading “Daring to Differ in the World of Poetry”

I was flipping through the pages of Call and Response the other day when I came across the lyrics to a song called “Black and Blue.” I am familiar with this song and I thought it was by Louis Armstrong. When I saw the names Andy Razaf and Fats Waller written next to the lyrics I was confused. I looked it up and it turns out that Fats Waller is given ownership since he composed the music. Andy Razaf and Harry Brooks wrote the lyrics. I think it is interesting that the editors of Call and Response left out Harry Brooks but included Fats Waller, and even more so that I assumed Louis Armstrong owned this piece. This reminded me of one of my prior posts, in which I wondered how many times someone has to undergo repetition with a difference to possess something.

Continue reading “Possession is Nine-Tenths of the Law”

Last week Dr. McCoy passed out a packet which was comprised of some of her favorite poems. While reading through the poems together as a class I was immediately drawn to one of the poems due to a personal connection. When the line “what do you call it when a man sets his own house on fire, takes up a sniper position, and waits for firefighters?” was read out loud I instantly felt a connection to Jamaal May poem “The Gun Joke.”

Continue reading “The Absence of Dichotomy with Gun Violence”

During class this past week, we were provided with a packet of some of Dr. McCoy’s favorite poems. As a class, we took the time to read the poems aloud and internally reflect on each of them. While all the compiled poems appealed to me, one in specific caught my attention. A certain rawness and vulnerability surrounded Cornelius Eady’s poem, “Crows in a Strong Wind.” The poem offers a duality by evoking both simplicity in its subject, but complexity with its underlying message. I believe this duality and the poem’s connections to class resulted in it being my favorite among the others.   Continue reading “Flying Back to Cornelius Eady”

Upon its first consideration, the task of choosing a favorite poem from Angles of Ascent seemed difficult, if not daunting. Beyond the difficulty of pinning down one poem in anthology of hundreds, this assignment came with the pressure of defending my choice beyond the simple response of “I like it.” Continue reading “On Favorites and Doing What You Love”

I’m a local. I was born in the greater Rochester area, and I’ve always lived in same house. Upstate New York has a lot of talent packed into its square miles. While browsing the anthology, Angles of Ascent, I flipped to the back of the collection to the biographical notes on the authors who are included in the anthology. The first line stuck out to me of Cornelius Eady’s note: “was born in Rochester, New York…” As I read further, I learned that he attended Monroe Community College and eventually ended up directing the creative writing program at Notre Dame University, along with teaching at many other colleges. To top off his impressive track record, in 1999, he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in the drama category, and in 2001 his book of poetry, Brutal Imagination, was nominated for The National Book Award in the poetry category.

Continue reading “Questions about Lennies”