Descriptive Essay

"We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone...alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders."
-Maya Angelou

“Get free, Ashe, Humans aren’t built in silence.”

Those are the thoughts that run through my mind every time I a,,m about to do a poem. Regardless if I am in my room, a slam, or the middle of the school hallway. All those thoughts set me up for how well I perform. Before any one does a poem if you are from Philadelphia you take your shoes off, contemplate your words, visualize whatever you are talking about and know your truth. I was told by my mentor the first time he saw me say a poem he asked “what’s your purpose queen?” I didn’t know the answer so I just shrugged my shoulders and said “I have no idea.” Then he just walked away. I felt ignorant and fake. Later that night he called me and said, “know a writers purpose, our purpose is to save lives.” I didn’t understand when he explained it to me, he said that “you never know if someone in the audience is beating there wife or the women who is getting beating is in the audience, your poem could be the thing that gives the women the courage to walk away, or the man beating his wife the strength to stop hitting her. We save lives.” I never thought of poetry that way, I always fell into the clichés of what it was, such as every poem has to be about love or poetry is only used for you. 

            Before a slam you have a meditation stage where you imagine whatever it is that you’re writing about, next you “black” which is when you have an outer body experience. And “get free.” I remember semi finals to be on Philadelphia’s slam team. There were three rounds which consisted of a haiku, a 90 second poem and a three minutes and forty second poem. . My first poem was a short haiku about beauty. My second poem, which was the 90 seconds one, was about how poetry means to save a life. My final poem was about a little girl sleeping with many men to find herself and shadow her beauty with makeup. My strongest and most moving part I blacked on was “But occasionally she needed to feel loved like a “dime” ...with all that makeup she was to blind to see that  if she peeped behind the blinds she would see the world is so much prettier  than a wet hole and a long pole trying sink through it.”  I didn’t make the team but I did have the opportunity to travel to LA with the them and I was the youngest who lost by a couple decimal points. The experience was very humbling and helpful. It is true that “humans aren’t built in silence”

            But actions, Our actions as poets help shape the world. They also help other point of view be shown across peacefully. The thing poets do a lot are hide behind figurative language as if we are trapped between a mask and morals.  Visualizing a change happening before your words are resurrection-taking place in your lungs. Where invisible

 possibilities become legendary.  Poets make movements come true and makes acceptance easier.

Poets are created solely to make a change through words instead of violence and protest, instead we make testimonies to ourselves and others.  People in the world usually think they understand the general idea of things such as metaphors, they can be interpreted a lot of different ways. But there is always someone’s truth behind it.  Through writing and whatever we do in life. Every step we take is art, we loose a piece of ourselves everyday and gain something better back.  When I look back I realize everything I’ve been through in my writing only made me better, as a poet, a person, and a lifesaver. “I am Samurai and Avatar a whole Public Service Announcement for little girls and boys who are contemplating breaking their necks for the silence. Sometimes it’s safer when no one can hear you think but you.”

I think we’re waiting for a super hero to come and save us from our ignorance.

It doesn’t matter if you are creative with writing or not it is your feelings. In a general idea of life we can all make a difference we just have to be able to see things as a metaphor and view them in different perspectives. Also we need to be aware about the fact we don’t know it all there is always something different we can learn. Things we might not notice are right in front of us or where it comes from. I’m just beginning to understand where I came from. We as people are so concerned only about the things we know already and who we know. We haven’t spoken up yet heard, just listen.

"I was going to die, if not sooner then later, whether or not I had ever spoken myself. My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you. What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say?" - Audre Lorde