jasper texas 1998
I found it interesting that in Clifton’s biography she says that “writing is a way of continuing to hope … perhaps for me it is a way of remembering I am not alone.” Prose and poetry appear to be a way to sustain her hope that someday “we shall overcome” as mentioned in line three of the third stanza. Certainly, in the context of this poem, the author (Clifton) has hope but the speaker (Byrd) represents those who are losing or have lost hope that things will ever truly change. People have been singing “we shall overcome” for several hundred years but that goal, sadly, always seems out of reach.
for j. byrd
She does this by the repeating of “I”, almost as if she was the voice of the murder man. Which makes the dedication of this poem interesting because she writing as the man but also giving the poem to the man who didn’t have a voice in the say of what happen to him.
By using her own thoughts of what she might have said in this situation, she is covering up his voice.
i am a man's head hunched in the road.
i was chosen to speak by the members
of my body. the arm as it pulled away
pointed toward me, the hand opened once
and was gone.
I am unaware if anyone brought this to attention yet, however the way she doesn’t capitalize goes to show her style of writing described by the biography attached. The “Understatement” by doing so allows for her to say more with less words and emphasis. I feel as if this syntax is intentional and adds complexity to her writing.
why and why and why
should i call a white man brother?
who is the human in this place,
the thing that is dragged or the dragger?
what does my daughter say?
together as both white and African American cultures.
because so many of the people who were “dragger[s]” were not criticized at the time and the ones “dragged” were belittled and not necessarily viewed as human. The writer makes it a point to ask which side of the argument is really human here?
posing another question and pointing to Byrd’s humanity because he has a daughter.
It also shows everyone has a family they love and care for and who they are going to miss so much because of these events. It slows the progress.
the sun is a blister overhead.
if i were alive i could not bear it.
the townsfolk sing we shall overcome
while hope bleeds slowly from my mouth
into the dirt that covers us all.
i am done with this dust. i am done.
despondency? Is it possible she’s asserting a tone of empowerment? She’s done. She’s rising above. She is pushing back against the “dust.”
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