Jaycee Snelson Week 8: My Poem Left Unwritten
Jaycee Snelson Week 8: My Poem Left Unwritten
Ever since seeing someone in our blog cohort do a poem for one of their blogs I wanted to try something similar. So, with the new topic of America I decided I was going to do a poem at least one of the weeks. I tried to start it week five but there was one problem: I didn't know what to write my poem on. So, I abandoned the idea last minute and came up with a new topic for my blog that week. Then, life got busy. Week six and seven flew by and I didn’t even consider doing a poem. Finally, it's week eight. The last week I have before we get a new theme and I have no idea what I am going to do. So, I think about my idea to do a poem once more but I have no idea of where to start.
I try to think about what America means to me. The American dream. The things that make it special. What makes an American an American?
Nothing
My brain is empty.
Then it hit me. What if that's what's wrong with America. The fact that someone who was born and raised here can't even think of a few words to describe any deep, thoughtful thing about the only country she has ever known. We are always taught that America is so great and the land of opportunities but has anyone ever taught further than that? At least for me I am given the baseline facts and just accept them without digging any further. Maybe that is an issue with me. Or maybe that is an issue with our society.
So, I guess you will never get to see my poem on America. But maybe my unwritten poem speaks more about this country than any stanza, any line, any word I could have written down.
Your feelings on how America doesn’t teach much about what it means to be American is honestly really shocking for me! Due to my status as a non-American citizen, I’ve always tended to have categories and things that—to me—define what it means to be American, and that made your perspective quite the shocking statement to me. I’ve honestly never considered how born and raised Americans don’t quite know much about America outside of what they advertise themselves as, especially the younger generation of Americans.
ReplyDeleteThe statement you made about how the lack of a poem means more than if you had written the poem is a quite profound point! As an avid reader myself, it connects to how the absence of something can speak more than if it was there because its absence changes the environment around it.
This is such a creative and unique blog post and I thoroughly enjoyed reading through it. I especially appreciate how personal you bring the discussion on who an American is or what America stands for. I think this especially speaks to blind patriotism so many of us follow, solely due to the information we receive from a young age. We are taught to care about our country and to feel devoted to an idea that we cannot even define, as you pointed out. While there are definite positives to living in a country that is greatly regarded for better opportunities and better quality of life, as people who grew up in it, we are much more prone to looking at the flaws. Instead of seeing the millions that are getting jobs, we see the vast unemployment rates. Instead of seeing the thousands of people brought to justice by the legal system, we see the people who have been wronged time and time again. Both sides of this coin are equally important. We need to make sure that while we can appreciate the good in our country, we also need to have an open eye to the negatives so that we can work towards changing them. Your unwritten poem represents a lot of things. It speaks to the empty promises of a nation that we have been trained to love; it also speaks to the fact that our impact and place in this country is not yet established. We have so much time left to figure out where we fit into this puzzle that is America. We have time to make an impact and be impacted by our fellow Americans. Maybe one day, we will be the reason future generations can write a poem of praises to this nation.
ReplyDeleteI believe I already told you this in person, but I will say it again: your prose here has a poetic quality to it! It reminds me of this poetry collection I have, The Deaf Republic, which seems to emulate (heh vocab) the formatting of a play as each poem builds upon the last to create an overarching story! This poet’s early life was under the Soviet Union, and like you with America here, the poet explores the idea of their former home in the “fictional” regime created in the collection (I highly recommend it). Small tangent aside, I had a similar struggle leading into this theme where I either couldn’t think of anything to really write about that wasn’t stereotypical or on the negative side. But I’m glad to see that you took that “nothingness” and ran with it to write this! The idea of the unwritten poem is a really profound line to end on, and it reminded me of a similar writing practice. Essentially, you write out a poem about something, the ultimate purpose is to vent about it. But at the end, you’re meant to rip it up or delete it from existence. It’s meant to be personal, and I feel this is very similar. Even though the poem remains unwritten, we can ponder what could have taken shape, what feelings might exist, and why it might remain unwritten. Excellent blog post!
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