Byshera+Moore

"...the best words in the best order." - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

When making these poems I was thinking of the way things looked, sounded, smelled, felt to me. I know that I wanted to show off that way things are seen form one persons at different stages in ones life. I showed that way my childhood self say a tragic memory like 9/11 with my memory poem that I named “Skies.” In “Skies” I show that way a child sees the news broadcast by saying “Woman with a voice / And a story / Frames that are still / A small bird in the sky /Mushrooms of smoke.” This was how I saw the event. By using the metaphors of the plane being a bird helps put things into perspective.

In my poems I so like to use the five scenes. I like to set a back group by saying things like “Soap opera in the background / Smile warming the whole house” in my I was raised by poem. To show that there is ways something going even if its not the main point of the story it makes it more real. No one has a conversation with the world standing still.

In my poems show the way things are with my family. For example in my “Raised By…” poem. I say “No trust in the common scene they gave you.” this was my way of talking about the way girls are treating in my family. Like if you don’t ask everyday and constantly talk about things they don’t want to here. It will stop then form having sex or doing something you don’t like.

Memory Poem:
Childs eyes in yellow skies Mothers ears filled with panic and fare A brownie face with flower on time Eyes like lotuses in bloom

"Shoes stay down stairs." Child eyes squinted to math the light A box of light cover the corners of the room

Woman with a voice And a story Frames that are still Then small bird in the sky Mushrooms of smoke

Buildings of lego's going down messing bird and worried face media type="file" key="BysheraSkies.mp3" width="240" height="20"

Ode to headphones:
Ode to the two things that’s always there That send love, hate, anger to my ears

Ode to their look The beauty hidden by beauty Their night sky color that hides in a chocolate cave Starry night rims that show out to the world The Milky Way wall in between the night sky

Ode to their powers The magic raindrops That send sound to the heart The drums that make the beat form the eardrums Tap, hit, bang on them

Ode to the whip That grabs on That ties around the music That ballroom dances with the music Holding tight Bringing it in Holds it there and whines its all round

Ode to moments The heart throbbing Salt water in my eyes Flowers growing for paint Moments that they are always there for

Ode to the only thing That sees all of the storms And stays away

Found Poem:
Zamn Brit Brat, Mar Mar I am going to buy her a molded tree Just keep it in confidences Read it from right here Where is my?

Zamn I have to clean all of these I am not smart today Pretty boys don’t cry Now your thinking

Zamn

Raised By...
I was raised by Constant question asking No trust in the common scene they gave you Watches to much crime tv Gets worked up over nothing Mad when you come home two seconds late “I will test you, don’t act like I wont” Kind of Women

Short haired Always straight styled “Go get your hair blown out” Sorta Women Some brownie making Dark skinned and proud to be so Soap Opera in the background Smile warming the whole house “Let that baby eat” Bad habit making Type of Women

Some Pepsi drinking Only wear a bra when going out Never got married Had babies to young “You better watch these little boys” Type of Sisters Some turn that down Television on all day “Why you so close to that tv?” Sit down and don’t touch anything Kind of woman

I was raised by Some you can do anything Just wait on it and it will happen “Let your conations be your guide” All that glitters is gold A is all you need If your pretty you can get anything you want Kind of programs

Some things may not work out Bad people win If you are pretty you end up in a whole in the ground A big girl can get what she wants to Everything you learned may be wrong The more of me you have the better your world is Types of Books

I WAS RAISED BY WOMEN, DISNEY, AND BOOKS

Line form e.e. cummings
Since feeling is first Then where does everything else fall Feeling touch Hands feet arms legs Skin The biggest organ The easiest to hurt To take out everything on To make pale with tears all the salt water runs the color away To break by drawing a blade over it Let out the hurt Let in the beauty The best storyteller Taking everything and holding it in The cuts the pain The kisses the pleaser A lovers touch a cats anger A sharp pain form banging your tie when you where late Or the scar on your head form where you where eight Since felling is first Then does it matter where everything else falls?

The Cinnabon Story
I have eaten The cinnabon That was in the microwave

and I know you wanted its sweat savory goodness

Forgive my belly It was there And I was hungry

Lucille Clifton is a great poet. She was a woman who studied her history and knows where she came from. And with this knowledge came a lot of themes for her writing. And even though she was not a great student she love poetry. In the poems that I have read she writes a lot about her expectants and the way other things tie into it. In the poem “memory” she talks about her first time getting shoes. And how her “mother’s face / turned to water under the white words / of the man at the shoe store.” This shows how she had to face diversity. And that even when something so small has happened it can be something that is worth the time to talk about. Even though in her poem she talks about the fact that here mother will not talk about that time buying shoes and being discriminated against. And even with that calm she still feels hurt for her mother.

In many of the other poems that I have read she uses repetition, usually of a phrase. For example in her poem “Homage to My Hips” she uses the phrase “these hips” through out the poem. This helps you focus on what the subject is. And It is also I really nice break form some of the metaphor that she uses. Like “these hips are magic hips. / i have known them to put a spell on a man and / spin him like a top.” I love this line. To say that they are magic of all words when she could have said they where sexy. This also shows here great use of word pay. But the repetition lets you what to focus on no what else she throws into it.

Ms. Clifton also goes for a shock in some of her poems. This change or shock makes, at least for me, the poem more real. In moonchild she says “jay johnson is teaching / me to french kiss, elle bragged, who / is teaching you? how do you say; my father?” This makes you thing of relationships and if she sees things as if there is always something more going on then what you see. What if there is more between the father and this girl? What if the girl is a young Lucille? This you have to think about. Something else here poems make you do is really think about what she wants to things to mean.

She also takes a twist with your titles and capital letters. In “won’t you celebrate with me.” there are these two lines that where really stand out “both non white and woman / come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me and has failed.” Its like she writes a lot of her poems in a time that is really prejudices. And she wants to make a statement about it. With in her poems there is no use, for the ones I have read, of capital letters. “I” nor the tittles are capitalized. This is something that most poets don’t do

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