I’ve wrote a blog before how sometimes I don’t understand some of the readings we have in class and that poetry doesn’t seem to excite me like a good book would. Even though its not really “poetry”, I actually enjoyed reading ““Poetry Is Not A Luxury” after we discussed it in class yesterday. When I first read it, I didn’t understand where she was going with her story because I feel like there was so many different things she was trying to tell the reader. From women rights to discrimination, I got lost in the reading. But sometimes you just need a better understanding of something to appreciate it. So since we had a blog due I decided to go re read this story and give my view on it after I understood it. What I liked most about this story is that Audre Lorde says how poetry is another form of story telling. Its for you to put your thoughts into a paper where it will last forever. She says” Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought. The farthest external horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems, carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives.”
Like I’ve mentioned above I was confused on why Lorde was talking about different topics such as discrimination and race. I realized the reason is because she believes that you can bring awareness about an issue trough the use of stories and poetry. I kind of felt like an idiot because I then realized that’s exactly what Baldwin and Hughes does through their stories. Both talk about racial discrimination in Harlem and New York. I really like this story by Lorde because it makes you think and you have to dig deep to figure out what she is trying to say. I tend to like stories that convey a deep message so this one fits my criteria perfectly. Before I end this blog, I love the fact that she talks about women rights. I think the way she says is really an eye opener. She says “There are only new ways of making them felt, of examining what our ideas really mean (feel like) on Sunday morning at 7 AM, after brunch, during wild love, making war, giving birth; while we suffer the old longings, battle the old warnings and fears of being silent and impotent and alone, while tasting our new possibilities and strengths.” This last line shows a lot about our women and how we should respect and treat them. This is by far one of my favorite readings.
