Author: Trista Clackett

I named my poem “The Love in Greif”. I chose to use the song “Glitter” by Patrick Droney. I chose this song because it was used to represent my best friend at her funeral who passed last year. This song represents the good and the bad in grieving. I chose to use it because I knew I could make something beautiful and full of contrast.

The method I used to create this poem was to try and place the words in the shape of a heart. I also chose one side of the heart to be the positive side of loving people and the other side to be the darker side. I made it clear which side was which by shading the darker side. At the bottom of the heart is a really good quote which is “but no one really dies if the love remains” I really love this quote because it is true people keep living in your memories and in your hearts till the end of time. Making this poem really touched me because it was inspired by my friend Carli.

Throughout all of Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine we see Rankine struggle with identity. In the last section, we see her gain more of a sense of self. Rankine’s sense of self involves everything she is including her hardships, identity, and personality. There are a few places we see Rankine talk about these. 

In the last chapter, Rankine starts by talking about this ache. “Some years there exists a wanting to escape—- you, floating above your certain ache—– still the ache coexists.”( Rankine 139) Rankine talks about this ache that people live with. This ache that no matter what will always be with you. The wording of “you, floating above your certain ache”(Rankine 139) makes abundantly clear that not only does everyone have an ache but that the ache is beneath you. The use of the word you in this quote also makes this ache more personal. Her goal was to have her readers think of the ache that coexists with themselves and understand the feeling she is talking about. Rankine wants people to understand that this ache is a part of you when she says that the ache coexists. Rankine does a very good job connecting the sense of self with racism in this last chapter. Rankine shows how the sense of self is understanding that you are different and accepting it on page 148. “you laugh and ask what else her privilege gets her? Oh, my perfect life, she answers.”(Rankine 148) This quote shows how it is understood that there is a difference and that this difference is the ache but the ache is beneath you and not worth the worry because it makes you who you are. 

In the section labeled July 13, 2013, the ache that Rankine talks about is shown during the event of Trayvon Martins’s killer being acquitted. “The outside blistered the inside of you, words outmaneuvered years.”(Rankine 156)  Rankine talks about how the ache is this blistering that is happening inside of you. She says how words are outmaneuvering the years and this means the words people are saying are killing you faster than the years that go by. This is important because when talking about a sense of self you think of finding inner peace and loving who you are but this chapter has proved many times that sense of self is being okay with the ache and understanding that you are better than it. In this chapter, we see one man making racist remarks while listening to the broadcast of Trayvon Martins’s killer being acquitted. The friend jumps out of the car to say something to this man but is immediately ushered back to the car because the protagonist knows that this situation can cause serious harm to themselves. This once again shows the ache always has a place in someone’s head. This ache causes the protagonist to try and isolate themselves from their feelings so they don’t cause any scenes or harm. 

In my opinion, this section had hard and easy spots to read. Rankine clearly stated about this ache but made us dig through short broken-up sentences to see the connection of ones race being their ache. I love Rankine’s writing style although it is different and sometimes difficult it holds raw emotion and relatable wording. The approach of using raw emotion and relatable wording brought more of an impact on this ache and how people deal with it. 

Citations:

Rankine, Claudia. Citizen: An American Lyric. Graywolf Press, 2014. 

Discussion Questions:

Looking back at the whole book do you see this ache come up intentionally? 

Did the word “you” make this ache have a greater impact on you? If so can you relate to everything Rankine was saying? 

I Attended the event Distinguished voices with Benjamin Garcia. Benjamin Garcia is a poet who shared his poems in the Corey Union Fireplace lounge. He shared the book Thrown in the Throat which is an award winning book. This book won the National Poetry series and the Eugene Paul Nassau Poetry Prize. Garcia read a few of his poems from this book but then also jumped into some new work that he was working on. Garcia was a very good speaker and gave background on each poem before reading them to help people get an understanding of them. This was great because many people even myself struggle to understand some poems and it gave a better understanding to what as going on and what it was about. Garcia said his main objective when righting is that people get something from it like excitement even if they don’t understand the poem. 

One common theme I found from all of his writings was language. Garcia talks about how profanity to him his hate and discrimination. I found this interesting because most profanities are used in those situations but I also understand how most of the time it isn’t used for that. Language is a big aspect in writing because that can take a simple topic into a more complex topic. Each one of his topics were worded in a way that made more light be shed to a topic he questioned. I found it interesting that he would use profanity because that causes a smaller group that you can sell to. I found this interesting because if he wanted to shed more light on these topics you would want a larger group to sell to. 

I liked the Q and A because he talked a lot about writing advice which can go for anything. I also liked this because you can hear his responses to ordinary everyday people. This is good because usually a question you have someone else ends up asking.

My name is Trista. I am currently a sophomore at Suny cortland. My major is early childhood education. I love reading, I have read all the books I have at least twice. I am hard of hearing and have hearing aids. Can’t wait to work with everyone this semester!