Introduction to Multicultural Literature

My Found Poem is originally from the lyrics of ‘Quiet’ by MILCK, in which the starting of the poem are commands to a woman, which seems to be from a man or another woman of power (in my opinion).  Connie Lim a.k.a “MILCK”, who co-wrote “Quiet”, said that this song was her personal-therapy song to help her cope with her past of going through domestic violence, depression and anorexia as a teenager. This song reached millions of people after MILCK and a choir performed it at the Women’s March on Washington on January 21, 2017.“Put on your face, know your place, shut up and smile, don’t spread your legs” were the original lyrics of verse 1. Connie had an interview with Allure to explain and break down what each lyric from the first verse means. “Put on your face”, when people say something sexually obtrusive, just laugh it off, don’t let them know that it hurts. “Know your place”, growing up Chinese-American, she was always taught men are superior and that men desire women with smaller mouths and bigger eyes because they talk less and observe more. “Shut up and Smile”, refers to the times when she felt uncomfortable in a situation and she couldn’t cry, all she could do was shut up and smile. “Don’t spread your legs”, when she was younger, she was a tomboy and her mum always told her ‘close your legs’, ‘you have to protect it’, she states that the quest to not spread your legs is so charged because it makes us feel vulnerable.

Creating this poem with the words from the song, gave me a deeper meaning and endearment for the song. The middle of my poem speaks of a monster, where it asks, “Would I be that monster”, at put at the top what it means to become that monster, “If I let them hear what I have to say”, just by saying something that goes against society, or maybe even your own family’s norms, then you are considered a monster. Towards the side of that, I have ‘Dry Blue Pill’, where MILCK explains that Dry Blue Pill means ‘taking something that numbs who we truly are’ and it signifies ‘allowing ourselves to consume information or opinions that harm us and ultimately kill our spirit’, no one wants to take a dry blue pill, yet somehow it seems like we all unconsciously do. I ended off my poem with ‘say something, I can’t keep quiet, I won’t keep quiet’, letting people know, share your stories, don’t let anything or anyone keep you back, don’t numb who you truly are, and continue being who you want to be.

Works Cited

https://www.allure.com/story/milck-womens-march-anthem

https://genius.com/Milck-quiet-lyrics

My found poem comes from the article the CNBC article, ‘I’m outraged:’ Women react to Roe v. Wade ruling outside of Supreme Court, which reflects the reactions of women on the June 24^th decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. For people who observed the case from afar, it received national attention as the original ruling on this case had been implemented in 1973 so after decades of controversy, it arose in The Supreme Court once again. This case presided over the bodily autonomy of women regarding their right to terminate or keep a pregnancy which led way to many other cases such as Obergefell v. Hodges and Virginia v. Loving. The Supreme Court, in its 1973 decision, found that liberties had a direct correlation with individual privacy, granting the ability to terminate a pregnancy if required. This was a landmark for the future of the country as many cases cited this case as a precedent with same-sex and interracial marriages. However, in the past year, this case was recently televised as the prospect of its overturning came to light. The decision was ultimately grueling and arduous yet significant as the highest court ruled to overturn the previous precedent and demolish women’s rights to their privacy. This article focuses on the nationwide traction women felt nationwide. This was not only enraging, but it also stripped women from a procedure they may have both needed and desired due to individual circumstances. This is an enraging topic, and I chose this article due to the upsetting aspect that many women and people feel after the ruling. We are surrounded by women as they make up half of our population and in a perspective way, even your mother had the choice to keep you and her children which is now not a choice but an obligation for many. 

In creating this found poem, I was able to graft phrases that struck me the most. In the offensive manner that women are now overlooked and pained, it became clear that my poem need not discuss anything but another reaction and direct criticism of the government. I was able to rearrange these words to make a poem using repetition and words like one another to formulate the depth of the synonyms. Following, this grants power, and it becomes permissive to discuss this violation as well as hope to change. I was able to use the space on my page to give my poem a unique structure. For example, on the far left I placed phrases like “no” and “not” which repeat themselves to represent what freedoms were revoked from women. Later, I indented phrases beginning with “I” and “I’m” to provide a sense of inner dialogue while the rest of the poem flowed as a normal line. Additionally, my spacing was also done in a manner to accentuate meaning and in a certain part, I decide to make separate lines but match the letter “A” with each phrase to signify deeper connectivity of women and use “each other” in between those lines so they could be interpreted by the reader in multiple ways. This was done so each reader could interpret this differently and choose to approach it as the end of all phrases or just one. As I worked on this poem, it brought a different perspective of the tactics at the day mark, but it did reassure me that the country must move in a different direction to solidify equality and justice. “Justice for all” is something that the country has not lived up to and that is the disappointing truth, but the poem was able to spark creativity in a manner that let me mold my hatred into something of hope instead. This formulation is unique to each individual, and hate could form a different meaning and embody different forms from the same work.  

My found poem is titled “He has a battle rifle” and it is taken from a Texas Tribune article with the same name. The article is about the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and it specifically focuses on the lack of police intervention during the shooting. Reading this article made me angry because it makes it clear that more lives could have been saved if the police had stepped in sooner. I understand how incomprehensibly terrifying that situation must be. I don’t know what I personally would do, but that’s why I’m not a cop and don’t plan on becoming one. It is part of the job of the police to be prepared to lay down their lives to protect the innocent, especially children. An especially frustrating detail is that some of the officers were armed with the same gun as the shooter, an AR-15, and yet still did not feel adequately prepared to diffuse the situation. A common argument against gun control is that restricting firearms would prevent “good guys with guns” from stopping “bad guys with guns.” This situation calls into question the validity of that argument: who cares that the good guy and the bad guy have the same weapon if the good guy is too afraid to use it? 

In this found poem, I attempted to somewhat tell the story of that day while also reflecting on the aftermath. My method was to create a narrative by pulling lines from different sections of the article to create a throughline. I wanted the beginning to feel choppy and disconnected to mimic the confusion and panic that everyone involved felt that day. I also wanted to include the snippet of a conversation between two officers to emphasize how harrowing it was for them to realize that the shooter was carrying an AR-15. I edited sentences in multiple places, most significantly in the section that says “cowardice, or poor leadership, or a lack of sufficient training killed 19 children and two teachers.” The actual article said nothing of the sort, but I made an artistic choice to splice words and make a bold condemnation rather than passively reporting. Intentionally, the largest block of text is at the bottom and reminds us that a year after this tragedy, Texas has still not even considered implementing stricter gun control laws. It feels as if no amount of lost lives will be enough to convince some people, particularly government officials, that change is necessary. However difficult it may be, it is important to continue these conversations and be loud about the need for gun control in America.

For this project, i chose the song “Remember” by Becky Hill and David Guetta. The  words in the song could be twisted to give it a deeper meaning, meaning shorter sentences but more essence to the lines. The songs meaning is centered around the artist Becky Hill who ended things with somebody she loved, and she has nothing but memories. The only time that she remembers that person is when she’s lying in bed on her own. She is relived that her relationship with this person is over because she is able to live her life without him. I chose this poem because I remember the countless times I would scream this song in the car and be so mad at my ex-boyfriend. This poem reminded me of that because as you read you will realize the words slowly begin to separate more and more. The strong use of the  words such as “delete” and “memories” helped convey the message that in my remix,  although the memories are still there, she still pushes to get over this person because she knows she has to for herself. The difference between Becky’s song and my poem is that breakups are hard. We always have that one string of hope trying to reach at the other person when they won’t reach back for you. It’s a world of “what ifs” until that person becomes a memory. 

I did a lot of things when it came to the positioning of my words because I really wanted to emphasize the separation between two people want to break up happens. I wanted to start off separating the words “remember” and  “when” straight off the bat in a way of showing that this person is reminiscing the loss of someone. The less important words I group them together are almost like fillers. Keep in mind they are still important. By adding question marks throughout was to show going through a break up is confusing and brings up so many questions you didn’t know you had. You had wished the other person can answer those questions but they’re far from your reach. The next line “I’m missing you” is my favorite line because it stands by itself with so much blank space next to it as well as the word “alone” on the next line. Even though you might be living your life, you still feel alone. That is why the word alone is separated from “living my life”. The eighth line “delete your phone” is scattered crooked next to each other. This was to show the first steps of getting over a break up which is eliminating them from your life. This was the first instance of her doing some thing for herself regarding the break up and even she doesn’t understand why this is all happening. That is why these words are put in a confusing manner. Moving down to the 10th line was the moment her mind veered to more about moving on despite everything she’s feeling. The line “I’m moving on too” was thrown in there and separated the way that it is because although she doesn’t want to it’s the reality and it’s hard for her to admit that. This goes the same four line 13 with the word “okay” . In reality she’s not okay, but still perseveres. And just at the end we circle back and she reminds us that every now and then her mind wanders and remembers what she had with this special person. 

After doing this project I realize that the way you look at words and the way you interpret the way that they are presented can open up a whole new feeling of emotion. Making those stops between the words makes me want to figure out what’s to come next. this helps me better understand why we read the book “Zong” and why the author made the decisions she did. Like for example to listing of all the people that died. They all got their own seperate line, along with the black spaces next to it, to express feelings of grief and sadness. It felt like a never ending list it puts more emphasis on the aloneness and separation of people in our world and how much loss we have taken because of it. 

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For the creation of this of this poem, I choose the song “Sober” by Demi Lovato. This song is about Demi going though rehab and getting over her addiction to drinking and drugs. When listening to this song, the lyrics really spoke to me about how hard it is to battle something that is this serious and is also life changing for everyone that goes through it. There are so many internal and external battles that the person is going though and it even effects the friends and family members. So, I decided to use her lyrics in her song to create this poem to create a deeper meaning and to make the readers think of what the poet is trying to tell convey. By Demi telling the public her story on her battle against addiction, makes it so much more brave on her part.

The reasons for using these words was due to how simple but loud they spoke to me. Meaning that it left me with a thought on how much they could mean and also that they could go in a totally different direction if they read in an other way. When I put the “I don’t knows” in a slant, I wanted to confuse the readers and make them wonder why they are not just in a straight line. When creating a large amount of space between the first half of the poem and the last two lines, there is suppose to be a chance for the readers to think of what I am trying to show the readers. For the last two lines, it is suppose to be something like a goodbye message from the poet to make it appear as how these lyrics could mean so much more than those simple words being used. By creating this poem, this is supposed to leave the readers with thoughts that could mean so many different things with such simple words.

I chose a very popular 2015 “Can’t Feel My Face” song by The Weeknd. As I was looking for song lyrics that had more than one meaning. Most people don’t realize what is trying to be said, I thought this song was perfect. Most people think this song is referring to a bad relationship with a woman because of the lyrics that include “she’ll” and “girl”. Although you create a strong argument that it is about a relationship, There are also words like “numb” and “death of me”. These terms could also be referring to substance abuse. Substance abuse is a huge problem in our society and it’s frequently ignored.  

When I was creating this poem I thought of blacking out most of the words and just leaving the words that can be interpreted in other ways to still give clarity to the lyrics. I thought of this idea because of the poems found in Zong!. They both only give you limited information but still leave enough to come up with your own interpretations and meanings. 

In creating my poem, I chose to put the victims names of the recent Nashville School Shooting on the right side of the page with large spaces separating the other words. I did this so there would be a pause separating the words with the victims names, which gives more significance and meaning to the victims, helping to pay respect to them. I also chose to put the word “school” centered in the middle of the poem. My reasoning for this is to remind us while reading it that we are talking about schools. Many of the other words on the page are about violence, guns, and attacks, so I put school in the middle to remind the reader that these are things connected to schools. Not the military, not wars, not the police, schools. Creating this found poem gave me a lot more respect and admiration for M. NourbeSe Philip’s work, Zong! While reading this book and glancing through it, it seemed like these words were thrown onto the page completely randomly, maybe even without meaning. After creating my own poem I realize how carefully each word is chosen and placed on the page and the deep meaning behind them.   

I chose to create this poem because of the anger and sadness I feel every time I think about school shootings. I am in school to become an early childhood education teacher, so every time a school shooting occurs, it breaks a little part of my heart. Schools are supposed to be safe places where students go to learn and socialize with their friends, not where they should have to worry if they are going to make it through the day. As a future educator, in our college classes we focus primarily on curriculum and lesson planning, but lately we have had to focus on what we would do if a shooter came into our school or classroom. This is something that no teacher, student, or parent should ever have to worry about, although unfortunately it has become increasingly more common. I am also angry that the countless lives that have been lost due to school shootings are not enough to make real change and end the killings.

While creating this Found Poem my method in doing so was putting myself in the perspective of a victim who was taken advantage of and who feels completely powerless and helpless. I used repetitive words like “can’t” and “hate” in my poem to portray the frustration and infuriation of the narrative while also showing words like “I’m trying” followed with “tried” shortly after to show that although they fought back, they are overcome and ultimately powerless in this situation. I also used some words meanings figuratively in the poem like “he was close” I made sure the phrase was closed in closely and cornered by other words on each side to display the true suffocation that the perspective felt.

I wrote this poem from the song “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke. The lyrics of the song describe a man’s pursuit of a woman who he implies is “blurred” in terms of her consent to sexual activity. The phrase “I know you want it” is repeated throughout the song, which can be seen as perpetuating the harmful idea that women’s consent is ambiguous or that they need to be convinced to engage in sexual activity. This song promotes harmful stereotypes and promotes toxic masculinity. It’s important to recognize the impact that media and popular culture can have on our attitudes and behaviors towards others, and to strive for media that portrays healthy and respectful relationships between all genders.