UM Poetry is Not a Luxury by Audre Lorde Reflection – Description
Part One:
Choose either Elizabeth Alexander’s “what will be the sacred words?” or Audre Lorde’s “Poetry is Not a Luxury.” (Please begin by looking up a short bio of the author you have chosen, if you have not done so already). Next, reflect on the following questions in writing:
What particular insights does your chosen text open up for you? In other words, what do you find most striking, valuable, surprising, or important about the text? Share at least one quotation and explain why you chose it. [This part of your writing should be few sentences or more.]
Next, share what questions the text raises for you. What does it make you want to know more about? What question(s) does it help you to articulate? [This part of your writing should be a few sentences or more.]
Finally, in what ways do you see the author arguing for the importance or power of poetry? In other words, what can or does poetry DO, according to your chosen text?
Part Two:
Choose two of the poems from this week’s reading assignments. Start by re-reading the short article, “Reading a Poem: 20 Strategies,” and then re-read the two poems on your own and decide what seems most significant or interesting about them to you. Some questions to get you thinking: a) What specific words, lines, or stanzas do you find most compelling, striking, or troubling? b) Who is the “speaker” of the poem? That is, what kind of perspective does it offer us? How the is “voice” situated in relation to the “subject” (or main idea) of the poem and to us as an audience? What is the tone of the poem?
Now, respond briefly in writing the following questions for each of the two poems you have chosen.
What is the poem asking us to think about? That is, how does it direct our attention—to particular subjects or themes? To particular images or concepts? What conflicts or problems does it raise? How do the language and structure of the poem render these issues or conflicts in new and perhaps surprising ways? [Respond in approximately 2-4 sentences.]
Does the poem contribute to your understand of conversations of our course so far? Does it reflect for you previous readings (e.g., Lowe, hooks, Gustafson, Baraka, Alexander, Lorde, etc.)? How? [Approximately 2-4 sentences.]
Share one line or stanza from each of the two poems to share. You should choose lines or stanzas that you find particularly rich, interesting, strange, or important.
NOTE: You are responding to these questions for TWO different poems. Your response should look something like the following example.
Langston Hughes, “Kids Who Die”
Your answers.
Your answers.
Your chosen line or stanza.
Patricia Smith, “Katrina”
Your answers.
Your answers.
Your chosen line or stanza.
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