american sonnet for the new year by terrance hayes analysis american sonnet for the new year by terrance hayes analysis

The second comparison is between a music box and a meat grinder, both of which are something you wind up with a similar twisting motion. For more information and to read other poems, please visit our repository. Web. As he introduced award-winning poet Terrance Hayes, Dr. James Allen Hall, director of the Rose O'Neill Literary House, said, "We seem to be living in a time of hard news. Terrance Hayes - 1971- . In a 2013 interview with Lauren Russell for Hot Metal Bridge, Hayes stated, Im chasing a kind of language that can be unburdened by peoples expectations. American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin. September 11, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/terrance-hayes-american-sonnet-for-my-past-and-future-assassin/. The speaker protects and imprisons his "assassin"who we begin to understand is just a version of the narrator, an alternate selfembracing him in dreams, which are an escape from reality. initially things got ugly ironically usually The Trade-mark Recovering Words is owned by Richard Osler, Website: Ritama Design Maybe, maybe not. And what of the titular assassin? That's why nothing's more romanticthan working your teeth throughthe muscle. Hayess long conversation with cherished Black writers and mentors turns some of these sonnets against their dedicatory assassin into praise poems. Witnessing the struggle for freedom, from the American Revolution to the Black Lives Matter movement. All rights reserved. People happy in love have an air of intensity. Take these lines as evidence of his delight in the raw stuff of language, from a poem that continues in a vein of lexical playfulness: The umpteenth thump on the rump of a badunkadunk/ Stumps us. Another review could paint a very different picture of American Sonnets; thats how rich it is. StudyCorgi, 11 Sept. 2021, studycorgi.com/terrance-hayes-american-sonnet-for-my-past-and-future-assassin/. Rooted in the painful history of the U.S., the phenomenon of racism affects members of the African American community on all levels. Someone is praying, someone is prey. Its not the bad people who are brave/ I fear, writes Hayes, its the good people who are afraid, but he also troubles this distinction. Fred Sanford's on at 12 & I'm standing in the express lane (cash only) about to buy Head & Shoulders the white people shampoo, no one knows what I am. Terrance Hayes is a black American poet who often writes about his experience as a black man in America. The catharsis involves understanding that white America is unaffected by the crow or the speaker and its visionary ideals (pep rally stars) fall apart when applied to black Americans. To capture the assassin, Hayes locks it in an American sonnet that is part prison, / Part panic closet, a little room in a house set aflame. Thus confined, the spectre of death is poked and prodded, though the hinted-at rapprochement wont come easy. September 11, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/terrance-hayes-american-sonnet-for-my-past-and-future-assassin/. The contrast between the two options that Hayes provides is enhanced with the focus on rapid changes in their scope and size as both the birds and the bull grow from small to huge and back: As if a bird/Could grow without breaking its shell; small enough to fit inside/The bead of a nipple ring (Hayes 6). In his poems, in which he occasionally invents formal constraints, Hayes considers themes of popular culture, race, music, and masculinity. Elsewhere, he claims that for a son to look at his father is to see who he was / Long before he had a name, the trace of / His future on earth long before he arrived. Is this theory or observation? By Terrance Hayes. Need a transcript of this episode? Submitted by patelrishi946 on November 08, 2022. You assassinate the sound of our . Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The sonnet addresses the effects of social stereotypes inflicted upon African American people due to the persistence of racism by exploring the theme of change. He won a National Book award for poetry in his thirties and a McArthur Genius Grant in his early forties. Need a transcript of this episode? The opening of the poem "American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin" contradicts the central message of how the poet feels and the conflict of being a black American. / My mother shaped my grasp of space the wisecracker Yes, you funky stud, you are the jewel / In the knob of an elegant butt plug and the intellectual Maybe I was too hard on Derek Walcott.. things got ugly embarrassingly quickly Can we really be friends if we dont believe / In the same things, Assassin? he asks, virtually summing up the impasse at which liberals and conservatives find themselves. There seems to be more oppositional clarity in the poets concept of God. The title is "American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin." (2021, September 11). https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/143917/american-sonnet-for-my-past-and-future-assassin-598dc83c976f1. American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin. Once again a bird is constrained in a box, but the use of the word "heart" indicates a kind of painful self-love in the act of self-protection. Thank you Terrance Hayes. Hayes is currently professor of English at New York University. The American sonnet has recently emerged with a slightly less restricted format than the traditional sonnet form derived from renaissance Italy (14th-century Petrarch) and Elizabethan England (16th-century Spenser and Shakespeare) that still continue to challenge, and intimidate, serious writers and . A younger African American poet Terrance Hayes founded a new form when he wrote a poem, The Golden Shovel, each of whose lines took their end-word from Brooks's poem. The crown of sonnets originated in the 15th century; more recently, the form was employed by Marilyn Nelson in her childrens book, A Wreath for Emmett Till. Sharing his delight of the ability to transform and keep the connection with his family and the community, the poet evokes the sense of hope in his readers as well. Rhythm and momentum in poetry are not the same but Hayes seems to have found a successful balance, and the result is a page-turner of a book. Language is always burdened by thought. Retrieved from https://studycorgi.com/terrance-hayes-american-sonnet-for-my-past-and-future-assassin/, StudyCorgi. If you use an assignment from StudyCorgi website, it should be referenced accordingly. Required fields are marked *. Terrance Hayes' poems are formally inventive and emotionally uninhibited. Her piece confidently navigates challenging material, and, most importantly, sent the judges back to the poems.. In this archival episode, the editors discuss Terrance Hayess poem How to Draw a Perfect Circle from the December 2014 issue of Poetry. 'At Pegasus' by Terrance Hayes is a powerful poem about identity that uses a youthful memory and a contemporary experience to speak about life. I think of poetry as a solitary thing. For my 2015 blog post on Terrance please click here. 4 Mar. But I also will grab on to the last line like a lifebelt! Is blindness or time/ Travel () essentially the aim of any religion? I make you a box of darkness with a bird in its heart. quietly seemingly Things got ugly beautifully Especially if you're a little bithigh strung and a little bit gutted balloon. For a collection in which death is everywhere present the names alive are like names in the graves, runs one refrain thrills with a rapid pulse. Request a transcript here. Tara McEvoy, right, whose review of Terrance Hayess American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin won third place in the 2019 Burgess award for arts journalism, with Observer editor Paul Webster. Try one of our lessons. Every poem is a sonnet, and every sonnet is titled: "American Sonnet for my Past and Future Assassin." ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: The poet Terrance Hayes first arrived on the scene in 1999 with a book . In addition, by depicting the transformations from a bird as a creature representing the longing for freedom to a bull as the one that embodies it, Hayes points to the fluidity of the human nature, its resilience and the skill to adapt. Yvette Siegert, Extracting the Stone of Madness (New Directions, 2016) From American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes. His poems have also been featured in several editions of Best American Poetry and have won multiple Pushcart Prizes. StudyCorgi. Additionally, the concept of "the song of the bird" is a subtle reference to "Caged Bird," a poem the famous black American poet, Maya Angelou (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48989/caged-bird). by Terrance Hayes. The other, more pressing sense in which these are American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin is that they are, well, poems about dying in the US. Terrance Hayes, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin. American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassins, p. 48 - Terrance Hayes (Penguin Books) 89 pages, paperback Rating: 5 stars If you'd like to pick up a copy of American Sonnets For My Past And Future Assassins or any of my other recommendations please consider clicking my affiliate link for The Book Depository. awfully carefully things got ugly unsuccessfully Terrance Hayes and the poetics of the un-thought. Saatavilla Rakuten Kobolta. It may seem strange to begin new year 2022 by featuring this poem with an insistent and adverbial call out to ugly but I like what this poem is: a salute to the reality of messiness in human living, extremes, contradictions, maybe sos, maybe nots, and then some hope at the poems end, maybe! The sonnet was written after the 2016 US election and is directed at the violence experienced against American racism (Burt 14). Hayess fourth book puts invincibly restless wordplay at the service of strong emotions: a sons frustration, a husbands love, a citizens righteous anger and a friends erotic jealousy animate these technically astute, even puzzlelike, lines, observed Stephanie Burt in a 2010 review of Lighthead for the New York Times. Without the described constituents of a sonnet, Hayes has managed to construct a complex metaphor that represents the complexity and strain of the present-day social relationships in the U.S. Another peculiar metaphor used masterfully in the sonnet is the intrinsic relationship between time and space. January 11, 2019 By Jill Du Boff. From flurries to relentless storms, why snow makes American poetry American. For background, I had stumbled upon this article on Slate.com about African-American poet Terrance Hayes and his 2002 poetry collection titled Hip Logic.In that book, he has included a sonnet aptly titled "Sonnet" that repeats its one iambic pentameter line . Everything I hold takes root.I remember what the world was like beforeI heard the tide humping the shore smooth, and the lyrics asking: How long has your doorbeen closed? Written during the first two hundred days of the Trump presidency, these poems are haunted by the country's past and future eras and errors, its dreams and nightmares. When theFoundation President and Board chairresigned, I decided to resume the interview Cave Canem celebrates its 20th anniversary. Elsewhere, the Philosopher Hayes can come across as glib: to say that When the wound / Is deep, the healing is heroic may be true but it also smacks of the inspirational meme. Delight in the raw stuff of language: poet Terrance Hayes. Terrance Hayes explores relationships between men. Particularly in his 2018 book, American Sonnets for my Past and Future Assassin, his voice feels unwavering in its necessity, in its clarities for justice and truth. I lock your persona in a dream-inducing sleeper hold. At first glance, the colorful contrast between a bird entrapped in a cage and a wild beast running free might seem as quite simple representations of freedom and the sense of being restrained. Nevertheless, the sheer variety of voices on offer here is impressive. The love poem becomes a protest poem, at times one and the same. As you read the interview, you may notice . But in refusing to name Trump, even as he ghosts the collection, Hayes refuses to minimise the gravity of the political crises we face by pinning them to any one figure. * Hyperlink the URL after pasting it to your document, John Steinbecks The Moon is Down Novel, Future in American Science Fiction Short Stories, Troy Maxsons Character in August Wilsons Fences, J. Mirikitanis Suicide Note and R. Burns My Love If Like a Red, Red Rose: Comparison, Past and Present in Under the Influence by Scott Sanders, Personal and Cultural Identities in Ceremony by Silko, Heroes Qualities: Gilgamesh vs. Odysseus, Our site uses cookies. The poem begins contrasting unlike but similar ideas, the first being a prison and a panic closet. In"American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin" white America is revealed as the assassin. The sonnets themselves are, like the United States, relatively free and diverse. Though the sonnet may seem distanced from the issue of race, the presence of symbols alluding to the history of interracial relationships in the American society point to the development of social conflict. Thus the poet wrestles with his own vitriol, telling White America that May all the gold you touch burn, rot & rust before making about as diplomatic an observation as one can, given the insane circumstances: In this we may be alike, Assassin, you & me: we believeWe want whats best for humanity [] Do you ask,Why you should die for me if I will not die for you? Request a transcript here. It may seem strange to begin new year 2022 by featuring this poem with an insistent and adverbial call out to ugly but I like what this poem is: a salute to the reality of messiness in human living, extremes, contradictions, maybe sos, maybe nots, and then some hope at the poem's end, maybe! He becomes Mister Trumpet; the speaker of one sonnet asks, Are you not the colour of this countrys current threat/ Advisory?. things got terribly ugly incredibly quickly things got ugly embarrassingly quickly actually things got ugly unbelievably quickly honestly things got ugly seemingly . Who is good and who is bad when: Like Claudia Rankines collection Citizen, Hayess book forms a sustained meditation on what it is to be black and living in America. Those sounds that rush me through the poem helped by lack of punctuation and capitalizations! increasingly obviously Things got ugly suddenly THE SUNDAY TIMES POETRY BOOK OF THE YEAR The black poet would love to say his century began With Hughes or God forbid, W. In September 2014, he was one of 21 recipients of a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, awarded to individuals who show outstanding creativity in their work. Finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry One of the New York Times Critics' Top Books of 2018 A powerful, timely, dazzling collection of sonnets from one of America's most acclaimed poets, Terrance Hayes, the National Book Award-winning author of Lighthead "Sonnets that reckon with Donald Trump's America." Humorous, profound and biting aphorisms are almost flirtatious line-crossing interlopers: Black people in America are rarely compulsive/ Hi-fivers, or to truly be heroic/ You have to think once a day of killing yourself. In Couplets, Maggie Millner uses rhyme, confession, and surprising metaphor to create a fresh portrait of desire. -The New York TimesIn seventy poems bearing the same title, Terrance Hayes explores the meanings of American, of assassin, and of love in the sonnet form. And crows bowing in a vulture's shadow. When asked for a definition she called poems jazz sonnets with certain propertiesprogression, improvisation, mimicry, etc, he adds (Colemans American Sonnet 35 can be heard here) and concludes: I decided to have fun to blow my soul.. The prison and the panic closet at both the little room in a house set aflame. As the author starts describing a bull, the reader immediately imagines a huge beast with immense power, yet the very next line subverts the audiences expectations drastically: Inside me is a huge black/Bull balled small enough to fit inside/The bead of a nipple ring (Hayes 6). The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. StudyCorgi. You will never assassinate my ghosts. These poems reminded me what poetry is capable of: of being revelatory and inscrutable all at once, of speaking truth to power but speaking it slant. His playing with language and its ly sounds! The line-opening capital letters add impact. Request a transcript here. As noted by writers and historians, slavery is America's original sin that we continue to grapple with. Is the war against Time also a war against Time/ Travel, and perhaps a war against nostalgia? Re-reading American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes (Penguin Poets, 2018) at the end of 2018 was literally hard to stomach. infrequently things got ugly sadly especially ugly Things will get less ugly inevitably hopefully. Each poem in the collection has the same title, simply American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin, in homage to Wanda Colemans American Sonnets sequence of the 1990s. "Terrance Hayes American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin." Written during the first two hundred days of the Trump presidency . But I suspect an intentionality behind certain lines, a wish for hard-learned wisdom; not one attained by merely flowing by, like water or traffic. Used with the permission of the poet. Photo from the MacArthur Foundation website. the scent of Terrance Hayes (born November 18, 1971) is an American poet and educator who has published seven poetry collections. Need help with something else? . Both are surrounded by danger and neither are really a full protection from fire (that isn't what panic closets are for) but instead serve as a metaphor for being disconnected from the outside world. As much as that last line buoys my spirits I have to notice that he ties the bow on tight, then loosens it again. This contrasts against "better selves," visionary ideals watching the game he plays with himself. ISBN: 9780141989112. the homicidal cop. I think of poetry as a solitary thing. The idea that to be in relationship to ones father is To be dead & alive at the same time, however, does temporarily put the Assassin in check. https://studycorgi.com/terrance-hayes-american-sonnet-for-my-past-and-future-assassin/. This uncertainty, this messiness I know will be part of 2022 without a doubt. This uncertainty, this messiness I . The imagery of a bird is brought back with the crow. Maybe it wasnt frequent, maybe it was ironic, maybe ugly didnt get ugly. How quickly it all got ugly the speaker repeats in the first three lines then changes his mind in the next three lines when the ugly is more confusing. That's why, the blues will never go out of fashion:their half rotten aroma, their bloodshot octaves ofconsequence; that's why when they call, Boy, you're in, trouble. actually Things got ugly unbelievably quickly honestly things got ugly seemingly infrequently I lock you in an American sonnet that is part prison, Part panic closet, a little room in a house set aflame. An editor will review the submission and either publish your submission or providefeedback. This poem captures the first few Trump years in the US. Many of Martha Zweigs Monkey Lightning, Terrance Hayess Lighthead, Joanie Mackowskis View from a Temporary Window, and Sandra Beasleys I Was the Jukebox. 2023 Cond Nast. I feel as if I am being drowned inside the poem, its fourteen uglys, thirteen gots and one get and countless abstract ly adverbs. Interviews/Reviews March 4, 2019. The oppression of black Americans and . The reader can almost feel the tension and the huge effort that the lead character has to make in order to remain safe. Ad Choices. You can find out more aboutAmerican Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes from the Penguin website. How he modifies the strength of the declarative statement things will get less ugly inevitably with that dangly hopefully! In seventy poems bearing the same title, Terrance Hayes explores the meanings of American, of assassin, and of love in the sonnet form. The sonnets have also provoked much debate on issues such as the identity of the Dark Lady and the extent to which they are . awfully carefully Things got ugly unsuccessfully. (self/ Importance is the only word God knows.). Which makes all-pro poet Terrence Hayes' choice to deploy the convention in his 2018 collection American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin curious at first glance. In seventy poems bearing the same title, Terrance Hayes explores the meanings of American, of assassin, and of love in the sonnet form. more , Submitted by patelrishi946 on October 28, 2022. . But to read this poem simply as an attack on religion would seem a rash judgement of a virtuoso performance that delights in pulling the hassock from under the readers knees. The crow's catharsis is beautiful for its understanding but not a joyous thing: The crow is once again constrained, this time by the gym, which is just another cage. Emphasizing the necessity for African American people to adapt to the unfair standards of modern American society, Hayes demonstrates the struggles that vulnerable racial minorities have to suffer in order to gain a semblance of hope in advancing in the social hierarchy. Were back, baby! And thank you for all those gots! Thump. 11100100100101110010001010011100100101001110100010001001110010010001010011100100010001110101001001001110100. If youd like to review for us or submit your publication for review, please contact Ali Lewis on [emailprotected] or Will Barrett on [emailprotected], Review: American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes. honestly Things got ugly seemingly infrequently. That ugliness, at least from my perspective and Hayess perspective. Arguably, the hardships of life for a representative of a racial minority group in the United States are expressed through the rebellion against the traditional form of a sonnet. In poems that are in turn elegiac, funny, solemn and vengeful, Hayes engages with American politics, racism, history and artistic heritage. actually Things got ugly unbelievably quickly. Is the poet sending word to my future or to my future self? Not these sonnets. American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin. Academy of American Poets, 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038. Need a transcript of this episode? In analyzing poetry, it is important to take apart the pieces of metaphor and symbolism individually to figure out what they mean and what moods they evoke. Pellentesque dapibus efficitur laoreet. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories, things got terribly ugly incredibly quicklythings got ugly embarrassingly quicklyactually things got ugly unbelievably quicklyhonestly things got ugly seemingly infrequentlyinitially things got ugly ironically usuallyawfully carefully things got ugly unsuccessfullyoccasionally things got ugly mostly painstakinglyquietly seemingly things got ugly beautifullyinfrequently things got ugly sadly especiallyfrequently unfortunately things got uglyincreasingly obviously things got ugly suddenlyembarrassingly forcefully things got really uglyregularly truly quickly things got really incrediblyugly things will get less ugly inevitably hopefully. My name could be Lamont. Delightful! Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Terrance Hayes earned a BA at Coker College and an MFA at the University of Pittsburgh. November 2, 2020. occasionally things got ugly mostly painstakingly James Baldwin described the predicament like this: People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them. Terrance Hayess latest collection, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, makes visible the outlines of the trap of history by pushing against the constraints of the 14-line sonnet form. 4 likes. Its painstaking, its beautiful, its sad. Selections from his sixth collection of poetry, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin (2018), formed Cycles of My Being , an operatic song cycle commissioned by Opera Philadelphia, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and . Composed, produced, and remixed: the greatest hits of poems about music. Terrance Hayes's latest collection, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, makes visible the outlines of the trap of history by pushing against the constraints of the 14-line sonnet . From American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin. There is a notion best expressed by Harry Lime, the genial psychopath played by . Rather, the assassin variously embodied as the poets own heart, the grim reaper and, yes, the white shooter is a kind of anti-muse whose inspiration is terror. The presence of fourteen lines is the only recognizable element that helps the reader to define the poem as a sonnet, whereas the meter and rhyme as two important characteristics of a sonnet have been ignored completely. The result is ingenious. Note from TerranceHayes:I cancelled this interview about Wanda Colemans work after signing the Poetry Foundation Petition. By centering diverse, living American poets for whom the sonnet is a way to think deeply about social and political questions, this work offers a timely snapshot of our urgent literary . Grinder to separate the song of the bird from the bone. The juxtaposition of the bull and the bird as two key symbols used in the poem is what catches the readers eye immediately as an obvious centerpiece of the poem. The holidays are coming and I dare you to greet a family member with Merry Christmas, I bought you 70 sonnets. Even a cultured person would probably prefer to see some Instagrams from your recent vacation but then theyd have no idea just how entertaining American Sonnetsfor My Past and Future Assassin can be, or how relevant. Could the collection be improved? This week, Ashley M. Jones speaks with Marcus Wicker about a project he began early in the pandemic while looking for sources of calm in books and music. Lue "American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin", jonka on kirjoittanut Terrance Hayes. Things got ugly embarrassingly quickly Please help analyse this poem and tell me what its about. Season 4, yall! First published in 1997 to much critical acclaim, this title has been a consistent best-seller in the Arden Shakespeare series. White aggressors are excoriated with fierce, alliterative wrath, but not every poem is single-mindedly wrathful: even the aggressor is permitted shades of guilt and blindness. 1. Thank you Terrance Hayes. Essay On The Autobiography Of An Ex-Colored Man 1861 Words 8 Pages Within the context of African American literature, there is a common portrayal of a self-conscious narrator who takes on a quest for his or her own self-definition. Thank you Terrance Hayes. An American Sonnet by Terrance Hayes Listen. Things got ugly embarrassingly quickly. I do. And in this he captures a breathlessness that feels to me like the breathlessness I feel in this time of history. ugly Things will get less ugly inevitably hopefully. Similarly, by simulating a train of thought as well as serving as a vehicle of translation, the poem is a form of violence for the poet. Photos via . A New Year Is Here! Suffering and ascendance require the same work.". StudyCorgi. American Sonnet for the New Year, written after his 2018 book, captures a bewildering isness of ugliness. Instead, he shifts to the discussion of the source of strength for himself and the rest of the African American community, focusing on the sense of unity and the strength of relationships within African American families: My mother shaped my grasp of space (Hayes 6). Im just trying to get it so it can be like feeling. Through repetition, there is a sense that Hayes is trying to get the sonnet right, to repeat and repeat, until, at the end of the book, there is a definitive American sonnet. The song must be cultural, confessional, clear. The crown is a daisy-chain-style connection, where the last line of one sonnet becomes the first of the next. Yes, Terrance, I got it, I get it, its ugly, disgusting, abhorent out there in many confusing ways but determinedly, forcefully, committedly I want to celebrate the goodly, the gorgeously, the ravishingly beautiful around me as well! However, by outlining that the ferocious beats inside him is balled small enough to fit inside/The bead of a nipple ring, the poet ponders the stress caused to African American people by the lack of justice in the American society, as well as the pressure under which vulnerable groups exist (Hayes 6). The identified theme becomes vivid when studying the effect that the use of shape and size creates in the sonnet. 1. Listen as two of the most Etheridge Knights Poems from Prison has been essential reading for 50 years. The title would lead us to believe that this is occurring as the speaker contrasts himself with his aggressor or assassin, but the answer is a little bit more complicated. TerranceHayeson Wanda Coleman. Meaning of Her Absence,Alejandra Pizarnik, The US poet began writing his sonnets the day Donald Trump was elected president but even after Trump, they remain fierce, profound and ageless, American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin, I only intend to send word to my futureSelf perpetuation is a war against TimeTravel is essentially the aim of any religionIs blindness the color one sees under waterBreath can be overshadowed in darknessThe benefits of blackness can seem radicalBlack people in America are rarely compulsiveHi-fivers believe joy is a matter of touching othersIs forbidden the only word God doesnt knowYou have to heal yourself to truly be heroicYou have to think once a day of killing your selfAwareness requires a touch of blindness & selfImportance is the only word God knowsTo be free is to live because only the dead are slaves.