Sunday, May 4, 2008

To Depths Unknown

Whenever I grow tired of dealing with the attitudes and antics of my students I really should just assign a poem. They always connect me with the reality that surrounds me and force me to realize that I've lived a rather priveleged life. These are two of the standouts from the last batch. The first poem was written by a kid who was shot in the arm by a rival gang the weekend after he wrote this.

When I was younger in the hood I was a young buck,
One of the OG's gave me the mentality of not giving a fuck.
I grew up in a messed up home,
Not paying attention but inside I felt alone.
I used to always sit and wait for a letter to come in
Because my dad was always in and out of the pen.
I sit and think about my messed up life
Hoping one day I'll stop banging and get a beautiful wife.
I always used to wanna be like my dad,
Who knew when I came out I was twice as bad.
The life I chose probably wasn't for me,
But I live the gang bang life and I'm from ________ St.



"I Am From"
I am from the ghetto streets of LA,
from tagging and killing.
I am from a junky house with
roaches and spiders.
(big, juicy and creepy crawly)
I am from my parents not caring
when I needed changing.
That's what I remember.

I am from eating out the trash because
I didn't have enough food.
I'm from not making the same mistake
my parents made, drugs and poor lives.
I'm from a foster mom who did care
and fed me and bought me clothes.

I'm from eating rice, corn, bread, steak,
and a good loving family.
From winning track meets and being happy
and having good friends, to my foster mom
passing away, from still living a good life
and staying clean with a roof over my head.

I am from becoming nothing to something,
listening and learning how to become
who I am.

7 comments:

sherry said...

I love this assignment; I've used that poem in my classroom, too. Poetry is a form of expression like no other, for sure.

I always marvel at the pain in my classroom (even coming from a more privileged community). We become much better teachers when we understand where they're from.

Of course, the poem with the foster mom made me cry.

Thanks, Michael.

Anonymous said...

downright

Val. said...

this is quite amazing, mr. baker.

c.w. goad said...

Wow. Thanks for sharing these.

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