Chelsea+Starks




 * Poetry is what gets lost in translation ~Robert Frost **



**__Stupid things...smh...__**

The cool breeze of the night felt good on my skin. It was August and the open air sent chills up my spine. I was on a scooter just riding up and down the street, feeling like was floating in the cool air I closed my eyes to feel the wind in my hair. But oh no, things didn't work out as planned I crashed into someone's iron railing, like BAM! and I sat with my head in my hands the pounding and throbbing in my head grew with every second then I open my eyes to see my hands covered in blood... who would have known I split my face in two...

 ** __Grandma Nell__ **

Her very scent used to fill my nostrils when I hugged her, her lovely voice and soft brown skin made her every elder man's desire I remember when I was three and she was always supposed to be eating food she'd give me some instead mom would say 'Grandma Nell stop feeding her face and eat your food' she'd just laugh 'the baby is hungry' 'she just ate' 'oh leave that chil'e 'lone', but no matter what Grandma always had my back my heart goes out to her with deep serenity, but she only now exists faintly in my memory...

 __**Ode to 22**__

Born on the 22nd of the tenth month and seven years before the new millenium, I emerge in the world at 7 lbs 4 oz. by the name of Chelsea Alexis Starks I begin my journey 2 + 2 = 4 4 + 4 = 8 The numbers going round in circles makes all the difference, the numbers gaves me headaches. From the day I was born to the year I'm standing now I see the numbers going up and nothing coming down like a kite stuck in a tree never to be taken down no one to rescue it from the soaring height the time goes past and pretty soon I will be 22, the only thing I don't want is to die my favorite number...

  __** Ode to 22 [Revised] **__

Born on the 22nd of the tenth month and seven years before the new millenium, I emerge in the world at 7 lbs 4 oz. I begin my journey 5 + 5 = 10 11 + 11 = 22 The numbers going round in circles makes all the difference, the numbers gaves me headaches. From the day I was born to the year I'm standing now I see the numbers going up and nothing coming down like a kite stuck in a tree never to be taken down no one to rescue it from the soaring height the time goes past and pretty soon I will be 22, the only thing I don't want is to die my favorite number... 

 __**Our Heritage**__

Negro and nigga is what the white man called us Then Martin Luther King came and paved the way for all of us But all that has gone to waste Because we're still tearing down our own race Baby, children, adults, All have heard it If you ask me every one has said it I'm sure of it You've said it, I've said it and didn't care, But your ancestors are looking down on you from up there, watching you tear yourselves down in despair Why do we do it? What is wrong? When we've fought for equality for so, so, long Stop it! Stop it! It ends now! I think this needs to be spoken out loud. For it would make our ancestors proud. Our heritage, A dynasty of beauty.



Gwendolyn Brooks 

My poet that I have chosen to study is Gwendolyn Brooks, a female African American poet with a passion for poetry. She has her own sense of style and never sticks to just one structure. She uses all the elements of literature and composes them in such a way that seemingly only hers make the right music. In her writing though, I noticed she does a lot of free verse but switches it up to keep the reader's attention. The flow of her poems are consistent with the words she puts on paper. Parts of her poem contain end rhyme but right before you think she's going in one direction, she does the unexpected. The way she ends her poems forces you to think about the message she is conveying. These thought provoking poems are just a preview of what she's all about. She touches down on numerous topics such as love, independence, and men too. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">"To be in love/Is to touch with a lighter hand./In yourself you stretch, you are well./You look at things through his eyes." [Excerpt from To Be In Love

This quote above displays some of her style and her way of writing. When she talks about what being in love is, she uses sort of a metaphor to convey how she thinks being in love is supposed to be. She also gives love a deeper meaning saying you look at things but through his eyes and the way he sees it instead of your point of view. She's saying that you see both sides instead of just one, you see the world the way he sees it every day. When she says "In yourself you stretch, you are well." that is talking about a feeling of relief. Like when you stretch you get all the aches, kinks, and pains out of your back, you feel better or you are well. One of her other poems also she leaves us to think about her words, such as "The Good Man".

"  The good man./ He is still enhancer, renouncer./ In the time of detachment,/ in the time of the vivid heather and affectionate evil,/ in the time of oral/ grave grave legalities of hate - all real/ walks our prime registered reproach and seal./ Our successful moral./ The good man. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 129.6%;">"

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Some people would wonder what that actually meant and when I first read this poem I didn't understand fully what she was talking about. Then when I read it again it started to make more sense and I understood that the good man is very strong especially in the times of evil and hate. He is a good man not for just that because of what he symbolizes. He symbolizes that people in the world don't always follow these things and that's what makes him a good man.