Belly Dancer By Diane Wakoski

In reading Diane Wakoski's " Belly Dancer," I get the feeling that this poem is about a woman's liberation. The speaker or the belly dancer is speaking about how the belly dancer moves her body so freely and how the fabrics on her body make her body feel good.The speaker also talks about the uptight women who watch this free spirit of a belly dancer mover her body to the awakening rhythms. The uptight women are women who repress their desires and their wants. They are modern and contemporary in the ways they dress but their minds are stuck in an old school mentality. These women feel they should act a certain way because society has told them to do so, so they repress their feelings, their desires and their wants to adhere to a "man's world." The uptight women frown, or look away, or laugh stiffly. They are afraid of these materials and these moves, they are afraid it may awaken a deep desire they've repressed for so long that even their husbands couldn't satisfy. The dancer is really scorning the men not doing it for their satisfaction. The belly dancer wants to awaken these women and make them feel more liberated in their ways and be freer to do as they feel. Overall i really liked this poem and I feel that in todays society, there are still women like this. Today is a more liberal time to live in but there are still pressures on women to act a certain way and to adhere to certain goals by certain ages such as, finding a perfect man, getting married, having kids, and so on and so forth.. Where in today's day, nto every woman would agree with that standard of life. There are a lot of women who are single mothers, never got married, or women who are lesbians, or women who chose to live different lifestyles. I think everyone should be able to live they way they want without the pressures of society to be or act or even look a certain way. I think women should continue to be more liberal in their ways of life and shouldn't be afraid to be who they truly are.

Personal Letter No.3 By Sonia Sanchez

nothing will keep
us young you know
not young men or
women who spin
their youth on
cool playing sounds.
we are what we
are what we never
think we are.
no more wild geo
graphies of the
flesh. echoes. that
we move in tune
to slower smells.
it is a hard thing
to admit that
sometimes after midnight
i am tired
of it all.

In Sonia Sanchez's poem, " Personal Letter No.3," I feel like this is a person reflecting on their life. The speaker is saying that nothing will keep you young not other young men or young women," who spin their youth on cool playing sounds."
The speaker goes onto say " we are what we are, what we never think we are." This sentence translates to me as we are who we are, including the things we try to hide from or are in denial about.. so following the first line, I feel like the poem is talking about the undeniable transition of aging. How people try so hard to stay looking young and keep from looking old.. A lot of people don't want to keep aging, so they go to extremes to keep themselves looking young or feeling young. This kind of reminds me of Peter Pan in a way because he was the boy who never wanted to grow up.. Some people have complexes and mostly on aging.. which is why so many people get into face lifts and botox for their faces .. to beat the signs of aging.. but no matter how much you do to cover it up you will still eventually age and the true appearance seeps through. I feel like Sanchez is fed up with people who can't embrace aging in a graceful manner and who can't be true to themselves. Sanchez wants people to be grateful for what they have and to be more mindful of how aging is a natural process of life. People should be happy with who they are organically and just embrace it. I feel like because the poem is titled "Personal Letter No.3," it is most likely a personal idea that she had in her head and wrote it down. It was a reflection perhaps because it was personal.. I think this poem was an overall strong message to just love yourself and stop trying to be something you are not or cant be for forever. Sanchez concludes the poem with her being tired of it all, after midnight.. which makes you think of being young.. how when your young you are out all hours of the night enjoying life and doing whatever. The older you get though, it seems as though the earlier your home and don't want to be out at all hours of the night.. like when your life is more settled.Overall I really enjoyed this poem.

There It Is By Jayne Cortez

Jayne Cortez's " There It Is," is a poem with a straightforward message. It cuts straight to the chase with no extra philosophical ideas. It's simple and direct. Cortez basically says If you don't do this, then you'll end up this way.. for example Cortez says:
"And if we don't fight
if we don't resist
if we don't organize and unify and
get the power to control our own lives."
Cortez is basically reiterating her point that if something isn't done the way it should be done, then it'll end up a different way, and sometimes the end result might not be what you wanted..Cortez is talking about standing up and being strong for the choices you chose to follow and live by. Cortez is saying to be in control of your life and not to just sit back and let life happen to you. Only you are the one to make the choices that outline or direct where your life is going. you are in charge of your destiny. Cortez then says if you don't do these things:
"Then we will wear
the exaggerated look of captivity
the stylized look of submission
the bizarre look of suicide
the dehumanized look of fear
and the decomposed look of repression
forever and ever and ever
And there it is "
I love the choice of words Cortez used to make that point. If you don't in fact make the choices of your life or stand for what you believe in, you will wear the looks of captivity, submission, suicide, fear, and repression for ever and ever." It makes the message even stronger. You can think of all of these looks but the way it is verbalized makes it so clear in your mind and is something everyone can relate to. If these people don't fight, then they will wear these looks for the rest of their lives.
I find it interesting that Cortez uses the word " wear," in describing the looks on ones face if they don't take charge of their lives. She uses the word " wear," as if she were speaking about wearing an article of clothing. Almost as if the looks are items of clothing making them "wearable." And There It is.. the result or the solution if you don;t do things the way you should get them done.

Theme for English B by Langston Hughes

The instructor said,

Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you—
Then, it will be true.
"Theme for English B," by Langston Hughes is a poem that his professor gave him an advice to help him to write. Hughes professor basically tells him to write a page and to let that page come out of him. In the first stanza Hughes wonders if it's that simple?writing poetry. As he writes from what is within himself, he free writes a poem about who he is and about how Harlem is him. Harlem, what he sees and hears is him.
It’s not easy to know what is true for you or me
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I’m what
I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you.
hear you, hear me—we two—you, me, talk on this page.
(I hear New York, too.) Me—who?
Hughes goes on to say he likes to eat,sleep, drink and be in love,and that he likes to work,read,learn and understand life. He goes on to say he'd like a pipe for Christmas or records, Bessie, Bop,or Bach. He goes on to say how he guesses him being colored doesn't make him not like things that other folks like who are different races. Here he comes to the realization that even though there is a color barrier between black and white folks, he may still like some of the things other people like just the same too. He names music artists. Music is universal, it's something everyone understands and gets no matter what color skin you have.He goes on to say that what he writes wont be white but it will be apart of his professor who is obviously white accounting for a line in the poem earlier where he stated he is the only colored person in his class.Hughes says
"Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white—
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That’s American."

This poem will be apart of the instructor who is in part a part of him and vice versa. Hughes shows us here that they are two separate people, yet they are one. They have a commonality that they are both people, they are both American. He continues to say even though the instructor may not want to be apart of him and sometimes he may not want to be apart of the professor just the same, they are apart of each other. They are both American and they both learn in turn from each other even though his white instructor is older, white and freer than he is.He ends the poem with this is his page for English B. In this time the poem was written it was true that even though he had his freedom, he still was "less" free than a white man was.There was still a lot of segregation and hard times for black people still.