Thursday, May 19, 2011

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.

2 comments:

  1. Yes, and not to take the last image too literally--think of the connotations of "midnight," given some of your other insights.
    The lines "we are what we / are what we never /
    think we are" are crucial, and can be read/interpreted various ways, in the poem's context. The line breaks are also suggestive, and twist the meaning various ways...

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  2. Is this a poem in her Homecoming poetry collection?

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