Edinger House

Last year’s class was privliged to work with the distinguished poet Natasha Trethewey. After guiding them through a close reading of some of the same Amistad poems we just looked at, she helped us create one of our own.

Inspired by the above description of Margru (one of the original profiles of the Amisated captives in John Barber’s book): we created the following persona poem.

Margru

What I remember of home is this:

green – green mangoes, green snakes, green bananas:
brown – my mother, my father, myself, the tree
trunks, the brown earth, the color of my language,
Mende,
the only language I had
to describe these things.

Often I think of
how I came to be here:

my father pawning me, waving goodbye,
his face crumpled, tightened, looking
away from me.

I felt my captor’s white, cold hand
tighten around my wrist as if
he were a solid ghost taking me away.

Now I wish to see again
the green rice fields,
my father’s brown face,
clouds in the sky —
the only white things,

to hear someone speaking my language,
someone saying

Margru.

******* 

Now I want you to create your own poems. Take a look at the Amistad profiles I am going to hand out to you. Perhaps you want to do a persona poem about one of them? Or a found poem like “Other Cargo.” Or something else.

Write your poem as you wish. Revise. Proofread. Show a teacher.

Then create a collage with your poem in it. Here are some from last year’s class to give you an idea where to go. (Of course, I hope yours are completely unique and different!)

Finally, you will scan in your poem, post it on your blog, and I will put all the collages on the bulletin board outside the classroom!