Some Voices We Remember: A Collection of Poems

Abstract

The collective reality we live in each day is crafted by the unique experiences of each individual, the perceived appropriate responses to these experiences, and whether one is willing to challenge the perception of what is acceptable of this reality we share. Poetry creates necessary dissonance between the unique experience and the collective reality. Through my research, I have fine tuned my ability to distinguish modern poetic works that create friction between the perceived reality and the individual reality effectively from modern poetic works that serve separate purposes. Several texts I have looked at over the course of my research revolve around themes of identity, race, sexuality, and what it means to be a modern American challenging a difficult sociopolitical climate. The most effective works I read tend to relay political messages through the exploration of personal experiences using deconstruction and reconstruction of poetic form.