POETRY CHAPBOOK

I originally started writing this poem using “Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde as a mentor text. In the end, it really didn’t have much in common except for the narrator expressing their feelings. I wrote the poem in free verse because like the narrator’s feelings and thoughts, the structure isn’t strict and kind of goes on randomly. I also used enjambment to slow down the pace of the poem and alliteration in “familiar footsteps”.

Lost – Anjum Suchita 811

Why are you hiding?

Why.

It’s my birthday

I’m lighting the candle

and my only wish

is that next year

I won’t be alone.

Why did you leave?

Why.

Was I just too much to handle?

Why didn’t you give me a chance?

Why.

Was it something I did?

Were you disappointed?

Even from the beginning-

was it obvious?

that I was useless.

Everyday I listen

for those familiar foot steps

or the rustling of keys

unlocking the door.

Everyday I look

for an envelope

for an email

for a voicemail.

anything

from you.

when you left.

Why did you take

Everything?

Along with you.

I originally started writing this poem using “Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde as a mentor text. In the end, it really didn’t have much in common except for the narrator expressing their feelings. I wrote the poem in free verse because like the narrator’s feelings and thoughts, the structure isn’t strict and kind of goes on randomly. I also used enjambment to slow down the pace of the poem and alliteration in “familiar footsteps”.  

When I was writing my haikus, memories flooded my mind, many of them having to do with my younger sister. So, I decided to write a short series dedicated to her. In the first snowfall of last winter, we saw a tangerine on top of a small pile of snow. We decided to bury it in the pile and when all the snow melts by spring, we would see it again. This moment is clear in my head because it makes me think of the theme, you can bury your problems, but they will come back to you, somehow. My second and third haikus have more of a carefree tone and show certain times of our life. When my family teases her and compares her footsteps to those of an elephant, metaphor, and when we laugh at how tight our pants can be. In all three of my haikus, I used enjambment.

Haikus for my Sister – Anjum Suchita

A tangerine

Buried in

the snow.

A heavy elephant

thuds through

my house.

How will I ever

be able to get out of

these pants?

Sonnet

The Confession – Anjum Suchita

I never wanted to confess this way

to you but I can’t hold it in one more

minute. When you say “Hi” everyday,

I look at you and know that I am sure

about the way I feel. So now I’ve made

a decision to tell you the full truth.

I tell myself that I can’t be afraid

because I am told by my best friend Ruth

that you have a crush on me. So now I

have to make my move; it’s the perfect time

to tell you that I can no longer lie

about how I feel to be by you. I’m

honestly so disgusted by your smell,

but I figured it would be mean to tell. 

Writing a sonnet was probably the hardest from the other poems in this chapbook. When I began, I started with typical love stories, but cliché isn’t my style. I decided that I wanted something different, even if it didn’t follow traditional guidelines, something that would make the reader be a little surprised at the ending. I used irony to fool the reader, enjambment to keep the iambic pentameter consistent, and of course, rhyme. Even though I didn’t write about love, I kept it traditional by following the structure rules of a traditional Shakespearean sonnet.

My ♥ Poem – Hanging Fire by Audre Lorde

I was reading through the poems in our poetry packet, waiting for the right one to catch my eye, when my friend walked over to me. “Which one are you picking?” she asked me. I shook my head and replied with “I haven’t found one yet…” She excitedly pointed out “Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde. After reading it over, I sat there for a moment in silence, it was great. “I know, it’s really cool,” she said, leaving me to ponder over this new and amazing poem on my own.

In the poem, Audre Lorde repeats lines 10-11, “and momma’s in the bedroom with the door closed.” These lines show that the narrator feels her mother is not paying attention to her, or doesn’t care about her. The repetition of these lines might mean that the speaker wants her mother to care and listen, so the thought that she isn’t listening to her keeps coming after all her other thoughts. This can also show an underlying problem with their relationship. The speaker might wish for a close mother daughter relationship, but only gets a closed-off, quiet one instead. And since she wants this, the thought is always in her head in the end. The speaker also thinks about how life will go on if she suddenly dies three times. Instead of these thoughts being suicidal, I think they are quite normal. She is a little tired of working and thinks that life isn’t fair, so if she wasn’t there, would it really be that different? The speaker, like many teenagers, doesn’t want to do anything, even though there is so much to do. This line is very relatable and especially shows her lack of motivation to pursue in life.

“That was really… amazing. Thanks.” Audre Lorde expresses the thoughts of many different teenagers in one poem. This might be from the perspective of one girl, or one boy, or different thoughts of many different people. That’s the interesting part, even though I don’t know who is speaking, I put myself in their shoes and imagine everything they are going through, because being a teenager myself, I am going through similar struggles and thinking alike thoughts. As expressed earlier, some of the lines really jumped out and made me feel strongly connected to the narrator and whoever reading this feels the same thing. “Yeah, no problem.”