Favourite Poem

Blog Prompt: Pick a poem or prose extract that has left a deep impression on you. Write about why it left such a deep impression on you. Write about why it left such a deep impression and what you learnt from it. Include the poem/prose extract in your post.

Racial Understanding - James Di Fiore

I wasn't asked at birth
When mamma squeezed me out of her still slight girth
If I preferred my skin to be dark or light or in the middle
Nobody asked me to fiddle with
My pigment
So how am I to explain the actions of my ancestors, even a little bit?
I know the history, I just wish it were her story
Instead of the bloodshed washed through the claims of glory
I'm sorry

but I don't think I can say I have any pride
Take a ride through the past and you might see where I reside
They looked just like me those who committed homicide
They looked just like me those who committed genocide
They looked just like me men who brandished weapons at their side
They looked just like me but they never really looked
They never looked at all, from proverbs to graffiti in the bathroom stall
and voices in the hall laughed as they watched them fall

But it wasn't me

But I can identify with those who believe they have a right to look down on me
I can see their frustration and can almost agree
With sentiments that state they hate what people who looked just like me
did to their family's fates
It's crazy
But stillit just wasn't me
I wonder what it would be like if I woke up black
Given my temperment I know I'd fight back
And want to lynch those who looked just like you

But what did you do?

Nothing that you can undo
Nothing that makes you the epitome of the evil that men do
If I woke up Chinese would I hate the Japanese?
If I woke up Japanese would I hate the Canadian authorities
from the 1940s?
If I were a Jew would I hate a modern day German?
If I were made of two races, would I hate the puritans?
I'm through man, with all of this hate
I can't take it
Is there anybody that can take racism and bust like me?
And if I were a black man, would I hate someone who looked just like me...?

I like this poem very much as aside from being in such close reference to the issue of racism, this poem also brought out a very deep sense of feeling that was not only able to discuss the issue of racial understanding, but also brought out a very special feeling in the second stanza when the phrase "They looked just like me" was repeated several times.

In this poem, however, I liked the last stanza the best as I felt it made a lot of sense. We can't change our past, what has happened has already past by; why are we still dwelling on things that happened and maybe hate those people who caused this? What's the whole point of this? Hatred for pride? Wouldn't it be much better, if the world could just live harmoniously, with no issues of discrimination or racial tensions? Quoting from Martin Luther King, Jr., a member of the Civil Rights Movement "I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."