poetandknowit11 Sep 2002

Of course, I am a product of my culture, but I am looking at a fucking poem. The context of the poem, the language, the images, etc. I am bringing nothing to the table when I read this for the first time and am reading your work for the first time. Now that I know your work, I will bring something to the table. I am not sure why you want to make this more than it is. I am attacking the poem not you or your culture. I could care a less about that. So why attack mine, when you have no idea what it is or where I am. It is the poet's job to put me in the poem, to make me understand. There are a good many things I do not do or understand, but when a good poet or writer communicates effectively, I am there (i.e war, holocaust, sitting in a little hut eating goat stew when some crazy son of a bitch decides he wants to gas his own people). I am sorry if you want to make it something else, whether cultural or religious, but I am not going there. I realize I am not Kurdish or have not experienced what happened to the Kurdish people but a good poem will make me feel like I have. Read my work. It may not take on subjects like Anfal, but I will take you down Colfax Ave in Denver on a cold night hungry and in need of a smoke and you will feel the cold, the pangs in your stomach and the ache of needing. This poem does not do that, at least in my opinion.