In Pursuit of Poetry

March 3, 2020 - Gwendolyn Brooks - We Real Cool

March 3, 2020
I have managed to get myself up to date; doing today's blog today. I am still dealing with a fuzzy head thanks to a sinus cold that is brutal. I took the day off work - something I rarely do. Yesterday I had to give up trying to do my blogs; my brain wasn't up for it. I struggled and decided to just let it go for the night.

Today I am writing during the day... after over 9 hours of sleep and another 2 hour nap. I'm due for another one but I want to get this done and posted first.

I struggled with trying to find a poem. Particularly one I had not used before. That was the challenge. I initially picked one by Maya Angalou and then realized it is already in my Poetry Blog from when I did it in 2018. So I had to scrap that idea. Anther choice did not pan out either as I was much too fuzzy to try to write something that sounded intelligent enough.

This morning, while trying to will myself into a nap, I noticed a book I had started reading several years ago. It is in my To Read pile. It is called Poetry Will Save Your Life by Jill Bialosky. I think I used this book for my last blog... at least for the Robert Frost poem - The Road Not Taken. I love that poem. But since I have used that one before I went on to her next chapter Danger.

She discussed her childhood and a friend she used to have that was quite beautiful. This friend moved away after her mother suddenly died and her father quickly remarried. She visited the girl once about a year later when they were no longer children. Now they were early teens and the friend was turning into one of those stunningly beautiful young ladies. But the problem that Jill saw building was in seeing this young girl struggle to 'Be Cool'. She was already smoking and trying tequila and making out with boys. They grew apart and eventually the girl committed suicide. The poem, We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks does not talk of suicide per se, but it does give the feeling of evoking this darker side of trying to Being Cool and tying to fit in.

It has a childhood children's rhythm to it like that skipping song "Miss Mary Mack" or so Jill Bialosky says. It speaks of the perils of trying to fit in and be cool. There is a certain vulnerability to it.

WE REAL COOL
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 - 2000)

The Pool Players,
Seven at the Golden Shovel.

We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.

It reminds me of a book I read many times in high school - The Late Great Me by Sandra Scoppettone. It follows the story of a young teenager as she descends into alcoholism. I reread that book many times. It was a warning for me, just as Jill Bialosky believes this poem can be for today's teens.