Resistance is a very powerful thing. It means to refuse, accept, or comply with something. People continue to fight for their power and rights every single day and will always try to make society a better place for humans even though society is naturally unfair. We resist racial, sexual, religious, or any inequality by the minute. You can resist something many different ways. Some write poems, some sing, dance, act, draw, or even just stand for their authority. One way that I show resistance is through my writing. I hope that this collection of poems makes the reader think about the assumptions and stereotypes they make every day.
In this collection, I wrote 3 poems that show resistance to how society differentiates what is “normal” and what is “bad” or “weird”. One of my poems focuses on what people think about alternative culture, another focuses on teen rape, and the last focuses on stereotypes towards black oppressed women. In my first praise poem, “Alternative Girl”, I celebrate myself as a girl who enjoys alternative music. A few lines that I liked was “She does what she wants.She wears what she wants. She goes where she wants, and she is who she wants to be.” because it shows the confidence that the alternative girl has. I’ve enjoyed alternative music since I was a 3 year old singing along with Kurt Cobain at the top of my lungs. No matter what people say, I will continue to scream along to Nirvana and Green Day. This poem resists the fact the people think that alternative people are too weird or “emo”. My second poem, “3 months” was inspired by the Brock Turner case. It is about two characters (the victim and the rapist) who are both young adults/ teens. The rapist was telling the story of what happened in a more sugar coated way while the victim is telling what happened in a more realistic way. This poem resisted the fact that no one pays any attention to teen rape. My last poem is called “Strong Black Woman”. This is another praise poem that celebrates the confidence in the oppressed. One line that I liked was “Still fighting for respect, With a variety of people by her side, watch them stand.” because it shows all of the oppressed people gathering to fight for freedom. This simply just resists racism, sexism, and other inequality.
Until I wrote about resistance, I never understood the real craft in writing poems. During the process I was very nervous until I grew into it. The more I wrote, the more confident I grew in poetry. All of my old poems were just short, childish, rhyming poems when I didn’t even know what a real poem was. The more I understood the way of poems, the more figurative language and techniques I used. Writing this collection was a new journey for me. I hope my reader enjoys it as much as I did, and I hope to expand on this in my future career.
Alternative Girl
Sensitive and sweet.
She’s an alternative girl.
With cotton candy hair and bright eyes,
She’s an alternative girl.
Her unique personality can eat you up
And spit you out.
Yet she will still cradle you
as if you were a child of hers.
Her music,
Loud and upbeat
Makes her heart dance
Like the song is new every time.
Being “odd” or “dark” isn’t a bad thing.
She’s just an individual.
Different in her own little ways.
Always ignoring others’ opinions,
As she dances on their negativity.
Shake Slide Hop Shake
She does what she wants.
She wears what she wants.
She goes where she wants,
And she is who she wants to be.
They ask “Why do you wear so much black?”,
She responds with confidence,
“Because, Black is class”
She leaves her stresses behind,
As she sees her favorite music artists in the flesh.
Screaming every single lyric in tears,
Then it ends.
Yet the moment will live on forever.
Maybe a fangirl but,
She lives in the pureness of each moment.
She’s an alternative girl.
Three Months
I’m an 18 year old man.
I’m an 16 year old woman.
I went to go to the public pool.
I went to go swimming with my friends.
I watched her as she got in the water.
I got in the water while my friends were gone.
She was alone.
Where are my friends?
I got closer to her to get a better look.
This cute guy is looking at me
She approached me with a grin.
I walked towards him and smiled.
This was the perfect chance, so I lightly gripped her hand.
He tightly clutched my wrist.
I led her to my car.
He told me to shut up as he grabbed my neck and threw me in the car
I drove her to my house and led her to my room.
He threw me to his dark, cold basement.
I offered her a drink.
He forced me to drink, then I blacked out.
I loved it.
I suffered.
Love bites and sweat
Scars, bruises, and cuts
It was only 15 minutes.
It was a whole 15 minutes.
The cops found her.
The cops found me!
I escaped as quick as I could.
He was nowhere to be seen.
I laughed with a sigh of relief.
I cried as I looked at each scar on my skin.
But then,
But then,
They found me.
They found him.
It was a whole 3 months in jail.
It was only 3 months in jail.
I didn't deserve this punishment.
He deserved more punishment.
Strong Black Women
The strong black woman stood tall.
Fighting for her glowing dark skin, wide nose, and luscious lips.
Fighting for and with the oppressed people of the world.
Powerful and Potent, watch her stand.
The black woman stood confidently.
Powerful vibes gather around her like she was a sweet substance attracting bees.
Still fighting for respect,
With a variety of people by her side, watch them stand.
Dancing on the hate and consuming the love.
A spear in her hand
And a gun on her back.
She continued to stand upright ignoring the heavy load of struggles that she has.
Like a soldier ready to fight, she still stood tall.
Throwing out every barbarous word thrown at her with pride
And she will never quit fighting.
With all of her power she can conquer the world.