Our last book for the class is "40 Dayz" by the spoken word poet Motion. I'm really looking forward to our last lecture and reading as I can imagine that it will be quite the performance and the class will really enjoy it. But to hold me over until then, I have been enjoying watching the videos she has featured on her YouTube page, which mcsa1991 shared on our Discussion page.
Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MotionLiveTV
The first video featured on her page, called "Now Hear Dis Sampler" has such a great flow that it sounds like music. I actually watched this video before I cracked open her book, 40 Dayz, and it has really helped me to put her poetry into context. As I'm reading, I imagine her observing Toronto and creating her lines and imagery as the city's movement inspires her. After hearing her perform her poetry herself, I also try to apply the same rhythm to the poems I am reading.
Like Zwicky, her poetry is fluid and full of imagery. It reminds me of this great city and how it can inspire art. She is constantly referencing parks, streets, schools, "the cement skyline" (from "I-ku"), brownstones, and the subway (in "connect the t-dots"). It reminds me how inspiring the city can be and her words make the most ordinary and mundane aspects that I am so used to seeing come alive. This makes her poetry similar to the stories in Lien Chao's The Chinese Knot in the way both writers integrate Toronto as another important character. By including so many recognizable landmarks, both authors succeed at making their works more identifiable as Canadian and add a colourful dimension to their words. The reader who knows or has been to the places described can feel more connected to the author, while the reader who is not so familiar, can imagine, be transported to, and feel the vibrancy of Toronto.
Another aspect of her poems that is prevalent and interesting to me is her references to and descriptions of the female body. In "dream," she uses descriptive diction to describe a woman in comparison to the earth and nature:
" she was skin
she was tree
she was string
taut and tuned
hollow
opened by knife and strain" (20).
She also describes her role as a woman. In "dem say," she discusses her childhood and how she felt so grown up when she was still so young:
"they'd rock their heads and grin
say see
that girl
that girl is a woman
in the body
of a child" (19)
Particularly beautiful is her ode to Maya Angelou called "4maya". She describes the poets and writers that came before her and how their words helped her realize what an impact writing could have on her life.
In "dem say," she makes many references to Black culture (example: "angie davis on the wall....daddy pick my afro") that give me even more of an understanding to where she is coming from. But she also writes of a world outside the city, a world of chaos and confusion that goes on as Toronto is sleeping, in "hedlines": "somewhere/a poet is detained/a woman births the baby of a/ soldier who crouched in the bush" (26).
Motion's poems have so many themes that after reading each one, I feel like I am getting to know more about the poet and what inspires her. I will certainly be rereading them to find even more hidden truth, but I know that I am not getting all I can out of them by simply reading them on the page. Motion is a performance artist and I know that once she actually comes into our classroom and we discuss the meaning behind her work, it will deepen my understanding of their content and further help me appreciate their beauty.
Questions I hope to ask Motion in a couple of weeks or so:
How does living in Toronto affect your writing?
What kind of environment fosters the most creativity for you?
How did you start writing poetry?
Does the poem come alive to you when you perform it? How is this different from putting them together in your collection, 40 Dayz?
