Writer's Post "We Real Cool"

We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks is a nice poem to read and listen to.  The way in which Gwendolyn constructed her poem is something that I too would like to try and incorporate into my own work. I have a passion to write poems and adopting this structure or one similar to this poem may shine some light on my own works.  There are eight lines in her poem several of which all end in “we”. However, short her poem maybe its use of diction allowed me to recall the scene in which she was inspired by when she wrote this piece. I was able to see seven people playing pool after school in the month of June singing and or listening to Jazz and having lots of fun who were on the path of death.  This poem was straight forward as far as the message it wanted readers to get after reading it. The audio component also shed some light on Gwendolyn’s technique of how she constructed her poem.  Listening to Gwendolyn’s explanations of how and why she was inspired to write this poem took the poem on a deeper level. 

Listening to her read the poem after I read it was interesting because it was like I was listening to a new poem. She has such a distinguished voice. Her tone reminds me of a deep down south accent or of someone who lives in Louisiana. The way Gwendolyn said the words in her poem aided the construction.  As she said each word it came to life and made the poem more appealing. For example, when I was reading her poem I came across the word June. This word doesn’t mean anything to me more than a month. However, to Gwendolyn June was more than just a month it was a “nice, gentle, non- controversial, fragrant, enjoyable, pleasant month that everybody loves.”  I think I’m going to try and use words that have a lot of meaning to me that wouldn’t necessarily mean much to others.  This element might make my work more enjoyable to read and help with my writers block which I get sometimes.