We run together Real Cool

While doing my poetry talk yesterday, a lot of people made connections from my poem to Martin's poem "We Real Cool" last week, and to be honest that poem never crossed my mind while I was preparing for the talk. However there are a lot of similarities between the poems in both length and topic. However there are some key differences, some that were pointed out in discussion.

I think someone said that "We Real Cool" was more critical of the black deaths, while "those boys that ran together" was more mournful. I think I somewhat agree with this, because I don't think "We real Cool" was critical at all. When I read it it felt like more of a celebration of their lives instead of a denunciation. It did have a sort of sarcastic tone to the "cool" description of their lives, which might suggest criticism, but I didn't read it that way.

One point I really did want to bring up but didn't have time was the lack of punctuation and capitalization in my poem. One thing Lucille Clifton was known for was saying a lot with a little. I also tried to emphasize the line spacing in my oration of the poem, but no one commented on that, sadly. The capitalization was probably more closely attributed to Clifton's individual writing style than the meaning of the poem, but it did add to the wistful tone of the poem.

So anything else that I missed? Like, comment, and subscribe!

Comments

  1. Martin DOctober 12, 2018 at 10:13 AM

    I can see "We Real Cool" as sort of an obituary for the kids in the poem. Where they were known for being misbehaving but somewhat innocent kids that didn't deserve the death. The shortness of poem can represent how their life seemed to go buy so quickly and didn't have any repercussions until they died unjustly.

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  2. Leslie AnukwuOctober 23, 2018 at 2:49 PM

    Both these poems go together, like peanut butter and jelly. You can take one without the other and it will be fine, but putting them together makes a taste like no other. I guess what I'm trying to say is that they're different poems, but they bring out the best in each other. I'm sorry I didn't catch your line spacing, but your recitation was really good regardless.

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