Poetry Analysis: You Make the Culture by Amy King

(Aura Rositafani/ Offering A-A1 / 170221607015)

Universitas Negeri Malang

Being a human is always related to the expression. We often get hurt or happy with
something around us. When we are glad for something, we express it through smiling, laughing,
and so on. On the contrary, when we were triggered by something, we also express it through
crying, yelling, and so on. But sometimes, many people want to express it differently. Some
people showing their expression through the song, novel, poem, and so on. Usually, they just
want to show their feeling to reveal what the bad thing inside them. But it also can be a chance
for them to influence other. For instance, sometimes it can be provocative. They want to make
people feel what they feel and keep stand in their side. Here, I would like to analyze one of the
example of showing the expression in the tone of criticism to provoke the reader through the
literature that is a poem by Amy King.

First of all, we need to know the biography of the poet. Amy King is one of the good poet
from America. It proved by the achievement she get from her work. She get a literary award such
as the Lambda and the Pushcart Prizes. She also won MacArthur Scholarship as the first
collection of her work in 2005 (according to the website: My Poetry Side). In her young age, 48
years old, she is active in many organization. Aside from being a poet, she is also a college
lecturer. She teaches English at Nassau Community College currently. She is a well-educated
woman and having a wide knowledge in public. “At Towson University, which is located in
Baltimore County, Maryland, she achieved a BS degree in English and women’s studies.  She
went on to Brooklyn College, gaining an MFA in poetry, and then she got an MA in poetics at
the State University of New York (SUNY) in Buffalo” (My Poetry Side. Web). Knowing her
personality from the web that is stated she is a private person, it makes me convinced that by her
wide knowledge, she might be critical in looking something but she does not want to speak up
directly. So, she wrote something implicitly through the poem to express her feeling.

In general, this poem draws the story of being discriminated or we can called is as the
racism. It is related to the issue in America. One race claims that they are the one who have the
authority in the region. Before we go directly, we need to know what is the different between
race and the ethnic. Many people are wrong to differentiate these thing. According to the
Webster dictionary, race is a category of humankind that share certain distinctive physical traits.
However, ethnic is associated belonging to a particular race or group of people who have a
culture that is different from the main culture of a country. In this case, we will talk about the
race information of America. When white people claim that they are actually the one who are
origin from the country and they have an authority. If they have an authority, they will change
the language, the culture, the rule, and so on that matched with them only. They do not care with
another race that lived together with them in the same place before. Directly I said the issue of
who was the origin of America: white people versus black people. In the history that I read in
some website that will be mentioned in the reference, the American origin is the black people or
Indian groups that the amount of the groups are bigger than the white people. But then, white
people create a racial information in the social construction or socio-history that claims one
becoming a dominant and another one becoming a minority there. White people shows their
existence that they are a dominant group in America. They have an authority to apply which one
the language or the culture that appropriate to be applied there. They break the happiness of the
black people for instance their business, their carrier, achievement, education, and so on. Black
people becoming a minority who cannot develop their competent freely in their place. It is as the
irony condition according to the black people. They felt hurt because of a jerk of anything they
had before. So, this poem is how they were being harm as the minority group who want to speak
up briefly and hope the condition will be changed.

The words became librarians, custodians of people

I looked for on the bridge.

I forgot my own face.

In the first three lines, it stated that as the black people, they just want to be as the
librarians who keep people around the library. It means that the main job here is keeping and
saving their own group who are being blamed by others. They want to save their area to make
the black people save from the brutality of the white people who want to hurt the black people.
They were waiting for the solution to make them save and live happily as the same as before. But
it seems that it is no hope for that until they forgot who actually they were. It used the past tense
form to indicate that this is the feeling for long ago before they are brave to speak and wriggle.
 I read the book backwards, and

I painted your name in lace

(I drink only the milk of script as beer)

I felt the sadness in this part. I assume that this is the time when white people applied the
new rule and blame them. They broke the black people life by the limits that they had made. The
black people just thought in the previous time when they can live happily, but now it just being a
memory. The word “in lace” here, I assume that what they can do is painting the name of their
people as the last meeting because many people died because of the moment of the suffer time.
They could not consume the beer to refresh their mind, but the just consume the script that can
write as the beer to heal their feeling. The use of the word “I” here, I think it is a singular that
represent the whole or the plural groups that is black people.

I dislocate all gallery aesthetics,

I carry keys for Baltimore and

Go where no one is my name.

In my opinion, it is the time when they want to move to another place. They make up
their valuable thing such as the picture, painting, and the memory of their own place, America.
They actually have the authority in their own place by the word “I carry keys for”. Baltimore is
the one of the towns in America that is very big and well-known. The poet uses the irony where
in their own place, they go with no one knows of their name or their existence. It seems so sad
because they do not have an idea to go. Some people are really excited when they go to their
hometown with full of memory and a lot of people know each other. But in this condition, even
in their origin town, they cannot live happily and walk there by being awkward all the time. The
place has already been occupied by the white people who do not know at all about black people.
When the black people walk along, they cannot see the good memory or smile to people who
know them well.

I wish I could sculpt a healing street

from a blanket of guns. The way the sun drops

 behind a one-armed cop & we default

to believing in voices. This is the trough of sleep

we draw from. Even gravity works at night.

In the statement above, the poet used the word “wish” that means it is a kind of hope that
will not be happened in the real world. They wish that they can make a solution to get their
authority back to them as the origin of America. They want to provide guns to fight the white
people. To make them realized that what they have done is wrong and it should be fair between
the white people and the black people. At least it should be the same. The fact that the white
people can achieve the high salary, live happily, going out freely, are not the same as the black
people felt. They are poor because they cannot work in that place. They are being discriminated.
They cannot eat well and live with full of the difficulty. When they speak up and demand the
justice for them, they will be arrested by the police or army that come from the white people.
They cannot do anything for the justification. They think that it is a kind of buried condition that
shows by the word “the trough of sleep”. They also show the professionality of the white people
groups who want to stand in the authority. By the word “Even gravity works at night”, it shows
that the police or army were keeping up weak in the night to prevent the act from the black
people. Here, although the black people have a bigger amount than the white people, they could
not do anything. This is because the white people have a professional weapon to blame the black
people. The white people can kill the black people if they show a kind of mutiny toward the
white people.

If I pull your speech on the carpet of impossibility,

will you speak this immediate need for movement?

The immediate need of not drowning in public?

This is the climax of the angriness of the people who cannot stand with the racism. As the
black people, they want to rewind the time when the white people declared the authority of them.
It is a kind of sarcasm that tease them who said that those kind of movement to change the
language, culture, and the rule that had already done is the immediate need. But actually, the
black people see that those thing is the manipulated movement that the actual meaning is for
drowning the black people in public. White people want to change the assumption of the public
to see the bad thing of the black people and see the good thing of the white people.

I will walk with the sharks of our pigments

if that's what inconclusive data requires,

until we leave rooms that hold us apart.

What you see as a small minority, I see

It seems clearer than before by mentioning the word “pigments” that refer to the skin-
colored. What actually the white people want is the black people were leaving the place that
occupied by the white people. The word “shark” there means that black people should leave far
away from America, if it is needed, they can cross the sea. It will be done by the black people
who felt hurt and harm if the racial information really want it. By underestimating the capability
of the black people by saying a small minority, it is really deep touch into the heart and drawing
the scar.

as closer to liberatory. Nothing comes from the center

that doesn't break most everything in parts.

I break bread with the handwriting of words.

Nothing of appearance is always an illusion.

Black people is starting to draw a hope for their condition. They want to create a
movement so that their right come back to them. They believe that the decision who came from
the center which means the government who have an authority cannot break all part of America.
They still have a hope to change the assumption of public or showing the main rule by being
brave to prove in public. No one can underestimate their competence, work, ability, and hope by
just looking at their appearance, their color.

Lend me your book when you finish

writing it. I'll be the first to fill in its spaces.

 To close the poem, they using the word of convincing the reader that actually the black
people also have a good competence that the white people can do. They were loser because they
do not have a strategy to defend the white people who were well-prepared. Now, it is the time for
them to prove in the world that the can get their right as Indian Groups who are actually the
native of America. Those word means that if the white people have finished to declare their
authority even in the form of formal writing, the black people is ready to blame them by
correcting the right thing to do.

By giving the example of doing racism in the world that can make people harm, it also
the advice for another aspects in our life. We should not do the same thing to blame one group
and make our group is better than them and having the authority in the particular situation. It can
be in the school, house, and so on. For instance, as the parents, we should not differentiate our
children who have a different appearance; tall and short. The one who is short, we will blame
everything that they do. We do not appreciate their work and always angry to them even they did
not do the wrong thing. While the tall child, we always try to indulge them even they did the
wrong thing. In the school, teacher should not underestimate the students who have bad
appearance without looking at their real competence that might be hidden.

In conclusion, the poem told us about the ironic story of black people as a native of
America who were blamed by the white people who want to get the authority in the country.
They break the previous law of the origin of America such as the language, the rule, the
atmosphere, and the important thing is the culture. The white people create their own culture to
be done by all people there. They stated that this is a kind of immediate need movement so that it
must be applied to make the world is better. The aim of this poem is provoking the world that
those kind of thing is break the right. It is not fair for one particular group and it is good for the
other group. As the black people need to fight the justice for this problem so that they will get the
fair treatment. Also, it can be fair for all groups. The white people can live happily and so do the
black people. One important thing is being fair in all aspects of our life is what we need. By
living side by side, help each other, respect all people, and keep doing something good will make
the world as the best place.
 References

My Poetic Side. Unknown. https://mypoeticside.com/poets/amy-king-poems

The Spectrum. Poem of Amy King. Unknown. 2015.

https://www.thespectrum.com/story/opinion/blogs/educationitself/2015/08/17/poem--day---you-
make-culture-amy-king/31887365/

Voice of America. Apa Kabar Warga Pribumi Amerika. Unknown. 2017.

https://www.voaindonesia.com/a/warga-pribumi-as-berusaha-bangkitkan-kesadaran-akan-
sejarah-mereka/4135010.html

Made For Mind. Diskriminasi Kulit Hitam di Amerika. Unknown.

https://www.dw.com/id/diskriminasi-kulit-hitam-di-amerika-serikat/g-18091393

Wikipedia. Rasisme di Amerika Serikat. https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasisme_di_Amerika_Serikat

Merriam Webster Dictionary Android Application.