PIB2006 CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT LITERATURE

FINAL EXAM (COMPONENT 2): REFLECTIVE WRITING

Sarah Kay is one of the best-known spoken word poets today, with videos of her performances
garnering up to 941,000 views on YouTube. Watch her perform “Private Parts” at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHHzHu289Ws&list=LL5TWmI3n_Ultd-PPOIJJ4Hw&index=184
and read the transcription provided below.

Write a short essay discussing why you think Sarah Kay’s “Private Parts” has been so well-received.
You may want to consider how its themes resonate with you, how it uses literary elements to enrich
the experience of the reader/listener, and/or why spoken word poetry has become so popular in the
last decade.

Guidelines:

1. Your essay should be approximately 600-800 words long.

2. Upload your essay onto the Spectrum page by 11.59pm 22 January 2021 (Friday, Week 14).
3. This component is worth 20% of your final mark. If you fail to submit a response, you forfeit
this part of your assessment.
4. It is not compulsory to refer to any critical scholarship in your essay. If you do borrow ideas
or expressions from other sources, these must be acknowledged through proper citations
methods, which can be found in the MLA handbook on the Spectrum page. Not doing so will
result in a lower mark and/or failure for this component.

Private Parts (by Sarah Kay)

The first love of my life never saw me naked.

There was always a parent coming home in half an hour,
Always a little brother in the next room.
Always too much body and not enough time for me to show it.

Instead, I gave him my shoulder, my elbow, the bend of my knee.

I lent him my corners, my edges, the parts of me I could afford to offer,
The parts I had long since given up trying to hide.
He never asked for more.

He gave me back his eyelashes, the back of his neck, his palms.
We held each piece we were given like it was a nectarine that could bruise if we weren't careful.
We collected them like we were trying to build an orchard.

And the spaces that he never saw,

The ones my parents half labeled “private parts” when I was still small enough to fit all of myself and
my worries inside a bathtub,
I made up for that by handing over all the private parts of me.

There was no secret I didn't tell him, there was no moment I didn't share.
We didn’t grow up, we grew in, like ivy wrapping, molding each other into perfect yings and yangs.
We kissed with mouths open, breathing his exhale into my inhale.
We could have survived underwater or outer space.

Breathing only of the breathe we traded, we spelled love, g-i-v-e, I never wanted to hide my body
from him.
If I could have I would have given it all away with the rest of me.
I did not know it was possible,
To save some thing for myself.

Some nights I wake up knowing he is anxious, he is across the world in another woman’s arms.
The years have spread us like dandelion seeds,
Sanding down the edges of our jigsaw parts that used to only fit each other.

He drinks from the pitcher on the night stand, checks the digital clock, it is 5 am.
He tosses in sheets and tries to settle, I wait for him to sleep before tucking myself into elbows and
knees,
Reaching for things I have long since given up.
I wait for him to sleep before tucking myself into elbows and knees,
Reaching for things I have long since given away.