Eddy's Response to Yerba Buena
April 12, 2018, by Eddy
The collection of poems presents New York City in different lights and exposes the different ways of life that people live through. One of the poems that I can relate to the most is “Manhattan”. She dedicates each poem to a specific person, possibly a person in her life that inspired the poem. In this poem, Sandra Maria Esteves writes for Sir Jesus Papoleto Melendez, another poet, about the world of Manhattan. The first stanza is dark and provides a grim view of a borough that many people would want to inhabit, saying “Grey worlds around me/walls endlessly dead/merging my flesh/fading the color of my soul/casting upon me electric shadows/In death-tones”. This stanza reminds me exactly of Manhattan, a borough with buildings so high that they can feel suffocating and overshadowing. This poem also talks about the rough nature that most New Yorkers exude. The line “Unconcerned for people who merely exist/to survive no more than greyness” speaks on how people do not really care for each other in New York. It is as if everyone must survive their own way on their own terms.
In “Some people are about Jam”, she dedicates the poem to Rich Bartee, the D-train Poetsinger and this dedication has a special place in my heart since I mainly take the D train to travel to and from home. It’s interesting to think of the history of a person residing on a train, a moving location as opposed to a stagnant one. The first stanza of the poem reminds me of home and my Dominican family. In Dominican parties, the party never stops until early in the morning. All that is needed is a family to come together to have a fun time and that fun time keeps on going until it is time to leave. There is a certain Latino flair that inhabits a party space. This poem also speaks on police brutality and the silencing of a culture of jamming. Jamming continues, however, as one cannot really take away the spirit that comes with music. Music cannot be silenced because there will always be someone playing it, whether it be in a house, one’s own car, or even on a train.
“News from the front:” was written for Mr. Tee from Avenue D and this poem describes a kind of turf war that was occurring. Since there was a huge graffiti culture in New York during the 70s and 80s, the graffiti or “tags” would mark off territory and show the importance of making an area for one’s self. People were dedicated to having a territory and making sure their name and work were out to the public. In “Capital”, this has no dedication but it is still interesting because it opens the topic of being an inhabitant of New York City. As soon as one is born, they are introduced to the world of money and since money is what rules in New York City and is needed for survival, it can be a struggle for some people to get that money for simple living needs.