Pub 5- What Will Be Your Verse?? Option 1

Poetry is a powerful display of human emotion and it speaks volumes when you read into the poet's words. Music is just another form of poetry that follows the same format but adds a musical beat to help with the tone of the poem. The song that I chose to compare is Gill Scott-Heron's "Hatred is Where The Heart Is" with the poems "What I Mean When I Say Truck Driver" by Geffery Davis and "Theories of Space and Time" by Natasha Trethewey. The theme of grief over a decision to do drugs in their lives is present in both the song by Gill Scott-Heron and the poem by Geffery Davis. But it can also be related to regretting any decision you've made in your life and going back to it.

In the song "Home is where is the Hate is" Heron speaks on his fear of going back to addictions in which he found his 'home'. In lines 24-25 Heron says, "Home is where the needle marks Try to heal my broken heart" this is the point he explicitly states that he used Heroin as a way to move past his problems and forget them. Home is supposed to be a place in which you can always return and enjoy and once Heron made drugs his home going back would only destroy him even further. He speaks on how strong addiction is, even when those who love you are supporting you it's still extremely hard."You keep saying, kick it, quit it.... God, but did you ever try To turn your sick soul inside out so that the world, so that the world can watch you die."( Heron 13-18). Heron is saying that he's being told to quit be they don't understand how hard it is to give it up and speak openly about your addicting especially when opening up just tarnishes your image in worlds view. The tone of this song sounds like he's pleading with someone to me, as if he's trying to make someone understand his addiction with a slight hint of embarrassment. I believe this song can work as a representation of the father's feelings in "What I Mean When I Say Truck Driver."

The poem "What I Mean When I Say Truck Driver" is from the point of view of a 15 year old boy who has father with an addiction. The tone of this story is overall different from that of "Home Is Where The Hate Is" in this poem the tone seems understanding and forgiving, for the way he describes his fathers trip shows just how he feels for his father. The poem starts off with him stating his dad is getting him a toy teddy bear from the salvation army, showing that his dad hasn't seen him for a long time. "I can almost see him approach the decision: cold, a little hungry, not enough money in his pocket for coffee. He worries he might fall asleep behind the wheel as his giant, clumsy love for the small word-son-guides his gaze..."(Davis 3-6) These lines show that the son has an understanding of his father if he can picture just how his dad approached the decision. His father doesn't want to continue being an addict, but a life on the road constantly moving with little family time can push someone there. That's why i think Heron's song can actually represent his father's emotions. In lines 11-13 the Davis says about his father's job "Little change in his fear of stopping for too long in any city, Where he knows the addict in him waits,patient as a deserts bloom...For years my father's had trouble saying no to crack-cocaine." Both Heron and Davis' father want to leave their addictions behind but both are struggling to actually quit. Davis also talks about the effect of loved ones on someone with an addiction. At the end of the poem when he father reaches home "The word son suddenly became heavy in my father's mouth,..he's never looked so small. We could crush him- we hug him instead." Davis is saying that him and his mom had all the power when his father came back they could have scolded him and crushed him for his decision to leave them for drugs, but they didn't they accepted the fact that he's back home now.

In the poem "Theories of Space and Time" it's theme isn't like the other two poems in which they deal about the problems caused by drug abuse. It's more about moving on and how the decisions you make will shape who you are. I believe it relates to both the other poem and the song because Tretheway is speaking on not being able to go back to who you once were because life decisions are final, Heron and Davis' father were both trying quit their addictions but still couldn't become who they once were before. She starts off the poem with the lines "You can get there from here, Though there's no going home" meaning that from this point there's no turning back 'home' is gone. She structures the poem as a journey that the reader must take, telling them to continue to try new things and to leave there troubles when they go through. "Cross over the man-made beach, 26 miles of sand dumped on a Mangrove Swamp-buried terrain of the past. Bring only what you must carry-Tome of memory its random blank pages."(Tretheway 11-14) This is her saying to leave your heavy memories behind which would be the sand, sand that has been left there by other people on this journey hence the man made beach and the terrain on the past. Then she goes on to say bring the Tome of memory and its random blank pages.  A tome is usually a very large book so the Tome of memory would be all the memories one has gathered in their lives and the random blank pages are those memories that you leave behind. Then she ends the poem with this "On The dock where you board the boat for Ship Island someone will take your picture: the photograph-who you were- will be waiting when you return." Ending it with a confirmation that the person photographed will change by the time that they view the photo. Tone of this poem is calming when reciting the poem I feel as if i'm giving instruction on how to better oneself.