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Question: Help understanding poem "I am a black woman"!?
I'm trying to understand the poem I am a black woman by Mari Evans!. What is it about!? Something about wars!? Thanks a lot!.

I am a black woman
the music of my song
some sweet arpeggio of tears
is written in a minor key
and I
can be heard humming in the night
Can be heard
humming
in the night

I saw my mate leap screaming to the sea
and I/with these hands/cupped the lifebreath
from my issue in the canebrake
I lost Nat's swinging body in a rain of tears
and heard my son scream all the way from Anzio
for Peace he never knew!.!.!.!.I
learned Da Nang and Pork Chop Hill
in anguish
Now my nostrils know the gas
and these trigger tire/d fingers
seek the softness in my warrior's beard

I am a black woman
tall as a cypress
strong
beyond all definition still
defying place
and time
and circumstance
assailed
impervious
indestructible
Look
on me and be
renewedWww@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Poetry is different to different people, but this is my take on it:

I am a black woman
the music of my song
some sweet arpeggio of tears
is written in a minor key
and I
can be heard humming in the night
Can be heard
humming
in the night

this is an introductory, shes saying her life is a song, a minor, sad song, basically!.

I saw my mate leap screaming to the sea
and I/with these hands/cupped the lifebreath
from my issue in the canebrake
I lost Nat's swinging body in a rain of tears
and heard my son scream all the way from Anzio
for Peace he never knew!.!.!.!.I
learned Da Nang and Pork Chop Hill
in anguish
Now my nostrils know the gas
and these trigger tire/d fingers
seek the softness in my warrior's beard


here she talks about her life at war, how she lost the one she loved and felt pain for her son while she was away!. Then she says shes used to the shooting, used to the smell of gas!.

I am a black woman
tall as a cypress
strong
beyond all definition still
defying place
and time
and circumstance
assailed
impervious
indestructible
Look
on me and be
renewed

she has became 'a black woman', a warrior, a strong, heartless, killing machine because of war!. but the emotion behind it is that she isnt really like that, its just a mask, she has become that because she was forced to!.

i dont think she is referring to 'black' in a racial way, but merely to the colour, black is dark, usually referred to evil!. i gather it was written many years ago, so that aspect wouldnt of mattered anyway!.

overall, she is talking about the effects of war on her life, and how it hass changed her, it is quite a deep, heavy poem actually!.

hope i helped :)Www@QuestionHome@Com

This poem to me means the middle passage, when she write her mate leap screaming into the sea!. Nat Turner and his rebellion to the slave master and the consequences swinging body in a rain of tears!. Maybe even the holoucast my nostrils know the gas!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Anguish, broken hearts and lost love!. It would make a hell of a blues tune!.Www@QuestionHome@Com