-Link to my expectations: http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/03/22/draft-1-expectations/
-Link to my Pre-draft: http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/03/22/pre-draft-assignment-1-4/
-Link to my Rough Draft:http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/03/20/rough-draft-assignment-1-2/
– The people I’ve peer reviewed are Taisha and Myra.
My Artist Statement:
Hello Professor Polish and to anyone who’s bored randomly looking at our classmate’s project! Welcome to my essay where you will be reading a lot of my deeper thoughts about the poem I’ve chosen. My audience that I’m targeting at are the people who’ve gone the phase of losing someone. I want to have a connection with the people who dealt with loss in their life. What you’re going to learn from my project is the five stages of grief. Not many people know about these phases, in which it could be helpful because it can model for them to go through great loss. One of my peers made me noticed that I have mentioned something different that the class haven’t been said, which is the five stages of grief. I learned that spoken word poem isn’t only about the poet reading their poem out loud but also expressing their facial / body language to the crowd because it demonstrated their emotions. I would really like to learn how to write poems, I’ve never had the chance to create my own poem. During class discussions, my peers helped me understand few parts about the poem because they explained something that I couldn’t figure out. Poetry made me think not only focus on the rhythm but the setting, and the details that way I can analyze and comprehend. The poem I’ve chosen to analyze is by Irfan Adib called “Dear Mum”, will be the essay I will elaborate, and help the reader understand Adib emotion toward his mother in which I’ve tried my very best! Anyways enjoy reading my essay!
Grief and Acceptance
When we lose someone very dearly as humans we mourn over someone who was once very special to us. It takes a while for an individual to cope through this painful process. To lose someone unique and memorable is a heartbreaking experience we humans go through as life cycle that consists series of changes. I believe the five stages of grief can be a model for someone who’s grieving and having a difficult time to accept their new change in life. It helped me accept my grandfather death in 2012. The poet Irfan Adib made a beautiful spoken word poem video reading out his poem called “#dear mum” on Youtube. Adib video can relate to anyone who experienced losing someone significant.
When I first started watching Adib spoken word poem, got me really emotional. The feeling of having a lump in my throat for holding my emotions for so long hurt so bad. Throughout the video, all I kept thinking about was my grandfather. I grew up living with my grandpa and grandma ever since I’ve moved to New York from Ecuador. While my mom was busy finishing her education and my dad working, my grandparents would spend time with me every day. I remember whenever my grandfather back would be hurting he would always ask me to stand on his back with my two bare feet, walking back and forth till my grandmother joins in and massage his back after my work was done. This was a teamwork between myself and my two grandparents. My other favorite memory with my grandpa was that every time we would hear the ice cream truck play their song in my neighborhood. I would always dash out the door, be the first child in the line waiting for my grandpa to come out and buy ice cream. We would always sit outside eating ice cream, talking and laughing. All the great memories I’ve created with him were so memorable and unforgettable. When he died on 2012, I was in the phase of denial, anger, and bargaining. My anger made me isolate between my best friend and family. It made me miss all the good memories, all I kept thinking was “If only”. What I mean by “If only” is during those times of us hanging out, I was afraid to tell him “I love you”. I missed my chances of telling him how grateful and thankful I was to have such a caring, spontaneous, loveable grandfather any niece/nephew would have. In addition, me and other viewers can relate to Ifran Adib spoken word poem because I had so many chances to tell him how much he meant the world to me, but I’ve missed that chance. I may have missed the chance to tell him how I felt, but every night I pray to remind him how much I miss and love him very dearly.
Ifran Adib spoken word poem not only caught my feelings of going through the memory lane but also I’ve noticed how Ifran facial/body language was illustrating in the video. He kept doing a lot of hand movement because he knew he has to edit the video. He knew a lot of people will see his video on Youtube. In order to make it look more appealing to the viewers. In addition, he knows that everyone will share or recreate their own story about their mom by using “#” just like he did with his title for his poem. In our world today, the pound sign means a hashtag in every social media. Meaning, the pound sign is used to identify messages on a topic. A lot of people who relate to what he was talking about will feel connected with his video. In the comments, I’ve read one comment stating “Such an emotional spoken word. But sadly I can’t relate to it and will know never the love of a mother cause I just never experienced it”. When I read this comment, my first thought was how much it would suck to not grow up with your birth mother and how grateful it is to have my mother being a part of my life. My second thought is that the video was not only delivering a message about our mothers. But Ifran wanted us to relate his grief about losing someone important. I believe the poem we’re for people who lost an individual’s own illness, a close relationship, family member, or their own pet. In addition, Ifran share this beautiful poem on Youtube to let his viewers know now it’s the time to open up and express how you feel to the significant other whether is a family member, spouse, friend, or your pet.
The “#dearmum” spoken word poem made Ifran realize he should’ve made more good memories with his mom. He feels guilty and regret for not being there for his mom. His video was like a timeline, he began by mentioning his birth. Then goes on by mentioning his mom tuckening him for bed every night when he was young. For example, “when I was small I could never go to sleep until I call to you out from the bedroom door”. In the video, Ifran was going through one of the stages of grieving. He was going through the process of bargaining. For instance, Ifran felt guily through some parts of the video by saying “I’m sorry” a lot. He apologizes for the missed calls and for not being the son she wants him to be. Moreoever, He is showing us how he’s becoming the son she always adored by the setting of the video. He recorded his video in the kitchen which symbolizes his mom. He have the flowers on a vace, the dishes are cleaned, and the tea she always made for him whenever he was sick. The setting and the objects were symbolizing as his acceptence of feeling guilty. He demonstrated us by accepting his past and becoming the son she always adored. In which acceptence is the last stage of mourning.
Ifran Adib published a inspiring spoken word poem on social media to show us we should appreicate the people we have in our life. We should always be there for someone because feeling guilty is the worst feeling anyone can experience. Also, it can be very difficult to help someone go through grief espicially since you are not sure what to say. All we can do is being there for the person and remind them that it’s okay to cry about it. It’s okay to go feel angry, depressed, guiltyness, to have all these emotions. The five stages of grief takes time for an individual to cope.