I’m from Oakland.
Where lil’ gamers claim stuff they ain’t about
Where they wanna run games on lanes
But in reality, they ain’t nothin’.
Flexing they mommas rent money on the gram.
I’m from the town
Where everyone says that they’re self-made
And all players wanna do is play
Where I’m from, everyone’s carrying a weapon
Either a gun or a blade
And the people saying there gonna focus on grades
Just for them to choke again the next year
Poetry Guide: Writing Like George Ella Lyon
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Dear Jacqueline,
I am intrigued by your poem because I totally understand how you feel about where you live and how you have to worry about your surroundings at all time. You are surrounded by bad influencer where they don´t care about school as much as you do. They fool around and not really worry about their education and how that might affect their future. Some things you said that stands out for me is “Where I’m from, everyone’s carrying a weapon. Either a gun or a blade”. I think this is very sad because not only that you have to worry about your education and future but you also have to worry about your environment at all time. You have to worry about who you are surrounded with and how dangerous some people can be since they carry weapon like guns or blades and from that I believe that it much be a very difficult and stressful way of worrying. In my class, we watched Chimamanda Adiche’s “The Danger of a Single Story.” Your post reminded me of this quote from her speech: “What this demonstrates, I think, is how impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story, particularly as children¨ I thought that this quote meant that because of where your from or who you are, people only view in the way they were taught and that connected to your poem because since you live in a environment where people just give up and not care about their education and where thereś a lot of violence, people might view you differently just because other people are like that. Because you live at an unsafe location, people might treat you differently and think that you might also be very dangerous and think that you are just like the other kids out there doing illegal stuff. To conclude, thank you for your project. I look forward to seeing what you write next because itś very interesting and fascinating. Because of where you live and how other people act, you seem to not follow their footsteps and you learned how their actions are wrong. Keep up with the motivation and I hope I get to read more of your poem!
Dear, Jacqueline
I was excited about reading your poem because it shows your reality and other people’s reality living in Oakland. What I found most interesting about your poem is the way you wrote it and how I was able
to understand your tone of voice in your writing.
One thing you said that stands out to me is “Where I’m from, everyone’s carrying a weapon
Either a gun or a blade”. I found this to be very sad because nobody should feel the need to bring a gun or a blade everywhere they go especially children or teens.
In my class, we watched Chimamanda Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story.” Your post reminded me of this quote from her speech “the danger of the single story.” What this demonstrates, I think, is how impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story”. I thought this quote means some people may look at all people like you that live in these areas as bad people or dangerous which isn’t right because all people aren’t like this.
Thanks for your project. I look forward to seeing what you write next because I really found this poem interesting and exciting.
Dear Jacqueline,
I am interested by your poem because it reminds me a lot of my city Philadelphia .
One thing you said that stood out to me “Where I’m from, everyone’s carrying a weapon
Either a gun or a blade”. I think that this is sad because although it is true about many cities and that often is the case in your poem I would have liked to hear something positive about your city but that is ok . In my class we watched Chimamanda Adiche’s “ The danger of a Single Story”. Your post reminded me of this quote from her speech,” All that i had heard about his family is that there were poor. It was impossible for me to see anything great from the other than them being poor”. I thought that this quote meant that if you never hear good about something you’re not familiar with you won’t expect it to be anything other than bad from it . I think it connected to your poem because although many negative things come out of your city you can also speak of the great things that go on to leave people on a positive note .
Thanks for your project. I look forward to seeing what you write next because i am interested in seeing what else you have to offer on the positive things about your city.