7: Who in a broader context

jessica Care moore's "mic check, 1-2" is written with an alternating voice between 1. and 2. which eventually evolves into "one" and "two". The switching between voices eventually breaks down as well. In this poem, the 'who' may broadly be women of hip-hop. I don't know why it's dedicated to Lupe Fiasco, but by calling the poem to order with the sound guy's mantra, the "a duality battle", and the name of a famous hip-hop artist, I think moore wants to give the reader the parameters of the dialogue.

The voice/breath duality seems to line up well with the construction of the words on the page: the voice may be the non-italic and the breath may be the italic text. Text sets the volume through most of the poem, where some parts are well crafted for spoken voice (internal rhyme, assonance, alliteration), other parts feel intimated through whisper. As "mic check, 1-2" draws to a close, the word that came to my mind was denouement, although it's different than a kind of resolution because the resolution is the 1. and the 2. emerging in strong numerical form, which strengthens the "duality battle".

Dualities within the poem include: inner/outer, italic/non-italic, numeric/alphabetic, body/machine, mother/child, male/female. Also maybe material/spiritual.

"1.
raining words of proverbs
of prophets who never get heard
because the microphone is just another phallic symbol
that allows jack to be nimble
jack to be quick"...

"1.
her mouth matrix is taped
hooked on phonics escaped
left her language for rape
so she at her words
...
when you're a woman
sometimes all you have is a minute"...

The "whisper voice" from moore: these two stanzas bring up silence/speech thread through with man/woman, which speaks to the "who" in the poem.

The same kind of "whisper" reminds me of Laningham's "The Valley and Family Tectonic", where the poet works to bring the reader into a sense of small community for Laningham, she witnesses this moment from across the street and yet it's still a protected moment, the earthquake still happens underground. Thinking about "who" in a broader sense for this poem leaves me grateful for this private moment that's happening while Disneyland closed down, Los Angeles loses power, and the whole LA area was shaken.

Both of these poems ultimately address smaller associations of people and they both caught my eye when I was trying to think broadly for the poems of this week.