The Dream of a Common Language by Leigh Stein

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend July 7, 2014   The Dream of a Common Language   Leigh Stein

after Adrienne Rich On Wednesdays I take the train past Yankee Stadium, to a place where it is never a given that I speak the language, to a place where graffiti covers the mural they painted to hide the graffiti, to a place where the children call me Miss Miss Miss Miss Miss and I find in one of their poems, a self-portrait, the line I wish I was rish. The dream of a common language is the language of one million dollars, of basketball, of plátanos. Are the kids black? my boyfriend wants to know. Dominican. It’s different. When asked to write down a question they wish they could ask their mom or dad, one boy writes, Paper or plastic? A girl in the back of the class wants to know Why don't I have lycene, translating the sound of the color of my skin into her own language. The best poet in sixth grade is the girl who is this year repeating sixth grade. When I tell her teacher of her talent she says, At least now we know she’s good at something. To speak their language, I study the attendance list, practice the cadence of their names. Yesterday I presented a black and white portrait of a black man, his bald head turned away from us, a spotted moth resting on one shoulder. I told them this is a man serving a life sentence in Louisiana. Is this art? Without hesitation, one girl said no, why would anybody want to take a picture of that.            Copyright @ 2014 by Leigh Stein. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “This poem was inspired by my work as a teaching artist in the Bronx. The final stanza alludes to a photograph by Deborah Luster from One Big Self, a project in which she and the poet C. D. Wright documented prisoners in Louisiana after asking them how they wished to be seen.” —Leigh Stein   Leigh Stein is the author of Dispatch from the Future (Melville House, 2012). She teaches poetry in the New York City public schools, and lives in Brooklyn. Most Recent Book by Stein   Dispatch from the Future (Melville House, 2012) “The Language of Love” by Rodney Jones “The Hand” by Mary Ruefle “With Tenure” by David Lehman Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038