Poetry is one of the most unique and intense methods of literary expression. A poem is not simply a stack of meaningless lines and stanzas, it is an emotional tornado of words, symbols, metaphors, all meant to convey a point. The poet Emanuel Xavier divulges into the most provocative intimacies of his past life in his poems. He is an artist who uses writing as an outlet to reveal who he is – to both the world, and himself.
Emanuel Xavier was born on May 3, 1971, in Brooklyn, New York to an Ecuadorian mother and Puerto Rican father. His early life was unstable; his father left before he was born, and at the young age of three an older cousin sexually abused him. As if he weren’t already struggling enough, Xavier was thrown out of his house at the young age of 16 after he told his mother he was gay. Though afterwards his mother regretted her decision and tried to get him to return, Emanuel Xavier took this as an opportunity to face his sexuality on his own in the world.
Without any other options, a homeless gay teen on the unforgiving streets of the city, he turned to sex and drugs to make money. He dealt drugs in Manhattan clubs until 1996, when one of his drug-dealing friends was murdered. After he heard this news, he was forced to think twice about the life he was living. At the same time, many of his friends were testing positive for HIV, and the fear of contracting such a deadly disease was enough to force Xavier to pursue more meaningful ambitions.
Emanuel Xavier had, in the past, attended open mike nights at the Nuyorican Café, a poetry and visual arts café in the lower east side of New York, but at the turning point in his life, he began to more and more. That, along with his growing commitment to his job at A Different ...
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... says “because I am far too complex to be anything close to simple,” meaning he cannot define himself on paper; and cannot be summarized, because he is an intricate human being. This, in comparison with his previous collection, serves to illustrate how he developed as both a poet and a human being. Along with reflecting on his life, he is becoming an activist, writing to improve society with his words. In the background of the poem lingers his troubling past, however, there is now a future being referred to, one which he yearns to influence and improve with poetry. He ends the piece, and the entire collection, with “I am not done fighting yet/ I am not done reading yet/I am not done writing yet/ the future is in our words.”
Works Cited
Alfred, Chip. "Emanuel Xavier Talks About AIDS, Love, Sex, & His Latest Book of Poetry." A&U Magazine Day August 2010: 1. Print.
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On the surface the poem seems to be a meditation on past events and actions, a contemplative reflection about what has gone on before. Research into the poem informs us that the poem is written with a sense of irony
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