Hurricanes

Patricia Smith is a pretty amazing writer! I have a new appreciation for poetry that I never before anticipated. Smith captured the essence of the build-up and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Her writing was raw and real so it jumped off the page and helped me to have a new understanding of the pain and anger that many of the survivors of Katrina may have experienced. I love how this writing represents the culture of New Orleans. I felt as though I could smell the food and see the houses. I could feel the rhythm of life in the New Orleans Smith was describing. There are a few parts of Blood Dazzler that I enjoyed and stood out to me. Katrina was a horrible disaster and I believe that Patricia Smith truly highlighted the despair and exhaustion that was the effect merited by the terrible cause. 

One of my favorite poems in Blood Dazzler is a poem called "What to Tweak." Smith takes some emails written by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and writes about them in a rather intriguing way. I love the style that she uses in this poem. She takes a few lines from the emails and interprets them, showing them instead of telling them. One of my favorite lines is, "The demon has chapped their rusty ankles, reddened the throats of babies, smashed homes to mist" (p. 26). Patricia uses raw and real images here. When I think of any damage being done to a child their is a sort of anger that rises in me simply because they are the most venerable members of humanity. They cannot protect themselves and sometimes we cannot protect them either. The image of a baby with a "redden throat" is not only sad, but inspires rage. I love that Smith says, "smashed homes to mist." Most people would say that a house is smashed to bits or pieces, but Smith says mist. I think the idea of concrete and wood being reduced to essentially nothing is powerful. Misty disappears as quickly as it comes. This line also speaks of the fragility of the man-made structures compared to the wrath of Katrina. The homes simply were destroyed as if they meant nothing. All the hard work was lost in a second. throughout the poem Smith uses very extreme examples to show that the situation was far more extreme than the DMAT staff could say with his professional words. After the horrible situation is mostly explained Brown states, "Anything specific I need to do or tweak?" (p. 28) I can feel her anger in this last line even though she says nothing. After all of the things specified in the poem how can there even be a question of what needs to be done. 

I also love the way Smith describes Katrina as a monster with a personality. In the first poem of the book Smith writes, "I become a mouth, thrashing hair, an overdone eye" (p. 1). Katrina is a monster that wants to destroy everything in her path. In the poem Katrina states, "I will require praise, unbridled winds to define my body" (p. 1) I think that Smith sees Katrina as something that needs to be respected, but I believe she respects out of fear. Later on Katrina becomes a category 5 hurricane and Smith writes, "Now officially a bitch, I'm confounded by words- all I've ever been is starving, fluid, and noise" (p. 11). I think Katrina is explained as an enemy that no one could have fought. Katrina is made human by Smith maybe so that Smith could try to make sense of what happened. Maybe Smith was looking for closure and she made the storm into something she could understand- a woman.

The culture throughout the book is wonderful and it gives the book a genuine feel. I can feel the realness of the situation and I know that Smith feelings are actually a result of her experience. Smith writes, "Their hard-pressed hair is topped with every manner of church hat- ski-sloped satin, velvet, or brocade crowns adorned with glittered netting, babbling florals, even stunned fake bluebirds" (p. 17). I don't know much about the New Orleans culture, but I can see part of it when I read the description of these hats. I also like how voodoo is a theme throughout the book. It is a big part of the culture of the city to use "magick". Patricia writes, "This is why we stumble into stinging neon showers of beads, feathers, and voodoo figurines- because we need to hurt in public, throw up a little in a ghosted alley, close pert mouths around the cocks of strangers" (p. 6). I like this line because it shows the behind-the-scenes look at life in New Orleans. We all know New Orleans as a place to party and have a great time, almost like Las Vegas, but we don't see what it's really like to have lived there. Smith shows us her point of view and it is so genuine. Her poetry uses beautiful details like "neon showers" or "beads and feathers." It is the details that paint the picture for us, the outsiders, and helps us understand what the author is trying to say.