Yes, I sailed in Mexico on beautiful water/A Thursday afternoon in
Cancun/Lake Michigan by moonlight/Then whale watched in daylight/Alaska at
night/With soulful devotion/I stood at the Arctic Ocean/Inupiat
brothers/And others I love right/Beside me/I felt free
Fatherless daughter/Motherless sons/Often become the lost ones/Seeking a
love that never comes/Much 2 jaded 2B so young/Angels have invisible
wings/Cherubs strum harp strings/Just a few of my favorite things
Blue water/Life lines/Homophobic hate crimes/Seen a lot in my time/Penny
candy now costs a dime/Kids bypassing the wonder years/Living out our worst
fears/May I take your order/I was that daughter/Fighting for a dream/Unable
to lean on daddy's shoulder/Until I got much older
Blue water/Green grass/I heard him say, "Free at last"/Later I was
published by his daughter/What brought her to me? /Destiny/Just as it
should be
I never had a single role model/I had plenty/Mr. Moy the first of many/Who
told me often that I could/Affirmed that my poetry was good/Even/When
others tried to silence my thunder/Perhaps even Stevie had to Wonder at
times/Why ill will clouds minds/No peace shall they find when destiny is
divine
Long summers/spring flowers/no one more southern than my cousins/I love
them all/They breathe football/They showed me love/They protected me ...
like REAL family/May the Creator guide my daughter/Throw her a lifeline
when she must/Tread water/Remember to love as I taught her
From: Uptown Déjà Vu
Summary
“IJS” by Jimmie Ware is a poem centered on place and geography, memory, love and relationships. Its imagery is anchored in Alaska, Lake Michigan. The poem develops its subject through recurring images and shifts in emotional pressure rather than reducing the experience to a single statement.
Analysis
Voice
A personal, first-person speaker combines recollection with direct emotional address.
Style and form
The poem is line-driven, expansive, first-person. The poem moves by accumulation: images, references, and tonal turns build on one another, so meaning emerges from their relationships as much as from narrative sequence.
Themes and imagery
Its strongest thematic currents include place and geography, memory, love and relationships, family. Concrete images give those abstractions physical weight, while changes in diction and pace keep the poem from settling into a single emotional register.
Reading the poem
A productive way to read “IJS” is to watch how its images change function as the poem progresses. Details that initially establish scene or memory become emotional evidence. The result is a poem whose argument is carried through association, rhythm, and image as much as through explicit statement.
Explore this poem
Source & rights
Source: Uptown Déjà Vu
Rights: Copyright controlled by the rights holder. Published here with permission.