Hopscotch on my urban block was good
It was once a term of endearment, my hood
A place where demons were defeated
Conversations on our stoop got heated
Yet friendships prevailed
Prince was musically correct
We were black white and Puerto Rican
Greek like my friend Irene who hated
Greek school after grammar school
We shot pool, not each other
Created beautiful graffiti and helped the needy
We shared cultures and sang along with our transistor radios
Ethnicities were a nonfactor as our phallic residence pierced the sky
Playgrounds were inhabited by kids
Funning in the sunshine
Life was fine
Mothers of all colors peering from various floors
Watching over their young
We gathered in our mini tribes
To buy goodies from the Arabic store
They were loud and friendly
Always reminding us to
"Stay out of trouble"
Uptown kids loved being at the Lake
Somehow it allowed us to be ourselves
It gave us a sense of wonderment
A place to imagine our dreams would find us
We worked summer jobs
Survived puppy love
Graduated and moved on
Maintaining forever friendships
A Jewish Princess, a Chippewa First Daughter
A little redhead black girl with freckles and magic
Who would be Queen~
From: Uptown Déjà Vu
Summary
“Uptown World” by Jimmie Ware is a poem centered on place and geography, love and relationships, family. 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, compressed, 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, love and relationships, family, music. 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 “Uptown World” 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.