Hopes And Expectations In There Are Birds Here By Jamaal May's Poem

Hopes and expectations, the two things that influence our personality, our choices, and ultimately our lives. However the meanings and purpose of these two words are commonly mixed to the point where what a person hopes for and what they expect become the same. Hopes are more optimistic in terms of what a person wants, whereas expectations become what’s required of a certain person, thing, or place. Yet these hopes and expectations can be easily shattered by the realities and flaws that follow them. It’s similar to the saying “Never meet your favorite hero.” because as human beings we tend to fantasize and over-glorify the thought of something to the point where those glorifications root into expectations, they become firm beliefs, then eventually stereotypes, and so on. When these dreamy figures of what we believe in are shattered it …show more content…
May has such a powerful way of writing that he has the ability to blend coherent and subtle messages through his work. What caught my eye was May’s choice of words, unique poetic flow, and structurally how it was one long stanza. These types of informal poems are categorized as conversation poems because they normally involve some form of a conversation between the author and another person or two characters. Following this format May sets the poem as a conversation between him and someone who only has knowledge of Detroit's stereotypes. May begins the poem saying “...when they said those birds were metaphors for what is trapped between buildings and buildings. No.” This was May’s way of making it clear he understands how the person he’s talking to, or even the reader, could see the birds as a metaphor for something deeper when they really aren’t. There are constant lines about the stereotypes of Detroit: how it’s an impoverished land of black people, how it’s portrayed as a war-torn place ruined by violence, and all May simples replies is