African American Poetry

Smith, Hope Anita. 2008. Keeping the Night Watch. Ill. by E.B. Lewis. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN: 978-0-8050-7202-0

Book Review:

Keeping the Night Watch, by Hope Anita Smith, is the sequel to the award winning poetry book The Way a Door Closes, in which the father of an African American family loses his job and leaves the home, rocking the foundation of those left behind.  In this sequel, the father returns home, and the poetry expresses the struggle the various family members undergo to accept him back, especially the narrator, a 13 year old boy named C.J.  The emotions of the poems at first are deep and dark, expressing C.J.’s anger at his father, his feelings of betrayal and inability to trust the new family structure.  As time passes, and the careful overtures of the father assimilate, C.J. finally starts to express hope, and if not total forgiveness, at least a willingness to try.

The book is divided into two sections, Fall and Spring, denoting the changes of the seasons in time, but also reflecting the connotative, symbolic meaning of the cold negative emotions of anger and betrayal in the Fall and the warmer emotions of hope, redemption and forgiveness in the Spring.

The vivid watercolor illustrations by E.B. Lewis are a tremendous asset to the book, giving distinct faces to the family members (Grandmomma, Momma, Daddy, and siblings, Byron and Zuri), and giving the reader a wonderful visual experience to coincide with the text.

The poetry in the book is mainly free verse, but is filled with imagery and figurative language, such as the metaphor and simile used in the poem, “Family Cooking Instructions.” In this poem the author describes the family’s careful interactions with each other, saying “their conversation is sweet./Their words are light and airy/like a just-baked cake.”  C.J. describes himself as a knife cutting into the cake, and recognizes that “we are not done in the middle./We need to bake a little longer.”

Smith uses a number of other metaphors in her poems, such as when C.J. describes himself in “If You Can’t Stand the Heat” as “a pot with a lid on” saying, “I keep all my mad inside./I just let it stew;” and describing the reaction to Daddy’s return as an earthquake in “Blueprint”: “When the quake hit/it hit hard/shook us to our core/...emotions were strewn about/...and now the aftershocks are keeping us all on alert.” But, we glimpse redemption in “Blueprint” as well, when C.J. says at the end, “I know this:/the original floor plan for our family is sound./In spite of everything/our foundation is firm./Our house is still standing.”

One of the most poignant poems, also filled with figurative language, clearly expresses the anger and distance C.J. feels, yet also contains the hope of reconciliation.  In “Mountain Climbing,” C.J. describes the relationship with his father as a chasm that cannot be crossed, but ends by saying, “I hope, one day/that my snowy mountain of anger will be/so weighed down with Daddy’s apology/I will be overwhelmed/by an avalanche of forgiveness.”

Sharing the Poetry:

Keeping the Night Watch is filled with many poems that could be used in a poetry unit discussing the author’s voice, figurative language, symbolism and tone. 

Selected Poem:

The author also uses a unique poem, called an Abecedarian, in “Zuri’s ABCs” wherein the first line begins with an “A,” the next with a “B,” and so on through “Z.” This is a challenging poem to write, but Smith does so with apparent ease, reflecting the voice of young Zuri, and her hope for her family as she writes a card to them all in the abecedarian format:

          All of the family got one,

          Byron, Mama, Daddy, Grandmomma, and me.  Our names

          Carefully penned in Crayola Candy Apple Red.

          Daddy cried the hardest, and that’s to be

          Expected.

          Fathers, who leave, keep paying even when they come back.

          Grandmomma sits sagelike,

          Holding the letter to her chest,

          Imitating the Virgin Mary, as if the Baby were

          Jesus,

          King of Kings.

          “Lord, have

          Mercy” were the only words she spoke.  The letter said:

          Now that Daddy’s back, let’s not be scared,

          Okay?

Parents are good when there are two.

Quiet houses are

Really

Scary.

Time to love each other again.

Until forever.  And that means a

Very long time.

With

XXXs and OOOs

Yours,

Zuri

Having students try their hand at an Abecedarian expressing forgiveness would be a challenging activity for a class, but would also be something different to try rather than traditional poetic structures.  Examples of other Abecedarians could be provided from a website, and some of the forgiveness poems from Joyce Sidman’s This is Just to Say could also be incorporated into the lesson.

References

Books in Print. n.d. Keeping the Night Watch, by Hope Anita Smith. http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2125/DetailedView.aspx?hreciid=|17695387|8968914&mc=USA

Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database. n.d. Keeping the Night Watch, by Hope Anita Smith. http://ezproxy.twu.edu:4529/index.php/jbookdetail/jqbookdetail?page=1&pos=3&isbn=9780805072020