I Am Who You Think I Am Poem by Abekah Emmanuel

I really admire the simplicity with which you gave your message....and I agree with most of the things you pointed out....man is really complex to understand.....and what is good for some will be bad for another...making "quality" a thing of an individual mind....good poem...

COMMENT ON ABEKAH EMMANUEL’S POEM: (as found also on Brian Johnston's March ACPC contest page) “cane/bane” ……………. good rhyme, but I need(ed) help with both words. “bane” …………I looked up and found “a cause of great distress or annoyance”. ok, that fits. “cane” ……. just guessing here………. chalk and cane=articles found in schools there? cane=stick used to punish students by hitting? ? after reading 3 stanzas, I’m liking this, though it doesn’t seem to echo John’s ….yet. well, more so, perhaps, than Diane’s poem did. I’d use “sweat”, not “sweats”. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - “Now you are asking me to describe who I am, But frankly, this is a huge and cumbersome task And so will let time to reveal that to you for I am tempted to say things that will delight your heart.” ABEKAH, I LIKE that you did not force yourself to do something which you may feel uncomfortable doing: echoing a poem just because “that” was BJ’s ‘assignment’. and of course, you are SO YOUNG compared to the rest of us entrants! you obviously don’t know how to describe who you are, because YOU are still growing-evolving while we other 3 poets (DON’T tell Diane I said this) are just “growing older”! if I count John (who certainly deserves to be mentioned, since without him none of us would have an echo poem! ! !) , there are 4 other poets; John is not nearly as old as the others, though he is significantly older than you are! yes! “get a little time under your belt”. AND certainly don’t describe yourself in terms just to ingratiate yourself to us. [I don’t think I’ve EVER used the word “ingratiate”; it just popped into my head………….., but I checked the definition and I like it here.] I like the repeating of the title at the close of the poem. BUT …………DO (please) WRITE “WHO I AM”, in time, when you’ve figured yourself out, if you ever do, and send me an autographed copy. thanks. bri :) p.s. “born from one vein”. I like it. I watched a PBS video a while ago, in which a geneticist ‘took the viewers’ from Africa to Asia, to Australia, to Europe, taking blood samples from people there and later discussing the conclusions derived from the presence of genetic markers(?) in the blood samples of some of the donors. He (and others I suppose) concluded that the first humans lived in Africa, almost became extinct, some migrated (over a period of years) to the Middle East, to India, to Australia (largely on land, some of which is under water now) , and some ended up in China/Siberia regions. some went to Europe, and some crossed on a now-underwater land or land/ice bridge to North America. SO YOU SEE, my PH friend, YOU and the rest of us may truly have been “born from one vein”. ok……….p.p.s. Upon glancing at your poem again, it struck me as extremely odd that you would write that you “have difficulties describing myself”, YET …………. you DID state this: “I have grown to understand the simplicity As well as the complexity of human lives, The blessings we enjoy and the mysterious bane.” I rather think you ‘want to say’: “I have grown to understand that there IS simplicity as well as complexity in human lives, and understand that there ARE blessings as well as mysterious bane” thanks to all participants, even Brian! I mean ESPECIALLY Brian! ! !

A wonderful poem, Abekah. Thank you for sharing