Jean "Binta" Breeze

"earth cries"

Analysis

This poem is quite interesting to me so I am going to separate it into 2 sections. Section 1 will be the analysis of it that I developed before talking about it in class. When I first read this essay, I thought it was a mental health awareness poem. I read it from a mother’s perspective; a mother that has lost her child long enough ago that she doesn’t talk about it but recent enough that it still clearly tears up her insides. The first point in the poem is about water. People are inherently about 60% water and in most parts of the world, water is very easy to find. So she is not crying about water. Then comes food. Again, in most parts of the world, with most people, food is easy enough to find. I understand food insecurity is a huge thing around the world but in this case, she has food. She has clothing so she doesn’t need that, despite if people judge her for what she wears. She has shelter somewhere so that is not what stresses her out. She already has children, multiple, so she is not upset because she has no kids. She is not upset about the lack of heaven, as the poem states, because she knows that heaven surrounds her here. So even though people see that she is not okay and that she is upset, they also see that she has all of the things necessary for her survival. This poem gave me chills when I read it this way because this is how I was for a long time. I grew up privileged and I recognize that. I live in a wonderful house, I’ve never gone hungry or thirsty, I have a wonderful family that supports me in everything I do and yet I still struggled with mental health issues. When she ends the poem with “how could you know she’s crying / for just one humane being” I almost started crying. For so many years, I thought if I had a partner, if I had a true friend, if I had someone that really truly understood me and was kind to me that I would not be so sad all of the time. I gave all of that power to one person that I had made up in my mind. In section 2 of my analysis, I say that I now understand all of that to be false. I did not realize that the poem was about Mother Earth, not an actual person. The poem is not about mental health awareness at all. More like deforestation, desertification, global warming. All of the things humans have done over the decades that are leading to the destruction of the globe. In this case, the poem also strongly resonates with me since I am a big nature advocate. I actually feel like throat punching people when I see all of the trees being chopped down on a daily basis and I scream at people - even though they can’t hear me - when they have those annoying cars or trucks that emit terrible smoke that destroys the ozone layer. I am an avid tree hugger so this poem makes me sad when I read it like this because Mother Earth really is crying for one humane being. Someone to advocate for her and try to end everything going against her. Someone to stand up for her future and her preservation. She needs to feel worshiped as she deserves. In either analysis, this poem is incredibly strong and impactful. In each version, Breeze is advocating for something smaller, something or someone that is not generally advocated for. She is giving voice to something that cannot speak for itself.