¶ … Cool, or: He Even Stopped for Green Lights
Experience is the best teacher and when a writer finds a way to express his experiences in a successful way, readers always benefit. An example of how life shapes people and art is seen in Don Lee's poem, "But He Was Cool, or: He Even Stopped for Green Lights." Real life experiences and insights brings this poem to life. Lee's background includes abandonment by his father and an alcoholic mother. His mother died when he was 16, forcing him "into the realities of the working world at an early age." (Hurst). His background is diverse but his difficulties did not prevent him from earning a Masters in Fine Arts in 1984. While he worked, he used "poetry as a means of making sense of and bringing order to the fragmented world around him" (Hurst). Theodore Hudson writes lee's poetry "successfully conveys spontaneity and emotional compulsion as well as thoughtful ideological commitment" (Hudson). Real life experiences...
Lee attempts to integrate his experiences as a in this poem because it gives the poem authenticity. Language becomes a primary way to do this, with the poet speaking with slang popular in the neighborhoods in which he spends time. The poet tells us the subject of his poem was "triple-hip" (Lee 9), greeting others in "swahili" (13) and saying goodbye in "yoruba" (14). The poet also uses ampersands, skips spaces in between words and runs words together to emulate a certain speaking style. The lines are short to illustrate a quick, energetic tone we might find in a hip-hop song. These details give the poem a sense of
validity and give the poet credibility.
While his words and his message are powerful, Lee uses satire and irony to drive his point home. Cool is a word with a broad…
