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Witness

By Derrick Weston Brown

I was a vessel of “What Abouts”
“Yeah buts” “Why Didn’t You’s”

At 15 no one I knew
had ever been raped.

Rape was trench coats
& Hollywood
& dark alleys
& sitcoms
& strangers
& pasty ass Gordon Jump
on an episode of Different Strokes

Rape was prison “don’t drop the soap” jokes
& After-School specials

& Taimak I mean- Garth who hemmed up
Cree Summer I mean Freddie
in his car until Kadeem-
I mean Dwayne Cleophis Wayne
came to her rescue on that

special “A Different World” episode

that had a disclaimer

Rape was Celie’s handwritten

whispered letter to God and only God
on the first few pages
of Mom’s copy of The Color Purple.

I was certain no one I knew had ever been raped.

Until the Summer
Until the camp
where we learned
so much about
race and gender
disparity diversity
& asked hard questions

& heard hard f*cked up answers
& absorbed hard data
we were going to
change the world
school by school
speak on injustice

& then that day
that workshop
that session
when we talked
on sexual assault
& and rape…

& No one I knew
had ever been raped until:

She stood
& she stood
& her
& her
& her
& him
& her
& her
& her
& his friend
& her sister
& my counselor
& his cousin
& her mother
& my friend
& my
& my

& all I can remember is the wail
that went up for everyone in that room

& the knotted arms

& tears & my (redacted)
passed out from the
weight of that day
& I had to be restrained
from fighting
through the crowd to get to them. But what could I have done?

What good were my hands that day?

What comfort could I offer

wearing shame in my skin.

No more
“Yeah But”
“What Abouts”
“Why Didn’t You’s”

I don’t carry that water any more.

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Famous-Poems-quiz

Famous Poems: 20 Multiple-Choice Questions

1 / 20

"We real cool. We left school. We lurk late."

- What is the next line of this poem by Gwendolyn Brooks?

2 / 20

"Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;

 What immortal hand or eye, 

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"

 

 - Who is the author of this poem?

3 / 20

"The Sun Rising" is a famous poem by John Donne. What is the next line of this poem after "Busy old fool, unruly Sun, / Why dost thou thus"?

4 / 20

"Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all."

 

- Who is the author of this poem?

5 / 20

"The Moon" is a famous poem by Sappho. What is the next line of this poem after "But when you fail to meet me"?

6 / 20

"I am the master of my fate, 

I am the captain of my soul." 

 

- What is the title of this poem?

7 / 20

"The End and the Beginning" is a famous poem by Wislawa Szymborska. What is the next line of this poem after "After every war / someone has to clean up"?

8 / 20

"Poetry" is a famous poem by Pablo Neruda. What is the next line of this poem after "And it was at that age... Poetry arrived"?

9 / 20

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date." 

- What is the title of this poem?

10 / 20

"Ode to a Nightingale" is a famous poem by John Keats. What is the next line of this poem after "My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains"?

11 / 20

"Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there; I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow, I am the diamond glints on snow."

 

- What is the title of this poem?

12 / 20

"I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils."

 - What is the title of this poem?

13 / 20

"The Odyssey" is a famous epic poem by Homer. What is the next line of this poem after "Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero"?

14 / 20

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate:"

- What is the next line of this sonnet?

15 / 20

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach."

 

- Who is the author of this poem?

16 / 20

"Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all." 

- Who is the author of this poem?

17 / 20

"I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother."

- What is the next line of this poem by Langston Hughes?

18 / 20

"I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you."

- What is the title of this poem?

19 / 20

"For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, 

They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude." 

 

- Who is the author of this poem?

20 / 20

"The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!"

- Who is the author of this poem?

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Forms-Of-Poetry-Quiz

Forms Of Poetry: 20 Multiple-Choice Questions

1 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by a series of eight-line stanzas, with a rhyme scheme of A-B-A-B-B-C-B-C?

2 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by six sestets and a final tercet, with a complex pattern of repeating end words?

3 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by a five-line stanza with a syllable count of 2-4-6-8-2, and typically contains a humorous or witty twist at the end?

4 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form that originated in ancient Arabic poetry, consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, typically used to express love or melancholy?

5 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by a poem with three stanzas of three lines each, followed by a single four-line stanza, with a specific rhyme scheme and syllable count?

6 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form in which each line or stanza repeats the same sequence of words, but in reverse order?

7 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form in which a speaker addresses someone or something that is absent or not able to respond?

8 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form in which two rhyming lines of iambic pentameter are followed by a rhyming line of iambic tetrameter?

9 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by three-line stanzas, with the second line repeating as the last line of the previous stanza?

10 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by three-line stanzas, with a syllable count of 5-7-5 and a seasonal reference?

11 / 20

What is the name for a poetic form consisting of 14 lines with a specific rhyme scheme and meter?

12 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form that uses the repetition of a single word or phrase at the end of each line, and can be as short as three lines or as long as multiple stanzas?

13 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form in which each line contains the same number of syllables?

14 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by a repeated refrain, alternating with a series of quatrains, with a final quatrain as a coda?

15 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form consisting of a six-line stanza, with a rhyme scheme of A-A-B-B-C-C and a syllable count of 8-8-5-5-8-8?

16 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by a poem that tells a story through a series of quatrains, with a rhyme scheme of ABAB?

17 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form consisting of a series of unrhymed tercets followed by a quatrain, with the same end words used throughout the poem in a specific pattern?

18 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by a poem that describes or meditates on the natural world, often using vivid imagery and sensory language?

19 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form consisting of four-line stanzas, with a rhyme scheme of ABAB, typically used to express love or praise?

20 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form consisting of a single line, typically with a specific syllable count or word limit, and often used to convey a strong emotion or idea?

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