Does Your House Have Lions

I am trying to diversify my reading. Does Your House Have Lions was featured in a blog entry I read. I can't remember whose blog I was reading or I would link to it. I didn't care for this book. To me the most intriguing part of the book was the cover.

One day in the late sixties, I was on the phone with Rahsaan and mentioned to him that just that day I had bought a house. He responded by asking, "Does your house have lions?" I said, "What?" He said, "Lions. You know, like in the front of a museum or the post office. You know, concrete lions. My house has lions. Get a house with lions." ~ Joel Dorn, May 1993 from the Rahsaan Roland Kirk Anthology.

The lions strength and courage make him a symbol of strength. The title asks you to consider the strengths in your home. Sonia Sanchez's brother died of complications related to HIV/AIDS. This poem tells his story. More specifically it tells the story of how painful it sometimes is to be a part of a family. In families we share each others pain. The choices another person makes often result in burdens that we must carry. Being connected in a family can be indescribably painful, but it is a source of strength too.

The reason I didn't care for this book is that it is written in E.E. Cumming's style. The author chose to use creative punctuation and grammar. There are periods breaking up a thought, but the sentence structure doesn't follow normal grammar rules. I found this style of writing distracting. It deprived me of visual cues and made the writing difficult to follow. Capital letters aren't used except occasionally. By their rarity, they catch the eye of the reader and demand that the reader answer, "Why is that there? What is being emphasized?" Sometimes I couldn't figure it out.

came the summer of nineteen sixty
harlem luxuriating in Malcolm's voice
became Big Red beautiful became a city
of magnificent Black Birds steel eyes moist

I found the author's name on the front cover artwork intriguing. It is written sonia saNchez. E.E. Cummings used a lowercase I when writing. I have read that he wanted to make himself lowercase, equal to, the other pronouns. He was communicating that he wasn't anymore important than other people. Frankly, I think the calling attention to yourself by writing i is fairly prideful. But, his example has been followed by others, including k.d. lang. And, I found myself wondering, "Why the upper case N?"

Ancestors have an important role in the poem. I have actually spent a great deal of time thinking about this. Since my kids are from Haiti, their ancestors likely came from West Africa. I have been reading quite a bit about Haitian vodou. When we were in Haiti getting the children, we were kept awake all night by the drumming and chanting of a nearby vodou ceremony. And, at least in Haiti, while the spirit of a person's ancestor is honored and served, they aren't worshiped. Like Christianity, Haitian vodou is a monotheistic religion.

The poem ends with a stanza in which the ancestor's ask:

where are the gods when we need them?

Perhaps this question is a universal response when the death of a young person creates a spiritual crisis and the world suddenly is seen as extremely unfair.