Writing prompt responding to a Terrance Hayes poem
Looking at his powerful 2020 poem 'George Floyd'
For today’s post, I’d like to introduce the Terrance Hayes poem ‘George Floyd’ and invite you to respond in various ways. You’re probably already familiar with the poem - it appears in his stunning 2023 collection So To Speak. If not, you should read that collection ASAP!
You can read the poem and listen to a recording of Hayes reading it aloud on this site. I’ll also paste the text below for convenience, but I strongly recommend you listen to Hayes’ recording whilst reading the poem.
Also, this post is free for everyone to read. Please share it with anyone who may be interested. Most of my posts contain at least some free content, and occasionally, I like to post something entirely without a paywall.
Before you’ve read the poem, it’s already apparent from the title that it’ll be political. It simply states George Floyd’s name without comment or embellishment. That in itself is a political statement that carries a lot of weight.
The poem was published in 2020: the year of George Floyd’s murder. But it’s clear when reading the poem, and for anybody even remotely attuned to the United States, that police brutality against the Black community was nothing new.
So, here’s the poem text:
You can be a bother who dyes his hair Dennis Rodman blue in the face of the man kneeling in blue in the face the music of his wrist- watch your mouth is little more than a door being knocked out of the ring of fire around the afternoon came evening’s bell of the ball and chain around the neck of the unarmed brother ground down to gunpowder dirt can be inhaled like a puff the magic bullet point of transformation both kills and fires the life of the party like it’s 1999 bottles of beer on the wall street people who sleep in the streets do not sleep without counting yourself lucky rabbit’s foot of the mountain lion do not sleep without making your bed of the river boat gambling there will be no stormy weather on the water bored to death any means of killing time is on your side of the bed of the truck transporting Emmett till the break of day Emmett till the river runs dry your face the music of the spheres Emmett till the end of time
The references to Emmett Till at the end of the poem are extremely potent. Hayes’ use of malapropisms throughout the poem leads us to this point. The malapropisms alone, without any social or political context, provide an exhilarating poetic device.
Hayes’ avoidance of punctuation enhances this further. It creates a fast-paced and relentless poem, indicating a continued struggle. You could suggest that the lack of a full stop represents the lack of any ending in sight.
As with a lot of Hayes’ work, there are several Prince references in the poem. Finally, using “bother” instead of “brother” in the poem’s opening line is a jarring and foreboding device to set the overall tone.
OK, for some writing prompts. Now, to address the elephant in the room, I am a white, able-bodied male in a cishet marriage. It’s not my place to echo how Terrance Hayes wrote about this specific issue in ‘George Floyd’.
We do, however, live in increasingly troubling and divisive times. Many people have battles to fight - whether their own battles, or through expressions of solidarity. Always consider where your boundaries are if you’re an ally.
1. Choose a social or political issue you’re angered by and write a poem using malapropisms. Consider how punctuation can play a role in dictating tempo, breaking rules, indicating control (or lack thereof), and so on.
2. If you dislike writing issue-based poetry, use malapropisms to express a personal struggle. The way that Hayes does this in ‘George Floyd’ is wonderfully effective and lends itself to some form of strife or resistance.
3. With either approach, consider how using idioms, cultural references, or a particular lexicon could insert clues for the reader. It’s fast-paced and shouldn’t allow too much time for immediate contemplation - you need to insert layers.
4. Finally, consider how your malapropisms could be used to varying effect. They could create deliberate confusion, indicate hypocrisy, create a sense of childlike innocence, play on shifted meanings over time, and more. Be sure to avoid cliches or fillers that only satisfy an empty play on words - every malapropism must be carefully selected to bring something to the table.
As always, I hope you find this useful. Please feel free to share any poems that arise from this post. And please consider becoming a paid subscriber. For £5 per month, you receive two weekly posts, alternating between creative and practical resources for new and emerging poets.