Dis Poem

Mutabaruka’s poem “Dis Poem” employs personification, a unique structure, and metaphors, along with a hurried yet non-chalant tone, to present an infinity of events at any moment in time. It makes reference to things that have happened a long time past, and things that are yet to happen. The author relies on time to set a context, or a lack off such, for his ideas. Mutabaruka’s text is an attempt to encompass only a fraction of the humanity he describes, such insignificant portion of the whole.

Mutabaruka presents the poem along with an abnormal structure, which lacks punctuation and, in some cases, leaves words incomplete. The structure relates to the speed at which everything in the world happens, allowing no time for pausing, much less for correcting the past. Initially, the author states that this poem “shall speak of time unlimited time undefined.” Mutabaruka mentions this in an attempt to remove the limits and constraints of content, similar to the limitless and unpredictable structure of a poem that rushes line after line with little time for respite. The author finalizes the poem, in which minimal presence of punctuation is evident, with “in your mind…”. In recurring to a sustained pause he is liberating his writing for anyone else willing to elaborate upon it as more things happen, as time continues to elapse. Mutabaruka leaves out some letters as he writes his words, an example present in the fourth to last line where he writes: “this poem is to be continue”. According to the lines that immediately follow, it is evident that the word should be “continued,” including the missing “d”. The author alienates letters as he tries to give the reader a sense of rushing through thoughts that have but moments to exist.

Likewise, Mutabaruka’s hurried tone and use of literary elements further build upon the meaning of the work as a whole. The recurrent mention of time in the poem alludes to the infinity of existence, for even when we put an end to our part of “Dis Poem.” Someone else will carry on as more things happen, just as we are extending the meaning of something that has already happened in reading it under the light of a different humanity over a decade after. In the same manner, Mutabaruka personifies the poem as he shifts the vision of writing as a means to record a story to the protagonist of that same story. In other words, the poem no longer narrates history, the poem is history. It acquires a personality as “dis poem is watchin u tryin’ to make sense from dis poem dis poem is messing up your brains making u want to stop listening to dis poem”. The author turns the reader into a part of a conversation, as he no longer reads but listens. Now this poem really is “ a part of the story his-story… her-story… our-story”. Mutabaruka plays with the concept of our story as part of The History. In doing so, the author makes the poem personal, he makes us care, he writes not for us but about us.

Therefore, Mutabaruka has given his part to the whole poem. He has written a small segment of a much larger story, a greater poem regarding us, and our story. For this reason, the end of the poem remains open, for “dis poem needs to be changed”. In fact, it will forever need to be changed as more things happen and more poets come to immortalize humanity, millions of stories running parallel in time.