Post Five: If I Should Have a Daughter by Sarah Kay - Analysis

"If I should have a daughter…“Instead of “Mom”, she’s gonna call me “Point B.”"

This spoken word poem really stuck with me. I liked how it wasn't too emotional because a lot of the spoken word poetry is really overwhelming with emotion, and that sometimes makes me feel uncomfortable. Throughout the performance she used a lot of hand gestures to grab the attention of the audience, and made it really affective. It was really passionate, yet not overly presented. I had a lot of favourite quotes from this poem and it had a lot of meaning behind it.

She starts the poem off positively with what she would tell her future child. Near the end of the poem it gets more negative but still positive in a interesting way. One of my favourite parts is her introduction to her poem. She starts off with saying that she wants her daughter to know that she is point B. I thought that was a great way to get the audience involved because it really made me question why she would want to be point B for her daughter. I thought all mothers would want to be point A for their child, but once she explained that she wants her daughter to always find the way to her, it created more meaning.

I love how Sarah is very honest throughout the poem. She just tells it like it is on how life works. She wants her future daughter to know that life is hard but you can always fight back and get back up.

"She’s gonna learn that this life will hit you, hard, in the face, wait for you to get back up so it can kick you in the stomach."

She also uses a bit of comedy to lighten the mood in her poem. Sarah talks about how there will be many sad points throughout life either dealing with boys or relationships, but Sarah will always carry an extra supply of chocolate. This is where I saw a lot of Sarah's personality come through. At this point she seemed so calm and knowledgeable about how those hard situations work. She made the audience laugh and effortlessly changed the mood.

"‘cause there is no heartbreak that chocolate can’t fix. Okay, there’s a few heartbreaks chocolate can’t fix."

Another one of my favourite parts of this poem is the way she ends it. It is very sassy, bold, and confident which shows her personality a lot. It shows that Sarah would do anything for her future daughter no matter what that scenario. She's telling her daughter that even if her voice is small, and can't be heard, don't give up.

"Your voice is small but don’t ever stop singing and when they finally hand you heartbreak, slip hatred and war under your doorstep and hand you hand-outs on street corners of cynicism and defeat, you tell them that they really ought to meet your mother."

This poem really shows the care that she would have to give her daughter. She uses creative writing techniques that makes the poem stick with you. It's really engaging how she can just say a line,and then turn it into something no one ever thinks about.