National Poetry Month: The Boy Died in My Alley

Gwendolyn Brooks is one of my favorite black female poets.  She has numerous accolades: a Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1950, Illinois poet laureate in 1968, and the first black woman to serve as poetry consultant to the Library of Congress in 1985, to name a few.

Some poets spend more time dressing up their poems with unnecessary language.  Brooks isn’t that poet.  She is direct and to the point.  This is why I enjoy her poems.  Her poems also give readers a window into another person’s life or challenge their thinking and actions.  Her poem, “The Boy Died in My Alley,” prompts the reader to consider how our passivity can lead to someone’s demise.