Gaya Avidor Week 4 Pick a Poet - “At The House Part Where We Found Out Whitney Houston Was Dead”

This poem is called “At The House Party Where We Found Out Whitney Houston Was Dead” written by Hanif Abdurraqib. The title of this poem is straight to the point, and basically explains what the poem is about. This poem described the Saturday night that the author was experiencing, when he found out Whitney Houston had died. This poem was sort of all over the place, and you could tell that the author was preoccupied with many things when he found out the news. He was explaining the decade in which he was born and how it connects to the lifestyle he lives. He was born in the 80s, which he made sure to make a point that it is a very big part of his identity. It is clear that in this moment, receiving the news that an icon such as Whitney Houston has died is something that lives in his memory. Experiences like these, tend to stick with you, especially if you connect to the artist and are from the generation in which they were extremely popular. From personal experience, I actually remember the exact moment when I had found out Michael Jackson had died. Even though I was only six years old at the time, it lives in my memory and I can still remember where I was and what I was doing. At the end of the poem, Hanif writes about the fact “that is it impossible for a human being to wake up dead” and therefore you are simply just asleep. This stood out to me, because I interpreted this line as a reminder that we do not know what happens when we die. This also meant to me that once we die, we are not able to wake up in another state of being and we just simply are asleep forever. This is a concept that I will never understand and one that I fear very much. To me, this poem was a reminder that we must make memories and live life to the fullest at every chance we get, because we only get one shot.