The Necessity to Speak

     The Necessity to Speak by Sam Hamill is thought provocing to say the least. He talks about raw emotions and how everyone feels them. There are some things in life that no one wants to talk about or face that they are happening. Sam talks about being fourteen and being brutally gang raped. How people are almost catatonic when rape is mentioned. But why should these rape victims hide is shame, when they have done nothing wrong. Poetry gives these tortured souls a way to feel better about themselves and life.

     The poems is poetry of witness tell many different stories, with many different emotions. Sam Hamill writes of the cruetly of life and all the disasters it is made of. He speaks of the battering of women and how it is the most common felony commited in the United States. How a domestic dispute kills more cops than dope dealers and bank robbers combined. That is a shocking fact.

     For some women poetry is permission to speak. Sam tells how some women who are battered look at it as a form of love, not knowing any better. He also talks about a women who took his class and was murdered by her husband because he feared she would tell the truth. Sam went on to say that she was one of the kindest women he had ever known.

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