Amar’e Stoudemire wrote a poem about New York
Amar’e Stoudemire’s tenure in New York is coming to a close, and he decided to take to Instagram to share a heartfelt poem from the heart, because he cares. Here is the masterpiece in its entirety:
Poem by: Amar’e Stoudemire
NY NY what a beautiful city
A place where you can hang out with Anna, JayZ & DiddyIts a place absent of excuses and patience
If your smart, you can meet leaders of every nationNY NY big city of dreams
Everything in NY isnt always what it seemsIn the land where the jungle is concrete
The money flows Dow Jones and Wall StreetHome of #STATcity and the #Knickstape Orginator,
Shalom to all my fans, Salute to all my haters.Peace and Love
Amar’e Carsares Stoudemire Sr.
As a person who took a single poetry class in college, I feel perfectly poised to critique this poem. Here’s what I learned in that class: Firstly, there are no rules in poetry. Secondly, 50-something-year-old professors don’t appreciate Saul Williams.
The usage of “New York, New York” in the first stanza is evocative of Leonard Bernstein and serves as a familiar entree for the uninducted reader. Amar’e then subverts that through the use of pop culture icons in a postmodern twist on the form.
“Poem” then takes a turn with the line “If your smart” in the second stanza. By using the incorrect form of “you’re” the poet is turning the spotlight on the crushing standards of modern society, and how they are no longer critical to our conveyance of language in the 21st century.
The duality of the lines “everything is not what it seems” with the cliche of “concrete jungle” is evocative of a young Tennyson, and serves as the perfect transition into the final stanza where the writer salutes his haters. This is truly a seminal work in the genre of basketball poetry, and I, for one, hope to see more from this promising poet.
