Hate Pork Chop Poem Analysis

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Shane Koyaczan is a Canadian spoken word poet and writer, born on 22 May, 1976 in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. His adventure with writing started because of necessity. He had to pay a phone bill but he did not have money. He decided to participate in a local “poetry slam” contest after seeing the poster on the streetlamp in Vancouver. Koyaczan participated in the poetry slam and won. The prize allowed him to pay for that bill. From that point onward, he began his career. We, as readers, can conclude, his poems can tell a lot about himself. His poems are self-reflection, pieces of memories, pieces of his own biography starting with “when I was a kid…”. He was a kid who, abandoned by his parents, was brought up by his grandmother. …show more content…

Since this incident happened the boy got a new nickname “pork chop”. This moment has affected his whole future life. “To this day” he “hate pork chops”. This is where the title of the poem comes from. Shane Koyczan emphasizes this day as a metaphor of one, significant moment in humans’ life. Moments that can change everything in the future perception of one’s whole life. For the speaker in the poem it was the day in which he lost his confidence. This day left a scar inside him that did not allow him to live normally. The speaker of the poem says: I am not the only one kid who grew up this way Surrounded by people who used to say that rhyme about stick and stones (35-37) “I am not the only one kid […]”- by this phrase Koyczan emphasizes that he was not the only one kid who was bullied. This is the point where he wants to show that this problem refers to many kids by introducing readers to the social context on an issue. He takes the very important step that is the identification with bullied kids who are the readers or listeners of this