Year of the Ram

James Clifford's poem, "Year of the Ram: Honolulu, February 2, 1991" puts an emphasis on race. Each character who is introduced also has their race stated, and the second sentence in the poem goes through a list of the different types of ethnic food available in the Chinatown atrium, a list that goes on even further than what is present in the text. The text goes on to mention that the jazz ensemble of the University of Hawaii has an "all-Asian saxophone section," and the "black football players" and "white art-museum directors," and more. I feel that the reason for mentioning the ethnicities and colors of these groups is to display the variety of peoples that can be found in Honolulu. This poem makes Honolulu out to be a melting pot of cultures. But, at the same time, the poem is saying that Honolulu is not that kind of place. One of the later sentences begins, "Tonight, as the year 4688 gets underway..." which is the year on the lunar calendar in which this poem takes place. However, the mention of the year transports the reader to a future time when taken out of the context of the lunar new year. A large amount of people suspect that in the future, we will live in a post-race society, but this poem states otherwise. While these groups of people do live together, they continue to pay attention to the differences among them. The poem says:

This will not be Vietnam.

This will not be America.

These two lines set this Hawaiian society apart from all others. These two lines are statements by the author that neither ideals nor race relations will be a just enough cause to separate the different peoples nor cause conflict amongst them, as they continue to live their normal lives.

-David