Seen by Armenians by Alessandra Agopian
Seen by Armenians
In my breath,
In my beating heart,
In my thrumming blood,
I carry those before me.
Their sand staining footsteps embark
Across my bones,
Bless my mind with gilded knowledge,
Gild my hands with blessed skill.
They follow me,
Mother and fathers,
Lovers and the loved,
Tweak my posture,
My hair,
The sounds that form from my mouth.
Heavy hands, light hands,
Pressing on my shoulders.
As I walk down the street, striding against concrete,
They are unseen.
They are unknown,
Even as they push and they prod fondly.
No one else can see my predecessors,
Cannot feel the phantom limb of their rooted guidance.
No one else…
You!
You see their counsel, their heart.
Finally, finally,
You see them too!
A meeting of the eyes,
An understanding.
We are connected.
We are seen.
We are Armenian.
Alessandra Agopian is 16-year-old a junior at Horace Mann School in New York. She is a proud Armenian with a passion for poetry and creative writing, following in the footsteps of her great grandfather, famous poet and writer Sisag Varjabedian.
This poem was originally published on YAPA partner h-pem’s website.
Alan Semerdjian on Alessandra Agopian’s “Seen by Armenians” (Honorable Mention):
“The word “thrumming” is aptly used early on in Alessandra Agopian’s “Seen by Armenians,” a poem about how we carry within us our ethnic and familial histories, and we’re reminded of the power of these rhythmic and pulsing reverberations in our “blood” that create “sand staining footprints.” Agopian’s poem is well-crafted with impressive moments of chiastic structure, paradox, repetition, and a gorgeous instance of imaginative invention—where the speaker asserts that no one else can see her people or “feel the phantom limb of their rooted guidance”—as it moves towards its bittersweet resolution. It’s a poem unafraid to sing the darkness and brave enough to find resolve despite it.”
Alan Semerdjian is an Armenian-American writer, musician, and educator. Recent recognitions include two Pushcart Prize nominations; a Frontier New Poets Award; poems in Poetry International, The Brooklyn Rail, and Fence (forthcoming); and a tweet from Kim Kardashian that made his 2020 spoken word album The Serpent and The Crane (with guitarist/composer Aram Bajakian) viral for a day. Alan’s poem “The Writing About It Again” was part of a short, animated film (An Armenian Triptych: Retracing Our Steps, made in collaboration with Bajakian and artist Kevork Mourad) that won recognition in several film festivals. Pulitzer Prize winner Peter Balakian has called his first full-length poetry collection, In the Architecture of Bone (GenPop Books, 2009), “well worth your reading.” Alan has been teaching English in public schools for the past 25 years while recording, releasing, and touring in support of several critically acclaimed collections of music across a range of genres. He is on the advisory board for the International Armenian Literary Alliance, through which he founded and directs the Young Armenian Poets Awards.