Important Literature: Nikky Finney's "The Girlfriend Train"
Important Literature: Nikky Finney's "The Girlfriend's Train"
Written by: Elyana Riddick || Date: January 11, 2021
I've never been drawn to poetry. It's always been hard for me to like it. Don't get me wrong, I loved the style--analyzing rhyme scheme, prose, and other foundational pieces of poetry felt like a past time in my high school English days. What was bothersome was the content--specifically because the majority white poets I read those days seemed to have a pompous air to them. I felt unintellectual and small. It was almost as if I was intruding on their world. This was a big factor in drawing me away from the style in its entirety.
Luckily, when I got to college, I was introduced to a litany of black poets who each had something to say. I first heard "The Girlfriend's Train" in a YouTube video in class. Nikky Finney--an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature (Poetry) recipient--herself recited the piece in front of an audience fiending for her stories. I was skeptical, but I gave her the chance. Her words ebbed and flowed with the change in her tone and the glint in her eyes; her story danced off her tongue and into my ears, piercing my heart and enveloping my mind. I was utterly entranced while reading it. I was feeling every word, rising and falling with every twist and turn in her voice. My mind was drooling for more. I found myself having to cut down my word count to fit the limits in the assignment that followed.
Nikky Finney's 'The Girlfriend's Train" starts as a mundane interaction between the speaker and a fan of her work, but quickly becomes a story of shared struggle and uniting under oppressive circumstances. This is a story of pain--of broken spirits, exploitation, and dismissal. The train featured in the story is an elongated metaphor of the struggles of black women--a familiar struggle that is not unique to state or international borders. The women in the story are just pieces riding around on the train, thrown away once their usefulness is exploited beyond its limits. The speaker finds herself in the same state as the broken women on the train--bruised and battered. There is a bittersweet feeling in knowing you are not alone, and the speaker and the fan find themselves intimately understanding each other in their seemingly short encounter.
The language and writing style is something I wish I could mimic but know I will never master. Finney does an excellent job at conveying emotions so indescribable in your heart, giving so much wisdom and messaging throughout the poem. "The Girlfriend's Train" is everything I could have desired in a poem, and I hope that you can take the time to read it as well.
"The Girlfriend's Train" is just one piece of The World is Round, of which I have not had the chance to read in entirety. I will post a review for the entire book when I complete it. Feel free to comment below about your thoughts and start a conversation with others! We'd love to hear from you!
There is no featured bookstore for this post--it was difficult to find a BIPOC shop that still carries copies of the book considering how long ago it was released. If you find one that carries it, comment below and I will update the page and feature it here!
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