A Birthday Tribute
Roots of the Heart: A Poetic Plea for Legacy
Let’s explore Shereena’s emotional journey through her connection to the land and the bonds across generations.
This story commemorates our friend Shereena Mayan’s birthday. As a beautiful birthday present to her, I share here a poetic appreciation of her insightful poetry.
She has recently published the poem “Don’t Sell the Land — All I Need is All I Got” is a heartfelt ode to heritage, love, and the enduring power of familial roots. She embodies a shared sensibility, emphasizing the inseparable connection between place, memory, and identity. She connects the emotional strands of history with astonishing authenticity, portraying emotional themes of family sacrifice and determination.
Her lines rise with the consistent style of rural life, calling us back to the ground, the hands that cared for it, and the souls whose love made it home.
One of the poem’s unique features is its capacity to rise above the material significance of land, changing it into a living symbol of historical adaptation. The way she refers to “Grandma’s home” and “Grandpa’s land” is more than simply nostalgia; it’s a pledge of commitment to what makes them a family.
In this scenario, the land becomes an heirloom, not just of soil and crops but also of memories, dreams, and lives that have left lasting impressions on the narrator’s psyche.
Her repetition — “Don’t sell the land, never sell the land” — creates a sense of urgency, as if the narrator pleads with the reader to weigh the consequences of leaving a legacy for temporary riches. Through these lines, the poem’s voice develops depth and weight. The intentional contrast of nature’s timelessness and human mortality — a “sun going down” but “coming back up” — emphasizes the cyclical aspect of life and the generational continuity she seeks to preserve.
Furthermore, the poem’s rural setting lends a grounded, almost physical sense. The “paddy fields that dance,” the “dirt roads of this town,” and the “weeds growing high” invite us to walk along those paths, to feel the wind in the grass and the warmth of the sun, stressing the beauty of farm life’s simplicity. These moments in the poem contribute to its beauty, serving as an elegy for a lost way of life and a celebration of its continued existence.
What raises this piece is her involvement in the story. She draws the reader into her world, providing intimate reflections on her parents and their journey, from “Mama” and “Papa” constructing a life together to the unavoidable serenity they find in this same land. Her advice to “never sell your soul” is literal and symbolic, suggesting that land and legacy show one’s identity and self-worth.
She has created a poem that is both powerful and thoughtful, full of passion and energy. Her poem is a tribute to the lasting bond between people and the land that supports them.
The poem stresses the need to maintain our legacy for future generations and ourselves.
It is a poem that speaks to everybody who appreciates holding on to what is genuinely valuable.
Belated Happy Birthday Shereena Mayan.
