The Tradition

“The Tradition” begins with the italicized names of three types of flower. In the first line with these flowers is a collective, sentient “we.” This “we” is the group narrating the poem. In the second line, readers learn this collective “we” tends to the flowers: “Aster. Nasturtium. Delphinium. We thought / Fingers in dirt meant it was our dirt” (Lines 1-2). Later in the poem, the reader will learn that the “we” speaking the poem have filmed the flowers they planted blossoming and are fast-forwarding through this video (Line 9-11). One function of italicizing the flowers is to differentiate between the sped-up tape and the group’s thoughts outside of the video.

Encountering the opening two lines for the first time, however, a reader would have no context for the interpreting the list of flowers. Also mysterious at the outset is the identity of the mysterious “we” (for example, does this “we” include or exclude the reader?) and to what tradition the title refers. These elements will become clear as the poem progresses.

The first words of the poem, “Aster. Nasturtium. Delphinium” (Line 1), are all colorful perennials. Perennials are plants that grow every spring, as opposed to dying off after one season. The fact that these flowers are perennials fits well with the title. “The Tradition” must be an inherited and well-established pattern of belief and behavior—that is what a tradition is, after all—and the perennial flowers named in the opening line of the poem are persistent, enduring, and recurring.

Aster is native to North America; Nasturtium to Mexico, Central American, and northern South America; Delphinium to eastern North America. This suggests that the tradition, though perhaps concentrated in North America, is widespread and exists on more than one continent.

As important as these opening flowers are the last two words on the first line: “We thought” (Line 1). “We thought” suggests that the group was wrong in thinking the dirt belonged to them. If their understanding of the situation was correct, the opening would simply read: “. . . Delphinium. Fingers in dirt / meant it was our dirt.” The insertion of “we thought” (Line 1) implies the dirt does not belong to the group speaking the poem, though they may believe it does.

While caring for the flowers, the collective speaker is also

[…] learning,

Names in heat, in elements classical

Philosophers said could change us (Lines 2-4).

At this moment in the poem (Line 4), the identity of “we” has not been made explicit. The “tradition” referenced in the title, too, remains unclear. However, an image has begun to form: A group is stooped over a bed of flowers, working in the dirt while being told that “classical philosophers” (Lines 3-4), or the hegemonic western tradition of education, will elevate them.

Next come more flower names in italics: “Star Gazer. / Foxglove” (Lines 4-5). Like the three flowers from the opening lines, Star Gazers and Foxgloves are colorful perennials, but unlike the earlier flowers, Star Gazers are native to eastern Asia; Foxgloves to Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Canary Islands. Coupled with the opening flowers, these two new perennials suggest that the tradition is even more widespread that it seemed at first, branching out into Asia, Europe, and many islands, in addition to the Americas.

Following these two new flowers, the collective “we” describe the summer sun. The sun is not a positive presence in “The Tradition”; it is not a life-giving force which nurtures the flowers. Rather, the sun is oppressive: It beats down on the flowers and the people tending them, and only grows more unbearable over time:

[…] Summer seemed to bloom against the will

Of the sun, which news reports claimed flamed hotter

On this planet than when our dead fathers

Wiped sweat from their necks (Lines 5-8).

This is followed by the final two flower names in the poem: “Cosmos. Baby’s Breath” (Line 8). Cosmos are native to Mexico; Baby’s Breath, to Eurasia and North Africa. The fact that the final flower in the poem comes in both perennial and annual forms—some types of Baby’s Breath die every year, while others live for many years on end—suggests that the tradition may continue or end.

Following “Baby’s Breath” at the end of Line 8, the poem shifts: elements that were not made explicit at the outset now materialize. First, the origins of the flowers are explained:

Men like me and my brothers filmed what we

Planted for proof we existed before

Too late, sped the video to see blossoms

Brought in seconds […] (Lines 9-12)

This is how readers learn that the group speaking the poem filmed the flowers they planted blossoming, then watched the film on fast forward. The italicized flower names signify the sped-up film the men are watching.

These lines also give readers more information about the “we” introduced in Line 1: They are men, and they are filming the flowers “for proof we existed” (Line 10). Therefore, it seems the men are in a fragile and threatened position. Watching the video of the flowers on fast forward, they see something akin to their own lives: A beautiful blossoming cut short.

The blossoms speeding to extinction on the video are “colors you expect to see in poems” (Line 12). This is the first (and only) introduction of the second-person pronoun in “The Tradition”; it establishes a clear distinction between the speakers, “we” (Line 1), and another group, “you” (Line 12).

The poem closes with a rhyming couplet: “Where the world ends, everything cut down / John Crawford. Eric Garner. Mike Brown” (Lines 13-14). This final couplet is the moment in the poem when speakers and the titular “tradition” are fully revealed. John Crawford, Eric Garner, and Mike Brown are African American men killed by law enforcement. John Crawford was shot by a police officer in an Ohio Walmart. Eric Garner was choked to death by a police officer in New York City. Mike Brown was shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. All three men were killed within days of each other in 2014: Garner died on July 17, Crawford on August 5, Brown on August 9.

Thus, the collective “we” are Black men, and “The Tradition” is one in which the American judicial system, particularly law enforcement, murders Black men. The flowers are a metaphor for the men’s lives; the sped-up video emphasizes how state-sanctioned violence accelerates Black death, especially the deaths of Black men. The identification between the video of the flowers blooming and Crawford, Garner, and Brown is intensified by the fact that, like the flower names, the names of the murdered men are italicized.

These final two lines give readers a new understanding of the poem’s title and opening lines, and this new understanding urges a return to the beginning of the poem. Thus, the poem becomes a circular loop: A second reading with this new information reveals new insights. The descriptions of planting in Lines 2-4, the hot conditions described in Lines 5-7, and past generations wiping sweat from their necks in Lines 7-8, for example, can now be understood as references to slavery and the hundreds of years that Black people were forced to work the land. Like the perennials described in the poem, slavery touched many continents, but was particularly concentrated in North America—first in the American colonies, later in the United States.

Moreover, the pernicious legacy of slavery persists in the United States today. The image on Lines 2-4 (of a group stooped over a bed of flowers, working in the dirt while being told classical knowledge will elevate them) can be read as a metaphor for the ways in which slavery and its awful legacy have oppressed Black people. This legacy leads readers directly to the conclusion of the poem: More state-sanctioned violence against Black people in the form of police officers killing Crawford, Garner, and Brown.

The final word of the poem is the last name of both Michael Brown and the poet, Jericho Brown. Concluding with their shared last name makes the use of the collective “we” speaker—and the familial words “fathers” (Line 7) and “brothers” (Line 9)—all the more poignant and powerful. This shared last name is also a homonym for a color: brown. This is the skin color of the collective “we” (Black men) and the poet. Thus, there is a trinity of meanings in this final word of the poem. It signifies the murdered Michael Brown, the poet (Jericho Brown), and the way people with brown skin are mistreated by the law.