Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note by Amiri Baraka

I think that Baraka’s poem “Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note,” talks about how this man no longer prays at night. This I think leads me to believe that this man no longer has a religion or does not believe in his religion. I thought it was interesting how “each night [he] count[s] the stars.” I like how Baraka ends his poem with the description of his daughter praying in her room “her own hands clasped hands.”
I think that this poem is really significant to my own personal life because back in my junior I began to realize that I grew up into a religion. I never really had a chance to choose so since then I have been rethinking my religion. Because everyone in my family is Catholic, I also had to be Catholic.
I had no say in whether I want to explore another religion or not. I feel that I am old enough to make my own decisions. Instead of just accepting everything that is told to me, I want to analyze what others have to say and make my own decision. I have been distancing myself from my religion and attending church does not seem to be something that I feel is a mandatory commitment for me. I think that I am that guy who sits and looks out at the stars and counts them even when they are not their. I am that guy who now sits there and wonders why no one else “sings anymore.” Unlike the man in the poem, I haven’t had that moment where I see my own daughter praying.