I have enjoyed seeing and hearing Jill’s evolution. How good it is to know that we do not have to stay the same? How boring, how tiring, how unfortunate it would be if we never grew, changed, and expanded. I am certainly glad I am not 22 years old anymore; I am certainly glad I know how to move through the triumphs, trails, and tribulations of love a lot smoother than I did when I was 22. Hell, I am glad that I will get through my next break up better than I did my last. Like, Jill I love to love.

Jill Scott’s albums have seen me through many phases of my life. Some of her songs are soo on time. I especially, related to the bluesy “Celibacy Thing” on her last album. In the song, I felt her channeling a tradition of blues women: Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Billie Holiday, just to name a few. I felt the ancestoral influence, at the same time, I enjoyed how the melody and the subject matter hit with contemporary time. Our world would be such a better place if everyone, men and women, young and old, took a break from their bodily needs, to deepen their sense of self. It works!

Anyway, I say this to say. Jill Scott is doing more than trying new subject matter–she is expanding whatever rigid boundaries that have been imposed on her as an artist; she is demonstrating her ability to grow and expand as a creative being on earth; and she is standing as an emblem of resilance.

If you read the poem closing, you will see that it is not just about defacating. Such a reading is elementary at best. The poem is about a struggle in a relationship. The “I”-narrator voice dominates the text. The grunting sounds makes me think that she is waged in a struggle where words are not suffice to explain the depth of the drama associated with the event. Also, from the number of “I” references, I take that the narrator is doing a lot of work around the situation. There is little resistance from the “you”; this is indicated by the one verb that illustrates his/her action–”splashed.” Obviously this poem is about the uneven work in a relationship or any situation involving two people.
At the end of the poem, the narrator indiciates that she flushes. She announces that she doesn’t think of “you” anymore. Of course, the irony is that she does. If she didn’t, would there be a poem?

And, so the poem is about love and loss. A subject matter that is not new to Jill as the title of this poem would suggest. Instead, the poem demonstrates how an artist makes defamiliarizes something familiar. In others, Jill is writing about love under the guise of defactaing.

And, I am writing under the guise of suggesting that only people with small minds and narrow ways of looking at the world would make a pot-shot at somebody’s physical frame. C’mon we Americans. Everyone in this country has an unhealthy relationship with food. So much so, that we waste tons of food as people starve all around the world everyday. Exploring our wasteful habits in light of the starvation rates around the world is a much healthier conversation that talking about Jill Scott’s body, which, if I do say so myself, is very beautiful.