M-80

After reading a few poems by Jim Daniels, I became curious as to his motivation and if the poems reflected his personal experiences. My interpretive writing teacher, Boyd C. Allen, was able to have him speak to my class. After he read a few of his digger poems, someone asked if digger was a real person. Jim Daniels replied, "mostly." He told us that he composed digger from many people he knew and from many personal experiences, but where it sounds really good, that is where Jim Daniels would improvise and exaggerate his story a bit to make it sound better. For the most part, his poems were written from personal experiences, or at least what he remembers from them. That is what makes his poems so real and great. He is showing that he is just one of us.

Actually, reading this book of poems has me asking the question; Is Mr Daniels using his personal experience about his black life in Pittsburg?