Etheridge Knight’s poem, “A Poem For Myself”, he writes (“I was born in Mississippi; I walked barefoot thru the mud. Born black in Mississippi, Walked barefoot thru the mud. But, when I reached the age of twelve I left that place for good.” Etheridge Knight). What I take from this is that he is a black boy born in Mississippi and barefoot walking through the mud meaning he comes from a place where he sees him wanting more for himself then what little he has in his life now. In the poem he heads north to Detroit then Chicago then New York City. He felt he had to get out of Mississippi, to be free of this poor life where his daddy chopped cotton, for him to be