Xiomara’s notebook, which is ostensibly the novel itself, is where she pours out all of her true and uncensored thoughts, feelings, and questions about her world and the people in it. Because of this, it begins to take on the role of functioning as Xiomara’s true soul and the embodiment of who she really is inside. However, when Mami finds, reads, and burns the notebook, Xiomara begins to discover her own capacity for growth, resilience, and self-assuredness. She discovers that she doesn’t necessarily need her notebook in order to feel like who she truly is, in part because she has many of her poems memorized and in part because having her notebook burned represents a turning point in which Xiomara begins to live her truth in her everyday life, not just in her notebook. In this sense, the notebook functions as more of a tool in Xiomara’s growth than a direct representation of her soul. It teaches her that her soul and her true self live within her and don’t have to exist in an external form to be valid and worthwhile.
Xiomara’s Poetry Notebook Quotes in The Poet X
I can’t remember
the last time people were silent
while I spoke, actually listening.
Not since Aman.
But it’s nice to know I don’t need him
in order to feel listened to.
My little words
feel important, for just a moment.
This is a feeling I could get addicted to.
Because so many of the poems tonight
felt a little like our own stories.
Like we saw and were seen.
And how crazy would it be
if I did that for someone else?
And I know that I’m ready to slam.
That my poetry has become something I’m proud of.
The way the words say what I mean,
how they twist and turn language,
how they connect with people.
How they build community.
I have no more poems. My mind blanks.
A roar tears from my mouth.
“Burn it! Burn it.
This is where the poems are,” I say,
thumping a fist against my chest.
“Will you burn me? Will you burn me, too?
You would burn me, wouldn’t you, if you could?”
She puts a soft hand on my arm
and I look into the face of a woman
not much older than me,
a woman with a Spanish last name,
who loves books and poetry,
who I notice for the first time is pretty,
who has a soft voice and called my house
because she was worried
and the words are out before I know it:
Xiomara’s Poetry Notebook Symbol Timeline in The Poet X
