Response to Baumgartel's Gramercy Park

"Gramercy Park" intrigues me. The theme Baumgartel uses to verbally connect her ideas is unknown to me, so the ideas presented in her piece seem disconnected. Though the author does sprinkle references to Gramercy Park throughout her piece, whatever it is about Gramercy that connects the rest of the piece together are shrouded in enigma. I would say this is a poem written from the perspective of someone in NYC who has either blood-roots in Iraq or knowledge about it, however she throws in the following allusion: "the Dutch came here for beavers[...]" I'm comparing the poem to my own personal experience- perhaps there is a tie between the Dutch, Gramercy Park, and Bagdhad that I've been sheltered from. Whatever. I could pick apart the ideas presented by the author, but I don't really care to do that. I think there's more to this work.
I know that because I can feel it. The robust feeling that lies behind the author's words is what hooks me. It's almost daunting. The reader opens us to the world she wishes to present upon the first word, like a dark cloud. This feeling stays steady throughout the work, closing on the last word. It's as though the author is opening us to another world I know with my heart I'd rather not be a part of. So even if Baumgartel's ideas serve no purpose beyond a subjective scale for herself, that's beside the point. I think this work is grounded in feeling. It intimidates me.