Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Hannah Andrews - One of Two
The poet is expressing a dual self and the conflict produced by the recognition of this polarity. She writes: "all I could picture was a second self,/me as coin tail, sure that in the moment of the split, option b sidles/off & joins all the other discards in a slick landscape, lush with/what our safe halves have given up." The duality seems to be a product of the endless possibilities (what's given up) and their conflict with the "safe [half]," what's been attained. The safe half is the realm of the established: her relationship with the individual to whom the poem is addressed, their "Savannah kitchen", and her daily role(s). To reconcile this conflict she visits her life in a dreamscape: ". . . last night, I went incognito & found myself in our Savannah/kitchen. We were cooking just the way you imagined us. There was/nowhere else you had to be: time sprawled gorgeous & the icebox/sweat pearled delicate. I don't want to tell you how I saw my own/face, as I squatted into the pantry for cake flour, eyes cast familiar,/a long look toward somewhere else." Through this description we (and the poet) come to reckon the conflict. She visits her own (safe) life unseen. The addressee has nowhere to be, time is theirs, the kitchen is theirs, living up to its urbane utility, and then she captures her own eyes. "eyes cast familiar,/a long look toward somewhere else." - she discovers her own eyes searching. Searching for something else. She is incomplete and the "safe" life/self doesn't amount to what was promised. Her eyes unconsciously search, longing for this unity, for this satisfaction, but they find it not in the symbolic pantry, not to be satisfied by comforts and cake flour.
hope that's cohesive :)
Monday, November 26, 2007
Knit by Julie Doxsee
Sunday, November 25, 2007
June's hide taken off distant hedges--Karyna McGlynn
As a listener or reader of a poem I believe to be an account I will have an expectation of the speaker to tell me something. McGlynn however doesn't overtly tell me anything. This makes me angry. But I delight in the rhythm of the lines so much, "down into dusk dulls me in this," that I do not become disengaged from the poem. I try to dive further into it but become further lost. McGlynn uses six different pronouns (she, her, someone, me, your, I) and one proper noun (june). In prose this might not be a problem, but in such short and independent lines whatever story the speaker is trying to tell seems to get lost, or rather floats from one pronoun to another without really feeling intimate, without really relating anything. I never really know what she is talking about.
When I get to the final lines of the poem none of this mystery is worked out for me, but I finally read something that is direct, "ok / I couldn't say a damn thing about it." The speaker is telling me in plain language that she is trying to tell her own perspective of this ocurrance but that she can't. And by saying "ok" it is as if she is asking me to understand that the way she is telling the story is the only way she can tell it. McGlynn has been setting me up for this all along, but she is successful because I am unaware of it. Once I understand that the speaker herself may be as confused as I am I can reenter the poem without the feeling that I am missing something. When I do this I am allowed to float along with the story from one line to the next and simply enjoy the ride because I have understood that sometimes the story is not what is important. What is important is simply trying to tell it.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
[My Tattoo] by Erin M. Bertram
She uses a few subtle examples of alliteration in the poem, such as "silent suspension / between alight and arrival," though I think some more examples of alliteration or consonance might have made the poem sound more "energetic." To me, her form does not seem to accomplish much; she uses three-line stanzas, each broken up by a single space. There are no indented lines, or "tricky" line breaks which keep the reader alert, which I am a big fan of and would have liked to have seen in this poem. The very last line in the poem, " amid a whirl of otherwise dynamic, unchanging heat," stands by itself, which I really liked because it made me ponder an "alternative" meaning for the poem, though I can't really think of one that makes sense. Finally, I think the title of the poem, [My Tattoo], is way too obvious. Many of the words she uses in the poem, such as "forearm, ink, lines sketched, and drawn," convey the "tattoo" theme quite well, so in my opinion, the title really spoils the rest of the poem.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Neon Romance on an Ice Floe
Kismet Al-Hussaini
The first line:
Leg of dawn, blue-petaled wheel,
had me thinking opium. It was strange because the only opium pod I’ve ever seen had more of a reddish purple pedaled wheel atop a green pod (Do they come in different colors?). I thought it was interesting because I later found a reference to poppy seeds in the last sentence. I secretly suspect that I read the whole poem subconsciously, and in all actuality, had poppies on my mind before I read “blue petaled wheel. Anyways, opium would explain why the narrator loses contact with the old lover. Perhaps the lover is all strung out and doesn’t care. “Leg of dawn” sounds intrusive. I’ve heard that the sight of the sun is terrifying after an opium binge. Also, petaled is actually spelled pedaled and I wonder what the significance of this could be.
I’m not quite sure of the real meaning behind this poem, but I do know that it made me feel apathetic. In the title, ice floe refers to a piece of ice under six miles at its greatest dimension. This sets up a slow drifting motion in my mind. That, combined with the cold and “poppy” images makes me stare at the “steeple where sparrows scatter into formation”, like someone who witnesses the apocalypse, shrugs his shoulders, and moves on.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
NEW QUESTIONS: Please answer the following in the comments field.
2. What are you angry about? Who, specifically, are you angry at?
3. What do you consider to be avant-garde art in this century? What does it pit itself against?
Feel free to be as open-ended, speculative and investigative as you want--or need--to be in your responses
Thursday, November 1, 2007
PLEASE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS, AS POSED IN CLASS
1. Does the form of this poem create a wall between reader and poet, and if so what type of wall and why?
•
Re: our relationships to poems, in which "it" is a poem. [Please answer in the first person]
2. Who am I to say it should be changed?
post your responses as a comment
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Two Poems by William Carlos Williams
In the second poem The Snow Begins, another side of silence is shown. It is the silence in which one spends time thinking about the sadness in life. The poem talks about how the snow comes and brings cold, frost, and death to a beautiful garden and how it is a quiet killer, slowly and silently falling down upon its victims. The poem isn't just talking about the silence of observing, but also the way snow comes, quietly without drawing attention to itself, it just appears and all of a sudden, everything is gone, covered by the snow. It is like snow takes over everything around it without even trying. Also, the speaker seems like a cynic, commenting on how pointless it is for the garden to continue growing back in the spring, only to die in the winter again.
Both poems show that sometimes words aren't necessary, that there are so many different emotions silence, one doesn't need words to express how they feel. Some times the feeling is just in the silence.
The Snow Begins by William Carlos Williams
As the poem progresses Mr. Williams begins creating a blanket of silence with his words. If the 'bombs' are being characterized by silence, then the poem is easy adapted. Throughout the poem this 'blanket' of snow or silence is overpowering to all other aspects in the poem. It covers all the 'crevices' and 'heals' all the wounds. Silence in this poem is almost superhuman, taking everything around it and almost comforting it. If you were to read this poem out of the context of silence many different interpretations could be made. This poem is ambiguous. Taking the same poem and analyzing it for qualities of "super-natural" or even war themes could be done. Mr. Williams poem "Silence" poem on the other-hand completely encompasses silence. There isn't any confusion of what the theme is in this poem.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
First Death in Nova Scotia
The thing that really stuck out in this poem was the contrast of red to white. Like life blood to frozen corpse, or a Geishas lips compared to her face. The cold makes white very crisp and quiet. The living red eyes of the loon further emphasis this contrast. In death, there's never a thing louder than silence.
The last part of this poem gets pretty emotional. It expressed how it takes time for death to settle in. Elisabeth wrote about Arthur as if he could almost wake up but just didn't want to. When people die I think it's fairly common to think that you’ll see the person again and the only reason they’re missing is temporary. The quality of silence was especially present in the end.
I thought it was interesting how so many of the poems dealt with snow or at least the winter cold and quiet. I would like to read more poems with an overwhelming silence. The kind that feels like a bomb went off by your head; suddenly, you’re ears tunnel in and submerge.
Silence by Casey Peterson
Creeps up
And
Covers
Everything else
Around it.
The
Loudness of
Nothing
Is deafening.
So heavy
You can't
Move--
Even if
You
Wanted to.
Its
Intensity
Shakes
You to
Your
Very core.
It is your
Muted
Soul
Screaming out
For
A savior.
It is
The way
You
Feel
When it
Starts to
Rain.
It is
The worst
Kind
Of
Hurt.
It is
Being
So stunned
You can't
Think
Straight.
And
As it
Came,
It is
Gone.
Desolation by Keaten LaBrel
of humanity lies a cabin...
Outside,
snowflakes fall relentlessly from the white sky,
turning off the lights of summer.
Ice appears on the waters surface,
separating it from the rest of the world,
muting its existence.
Slowly, all colors fade out to nothing,
White
Darkness falls...
Inside,
a small wood fire dwindles
to merely nothing,
only giving rise to a shadow on the wall.
Stillness fills the air
Drink after drink,
Cigarette after cigarette,
Existence smears to nothing.
Desperation turns calm...
Silence
Silence can be both comforting and ultimately disturbing. This captures the overwhelming blanket that a snowfall can leave on a scenery. It is lays down over everthing, quieting, subduing, realaxing. i love how the snow is described as a "tac smoothing every surface."
This poem really engages in silencence pecause it depicts an act of total silence. Snowfall can be the most quiet event on earth. weightless flakes gently falling over the field. There is also a metaphysical question brought to life at the end. "what lights a world gone blank with despair?/you were here oncce; you will be here again." What is more blank than fields of white?
Silence by Willliam Carlos Williams
Monday, October 15, 2007
Porch In Snow by Joanna Klink
Perhaps the most important parts of the poem to consider are the key words that she has placed throughout the poem which also convey images of silence. In the second line of the poem the word “silence” helps to immediately direct the reader to noiseless images; and, as I stated earlier, the image of snow falling is itself a “quiet” scene. In addition, numerous emotion words are scattered throughout the poem (sadness, feeling, sorrow), which also help to convey silent feelings.
All of these aspects help the “silence” theme flow throughout the poem, but for me, one line puts the entire poem into perspective. Near the end of the poem, the line which reads, “This also comes into the winter garden,” is the most important in my mind. A garden is a peaceful, lush place by itself, but a winter garden is cold, quiet, and lonely; these words echoed in my mind as I read the rest of the poem, and they seem to really “sum it up” in just a few words.
Cartographies of Silence
In "Cartographies of Silence," Adrienne Rich, as the title states, draws a map of an individuals response to, and analysis of, the meaning of silence. She exposes this "meaning" by comparing two different kinds of silence: (1) the silence experienced between two people, and (2) the silence the poet experiences in creating a poem. Both types of silence for Rich are a representation of an individuals choice, "Silence can be a plan / rigorously executed." But a fundemental difference between the two is that one, the poem, "can be torn up," when begun "with a lie," while the same cannot be done with a converstation. These two arenas are for Rich where silence plays.
The "lie" Rich refers to is the fundemental assumption that the words exchanged between two people are understood through a common language. This "lie" perpetuates itself "with its own / false energy" because two people constantly "repeat" the enactment of this assumption. The result of this misunderstanding is silence.
The poet however, in conjunction with Levertov's "inner voice" has the ability to recognize the lie that begins a work, and can "tear it up", or disprove it though the fact of the very "presence," "history," or "form" the poem takes. This occurs in the silence of the poets room.
This line of analysis needs much more space and support for these superficial assertions, but the point Rich, and I, finally comes to is this: the individual finds truth in many ways, but that their discovery comes from a choice they make in silence. One can wish for things to be transperant, as they appear to be in conversation, and there perhaps they will find truth. Adrienne Rich chooses the "dust, / these pale clouds dourly lingering," because in their obscurity and in their silence, "time after time the truth breaks moist and green."
Sunday, October 14, 2007
The Turtles' Tank Needs To Be Cleaned, There is no turning back. By Didi Menendez
Friday, October 12, 2007
Sanctificum
by CHRIS ABANI
Usually poems this long loose me but the descriptions in this one kept my attention. I especially enjoyed the lines
cashews from trees and ate them in the sun,
the sticky sweet of them running down your arms.
Sticky as a good thing is really visual. I wonder what wild cashews are really like or if this is merely a metaphor. The poem reminded me of this movie called Faye Grim that was really funny. I’m not sure why, but when I got about half way through it felt like the poem had a political agenda. Things with an agenda annoy me because I feel like someone is trying to manipulate me. If somebody has something important to say, or at least something that is going to attempt to change my mind; then they should say it directly.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
a bit of hodge-podge on: Blessing will, by Karen Schubert
useful head hair gone, erupting
from your ears and eyebrows,
the drama of your face tribute
to a poet. I wish you lips to kiss
the new bare skin above your brain,
and levity for a head-heavy
life. I wish you too many
books to read, too many journeys
to take, too many women to
love you. I wish an echo
to your stairwell, bay to your
fish, eyes to your lens, skies
to your pain, friends to your friend,
apprentice to your shaman, music
to your mouth, moth to your moonlight.
This poem's first line really captivated me on a personal level. "I wish you time to age . . ." The poem is sonorous, it is earnest and resonant. The voice is comforting and smooth. I believe that in American life (and "life" in its broader context) we are scarcely alotted time to age. People are withered by occupations, stress, and simply trying to conform - by trying to convey a contrived look of wellness in spite of the fact that they are rotten within. The placidity of this poem defies this. The poem is optimistic, seemingly written to a newborn with "new bare skin." This image also serves the reader by bridging the gap between infancy and old age. It is this gap which the poet conveys. Blessing will is a blessing and it soft tone tells us to appreciate the small things and the light hearted, and through the coupling of these realizations we will realize the endless rich possibilitities of life and of living.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Philosophy for Darling
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Hot Pursuit
The thing to do with a pretty girl
is own her outright,
edge your way in
with deeds, a few vows,
own her
with every fire
you land smartly in,
turn into flames,
the flickers of your red licking
In the midst of tutelage
walks the small of a back
unnoticed, unstroked,
the spine neglected
by a child’s grasp,
a lover’s pressure
as promised:
find her here by your heated hand—
Maybe the sky will shine
or clouds sound freely:
hold hard a heady thrust
untyped, letter-bound,
payback with motion
that makes even smoke burn
and our stories run
together turning to poems
that find us, bring us apart,
both ends fitted, fire based.
The poem Hot Pursuit by Amy King is an angst laden portrayal of how a romantic relationship turns oppressive.
The speaker of this poem is a woman who has been taken in by a man. The tone is one that is quite angry, bringing to light a cynical, universal conjecture about the everyday miseries of a romantic relationship. We know the tone of the poem is an angry one right off the bat with the initial line, "The thing to do with a pretty girl is own her outright." Evidence of anger is absolutely present in this idea. The poem discusses through its sob story style devices how oppression from one party of the relationship occurs.
A never-ending event through which our life is planned.
Dictates our life
Everything in its sphere
I can’t even comprehend it, as I’m not even sure its real
I wish it would just go away and leave me to have some peace.
Til I stand over you, ruler of all
growing only like a callous,
an hourglass is nothing like the Jersey turnpike.
It is from the Day of our Lives Fancy Face.
I wish time would stop so I could make more money.
But how to get paid by the hour
Time is only numbers.
response to Karen Schubert's "the clothes whisperer."
Monday, October 8, 2007
Hot Pursuit
Monday, October 1, 2007
Mountain
Painting the picture in my mind, brilliant
The Mountain rises in magnificent splendor
Focusing on the movement of the beings
She whimsically imagines the ease of their destruction
From the vantage of rocky slopes
Viewing humankind in all their ills
Polluting her body with drugs of choice
There is no point in continuing on
Agreeing, that it is only a matter of time
The Mountain peak is a symbol
Her base a small crutch
Holding under the force of her structure
She is an empty house
Filling with the sand of time
Bound to the earth for eternity
Sick of all the tricks coming forth
Felling like a cave of emptiness
Waiting for the urine of beings.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Untitled
Just the other day I sat in on a barbecue and said, "Madam, your python tastes like paper." Petewi!
She promptly replied, "Oh no! Not Gregory! You fool!"
And fell spiraling down into hysterics.
If I were a tree I would take 24 hour naps.
If I were a duck I would quack quack quack.
I wonder what a python would say to that.
I think the python would eat the duck, even if paper tasted like it.
I think to myself, "which came first, the python or the paper"
I thank God for scissor. Leave rocks at home.
Hysterics, my head against the time watered stone.
Even though rock beats scissor.
An endless cycle
TIme to buy a python
TIme to find a title.
Titles are just words
Honestly, I just want to get the hell out of here.
Then how will the work end?
Another round
When words fail, idolize sound.
the haze
The Haze
It envelopes the sky like a smoky bar
It evades the air like a flock of gulls
Anxiously we wait for the haze of the storm
Only thinking of the change at hand
The anticipation brings me back to good times
Times of wealth and prosperity
Soon we will be blinded from the haze
Only long enough to dream of change
The rain will come and wash the evil away
Their future lying in an eternity of hell
The sky will clear
High we must clime to discover the future
Far less that it seems
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
The Toll
The wind caressing our hair
The sun lifted our spirits to heights unfathomed
The stench of smoke hammered our noses
The enemy's voice of idiocrity intoxicated our minds
How many will perish
The toll will tell
Death is only a formality full of fear and facts
We have no answers... only results
We walk and do what we're told
Spoiled through flesh and worldly tangibles
The product stuck to our boots
We thought of our future as we scraped this product anxiously
The fight grows on
As you pick your battles
Looking for more ammunition, yet only find your knife
You pick at them anxiously and question your future
But only the toll will tell