A Lesson in Witchcraft

Sometimes when I’m reading through poetry both assigned by class and not assigned, I find that I diagnose them based on my own opinions on what poetry should be. This isn’t so that I can dismiss anything as being non-poetry, but there are just some types of poetry that resonate with people more than others. For me, I love imagery, and a poet that can paint a scene that I can mentally see clearly is a poet that I’ll enjoy. I also really love stories, both hearing and telling.

H.D. and Zack Strait are two poets that are very good with their imagery and painting the picture in the reader’s head. I found a lot of similarity between H.D’s poem “Pear Tree” and Strait’s “Another Moon”. In Strait’s poem, he tells a story that describes a few images so well that I can see them clearly, though I’ve never seen the same sight in real life as he’s describing. Here are a few well-imaged lines from Strait’s poem:

With its soft surface of bluebells

But there it was, spinning so close to the earth…

So I pulled our red ladder out of the garage,

And climbed to the roof

I stood up and imagined I was balancing, the moon on my head

I really like this narrative imagery style presented by Strait. I can imagine this happening, and follow along with the visual in my head while the story is being told in a poetic style. For me, this is just a great method of sharing your views with other people. Storytelling is such a great tradition, and when you add the style, rhyme, meter or any other part of poetry with it, it’s so captivating.

H.D. has this same captivating style of imagery, as shown in her poem “Pear Tree”. Here are a few well-imaged lines of her poem:

Silver dust, lifted from the earth,

Higher than my arms reach…

No flower ever parted silver, from such rare silver…

O white pear, your flower-tufts, thick on the branch,

Bring summer and ripe fruits, in their purple hearts

Just the way that she describes these flowers, which is something she uses in most of her poetry, paints a picture in my head that makes me appreciate nature, though I’ve never seen what she’s describing in-person. That effect is one of the greatest styles of poetry, to me. It’s so amazing how people can use words alone to create an image in someone else’s mind without them even seeing the visual in real life. It’s so hard to explain, it’s like some type of voodoo, witchcraft magic. 


Suggested poetry blog of the week: http://bestnewpoets.org/blog/

Twist ending or Twit ending?

Ever been to a movie, watched through the entire thing on one plot-line, then in the last few minutes, the director decides to take a sharp left turn toward a different destination than what you originally thought? I’m speaking of twist endings, of course. The use of twist endings has been existent in many forms of art for centuries, and its effect can be diverse. A twist ending can either swap the audience’s perspective on what they’ve seen before to see it from a completely different angle, confuse the audience, or it can infuriate the audience by not feeding them what they expected. For me, Toomer’s poetry uses a type of twist ending that just leaves me with confusion.

This week’s poet contrast will be between Jean Toomer and Heather Christle. Both have poems that twist things around in a matter of lines, but the lasting impression that this twist had on me were very, very different. For Toomer, I’ll use the example of “Her Lips are Copper Wires”. Toomer’s poem starts by describing the yellow globes of lamp-posts, and comparing the beads of water on them to woman’s breath against him, but then the poem, in my opinion, take a turn for the strange. After describing lamp-posts and his wanting for a woman to be close to him, Jean ends the poem with these lines:

Then with your tongue remove the tape

And press your lips to mine

Till they are incandescent

I’m not a professional critic of poetry, nor will I ever be, but I have read this poem dozens of times over, and I can’t figure out why the first line of the three above needs to exist. To me, this is a type of twist ending. What is the tape doing over her lips? Is that weird to anyone else? Because it’s definitely not normal to me.

By contrast, I’ll use Christle’s poem “I Can’t Swim”, because she offers a type of twist in her poetry as well, but a much different type than the strange, confusing twist of Jean Toomer. Here are the first few lines of Christle’s poem:

I can’t swim, because I can’t fit

Into the water

I am

Two million feet tall

Even though this collection is figurative and obviously a slight exaggeration, I like the twist there, because it causes you to view the poem in a completely different light. She continues by saying that if someone wanted to use her as a weapon, they’d ask her to lay down on New York. Her twist at the very start of her poem actually adds to the poem, while Toomer’s twist at the end took away from his poetry, as far as I’m concerned. It’s like the difference is between having a twist ending and a twit ending.


Suggested poetry blog of the week: http://tuesdaypoem.blogspot.com/

Cats are People Too!

Many poets like using characters to capture emotion, and in some instances, the character happens to be an animal. I personally like poetry that centers around animals, because it gives emotion and thought to creatures that can’t voice either for themselves. After reading the poetry of T.S. Eliot and Craig Arnold, I can actually only claim to like SOME poetry that centers around animals, because of the difference shown by these two poets’ styles.

Craig Arnold is a poet that still writes today, and he has a number of very good poems. In one poem titled “Very Large Moth”, Arnold describes a moth that is flying around in a kitchen. Here are a couple phrases he uses in this poem:

Like televisions, its leg joints are large enough to count…

A creature so solid must have room for a soul…

Caught in a shopping bag and rushed to the front door

Arnold’s method for describing this animal in poetry is just that…description. He’s describing what a very large moth is like while it’s caught in a kitchen and trying to find its way out. I like this poem, and I like Arnold’s poetry, but I think the difference between this poem and T.S. Eliot’s “The Old Gumbie Cat” is the difference between good and great, in my opinion.

While Arnold uses his poetry to describe the events of a moth caught in a kitchen, T.S. Eliot uses his poetry not only to describe an old Gumbie cat, but also gives personality to the creature. We get to see the personality and mentality of the old Gumbie cat, in such lines as:

She thinks that the cockroaches just need employment

To prevent them from idle and wanton destroyment

So she’s formed, from that lot of disorderly louts,

A troop of well-disciplined helpful boy-scouts

With a purpose in life and a good deed to do –

And she’s even created a Beetles’ Tattoo

I like both poems about animals, and poems about animals in general, but the way that T.S. Eliot captures the curious and devious nature of his “Old Gumbie Cat” is so much more impressive to me than simple descriptive poetry about an animals’ life. I love the playful attitude Eliot shows the cat having, and anyone with a cat knows exactly what he’s talking about. It helps us remember that cats are people too.


Suggested poetry site of the week: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine

Poetic Mad Libs

 There are many different types and styles of poetry. To anyone in my current Poetry class, I’m sure you already know which poet from class is about to be discussed in the following words, but I’ll type them out regardless.

The idea of rebellion usually scares most people. People rising up to change the way the world views a certain idea or a certain place, and all are trying to replace the figure in charge with a new way they consider better. Certain ideas that fuel rebellions have been very beneficial to shape the world we live in today, yet not all rebellions are for good causes, and I’m glad that most of these rebellions are quelled before they are successful. I think Gertrude Stein is one of these rebellions, where the end result doesn’t replace the old idea. Stein tried to fuel a rebellion in the way that people view poetry, and I’m extremely thankful it didn’t completely succeed.

To me, some of Stein’s “poetry” was anything but, and I’m not referring to the fact that it’s mostly repetition and random sounds that come together to form a sound you would hear at the wedding of a couple young, in-love chainsaws. Some of her poems, such as “Daughter” are more of a story, because there is no rhyme, no rhythm, and almost no reason. In this poem, Stein writes:

A painter loved a woman. A musician did not sing. A south African loved books. An American was a woman and needed help.

I’m not going to bash Stein’s work as terrible, even though I compared it to a chainsaw wedding earlier, but rather misguided. I think if Stein had done short stories instead of poetry, she would be famous in a good way instead of the popular opinion that she tried to destroy classical poetry and replace it with a terrible version of nothing.

Aside from the fact that I’m not a fan, I know this world doesn’t revolve around my opinion (thank goodness), and that there are some that have taken Stein’s style as inspiration. One such poet is Elisa Gabbert. Her poem “Poem with a Superpower” reminds me much of Stein’s style, though Gabbert actually makes the poetry look like poetry. In this poem, Gabbert writes:

The art on the walls is hanged

At nefarious angles;

A boy at the counter disappears,

Or I can see through him

These words are reminiscent of the style that Stein offered in her time, though I like that it’s also mixed with the classical look of poetry. Her words are abstract, and they don’t describe the current situation or explain everything that’s happening, but the words are still saying something and causing the reader to think. I believe that’s what Stein was also attempting, though she did a poor job. To me, it seems Stein tried to start a rebellion against the classical view of poetry, but she didn’t offer a better view, just a different one. I’m glad the rebellion didn’t stick, but I do like reading poetry like Gabbert’s, where the words are abstract and the style is more classical. 


Suggested poetry blog of the week: http://anti-poetry.com/anti/gabbertel/

Extinguish the Flames of Rebellion!

 There are many different types and styles of poetry. To anyone in my current Poetry class, I’m sure you already know which poet from class is about to be discussed in the following words, but I’ll type them out regardless.

The idea of rebellion usually scares most people. People rising up to change the way the world views a certain idea or a certain place, and all are trying to replace the figure in charge with a new way they consider better. Certain ideas that fuel rebellions have been very beneficial to shape the world we live in today, yet not all rebellions are for good causes, and I’m glad that most of these rebellions are quelled before they are successful. I think Gertrude Stein is one of these rebellions, where the end result doesn’t replace the old idea. Stein tried to fuel a rebellion in the way that people view poetry, and I’m extremely thankful it didn’t completely succeed.

To me, some of Stein’s “poetry” was anything but, and I’m not referring to the fact that it’s mostly repetition and random sounds that come together to form a sound you would hear at the wedding of a couple young, in-love chainsaws. Some of her poems, such as “Daughter” are more of a story, because there is no rhyme, no rhythm, and almost no reason. In this poem, Stein writes:

A painter loved a woman. A musician did not sing. A south African loved books. An American was a woman and needed help.

I’m not going to bash Stein’s work as terrible, even though I compared it to a chainsaw wedding earlier, but rather misguided. I think if Stein had done short stories instead of poetry, she would be famous in a good way instead of the popular opinion that she tried to destroy classical poetry and replace it with a terrible version of nothing.

Aside from the fact that I’m not a fan, I know this world doesn’t revolve around my opinion (thank goodness), and that there are some that have taken Stein’s style as inspiration. One such poet is Elisa Gabbert. Her poem “Poem with a Superpower” reminds me much of Stein’s style, though Gabbert actually makes the poetry look like poetry. In this poem, Gabbert writes:

The art on the walls is hanged

At nefarious angles;

A boy at the counter disappears,

Or I can see through him

These words are reminiscent of the style that Stein offered in her time, though I like that it’s also mixed with the classical look of poetry. Her words are abstract, and they don’t describe the current situation or explain everything that’s happening, but the words are still saying something and causing the reader to think. I believe that’s what Stein was also attempting, though she did a poor job. To me, it seems Stein tried to start a rebellion against the classical view of poetry, but she didn’t offer a better view, just a different one. I’m glad the rebellion didn’t stick, but I do like reading poetry like Gabbert’s, where the words are abstract and the style is more classical. 


Suggested poetry blog of the week: http://anti-poetry.com/anti/gabbertel/

Workin' on it!

In our day and age, most people enter the workforce between the ages of 16-20 for the first time, and the idea of having a job is very exciting. It’s a new experience where you can finally get money without relying on your parents or anyone else. Even though the paychecks people usually get when they’re 16-18 aren’t enough to survive without parents or other support, the fact that the money is yours is an incredible rush of excitement, especially the first paycheck.

Unfortunately, somewhere down the line, a job becomes less exciting and even dreadful. That youthful excitement turns to woe as the thought of going to work has changed from a new experience to our own personal version of Groundhog’s Day. Not all jobs are like this, but the two sides are very dramatically different.

These two extreme views on having a job are present in the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Rita Dove in their poems “Career” and “My Father Enters the Work Force” respectively. In “Career”, Dunbar writes;

Oh, circumscribe me not by rules

That serve to lead the minds of fools!

But give me pow’r to work my will,

And at my deeds the world shall thrill

During Dunbar’s time, his work was chosen for him, and there was no such thing as a “dream job” like most teenagers and young adults think of today. His work and fate had been sealed for him, and his poetry shows the inevitable dread that comes from the time in which he lived.

Rita Dove pens a different idea about the work place. Her poem “My Father Enters the Work Force” is a poem that describes the work that will have to be done with the new job, and it seems very pessimistic. The work is tedious, and words such as “rougher” and “forever” are used to describe the tasks at hand, but the last two lines of the poem show the joy that can come with having a job;

No more postponed groceries,

And that blue pair of shoes!

This is the youthful excitement that I described earlier with young adults when they get that first paycheck. Rita Dove’s words show the excitement that a job can bring, because it makes life easier through the money earned, while Dunbar shows the absolute disparity that comes with a job as it becomes a daily, mindless activity that can’t be changed. Two very different ideas, two very different worlds, but both still existing today. Is work supposed to be happy, or just a drag? 


Suggested blog of the week: http://billmoyers.com/content/rita-dove%E2%80%99s-list-of-young-poets-to-watch/