Take the I Out (Sharon Olds)

I love the idea of this poem by Sharon Olds. Can't you just picture the teacher or writing professor who told her 'just take the I out - it'll make your writing stronger'.

I remember that they said you weren't supposed to put I into any of the essays you wrote for school. As if, what you wrote in that English paper wasn't opinion, but clear-as-day fact. I never had a creative writing teacher say that, but I get the impression that is what spurned her to write this poem.

I like how she using that pronoun to talk about her father and her mother and even the look of the letter itself. I love that the personal pronoun I yields talk about her family and her history and our history (as Americans, as women, as people into writing) because isn't that the way it is? I is not a solitary being, but is wrapped up in all that came before and is around the I. I sees and survives. How could you get rid it?

Favorite line: "But I love the I, steel I-beam / that my father sold"

But I love the I, steel I-beam that my father sold

Permanence (Denise Duhamel)

What a stupid poem by Denise Duhamel. Can I say that? Perhaps it is too blunt a statement and thus patently untrue.

Dunno, but when I reached the end of the poem I just rolled my eyes. Because, of course, the tattooed woman will die young; she lived a dangerous tattooed life. I mean, she couldn't even work at Starbucks!

Laaaame! YMMV, of course.

Favorite line: "She says there are only two ways they hold her back. 1. She can't work at Starbucks."

She says there are only two ways they hold her back. 1. She can’t work at Starbucks. - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/23606#sthash.6dHWIPW7.dpuf

The Thousand Somethings of Someone (Forrest Gander)

After writing a particularly bad bit of poetry, a teacher once told me (more or less) that you can write a bland poem, using non-specific words and images. That it was possible, but that I had only done so by half and therefore mine was shoddy, but I think he must have been referring to today's poem by Forrest Gander (who was one of the poets I saw yesterday!).

It's very title is the kind of vague nonsense I was mimicking. As is the majority of the short poem. I love that after the so-dull-it's-almost-funny title, the poem immediately goes to "Could have been / otherwise", but well kind of. It easily could have been a more specific title, but then it would not have been a good title for this type of poem.

Then it starts to be a little bit specific, in that it starts using understandable nouns. But again, the nouns he picks are so commonly nonspecific - "flowers", birds and "sunsets" - it's almost a mockery.

The last bit finally uses unusual language in unusual ways. It's shocking, almost stumbling to read.


Favorite line: "Could have been / otherwise"

Could have been otherwise

Squaw Valley Writers (Poetry Benefit Reading)

Guess what I did tonight? I went to the best poetry reading! Because it is late, I will just talk a little about the reading and not go into any particular poem.

The reading was hosted by Squaw Valley Writers. They are having a week-long retreat starting tomorrow in Squaw Valley, so the poets at the reading were all going to be going to that. Luckies!

There were 5 poets (3 of them Pulitzer Prize winners/finalists - wowowow) - Forrest Gander (Ivy leaguer and acts like it, also a fantastic reader), Robert Hass (very personable, looked the way I imagine Robert Frost to look), Brenda Hillman (high-pitched voice, seemed very nice, but was my least favorite), Sharon Olds (!) (the headliner and she knew it - didn't spend much time at the mic though) and Evie Shockley (the youngest and whose poetry was most 'current').

It was such an awesome night. I sat in the front row (unfortunately to the far side) and it was cool to be at an event of poets in an audience of poets/poetry enthusiasts.

Afterwards, I bought two books (new poetry books are so expensive!) and got them signed!! Can't wait to read my autographed books by Forrest Gander and Evie Shockley.

:)

A Red, Red Rose (Robert Burns)

When I first read this poem by Robert Burns, I thought 'what tripe!'. It's very cliche and while it's well written - what with the meter and the rhyme - I was unimpressed.

But then I read his bio and he was born in the 1700s, so perhaps the phrases (my love is like a red rose, til the seas go dry, the sands of my life....) are only cliche now. Maybe he was guy that first wrote them. That'd be pretty impressive.

It looks like he also wrote Auld Lang Syne and is considered to be the National Bard of Scotland, so I'll assume that he did coin those phrases. Very neat.

Favorite line: "Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear"

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,

The last poem in the world (Benny Anderson)

The last poem in the world by Benny Anderson

It's cute, but I don't know, it really just a 'meh' for me.  Clever, meta poems often do that, unless they are terribly clever which this isn't.

Instead, the title spoils the poem and the rest of the lines fill with not terribly unique thoughts about being the last poem. Dunno, not for me. How'd you like it? Were you surprised or delighted by it?

Favorite line: "hang on to the very last words"

Pittsburgh (James Allen Hall)

My husband was born in Pittsburgh, but I've never been there. However, this poem by James Allen Hall provides a(n unflattering) picture of the city.

I don't think after reading today's poem, anyone would make a beeline for the place. It's kind of neat - all the place names - I bet it's easily identifiable as Pittsburgh if you had any familiarity. I like the feel you get from the lines, the dirty unpleasantness of it.

I wonder if there is a poetic term for poems about places. Something akin to ekphacsis for poems about art. I can think of a few others off the top of my head, so it's definitely a theme.

Sorry to my husband and the city to say that this one paints a grim portrait.

Favorite line: "a sleepless summer I will watch / diminish down to the savaged seed of morning."

a sleepless shimmer I will watch
diminish down to the savaged seed of morning, - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/23596#sthash.PUIPRYnF.dpuf

Mississippi: Origins (Anna Journey)

I love the title of this poem by Anna Journey. I already get a sense of the whole thing from those two words. I know, I know, I'm stereotyping Mississippi when I do so (but so is she), but you just know some stories of country/Southern life are about to be relayed.

Some Mississippi grandparents

She uses such wonderful stories/examples. I'm pulled into the story of this family and the place they are from.

And I love that last, italicized line - you can hear the voice of the grandfather, the pride and protectionism, the humor, usefulness and kindness that seems to characterize the family.

Favorite line: "She'd believed it / a gesture of intimacy."

She’d believed it

a gesture of intimacy.

from The Princess (Lord Alfred Tennyson)

Another one for Father's Day, this time by Lord Alfred Tennyson.

This snippet is from a longer poem (The Princess), but I don't have access to that one. I don't know what the longer poem is about, but this little bit sounds like a lullaby. The rhyme scheme - ABAB - is very song-like and the lines are comforting and sweet.

It's nice to picture a father singing these lines to their child as he lays them down to sleep. With this send-off, only good dreams can come.

Favorite line: "Sleep and rest, sleep and rest"

Sleep and rest, sleep and rest,

My Father on His Shield (Walt McDonald)

A day early, but here's a Father's Day poem by Walt McDonald.

Stanzas with three lines each give this poem a very even feel. However, the topic (while a bit pedestrian) is still smally tragic - the absence felt by the death of the father - the life put out of joint (typified by the broken sled).

This is a very masculine poem. Does that make any sense? It never says love anywhere in it, but the obvious devotion the son has to the father is very clear, as is the gaping hole in the son's life once the father has died.  

Favorite line: "and pounding to beat the iron flat"

and pounding to beat the iron flat

The Flight (Sara Teasdale)

The Flight by Sara Teasdale

This is a wonderful, story-book of a poem. The language is pretty prose-y and can't you just see this as an outline for a longer, dramatic story?

Great language, neat, but natural rhyme. She's very talented.

Favorite line: "Hold me on your heart as the brave sea holds the foam"

Hold me on your heart as the brave sea holds the foam, - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/23577#sthash.RLzDIzHp.dpuf

What Is True (Ben Kopel)

I'm tired and this snippet of a poem by Ben Kopel is just what I need - a short, jazzy little number - easy to read and understand.

Poems that mimic songs amuse me b/c it always makes me wonder about the line between a song and a poem. I mean, aren't they basically the same?

This poem has a musical beat and deals with themes (relationships, sour love) that are not uncommon in pop music. Also, the simple idiocy of the lines (title included) smacks of the obviousness of any cheesy pop love song.

It's a pleasant poem.

Favorite line: "one must be one"

Birding at the Dairy (Sidney Wade)

Birding at the Dairy by Sidney Wade

This poem is simple in scope, but uses such rich language and images that the culmination is very powerful. It's also calming, in the way that viewing a natural scene can be.

I like the many couplets that make up this poem. Two wings, perhaps. I like their simplicity and grandeur. Really, a great way to form the stanzas in this poem - gives a clue as to what the point/feel of the whole thing is.

Favorite line: "a murmuration / of birds"

a murmuration
of birds

Proximity (Randall Mann)

I like the symmetry of the extraneous letters in Randall Mann's name. His poem, Proximity, reminds me clearly of working in an office and of the importance/utter silliness of one's work and the work environment.

I don't know exactly where this poem is taking place, but from some of the keywords I imagine it to be in a tech company in Silicon Valley. I suppose I could Google the provided street to see where it is, but what's the point? The sentiments in this poem are not solely found there, the officeplace environs and feelings are more-or-less universal, I think.

Favorite line: "Proximity measures shame."

Proximity measures shame.

The Day I Saw Barack Obama Reading Derek Walcott's Collected Poems (Yusef Komunyakaa)

Wow. Back in '08 when Obama won election is when I'm guessing this poem by Yusef Komunyakaa was written. It was a heady time - a black man, a young, charismatic orator won the presidential election. I wonder if there are other poems/essays about that time. I know there must be, but I think that poetry is particularly suited to the task, and in particular I think that this poem deals with this current event in a way that also touches on and deals with its complicated history.

Obama and Walcott (another talented biracial man from a tropical island). I like the connection made between the two. I like that in this very current poem, you get a great feel for the complexity of race, complexion, history, culture, art and politics.

I love that in a poem about 'real' topics (ones that you could reference in the paper), the focus is on the president's connection with literature and poetry.

Love this poem, love this complexity. Love that poetry can yield stuff this complex because if you wrote it out into prose I bet you'd have at least a 50-page paper.

Favorite line: "Now, he looks as if he wants to eat words, / their sweet, intoxicating flavor."

Now, he looks as if he wants to eat words, their sweet, intoxicating flavor. - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22551#sthash.EFLoCkWS.dpuf

Be Drunk (Charles Baudelaire)

So, I'm drunk, so today's is a poem about drunkenness by Charles Baudelaire.

it's a prose poem, and it's about being drunk and the value of being drunk in your daily life. Be drunk on liquor, poetry, vise or whatever you want. It's all the same end result. Drunk is drunk is wow.

Favorite line: "You always have to be drunk."

YYou u You You have to be always drunkYou

Inland (Edna St. Vincent Millay)

Inland by Edna St. Vincent Millay

There is such drama and tension in this poem! It starts off and I think it's going to be a poem about longing and how experience and familiarity inform desire. But then there is a sense of dread when you get to the last few lines. Where I got the impression that she was in a mental hospital and wishing for death/escape. Eep.

It's a well written poem - aside from the topic and tenseness, there is a rhyme scheme that you hardly notice b/c it sounds so natural.

As I write this post, I'm still thinking of what might be the story between the lines of this poem. Chilling.

Favorite line: "the sound / Of water sucking the hollow ledges"

the sound

Of water sucking the hollow ledges

A Short History of the Apple (Dorianne Laux)

I don't know why this poem by Dorianne Laux works, but it does. It almost seems like a school assignment or a poetry 101 task. Pick a common object and write a poem about it.

I like the beginning lines - the description of taking that first bite. This poem also contains my favorite fact - apples originate in Kazakhstan - so that makes me like the poem right from the start.

And honestly, all of the allusions and facts about apples gets a little monotonous and while I'm impressed with all the apple factoids she rounds up, I find myself getting bored with the poem. But then that ending! I refind myself in the poem from those last two lines:

Favorite line: "O eat. O eat."

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

The Relativity of Sorrow (Joanne Dominique Dwyer)

I don't like the title of today's poem by Joanne Dominique Dwyer - it's too grand and coying. I would have preferred a simpler title, say 'Mercy'.

Because, the poem is rather neat. It's basically a definition of mercy. It's a complicated concept and one that almost needs to be defined by images and examples - which this poem provides.

She uses some really great images and by the end while I still can't define mercy in a word, I know exactly how it feels and what it may look like.

Favorite line: "Mercy is the sap of pine"

Leda, Later (Melissa Green)

Leda, Later by Melissa Green

I assume Leda in the title is the same Leda from Greek mythology and Yeat's poem, Leda and the Swan. Leda is raped by a god and bears children who go on to rule.

I like this poem for sort of taking away the mythic and god-like stature of much of her story and returns Leda to an old woman, watching the tide, reflecting on her life and her place.

I don't know much Greek mythology, but whenever we talked about it in school, the focus was always on the divine. I like hearing more about the side of the story.

Favorite line: "I am an old woman writing poetry. / I never wanted intimacy with gods"

Hamlet, Act I, Scene I (William Shakespeare)

This bit from William Shakespeare's Hamlet is listed as a poem on poets.org. I do wonder why these seven lines constitute a poem, when the whole thing is a play and not considered a long poem done in parts.

Oh well. Of course, it's quality - it's Shakespeare! The language is dynamic, the philosophy is sound, the mood eerie. It's probably used by the site as a Halloween poem - the ghouls, the dark evening hour!!

Still a little peeved that they call this isolated tidbit a poem by itself. I mean, yes, of course it is, but so are the lines before and after it.

Favorite line: "This bird of dawning"

This bird of dawning

The life I live (Gregory Orr)

There are three poems by Gregory Orr at this link, but I'll only be talking about the second one. It's just an excerpt, but still the sentiment is strong and the poem seems complete (though it makes me wonder - what about the city?).

I enjoy where he breaks the lines. They make the short little poem without proper grammatical phrases easy to read.

I don't know where the rest of the poem takes the idea of 'the city', but I can imagine it to contain all of human interaction and possibility. Or perhaps, the title of the whole poem "The City of Poetry" is the clue, in that the city is poetry, so his life and his hoped for life only sometimes coincide in the creative realm, in writing.

Favorite line: "Sometimes, briefly,"

Knows how to forget (433) (Emily Dickinson)

This poem, by Emily Dickinson, was listed as a graduation poem on poets.org. I was looking for a grad poem, since today I went to the UC Davis School of Medicine graduation. (Congrats, guys!).

I don't think this is the best sentiment for a graduation poem. It seems to say that forgetting is best and that you don't seem to learn that in school. In fact, the one thing to learn is to forget, but she's not sure how that can be done. Not in school, or from astronomers or philosophers or even from books. Perhaps, God or a Godly person might know, but even there she is uncertain, ending the poem with a question to the rabbi: "Don't you know?"

Not my favorite poem, but I don't really like many of her poems, so this may be my own short-sightedness.

Favorite line: "Sacrificed for Science"

Sacrificed for Science