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

Lake Havasu (Dorianne Laux)

Today's post is for Lake Havasu by Dorianne Laux.

The lake is in Arizona on the border with California. It is apparently a pretty common "beach" scene for partiers. I mean, even in Google Image searching the name of the lake, the 3rd image is of girls in bikinis with beers in hand!

I think that sense of party hang-out is in the poem, but also with a sense of looking back and of just describing the scene. It could have been a plain nature poem, but it's not just. N is also in there and so is a certain time/place and, I think, a sense of having lost the innocence of youth.

Favorite line: "I stood waist deep / in that damned blue, and I was beautiful, a life saver / resting on my young hips"

I stood waist deep
in that dammed blue, and I was beautiful, a life saver
resting on my young hips, - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/23464#sthash.zJDZZdHR.dpuf

Break (Dorianne Laux)

I found this poem by Dorianne Laux on Poetry 180 which is a poem-a-day site for teachers/students in high school.

It's a pretty concrete poem (good for teaching) about parents putting together a puzzle while their daughter teenages (a needed verb - like sulks, but more complicated) upstairs.

The parents enjoy the simple act of solving the puzzle - more so currently, since now, their lives, their daughter are so fraught with difficulty. Their real problems, unlike the puzzle, are near impossible to put together/to solve.

They will have to return to attempting to fix the ruptures in their own lives at some point, but in the meantime they complete the puzzle as a reprieve - a pause. It is hard to deal with complex problems only. A mild puzzle is an appropriate break from it all for these two.

It's a nice poem, but one that I will probably forget before too much longer. It doesn't have much that would draw me to it again and again. No stunning language, no surprises or deeply held emotions (for me). It's mild - very much like a puzzle.

Favorite line: "We do this as the child / circles her room, impatient / with her blossoming"