One lesson that took me a LONG while to learn is that great writers are great readers. They read in a wide variety of subjects, genres, and styles, and invariably, they learn from others: techniques, approaches, syntactic structures, and powerful forms. I used to believe that I should mainly read what I want to write. If I want to write poetry, read poetry. If I want to write short stories, read short stories. Now I see that reading widely, fiction and nonfiction, in a variety of subject areas is the best recipe to inspire ideas.
FOR THE INNER CIRCLE:
We'll start with literary journals. Choose one, read through it, and find the poem, short story, or creative nonfiction piece that speaks to you most. Then read it again AS A WRITER. How did the author make you enjoy what he or she wrote? What did you like about it? Are there favorite lines or phrases that stand out? What makes it so good for you?
Add a comment to this blog that begins by naming the piece, its writer, and the literary journal (including the date or issue number) it came from. In it, tell me what you enjoyed about the writing that made you choose it most of all. Feel free to mention content, technique, descriptions--anything at all you like about it.
Ace Baker's sample comment:
Right now I'm reading a poem by John Steffler, one called "Since Life Values Nothing Higher than Life," in the Summer 2012 edition of CV2 (page 23). The poem speaks about items of war that last long after the wars have finished--"hard tools for cutting and slashing," including "axes, spears, arrows, swords and daggers." What makes the poem unique is that Steffler doesn't focus on the destruction caused by them. He does a complete 180, and mentions that they are there also to PRESERVE life. They are often the objects left over through the ages that help archaeologists learn about a particular culture. Unlike softer items, "flowers or tongues," they last, persisting through the ages to teach us about the people they belong to. I think that's the most important thing poets do: they see something everyone else sees, but in a different way. I really DON'T like the final two lines of this poem. I understand he's aiming for emphasis, but I feel it's a bit overdone. If you read it, let me know what you think.
I read "Daydream" by Donald McGrath in The Antigonish Review (pg. 10). This poem is about a student who is daydreaming about his dream job. the poem starts off in the school, then goes to the forest and finally, it ends with the student as a pilot. the poem was extremely descriptive and it had a certain flow to it that makes this poem unique. The first thing that grabbed me with this poem, was the tittle, I was intrigued and it turned out to be a really great poem.
ReplyDeleteThe movement sounds interesting...it's like he's getting farther and farther away from society--first to the woods, then to the open skies above...
Delete"About a Little Girl" by Glenn Hayes
ReplyDeleteA review by Sami Kowan (Grade 12, September 5th, 2012, Writing 12 Block 4)
This poem really caught my interest, and it could have been the poem's title or the darker content (something I personally have always been drawn to). The poem is set in the year 1912, when Marian Macy (the main subject of the poem), is diagnosed with terminal leukemia. The doctor seemed to have given her diagnosis in verse, as the doctor was compared to a poet. Near the middle of the poem, the writer claims that Dr.Williams (the doctor/ poet) had falsely diagnosed Marian, for she had grown to live a long life. She lived what was referenced as a "four-square life", which is a term used here to mean a long and, what I can only guess is a life lived safely and boringly. Marian Macy had gotten married to a man that had two sons, and they would mark down each day of her life on a calendar "that stretched both memory and fate into the neutral march of days". Marian died a few weeks before she turned ninety-two, and had outlived Dr.Williams by forty years. It is written that she kept the poem "About a Little Girl" hung up in the hallway of her home as "a memento to the life she never lived". The last two lines of the poem really spoke to me, and are my favourite lines of the entire poem. To me, they mean that Marian had never really lived her life, knowing that she had leukemia. This also somewhat puzzled me, because if I were told I had an incurable disease that would kill me slowly, I would make every day of my life count, and I would make my life worth something.
This was one of the very few poems I found in The Antigonish Review 'Canada's Eclectic Review' 168 that I could truly relate to.
Thank you!
SK2012
Sami, I think I have a story that might connect well to this poem. It's Anthony Doerr's "The Deep." Hound me until I get a copy to you...
DeleteThanks for the story! I'll read it tonight :D after I'm done doing my homework, haha.
DeleteI read "Sequoiadendron Giganteum I" by Margo Wilding from page 5 of Vallum 8:2 (Fall 2011)
ReplyDeleteThe odd title of the poem grabbed me right away because I had no idea what it meant. The poem seemed it would literally be a mystery. . .to solve! First, there is a comparison made between gods and trees. They are both "serene, undemanding, creating nothing but sugar and leaves." It seems the presence of a god has been nothing but fruitful in the writer's life. She goes on to explain how even after thousands of years of forest fires and stacked snow, trees are still standing, like gods putting up with all our "mortal" problems. A little later on, she tells us to "imagine trees are gods with arms spread; looking down. I say; imagine God's a tree." It's easy to picture looking up at a really tall tree, its open arms looking down on you, not in disapointment but in love despite your mistakes.
One thing I like about this poem is that, for all but one use of the word, god is never meant to be God. It's any god. Always nice to see openness. It made it feel like anyone could have enjoyed this poem, without feeling rejected.
Anna-Maria Angelis
Grade 12
Writing 12, Block 4
I think the choice of a tree was apt--arms outspread, towering high above, sheltering, sustaining, withstanding--clever idea. It's almost like Steffler's interpretation of the weapons in his poem (see my comment on his poem in the blog). Many people connect to nature in a strong way, so I think the image works well for its purpose. Nice selection!
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ReplyDeleteI read "Rules of Play" by Katie Fritz from Prism International 50:3/ Spring 2013. Page 35
ReplyDeleteWhen the first sentence of a story is " The first time you kiss a lesbian make sure you wear shorts" you clearly want to know why you should be wearing shorts when kissing a lesbian! I had previously assumed that the story would be about sports because thats what "Rules of Play" makes me think of. Right off the bat however; I knew that I was certainly not going to be reading about football, or soccer. The writing content on the first page was very different from what I'm used to reading in school with the writer using language such as "cunt", or "pussy". This story unquestionably showed me that Writing 12 will be VERY different from any English course.
Yes, writers use language to reveal character, and if that character is a little rough around the edges, a bit raw, you can count on the writer dropping some colourful descriptions here and there. Literary journals show a range of styles and language, but I have to admit, that is a VERY catchy first line. Many readers would be drawn in by those dozen words...!
ReplyDeleteI was flipping through Issue number 72 of IMAGE and found myself particularly intrigued with Pattiann Rogers' poem, "Hail, Spirit," initially because it was accompanied by a crazy image of a wrongly proportioned human clutching a vibrant green snake. After observing the picture, I realized that the poem was actually about the art of a spider weaving its' web. The poem uses beautiful, wistful language and has a slightly nostalgic feel and many poetic devices. The poet compares the spider's grace to the nimble fingers of a harpist. The vocabulary used in the poem included fantastical words (of lovely connotation, in my opinion) such as "chokecherry," "orbs," "silk strings," "translucent and aerial, hanging in a glint of half-moon."
ReplyDeleteI like that technique...of taking two VERY different symbols and tying them together (the harpist's fingers and the spider weaving the web). It's like the poem I showed you of mine today, "Hands Together," that combines religious imagery with swimming, of all things. Nice choice...
DeleteFirst Question,whatis up with the size of the ladies hands in the picture you were talking about? They look like they're the size of her entire upper body! This poem certainly has some strong imagery imagery wise with the picture of the spider, and its web evident in your mind. The fourth stanza describing the spider as it spins its web is amazing. The skill it takes to make a web is explained here, and there is so much for the spider to do all at once as it creates the web.
DeleteIn Volume 38 of Grain, there is a poem called "Abandoned Suburb" by Alpay Ulku on page 45. The poem begins by presenting randomly alternating images of nature and a poor, rundown part of a town. It gives the impression that nature is slowly taking over this undesirable part of town. Then the poem ends with an interesting conclusion: "Some say, they barely admit it, what with all we've lost, what did we lose? Have we fallen?" At first, I didn't understand what it meant, and was extremely confused, but after looking back at the imagery of nature and the town, it dawned on me. If this part of the town is "lost", has the community suffered because of it? Many people would think no and although I see this piece of the community as important, I can understand the author's perspective that this part of town is better off disappearing.
ReplyDeleteNature has a way of renewing itself too...it's sometimes humans that muck things up. I think your analysis is likely right on--one less slum, replaced by natural beauty? Win win. Interesting idea...usually we hear about the opposite--houses being built higher and higher up the mountain, pushing wildlife into smaller and smaller spaces. It's kind of refreshing to see nature reclaiming a bit of space.... If you like this one, you might like a book of poems I have by John Steffler: LOOKOUT. Let me know if you'd like me to loan it to you...
DeleteI read "Burn Barrel" by Michael Crummey, printed in The New Quarterly. What caught be was the image in the first line: "Halfway out the yard an ancient barrel I once used as an incinerator for scrap wood and garden waste, its face obscured by a skirt of grass and raspberry canes." It's not necessarily a brilliant opening line, but I could picture it perfectly, and I like to have a visual in mind when I read. The poem goes on to describe how the narrator's father's teacher lived in a house that was once just beyond where the barrel now is, and describes how, though his father might have resented it, he remembered every verse of the poems he was taught. I'm still not entirely sure what the metaphor could mean, but the closing lines draw a comparison between the father and the ageing barrel. The way I read it, the barrel and the father are both rusted and decaying (I assume the father is dying at this point), but saved from complete destruction by "spent grass" - old memories and knowledge that keep the father and the barrel recognizable.
ReplyDeleteLook at Courtenay's response above. Yours sounds like a direct connection--the manmade barrel being reclaimed by nature. I like the visual as well--IMAGERY--powerful! I love your insight into the end of the poem as well. If you think about it, the barrel is old and is no longer used for what it used to be used for. It's kept around for memories...and maybe it's a connection to a father the poet is about to lose.... Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this one.
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ReplyDelete"Innocence" by Ruth Roach Pierson on page 70 of The Malahat Review #177.
ReplyDelete"Innocence" visits a handful of anonymous children as they drift to sleep in their screened off cabin porch; and like a child it is beautiful and nostalgic. Anyone of any upbringing can relate to the overactive imaginations of the children when they pretend that "the cries of the mountain lion" are "like a woman being murdered in the woods". The hushed, detailed atmosphere created in phrases like "the not yet clear cut mountainside illumined by moonlight or by flashes of lightning" blended with the restlessness of the children as they giggle and wriggle give the poem dynamic imagery that is very well constructed. A sense of mystery is evoked at the poems ending when the children hear trucks carrying "peacetime cargo" every night; leaving the reader to wonder about it's setting. Although "innocence" showed me a glimpse of the childhood of others, it awakened memories of my own. And that i believe is the poem's true purpose.
Insightful response...yes, on the one hand children are incredibly creative, but on the other, it's a bit shocking that THESE children relate a mountain lion's roar to the screams of a murdered woman. In a war-torn area, it shows you just how much these children may have experienced in reality. Maybe a bit of that innocence has actually been stolen away...
DeleteI read "The Impossible Omlette" by Nick Thran from page 28 of Volume 35.1 (Event). Possibly the first thing that grabbed my eye in this poem was the title, but when I continued on reading my attention was held because of the imagery that Nick used. For the first part of this poem it went into great detail of how perfectly cooked this one omelet was,even the wording that the poet used made it so that you could almost taste it (take to note that I was pretty hungry at the time). However as I read on I realized that the omelet was really a metaphor for someone who had just died. Here let me explain: It starts off explaining how this omelet is made and stuffed with as many toppings as possible, slowly getting cooked as time goes on. Three quarters of the way through after the omelet is done it stops and says " It's when the body turns into air and rises to heaven." it goes on saying "It's when the world fills up with so much other stuff the most beautiful spirits like grampa's go". So in conclusion I believe that the omelet symbolizes life.
ReplyDeleteCatherine Saul
Writing 12
It's amazing to see how strange a metaphor some poets can choose to represent life and death sometimes...yet still manage to make it work. Eggs slowly form into a recognizable shape in the pan (pregnancy), other elements are added in (life), and it does puff upwards as it nears its final destiny. Weird, very weird, but it works!
DeleteIt took me the entire magazine to find a piece of literature that did not make me fall asleep upon attempting to read. Shanti, Shanti by Angela Long (page 102 of Grain volume 37 number 4). I don't know what drew me to read this story. The lack of pages that follow may have been a contributor because Shanti, Shanti is jammed right up against the thank you's and congratulations. Even so, I did enjoy the writing. The first line did hook me. There is something about mentioning a cheap hotel room and writing a novel that really catches the eye of a writing 12 student. Everything leads me to believe that this is a non-fiction piece based on actual events of Angela Long's life, but then again writers can write whatever they want. "Angela" or a figment of the real Angela's imagination travels to India in search of a quiet place to write her novel. This setting intrigues me, why would someone travel to one of the most populous nations to seek calm and quiet? Angela must know something the rest of us do not. She travels with her Indian travel companion Amir. He helps her with the Indian culture and looks out for her. I like how he keeps her safe and makes sure she doesn't become the victim of a scam. The story has some beautiful imagery (If you have a colourful imagination) and has a strong sense of reality to it. The impressive landscape of the Himalayas and the description of snow capped mountains pop out at me, probably because I love the outdoors. The final imagine of Amir walking away from the taxi seemed to be painted by my brain. Like in a chick flick where the girl leaves in the back seat of a taxi and the guy slowly walks into the distance. I am a sucker for writers who leave me wondering at the end of their story and Angela did leave me pondering. I wonder what became of Amir and why he was such a gentleman towards Angela, a small crush maybe? The most important question of all? What book did Angela write while she was in India? Certain things I may never know.
ReplyDeleteBrady Keeler
Writing 12
India is definitely not the area I might choose for peace and quiet...you're right about that. But it does have a rich culture, a deep history, and a deep sense of devotion (family, religion, work), so there is much to find that's inspirational there as well. Maybe the Himilayas are remote enough to escape the overpopulated streets and the poverty, but still enough in touch with the people and their history. And yes, modern short stories and creative nonfiction do have a tendency of including indeterminate endings that leave much to the reader's imagination. Sometimes it frustrates me (I love a story with a great ending--a bit old school, maybe), but other times, it's nice to have the freedom to make it end the way YOU want it to. Maybe go write the book that you THINK she may have written if you find this piece inspiring enough...
DeleteI read the short story "Head-Doors" by Marilyn Gear Pilling in Grain volume 37.2. It's about a young girl named Lexie who has trouble dealing with her father's very particular rules. He has rules about almost every aspect of his family's day to day life. Another thing she can't stand are her father's nostrils, or any kind of nostrils for that matter. Because of her distaste for them, she decides to rename nostrils head-doors. The short story doesn't have much of a plot. Instead, it's got more symbolism and metaphor with an underlying message at the end, which I actually prefer. Surprisingly, it wasn't the title that grabbed my attention in this story at all (in fact I didn't even look at the title until after I finished the story). The first couple of lines immediately introduces us to Lexies feelings about her father. That's one of the things I really appreciated about this piece-the direct presentation. I was also engrossed in the story after those lines because I felt like I could relate to the character (and I'm a sucker for anything written from a child's perspective). Alongside all the direct presentation, there was also a fair amount of indirect presentation which came across through symbolism. At the very end of the story when Lexie is in the bathroom inspecting her own "head-doors", she comes to a shocking realisation: that her nostrils are exactly like her fathers. These kinds of ending (the ones that end abruptly and with a single sentence that holds a lot of meaning) are my preference and what I find myself writing most. That's probably why I was so drawn to the story in the first place. Overall, I commend Pilling on her writing style and varied use of symbolism.
ReplyDeleteIt's often the little details that stick. Years later, you'll be thinking, I remember that story about the girl who hated nostrils.... There are plenty of people who have "military parents" with strict rules, but I think this is the first story I've ever heard of about someone obsessed with nostrils. It makes the character quirky enough to remember. Pieces with children in them do tend to tug at the heartstrings, don't they? It's almost instant pathos. And the ending? It's a painful moment to wake up one day and realize...I am my father, or, I am my mother. Ahhhhhhhhhh!
ReplyDeleteIn the book 'Grain' I read a poem called "When I am reading" which is about a person who can't seem to find their real life. It for some reason connected really well with me, and it was like something I was trying to say, but could never manage to get the proper words out. The final line is "I can never find life", which sums up my feeling about literature completly. When you're into a good book, everything outside seems irrelvent. When you finish that good book, it feels as though something is missing, and although you try to get over that, you miss out on life. It's a great poem to sum up my feelings.
ReplyDeleteKelly Batchelor
Writing 12
Of course reading AND writing can take you into your own little world (especially when we write novels in November,just wait!), but I know what you mean...for those books you love, when you close the back cover, you feel something missing, and of course the world has been rolling along in the meanwhile too, so you've kind of missed out twice. Hopefully, the writing was good enough to make up for it, though!
DeleteIn volume 93 of grain I found a poem by Kim Fu entitled How Festive the Ambulance. What first drew me in was the odd title and I was not disappointed. Within the first four lines the writer compared an ambulance to a Ferris wheel. She then goes to talk about her father and his decline over the previous year. She shows this deterioration by describing his hair and its change from black to white. The image of a bear is used to show his former strength and his eventual fall, presumingly a stroke as the writer mentions nerve damage. The poem ends with him, still not dead, riding off in an ambulance. I liked this poem because I felt that it was easy to understand the narrative and all the writer's feeling. It was also something very relatable, the losing of a loved one. I felt that it portrayed the helplessness that we feel when somebody that we care about is sick. It also made me think about the odd emotions that ambulances and fire-trucks provoke in us. For example, when an ambulance goes by and everyone has to move out of the way, generally all I feel is annoyed or sad. I have never thought about the fact that they are also a beacon of hope. The fact that our society has the vehicles that come and save people is wonderful. I should be thinking "Great they're going to go and try their hardest to save someone." I will try to think about it from now on.
ReplyDeleteToria
Again, the ability to look at life in a different way--that's one of the values of poetry. The Ferris wheel, that idea of a cycle, but also of all things connected to a hub, like spokes on a bicycle tire, is an interesting one. In Natalie Babbitt's prologue for Tuck Everlasting, she uses the Ferris wheel to show how everything in the book is connected to a very unusual place. It serves double duty in showing the life cycle too--how MOST people grow and change...even if some of the people in this book mysteriously don't...
DeleteI read the short story called PENGUINS by Avi Silberstein from grain, volume 37. (All of the titles in this journal are in all capital letters, but I think that titles look nicer in all caps so I left it like that.) The only reason why I read this story was because I like penguins. But it turns out the story was not entirely about penguins, it was actually about a man who is starting to have doubts about his marriage (I didn't see that one coming.) I still liked it though, because who doesn't like a story about falling out of love? People who want to only believe in the good of the world, that's who. I guess it's a nice story for them too because (spoiler alert) it ends happily. I really liked the way the author sets up this character to be this big douche but he redeems himself in the end. My second favourite part was when Pete (Oops, did I forget to mention the protagonist's name is Pete? 'Cause it is.) goes through scenarios in his mind, which influenced his actions. Because I do that a lot too. Kinda makes Pete seem more of a real person than a just fictional character. The very best part for me, is the ending. Marcela's statement about fault lines creating beautiful things is a very nice thought (I'll keep it in mind for my positive thinking moments.) And it also coincidentally made sense in Pete's situation too. And then the penguins actually had something to do with Pete too. Like the author wrote the story backwards or something... cRaZy sTuFf mAn (I hope I did this blog comment thingy right...)
ReplyDeleteHe seems a bit like a Walter Mitty character ("The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"). Maybe the fact that he lives life first inside his head is what gets Pete in trouble with his significant other. Beauty can be ugly; ugly can be beautiful. I love that idea. I saw a photo series by a past student, Rachael A, called "The Beauty of the Broken." I also have a chapbook in a contest right now (heading for the finals, fingers crossed, as I write this), called My Body, Broken for You. Some of the poems in it have this feeling to them. And yes, your blog thingy was fine, but a word of advice: I think in the future, in doing a review like this, I wouldn't call someone a douche... ;)
ReplyDeleteIn the poetry journal “Contemporary verse 2” I found a fascinating poem called “this is why I write” by Adele Graf. This poem grabbed my attention because of its title and odd shape. The first eight lines of the poem are separated and scattered. Then on the ninth line it begins to fall back into order. I didn’t understand this till I read the poem twice. The first eight lines are obviously about a very disturbed person who is under a lot of stress. He feels like he is exploding inside, the pressure of work or home is truly getting to him. The only way he gets peace of mind is when he’s writing. It doesn’t matter what he writes or where just putting pen to paper relaxes him. In the last line he says “this blue Bic finger points my way through the dark” as in when all else fails him he finds his way with his writing. I related really well with this poem because that’s probably the reason I write. When things get hard people are always looking for a way to unwind. Some people turn to sports, others turn to drugs and alcohol and then there are certain people who ease their mind by writing. They take their feelings out onto paper
ReplyDeleteNadira Aleaf
I'm sure that's a poem many in Writing 12 can relate to--I know I can. Whenever something bothers me, I tend to turn to pen and paper so that I can work out my feelings about it and also NOT stress out those around me about it. Sometimes it leads to a decent poem or short story...but it ALWAYS makes me feel better!
DeleteI read "The Embalmer's Daughter" by Billeh NIckerson from page 30 of PRISM 50:2/Winter 2012 though I almost decided not to. Judging from the title I was expecting a morbid poem about the profession of embalming. Instead I was pleasantly surprised to find the poet used this instinct and instead focused the poem on the bullying the daughter faces due to her father's profession. The poet was able to take my initial idea of what the poem would be like flip it on its head and make me feel bad for making that judgement. From the beginning, the author tries to lighten the profession of embalming by comparing it to "dressing up dollies" and "helping everyone remember how much they loved someone." He makes it very easy to sympathize with the Embalmer's Daughter.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I'd have the same initial reaction. It takes a talented writer to put the reader in the role of the villain and THEN make him or her feel bad about it. Although...I don't think I'll ever be able to think of embalming as "dressing up dollies." There IS an interesting book out there called STIFF that's all about what happens to bodies of people who fill out the organ donation card...interesting and disturbing at the same time. Sounds like Nickerson is very talented at creating PATHOS for the main character...
Deletein the book Southern Poetry Review I read the poem "Kinds of Silence" by Elisabeth Murawski.
ReplyDeleteI chose this poem, because the poets sense of writing caught my attention. "On closing a book On fearing what's to come." She tries to show that when you close a book, you tend to not speak but remain quiet and examine how the story has ended. As well as when you fear of what to come, you're caught up in your own anxiety and thoughts that all you do is ponder. "At the end of a war. At another war's beginning." This was her last stanza, which I found it to be a solid way to end her poem off. Elisabeth shows a lot of imagery in her poem, because while reading it you can see and think about everything she explains. Ironically the title is, "Kinds of Silence," and because of the way her poem is written and the last stanza, she seems to achieve the well.
Kasia Z.
The two selections you've chosen to quote seem to echo each other. Upon finishing the book or the war, each person has a similar thought: WHAT NOW? Silence does give your ideas a chance to take over, which can be a scary event, depending on your state of mind at the time. As for the title, it reminds me of the prologue of a novel, THE NAME OF THE WIND, by Patrick Rothfuss. He mentions how there are "three kinds of silence," and then proceeds to create a creepy mood for his fantasy novel by describing them. I believe he comes back to these silences in the beginnings of the followup book: WISE MAN'S FEAR. If you read fantasy, let me know. THE NAME OF THE WIND was THE book that started me reading that genre!
DeleteIn the book "The New Quarterly - 121", I read the poem 'Hours' by Marilyn Bowering.
ReplyDeleteI chose this poem because of the metaphors the writer uses. It caught my eye because initially, the poem seems dull,however the further you read into it, it becomes incredibly deep. She begins by talking about horses, which seems generally dull; "The horses eat grass between stones,". She describes people riding on horseback stopping for a break and the horses feeding. Soon, she expresses her extreme fear, "My life waits, upside down, with folded wings,". Something bad is clearly coming. In that sentence, she not only tells us she is afraid, but also that she is in danger and she has been disoriented by whatever she is afraid of. The title and the quoted sentence above show that the narrator is waiting for something bad to come. The'folded wings' she refers to is a metaphor for wings that aren't in use; she is unable to flee or run from what she fears; she is trapped. She finishes with "Anything is possible Except disbelief". She ends the poem by saying that she has no idea what the outcome will be, though she knows chaos is coming.
Talia Joyce
In the literary journal 'the new quarterly-121' I read "When I close my eyes" by Marilyn Bowering.
ReplyDeleteI chose to read this piece because it was one of the five poems she had published in the journal. It made me interested in what made her so 'popular'. The first emotion I felt while reading this poem was lonely. I wasn't quite sure where this feeling came from until I read the last two lines "they show me what I have lost and what I can never recover". She was reminicing about nice things through the entirety of the poem, but she lost these things and is now regretfull and remorsfull. I like how this poem made me a little confussed about why I was feeling lonely. Most poems I've read explain it right off the bat and this one left me thinking.
Riley Nordin
I read "Scene One-Act One. Action" by Jazmin Flores in Quill's Volume VIII. After reading through the magazine for a while, I found a lot of the imagery-heavy and deeper-meaning poems began to mesh together and nothing really stood out; but then I flipped to this poem and it immediately caught my attention. It was set up in a very unique way: the lines of the poem were uninterrupted with "CUT!" and "ACTION!" as the narrator reminisces on their life, love, and loss of love. I enjoyed the simplicity of the poem paired with this unique twist. The end of the poem leaves a lingering feeling of not regret, but almost an appreciation for the memories the narrator has had. It doesn't halt with a bitter statement about how bleak life is; instead it ends with the line, "The end for you, but not for me," and I appreciate the subtle optimistic feeling that the author leaves me with.
ReplyDeleteEmma Hoffard
I read "Page Bird" by Shireen Z. Haroun in the journal Vallum 9:1 ( i think that was the edition). I liked this poem because it gives a picture of freedom and it also gives a contrast of what it looks like and feels like to be confined. This sparked my intrest because it got me wondering what circumstances in her life could have allowed her to have a picture of both freedom and confinement. the imagery in this poem was also very effective and made it possible to imagine myself free and trapped with the poet. I liked the sixth stanza because it presents being confined by yourself and your own probleums. This intrigued me because I see it as a common issue, which often leads people to make poor decisions and loose perspective.
ReplyDelete-Danika
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“Solitary”- Evelyn Lau
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the poem “Solitary” by Evelyn Lau, volume 35 #3, as it expresses concepts that I can relate to in many different ways. This poem contains simplicity. Primarily in its description of a lonely man who has hidden himself away from the world. This is most poignantly expressed from a neighbor who had no idea that his presence had existed, ‘and when I said I’d lived here ten years her mouth opened in shock “how could anyone live like this”.’ Although the women cannot see why the man choses to be so secluded, he states that “she couldn’t see”. “These silent afternoons of books and poetry, when heat sits in the locked room as in a lion’s mouth while I write, I see it as a meditation, “the life I tried to rid myself of for so long.” From this sentence it shows that not long ago, he lived a life -- not a peaceful one to be sure -- and for his precious moments of life now, he attempts to grasp sanity and meditation. I enjoyed this section of the poem the most as I believe that in everyone’s life there is a time where we must come to grips with this concept. “Even as a fly on the windowsill scrubs its face with brisk motions and down the hall a door closes, opens, closes for good.” Although this is could be considered a gloomy ending to the poem, deciding to put an end to his life emotionally and shutting the door on that part of his life, does adopt a new one. Which is the life he believes in; one centered on peace and solitary. Overall I chose this poem because it expresses a good message, one that I can relate to, and presents an interesting image and concept.