DDCPoetry

 Poem found here:   "Dancing, before you were born" by J. Hope Stein   Analysis might not be the right word.  I also usually keep out the "About this Poem"  but it gives context to the poem, but doesn't detract from the poem if that makes sense. So this is more of a reader response because I can't keep this poem out of my mind.  This poem made me uncomfortable to read the first time, I skipped it over and quickly wanted to read another one.   But this poem pulled me back.  It was not with the first stanza but the last two.  But let's start with the title, "Dancing, before you were born," seems like a happy, upbringing title with a baby, but then you get to the poem. It was like the universal scene for miscarriage in the language of film when I woke up in a pool of blood There's a collectiveness in the first line which makes me think the speaker wants everyone to know what this poem is about.  There's no hidden imagery, language, or redi

 Poem Found Here:  "Burial" by Robert McAlmon This is a definition and a eulogy.  Based on the title, the poem sounds like a eulogy for a mathematician; however, the opening line, "Geometry is a perfect religion" both a man made construct that explains eternity, but Geometry appears to explain better. "Axiom after axiom: / One proves a way into infinity / And logic makes obeisance at command."  The repetition of axiom reconfirms this idea of he established truth that one can prove a way into infinity through numbers.  Possibly the soul as well, but numbers definitely, and by doing so man is in control. However, "Outside of the triangle, cubes, and polystructures / There is a restless pummeling, pounding and taunting."  Here is where the poem feels more like a eulogy.  The physical aspect of "pummeling, pounding, and taunting" can't be found in just triangles, cubes, and polystructures.  This is where the very physical and human aspe

 Poem Found Here:   "After Reading Kobayashi Issa's The Spring of My Life On My 49th Birthday" by Dobby Gibson I've read Kobayashi Issa's The Spring of My Life  a couple of times.  Issa is one of my favorite poets as his verse is humorous but having poignant imagery.  Issa's poems places him as part of the outside world, and there's humor and absurdity in his observations.  When reading this poem, there's this sense of Issa's verse running through.  For example the first tercet, "On a dull December day it's never noon more briefly, / though what a relief to look around and realize our lies, / in the long run won't last long."  Yes, there's the reference to the season and the view -- a "never noon" of constant shadow and dullness.  Yet in this vision, there is comfort in nothing lasting -- like lies.  The sun will come out eventually. As the poem continues, this perspective changes to the smallness of things.  Somethi

  For the first time in a long time I can't find this poem.  It's a shame since the poem itself, without my marks on it, has a good narrative flow to it.  The poem is a back and forth between a roshi and a follower: both trying to figure out what Zen is. "The universe was not made in jest but in solemn / incomprehensible earnest."  The quote by Anne Dillard sets up the whole tone of the poem.  How what is made wasn't to be made fun of, but was made and then made fun of. Like the first tercet: "My roshi tells me not to think / but look at pretty girls and chant: Every beautiful woman is a corpse ."  Humanity, frailty, with a bit of a humorous point of view is taken to the absurd to made fun of.  yes, even pretty girls die, but to think about life that way is very morbid in a funny way. Every beautiful woman is a corpse , My roshi says one koan is enough if if you have a Buddha mind, though one koan will also suffice if you are an idiot: Note how the roshi