DDCPoetry

  There's something ethereal about this persona poem.  From the opening lines of "The yards grow ghosts. Between the limbs of wings, / bleached street-lit things, I'm best moving on" the poem establishes that the speaker is on the move through this area with "ghosts" and "limbs and wings."  The internal ryme of "wings" and "things" brings the song element in the poem. The next lines in the poem are full of adjectives that feel amorphous: Hunt-heavy, gray, slunk overlow like so much weight got in the way, my shapes' the shape  of something missed, flash-pop or empty frame. Note how the speaker places the color gray with weighted adjectives to make a visual and tactile image go hand in hand.  But in doing so, the persona goes beyond a noticeable form, "something missed, flash-pop or empty frame." With the internal rhyme of "frame" and "game" -- "Though you could say I've made a game of th

Furu-Ike Ya Kawazu Tobikomu Mizu no Oto 古池や　 蛙飛び込む　 水の音 In high school I studied Japanese. I took Japanese 3 twice since I failed it the first time, and got a "D" the second time around. In the front desk office, they had a list of colleges that students were going to; meanwhile, I thought "oh, college" and continued to sleep when I got home from school, and during class. I don't remember graduation. My dad forced me to go to sign up for classes at Evergreen Community College. I remember him driving me there and telling me to fill out this form and follow directions. If nothing else in my life, I can pass putting my name down on paper. One of the first classes I signed up for was in Japanese Literature. I already had college credits in Japanese culture when a teacher from San Jose City College offered a class. I passed that class with a B+, so I thought maybe I should pursue this subject. So when I read this poem the first time, I fixated on the last part