DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "Shanidar, Now Iraq" by Sarah Lindsay Originally read: January 28, 2013  More information about the Poet: Sarah Lindsay When I reread this poem, I thought the images were odd, but felt strong which offsets the burdening of heavy baggage words. "Tower" has become one of those words.  And, I feel for a very long time, "Iraq" is one of those words as well -- at least in the context to American politics and literature.  Yes, America did invade Iraq, twice. And like all wars, there are always people that want to do something about the situation.  However, the title, "Shanidar, Now Iraq" has brought in a historical context. Ah, now I see. Anyway, I'll get to that in a bit.  In the first stanza I wrote, "The surreal opening line sets up a surreal tone, duh, right, but it's not over the top surreal -- anthropomorphizing bones and flesh."  And so the first paragraph goes about  bones. Then the second ...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Flowers" by Linda Pastan Originally read: January 4, 2013 More information about the Poet:  Linda Pastan I write this at the end of the poem: "I'm glad that the poem was only titled 'Flowers -- anything added would probably bring too much sentimentality or, I, at least, would've thought of this poem as cliche on first glance." And well it can be seen as the cliche "write an observation about nature then relate it to the personal" poem -- which has been done even before from Romanticism to the Tang Dynasty Poets to the Neoromantics to poets like Mary Oliver, Gary Snyder, Maxine Kumin etc.  Nature and poetry.  Hand in hand. The poem does so little in terms of technique which is good because the focus directly shifts after a few lines of description/observation.  There's one rhetorical question, one similes, and one offbeat adjective/noun combination that catch my eye in this poem (yes there's one m...