Original poem reprinted online here: "Earth Science" by J.T. Barbarese Originally read: June 8, 2013 More information about the Poet: J.T. Barbarese The poem, written in quatrains, focuses on a single type of image for the majority of the poem -- smell imagery -- but not in the most direct way. Rather, the speaker is trying to define the self through smell in this poem. In fact the first line is very blunt, "I smell me" but note how the direction of the smell turns with, "coming up behind me," to make the lines a bit surreal. The "behind" me line could refer to the past or a pun. Well.. Moving on, the smell has a bit more definition with the next lines of, "sweet sarcophagal / history." Although a bit generalized there's two different types of smells at play based on the separate adjectives of "sweet" and "sarcophagal" which tempers "history." "Sweet" implies something good an nice, while...
Formerly the RetailMFA, This is the Poetry Blog of Darrell Dela Cruz