DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "Practice Test" by Anne Cecelia Holmes More information about the Poet:   Anne Cecelia Holmes There are two "if" gambits in this poem.  When I was rereading this poem, I felt the crux of the poem is how to interpret the two "if" lines, but first the set-up:      I almost say formula      but instead say data      and I am not interested      in the kind of brilliance      this offers. I quoted the whole section because these lines feel like character description lines which indicate thought.  For example, it's not the differentiation between "formula" and "date" (although one is a prerequisite for the other) but the self-awareness of "saying" one thing rather than the other.  Note, the speaker is not "wrong" in any case, but knows and says different things.  Furthermore, the connection through the conjunction of "and" gives connects the ideas, this awa...