DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "On. On. Stop. Stop" by Saskia Hamilton Originally read: March 1, 2013 More information about the Poet: Saskia Hamilton The punctuation in the title foreshadows something in the poem, but taken by itself, the title seems too post modern.  A period after each word -- why should I pause after each word, and why is does the title have repetition of "on" and "stop"?  I think, at first, the title didn't make me hopeful.  The contents and technique in the poem though brought me in. The first sentence plays with the idea of the present and the past: "In the old recording of the birthday party, the voices of the living and the dead instruct twelve absent friends on the reliable luxury of gratitude" Past me wrote in the box to remind myself that "this poem is viewed in the now."  And at first, I wondered who are these dead people?  Why are some guests absent?  I think this is important to note about this ...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Base Camp" by Tom Healy Originally read: February 26, 2013 More information about the Poet: Tom Healy Rereading this poem, I wonder who the "we" is referring to.  Yes, another focus on the ambiguous pronoun because the importance of the other shifts throughout the poem.  And yes, this poem is from Poet's.org where the poet talks about something in the poem.  I read it.  Some things make sense, but doesn't change my interpretation of the poem. I interpret this poem through the technique introduced in the beginning -- very short lines that break up a sentence; yet, the context for the short lines is in the first line "How much oxygen" where the focus is to interpret each line as a breath -- trying to say something important through fragments and leads to a sense of speed and multiple interpretations. The first rhetorical.uses an either/or strategy where the stronger of the two options will tend to over take the p...

Original poem reprinted online here: "February Snow" by Francisco Aragón Originally read: February 15, 2013 More information about the Poet: Francisco Aragón I didn't write a lot of notes on this poem when I first read it.   I think the narrative of the poem, the main core technique of this poem, and the ambiguous pronoun of "you" confuse me.  I had the read the poem a couple times to figure out there's three to four narratives (okay so it doesn't seem like I didn't figure out much, but I swear...yeah). 1) Narrative between the present speaker and a "you" who is traveling in Spain. 2) Narrative of how the war began. 3) Narrative of the Postal Worker [4) Overall Narrative of how these three narratives connect with the speaker's life.] I wrote "Narrative" too many times in the last two paragraphs; however, the poem is both dependent on understanding the three narratives and how they tie in together.  Also, form wise, if there ar...