DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "Labwork" by John A. Nieves Originally read: February 7, 2013 More information about the Poet: John A. Nieves I feel I'm missing important here, but I looked up Reactor Field and saw that the name referred to a a place at University of Missouri.  Then I looked up the author profile and John A. Nieve s went to the University of Missouri for his PhD.   Now does so deep of an allusion irritate me.  In some ways. yes and no.  I read the poem and wanted to know more about the place; however, now I doubt I'll get every reference in the poem and therefore, wildly misinterpret it, but hey, what's new. The first two stanzas include a "we" speaker that shows the speaker is in a group, or has a collective unconscious.  The attention to the "name" of Reactor field and the aside of mutant squirrels sets up a sort of humor  in this poem.  Observational looking for the absurd.  Absurd being observational.  Maybe both. T...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Geckos in Obscure Light" by William Logan Originally read: February 6, 2013 More information about the Poet: William Logan "Their."   Over the past couple of poems, I've been harping a lot on ambiguous pronouns.  That, if not done that well, will lead to overall confusion of subject -- for example, if there are multiple subjects should all descriptors be applicable to all of them; however, if done right, then the ambiguous pronouns set up correctly then the descriptors will be applicable to all the subjects seamlessly.  Yes, it's a fine line -- a fine, subjective, hypothetical line. "Their" in line three of the poem refers to the Geckos mentioned in the first stanza with their "shadow organs" however, this couplet still confuses me, "backs a tarnished armor studded / by the rosettes of some obscure disease."  On one hand, I understand the armor part as a foreshadow to war; however, I'm ...

Original poem reprinted online here: "The Drought" by Gary Soto Originally read: February 4, 2013 More information about the Poet: Gary Soto Reverse-anthropomorphism.  Humans taking on the quality of non-living objects.  I know there's a literary term specifically for this that is not Reverse-anthropomorphism, but I can't think of it right now. I read this poem again, and then looked at the notes that I wrote in the past, "Who does 'they' refer to?" "Who is 'their' referring to?" I think for yesterday's poem I harped on the ambiguous pronoun and how they are used.  If a poem is only ambiguous pronouns I feel a sense of cheapness, like "I should know who 'they' are just by reading the poem or collective subconscious."  Most of the time I don't.  But in this particular poem, the environment defines the people "they" "their."  So in the first stanza when the speaker personifies the "cl...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Waiting on the Corners" by Donald Hall Originally read: December 25, 2012? More information about the Poet: Donald Hal l I wrote a lot of "I like" for this poem.   Funnily enough there's a lot of grammar issues within the poem that would make English majors wince.  However, grammar is a tool to standardize communication, but in a poem, miscommunications bring a sort of insight. For example the first line: "Glass, air, ice, light, and winter cold."  Even though I wrote that "this collection of verbs [they are nouns past me -- you dolt] are mundane."  There's a sense of  two things with the first line -- immediacy (the nouns are right in front of the) and disorder (without a complete sentence there is a lack of context. As we get further down into the poem there's ambiguous pronouns "They" in line three could refer to the items above or a group of people -- the line has a sense of duality ...