DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "Stuck at the Beginning" by Hal Sirowitz Originally read: February 2, 2013 More information about the Poet: Hal Sirowitz I find this poem humorous because on one hand the poem mocks epigraphs or maybe old Greek Philosophy or maybe both. So the philosophical quote, "The beginning of a circle is also its end" has some serious thinking power behind the thought.  Once someone enters a circle, there's no end.  Kind of an allegory of a vicious cycle that, in general, is used to prove points like, "karma," or "history repeats itself." But the inclusion of the translator foreshadows a sense of the absurd.  Wouldn't it be good enough to just say the quote is by Herakleitos?  The inclusion of the translator shows a sense of specificity which (circularly) goes with the contents of the poem. Past me wrote, "Funny advice, but poignant.  You can't start something if you 'cant' (verses) wont, or don...

Original poem reprinted online here:  "Gremlin" by Karl Kirchwey Originally read: December 4, 2012 More information about the Poet: Karl Kirchwey At the very beginning of the poem there is a slight epigraph, " (The Twilight Zone reruns) "  and I wrote down "I wonder why the author specified here and not in the poem." The poem itself follows a pretty simple arc -- from a focus of the show, then to the personal, then to the show, then to the personal.  The shifts create a buffer and/or enhancement to the poignancy of either aspect (personal/show). The epigraph in the beginning is such a small part, yet, again my focus is mostly towards how the show impacts the speaker's life rather than any other mode like the the speaker's life, the history behind the show, etc. I follow the idea of the epigraph to the end, where incidentally enough the poem ends with a observation of the actual gremlin (show, man, myth, symbol).  Is it bad for me to write that this...

Original poem reprinted online here:  "The Iron Gate" by Oliver Wendell Holmes Originally read: December 1, 2012 More information about the Poet: Oliver Wendell Holmes There's a lot going on in this poem: form, rhyme scheme, tone changes, perspective changes, irony, etc which are really well rendered and all lead to the same conclusion of death, or Death.  However, when I was reading this over again I was thinking of "quote worthy lines." Maybe I was thinking this because it's too early in the morning for me to do an 15 minute analysis on a single aspect on a poem that has a lot going on, but the idea of epigraphs came to me when reading the poem again. Epigraphs are quotes from another source in the beginning of poems, stories, whatev. The epigraph in the beginning serves several purposes like a) contextualizing the piece, b) the piece is responding to the quote, c) focuses the reader on looking for the same aspect the quote brings (i.e. if the quote is abo...