DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here:  "Gifts out of Dirty Weather" by Elton Glaser Originally read: March 17, 2013 More information about the Poet:  Elton Glaser I find the first two lines of the poem quite humorous, "At the mall, three dead weeks before Christmas, / Half the women are old and half are ancient."  And since the poem is written in couplets there's an emphasis on these stanza which is also endstopped.  What is the focus here?  For me, it's the play on expectation.  First, "three dead weeks before Christmas" shows a certain change of perspective.  Working in retail for a while, three weeks before Christmas is the busiest -- shallow materialistically.  But the focus on the speaker is women who are old or ancient -- shallow physicality.  So the poem with the first two couplets set up a tone of cynicism, humor on an observant level. But then this type of cynicism and humor turns inward with next couplet with the introduction of the ...

Original poem reprinted online here: "The Objectified Mermaid" by Matthea Harvey Originally read: February 25, 2013 More information about the Poet:   Matthea Harvey Have you seen a spork before?  Nonetheless, in a poem?  Yeah, that's a weird way to start this one.  However, when I was reading this the first time, I drew a spork on the page.  I'm not the most versed in prose poetry, so at first I felt something was missing in my initial analysis. Furthermore, this poem, I think, is the first poem where there is poet comments below.  I tried my best not to look at it, but then read them.  Something about Las Vegas and a still. Anyway, I'd like to actually start with the last line, "A downward spiral means the opposite up here." is the core of the poem -- not only from an "emotional" standpoint in which the mermaid feels and thinks about -- rather how the lines operate. For example, the title itself seems self-explanatory, "The Objectified M...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Eviction Notice" by Dan Gerber Originally read: February 8, 2013 More information about the Poet: Dan Gerber Past me write down for the opening two lines  that they have a, "sing-songy quality and humorous."  So inspecting the first two lines again, "The spider from the rug / suddenly wondered where he was" not only has a sing-songy and humorous quality, but also a fable like quality.  In the first two lines we have a character who, through the description, has a heroic journey feel to him (ala Aeneas).  Not that the poem goes for the Aeneid allusion, more of a demonstration of character which is undercut in the next line, "if spiders ever do;" which brings the focus back onto the speaker interpreting the thoughts and actions which is further explored in the the following three lines, "the world went white, / then dark, / then bright/"  not how the focus is adjective visual imagery -- simple devic...

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: "Audubon Ate His Birds" by Kristin Robertson Originally read: January 30, 2013 More information about the Poet: Kristin Robertson The first sentence, or rather the first six and a half lines in this couplet form, is pretty humorous because of the hyperbolic acts compared to how Audubon is imagined (an animal lover who drew pictures); however, upon further inspection what the speaker writes of is true , well technique wise anyway. The speaker inserts the sense of humor through the first simile "feathers splayed like pick a card, / any card "  and  "he roasted and swallowed / the loves of his life."   What this sets up is a kind of authority behind the speaker.  The speaker doesn't hide his/her bias of a feeling of disbelief when stating the truth -- however, the speaker, no matter how hyperbolic it seems, is writing the "truth." Then the shift in the narrative -- or rather the comparison to Audubon where t...

Original poem reprinted online here:   "Tattoo Theory" by Ada Limón Originally read: January 22, 2013 More information about the Poet: Ada Limón The beginning of this poem starts off as a narrative, but then there's an insert of humor in this line, "for some reason, in Spanish.  So it [the map] reads Montes Apalaches."   Then I wondered why I thought this is humorous.  Of course, the shift in language from one to another is interesting (Ezra Pound, Cantos ), but doesn't  mean it's humorous It's the switch in expectations.  On one hand, I as expecting a map in English, but I got one in Spanish -- how should I react.  I think this idea is the crux of the poem. The shapes of Nebraska looking like animal -- humorous, but a switch.  The poem switches from the focus on language to visuals kind of confusing the humor -- or is it merging it, I'm not too sure. "Nebraska! Nebraska Forever! Yeah" starts a sped up sequence (confusing or adding to t...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Brief reflection on killing the Christmas carp" by Miroslav Holub Originally read: December 24, 2012 More information about the Poet: Miroslav Holub    I think the humor in this poem happens halfway through the poem.  Oh, crap, I just realized something after rereading this poem.  These lines, "I am just wondering if the carp is the right creature. / A far better creature surely would be one." Now for my previous analysis I wrote this, "The moral law within me is cute, especially from the perspective of the dying fish."  The perspective is not of they dying fish (which, within it's own right has some symbolic resonance) rather it is discussing, "A far better creature surely would be one."    So the carp is something that "the poor" looks forward to for Christmas.  Yet, the speaker thinks there must surely be a better, let's say, sacrifice.  For instance, would say something nice before being...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Against Epiphany" by Fred Marchant  Originally read: December 15, 2012 More information about the Poet: Fred Marchant  So I lack a sense of humor when it comes to poetry.  I think I wrote these lines before many times.  And in my analysis previously I wrote things like, "words of detachment, detrimental, down trodden" commenting on the simile of "poplars bent like / the fingers of an old man clutching / what he loved about the sun?"  In stanza two I wrote, "couples? partners?" when the pronoun of "our" is introduced.  And in the last stanza I wrote down, "the end is great."  My analysis doesn't account for humor, rather I try to break down what "works" in the poem, and what doesn't. But a funny thing happened when I got to the end of this poem -- I chuckled.  Not because I saw that the lines was humorous or that I tried to configure humor into the lines.  This was going t...