DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "Estrangement" by Paula Bohince Originally read: February 27, 2013 More information about the Poet: Paula Bohince After rereading this poem and looking at my notes, I really didn't look up a lot of things that I should've.  The first being the color of flowers or actually remember what they look like.  The second is to reconsider or consider how the word estrangement fits into the poem.  Who is the one alienated? Well me as a reader in some aspects.  At some points in the poem I felt that I should know the flowers to gain a deeper meaning into the poem ("amaryillis" "juniper" "mint" "jasmine" "oleander)) not only for the shape and smell of each individual plant, but, what makes nature poems hard to do, is what each flowers literary history.  Yes, I know that would be symbols in one aspect, but I feel that images, especially nature images, have multiple contexts when a reader reads into t...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Legend" by Hart Crane Originally read: February 16, 2013 More information about the Poet: Hart Crane I have a hard time with Hart Crane in general.  He's poems like "The Bridge" and "For the Marriage of Faustus and Helen" are interesting technique and subject wise, but very hard to decipher why and how those techniques and subject are used.  I like his work, but I kind of distance myself from his poems unless I want to spend many nights deciphering individual lines. But when I came across this poem, I thought, "this one isn't too much for me to handle" after the first read.  And after the second read I know how I want to analyze this poem -- through one line. "The legend of their youth into the noon" This doesn't seem much but there are two words to look out for in the poem, "legend" and "noon"; or rather, how the speaker configures and constantly redefines these tw...

Original poem reprinted online here:  "Spaces We Leave Empty" by Cathy Song Originally read: February 11, 2013 More information about the Poet:  Cathy Song This poem took me a long time to analyze when I first read it.  I finally had to write down the reason why.  "Is this poem about rape?  or does it matter?  Is there something wrong with my interpretation."   This thought stems from the external scenario of the poem -- a thief enters a window and steals something with the mother looking on helplessly. I thought to myself, "why did my thoughts go there?"  There's no mention of sexual in here unless implied or interpreted by the reader.  However, after rereading I have a new interpretation on the poem -- which is also disturbing for me since I'm thinking I'm either trying to deflect my original interpretation or, perhaps, I do see something new.  In any case, I'm getting too far away from the poem. The focus in the first two stanzas...

Original poem reprinted online here:  "Soldierization" by Jane Satterfield Originally read: January 13, 2013 (hole punched the date :-/ ) More information about the Poet:  Jane Satterfield What's the difference between prose and poetry?  Hell that I know?  This is just a guess though. The difference between Prose and Poetry is expectation.  The automatic response when reading something in prose is information -- whether it be an article detailing something, or a finding out the plot of a story -- prose has that long tradition of a useful tool for information. Can you imagine a poem constricted to information like an article?  Meh, maybe, just not there yet.  Poetry plays more on a language level (or at least has more leeway).  And although sound accounts for some the distinction, this poem distinct itself through does other poetic techniques. So I paused after writing the last sentence.  I wanted to be specific about the poetry techniques th...

Original poem reprinted online here:  "Snow" by Kenneth Rexroth Originally read: January 11, 2013 More information about the Poet:  Kenneth Rexroth  So there's a certain speed of images that goes on here.  After rereading the poem today, I thought of how to control speed in a poem like for example alliteration and assonance create speed in a poem; furthermore, I feel, the majority of the time, longer sentences create speed.  So would that mean a long sentence with alliteration can be read the fastest? Anyway,  the poem starts out slow through sentence structure and image, "Low clouds hang on the mountain."  The poem could go into a different image for movement sake, but it's the reiteration (note: not repetition) of the image that slows the poem down, "The forest is filled with fog."  So the first few lines focuses on the clouds and the attributes of clouds: dim, invisible, growing.  Clouds are then juxtaposed by birds who take on the emotion...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Chinese Quatrains (The Woman in Tomb 44)" by Marilyn Chin Originally read: December 7, 2012 More information about the Poet:  Marilyn Chin So, I thought about this poem the night before.  I remembered feeling discomfort about reading this poem the first time.  "My father escorts my mother / from girlhood to unhappiness"  from these lines -- there's no good coming from it.  However, this poem, describes the life of this woman not as a historical piece and not as a pity poem -- rather through a series of unconnected, surreal yet influential images. Or at least that's what I read the second time.  The first time I read this I was wondering how the images connect -- why the images aren't connecting -- of course there's the worm of course, but still. For me, I'm trained to follow the image or rather that images introduced in the beginning will always come around in the end as a great symbol to follow. But how abou...