DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "Late Confession" by Gary Soto Originally read: February 20, 2013 More information about the Poet: Gary Soto The reoccurring image here is the orange.  Not only in this poem but from the poem " Oranges" also by Gary Soto .  Did I pick this up on my first read? Nope.  So I bring this up first because I wonder how much of a conversation this poem and "Oranges" have with one another.  Is it only the image?  Or is there contextualization issue where one image of the orange in a poem brings a different light to another image of the orange  The idea behind this is focusing how poems connect with each other, perhaps through a collection, or solo. As of now though, I only have this poem by itself, and, although I have read "Oranges",  I feel that this poem stands on it's own and the image of the orange (and also others) within the poem creates unrepentant nostalgia. So late confession stands for a confession in th...

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...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Ash Wednesday" by Louis Untermeyer Originally read: February 13, 2013 More information about the Poet: Louis Untermeyer This poem is comprised of two Italian sonnets.  What I didn't think of when I wrote notes on this poem is how the  form operates in this poem.  Usually, Italian sonnets are divided into an octave (first stanza) then a sestet (second stanza).  In the octave, there's a question being presented; meanwhile, the sestet answers the posed question.  Now with this poem, the core of the poem is what the answer to the question or the first sestet. The poem starts off thought with the question, "Shut out the light or let it filter through" -- the tone is one of a command but a command that (falsely) gives the power of decision to the reader; however, the speaker continues on what the filtered light illumiated: "feet that grew, "twisted and false," "cupids smirk from candy clouds," "Th...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Change" by Wendy Videlock Originally read: February 5, 2013  More information about the Poet: Wendy Videlock This is a definition poem. Well, not like the ones I described before. This is more like a variable poem where x=y, y=/=x or something like that.  So in the first three lines, the speaker redefines "change" as "god."  Furthermore, the tone is like an infomercial trying to sell me a new definition.  And just like some infomercials, I just want to read how the redefinition works out. Since god and change have a dual definition, change and god do the following: 1) lovely enough to raise a song 2) implicate (line break) 3) implicate a sea of wrongs 4) mighty enough (? the comma after enough confuses me -- I think the line should read "mighty enough / like other gods [changes]") 5) shelter 6) bring together 7) estrange us The only line that isn't straightforward is the "implicate" line which I...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Shanidar, Now Iraq" by Sarah Lindsay Originally read: January 28, 2013  More information about the Poet: Sarah Lindsay When I reread this poem, I thought the images were odd, but felt strong which offsets the burdening of heavy baggage words. "Tower" has become one of those words.  And, I feel for a very long time, "Iraq" is one of those words as well -- at least in the context to American politics and literature.  Yes, America did invade Iraq, twice. And like all wars, there are always people that want to do something about the situation.  However, the title, "Shanidar, Now Iraq" has brought in a historical context. Ah, now I see. Anyway, I'll get to that in a bit.  In the first stanza I wrote, "The surreal opening line sets up a surreal tone, duh, right, but it's not over the top surreal -- anthropomorphizing bones and flesh."  And so the first paragraph goes about  bones. Then the second ...

Original poem reprinted online here:  "To The New Year" by W.S. Merwin Originally read: January 1, 2013 More information about the Poet: W.S. Merwin So here's what I wrote on my notes: "'that do not stir' is important here because the simile is not on the leaves but the ambiguous 'you' that is the representation of sunlight."  So old me, I agree that 3/4 of the first stanza describes the "you" but I'm not so sure that the "you" is the representation of sunlight. "You" gives off "the first sunlight,"  what else gives off sunlight?  The sun (well it's in the wording sun-light)?  What am I trying to get to?  Okay.  So I think previously I wrote that "you" in a story refers to the speaker, or an audience.    There's more possible ways (I think I concluded), and here's one.  The "you" in the poem is a construct of the speaker.  The speaker first states the you then starts to d...

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: "The Love Cook" by Ron Padgett Originally read: December 21, 2012 More information about the Poet: Ron Padgett It's hard to read a cheeky love  poem and come back to the poem and find something differnt.  Of course, as usual, I do put my misinterpretation spin on it, but this poem plays with expectation in a sense and, depending on taste, the poem doesn't cross the line from cheeky to creepy (which love poems do sometimes). The title set's off the fun.  "The Love Cook" is a little corny, but since the adjective noun combination isn't used too much, I found it interesting to learn more.  I think for poems that the title is a strong noun (added with an adjective sometimes) the poem sets up a definition -- who is this _______, what is this ______. So I want to know more about this love cook.  The first two lines are disarming, then we get to the line, "in fact / the rest of your clothes" now if the poem wen...

Original poem reprinted online here: Analysis of "Coal" by Audre Lorde Originally read: December 18, 2012 More information about the Poet: Audre Lorde I read this poem again out loud and I wrote this on stanza two my first read: "I could see the attraction of the extended metaphor -- this is more of a performance through sound and    loose image; yet, all phantoms -- dead metaphors stacked on dead metaphors doesn't create life -- only a reminder of the dead" Yeah, I don't know what was going through my mind that day.  Today though I liked the play of simile,  I don't know why.  Each simile describes how the speaker views words to say "diamonds" "adders" and "gypsies over my tongue to explode through my lips."  Okay so the exploding gypsies one doesn't work for me -- there's surreal and there's just silly. Anyway, I wrote this at the end of the poem, "the construction of this...I tknow why it'll work beca...

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...

Original poem reprinted online here: "The Snow Man" by Wallace Stevens Originally read: December 13, 2012 More information about the Poet: Wallace Stevens I was particularly harsh with this poem when I first read it.  Well actually when I read this poem on the 13th, I probably read this poem a couple times because I think I received a Christmas Card with this poem on it.  I never looked in depth in it thought because I thought, "okay winter poem." And on first written analysis, I took the poem as a nature poem trying to have something hidden beneath it and I wrote comments like, "Bland and a bit cliche," or "There's something hidden here but somethings not fitting"  because the description of nature isn't that surprising or the technique in the poem to transfer the season to the mind has been done many times before. However, when I read the poem out loud this morning, I found that I really like this poem based on sound.  Everything flowed...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Transgressing the Real (Passages 27)" by Robert Duncan Originally read: December 12, 2012 More information about the Poet:  Robert Duncan Poet as prophet. I think I took a class that analyzed the idea as the Poet as prophet.  I say "I think" because it was one of those classes where we read a lot of poetry that had to deal prophetic writers like Robert Duncan, William Blake,Allen Ginsberg, Walt Whtiman but not necessarily prophetic speakers in the poem.  I think the assumption was that the poet and the speaker were one in the same. At least, this line of thought would make sense with this poem.  I didn't write too much on this poem on the first go through.-- some comments like "Nice kind of pun flowing through[:] a person who studies -- the eye of an individual" ... what does this mean past me? Oh I'm missing a punctuation here -- posthumously added a semi-colon.  If I remember how the poet/prophet works is by ...

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...

Original poem reprinted online here:  Advent by Rae Armantrout Originally read: December 1, 2012 More information about the Poet:  Rae Armantrout So the last comment I wrote cut off at the end, "This poem packs a lot of 'choose your own' dichotomey [sic] choice meanings in such a short poem and yet is really clever."  I don't know what this sentence means either. Anyway, the usage of sequence is interesting in this poem -- most of my notes try to figure out how sequence works effectively in the poem.  First, the idea of Advent, being a religious season of waiting for Jesus to arrive, starts off the poem.  Then the continuous images of threes (which is parallel to the holy trinity [or that's where my mind goes because of religious reasons]). Stanza One: mother, baby, sheep Stanza Two: sky, god, girl Stanza Three: thing (close to nothing), fatherless (not really a noun, but stands alone for attention), everything So this poem hinges on the direct statement in st...

Original poem reprinted online here:  "Everything that Acts is Actual" Originally read: November 30, 2012 More information about the Poet: Denise Levertov "The ending -- the idea of only seeing 'grasp alone; not the actual poem, idea, concept -- only the reader, the observers own need to understand is really strong because the end works well if a reading  [sic should be reader] wants to read the poem as a Nature poem or a Prophetic poem, or a 'personal poem,' or a combination of different ideas.  The writer/speaker let go of this poem.  The reader/interpreter/scholar/searcher has not" I don't know what I'm talking about here. I've reread the poem and my notes several times this morning, and I don't see how I got to that conclusion.  The introduction of the ambiguous "you" (a much favored technique by many) in stanza one is well done. Although the "you" used in stanza one borders on being a command or a simple addressin...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Dear Reader" by Rita Mae Reese Originally Read: November 29, 2012 (Maybe) More information about the Poet:  Rita Mae Reese   When reading this over again I was thinking about the comments I made about the the tone.  I think the tone is really well done here.   First, the speaker is the nurse taking care of an elderly person who forgets.  I thought the elderly person was a man throughout the poem, but it can be an elderly woman because I don't see any indication of gender, and the same could be said about the nurse (I think it's a woman, but there's no specific gender in the poem).  I won't get into that.  Sexist reinforcing gender tropes.  Let's just move on, shall we? Anyway, the tone, dispassionate, morbidly humorous tone in the second stanza spoken from the outsider -- the nurse -- offsets the "sentimentality" in stanza three, "she is / eveything--you gave / me a shake--everything / to me." The l...

This blog has been up for over two years, and I haven't updated it in a year. Why? Life happens after the MFA. I'm not writing about literary accomplishments or (the multitude) of literary failures. Rather life -- you know the things you experience in person than in a book so that you can write a book about your experiences you had in person. This is not an "I'm living my life" blog -- this blog is meant to set up something that I want to do. ------------- So after I "celebrated" my 30th birthday, I decided to read some poetry everyday for various reasons: 1) I wrote and read a little bit here and there the past couple of months leading up to my birthday -- mostly during the Summer. I didn't want to be distracted by video games while applying for jobs, and I didn't want to focus on how many employers ignored my resume -- so I turned to poetry. To be honest, I don't know why. 2) Retail places didn't hire me unfortunately, but I final...