DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "Undecided" by Hal Sirowitz Originally read: February 13, 2013 More information about the Poet: Hal Sirowitz   Past me wrote this about the last line of the poem, "The last line might be too sentimental, but I feel that this end is strong due to the ambiguous way to read the end: dismissive, genuine, desperation."  I reread and reread this poem and I understand what's going on -- a father telling his child (son) that they got him a gift of a shirt and, even though the parents has bought his son a shirt for the last three years, the father still cares.  Yes, this is where past me saw this poem as a bit sentimental because the "plot" of the poem is one of those after school special bonding moments, but for this poem, there's something else to it. The difference in the poem is this, "Father said."  This is a small big point.  The perspective of what is being said by the father is the product of the speake...

Original poem reprinted online here:  "My Dad, In America," by Shann Ray Originally read: January 1, 2013 More information about the Poet:  Shann Ray Now the execution is important here.  The content of the poem is not directly extreme -- father goes out to get some animals for a Cheyenne old woman who gives some sage like wisdom.  Yet this poem is based on subtext upon subtext. "The poem works as a juxtaposition of extremes: gentle.violent, air/land, blood/forgiveness, dead/new.  I question, though, how separate the images are...how intertwined the ideas are." So I reread this poem again and I see what I meant; however, I want to focus on this line, "We need to know in America there is still blood / for forgiveness."  because the line break creates this fragmented extremes. This also occurs in the first two lines "Your hand on my jaw / but gently."  However there's a difference. The jaw/gently line there is a conjunction there -- or rathe...