Sunday, March 20, 2011

"Turning Pro" by Ishmael Reed

I really enjoyed this poem because it doesn't read like a poem. It reads like a well written speech—the kind that starts a "slow clap" in inspirational movies. The seemingly random enjambment of the lines and lack of rhyme scheme or defined meter make the poem read as if the author is imagining "that speech" he will make.

The simple language and use of jargon solidifies the feeling that the author is an old veteran of the baseball game that's telling the reader this tale. You sympathize with him because he's not embellishing his diction or syntax and doesn't use clever turns of phrase; Reed's words hold a resounding rawness to them because of this.

And Reed's character is so endearing! He embodies attitudes that we've all felt at one time or another. That we've become obsolete; that our time has passed; that maybe we never had any talent to begin with. Through this, we more than sympathize with Reed's character; we empathize with him. Personal, human connection is a powerful thing, and it allows us to feel such joy for the narrator when his moment of glory arrives.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

"The Hat Lady" by Linda Pastan

This poem was interesting in that the mood was so lighthearted through the first three octaves but then became so unsettlingly bleak in the last. The emotions in this poem come from the wealth of unique description and continuous motif of hats.

To understand some of the references in the text, I researched what some of the hats mentioned looked like. After seeing the general style amongst them, the first three stanzas provided me a very mid- to early-20th century vibe—relaxed and classy. However, the allusion of the Hat Lady to Saint Sebastian was a little eerie and perhaps should have prepared me more for the shift in tone in the last stanza.

The last octave surprised me with how abrupt it changes the direction of the poem. The author appears to describe her mother leaving for the hospital and later the cemetery ("where my father and grandfather waited, head to bare head") after experiencing what I believe to be chemotherapy. Since Pastan was born in 1932, chemo seems a possible explanation. Earlier in the poem, the Hat Lady simply represents that—a woman who sells hats. However, in the last stanza, I believe the Hat Lady becomes a nurse because she wears "a bracelet of needles." Also, nurses wore those little white hats in the early 1900s.

I don't know exactly what the significance of hats are as a symbol, but the author obviously holds some deep connection to them.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

"Goodbye to the Little Things" (Own Poem)

I'll miss the "big tree,"
gnarled and mas
sive,
three stems extending upward
in an impregnable triangle.

I'll miss how it wasn't scary
or frightening,
with branches untouchable
except perhaps by the feathery
grasp of clouds.

I'll miss the cloven stump
that shattered the unbreakable triangle,
that still to me displays a drawn-on Pok
éball,
not a peace sign.

***

I'll remember the glistening expanse
of the lake down the road
and how it left
as my family packed tight
the wood-paneled green van,
drew down the tacky blinds
over the windows,
and accelerated.

I'll remember its silent reassurance,
the calming gray of the white-capped waves
on ominous days,
that sprayed up in spouts
finer than on any blue,
placid afternoon.


***

I'll remember it left me for a time.

***

I'll recall the dusty, rolling fields
that replaced it,
accompanied by a soundtrack
of whirring bicycle tires

moving never quite fast
so as to merely drone over
the exhausting resonance of silence.

***

I'll recall,
I'll remember,
I'll miss,
the small town with so many faces.

So many different faces.