The Next Adventure

Eat now
in the fast food shop
on the aluminum edged table
where mother has created a delightful meal
father sits on his Chevy
thinking about more than most.

I left my shoe at the door
and walked
through the valley of the shadow of
Death is but the next adventure
open the door to new possibilities.

Don't Mess Up. Don't Fall Down.
Whatever you do
don't look up, the sky is falling.



Robert Carothers (and the class)

My view on modern poetry by Daniel Pilla

Upon reading the large packet of poems passed out during class, one common theme came to mind; they are not for me. I understand that poets of this day and age seek to break away from the poets of old, to be “original”, but I feel they have drifted too far. The stylistic choices made in these poems are not to my liking, for example, I despise when the thought of one line runs directly into the next. I am a firm believer in each line being able to stand on its own and possess the intended meaning. An example of this can be found in the poem “Song of the Abducted.” The author ends a line with “I am choking,” then starts the next paragraph with “on questions.” The initial “I am choking,” heightens the moment so much that upon reading “on questions” I was, to some extent, disappointed. Another issue I have with the poems at hand is the technique of simplicity being used to raise a larger issue. In today’s society this technique may prove more effective in reader comprehension, but I don’t believe it does the topic justice. What I am trying to say, is that when one is speaking of “Time,” one cannot do such a resounding topic justice, by comparing it to a banana. I understand that “Time” is a topic so over done that writers are seeking new comparisons, but as I have said before, they have strayed too far. I believe that writers should be searching for ways to improve upon the writing of old, not seeking originality, which is for the most part impossible. Those who do achieve originality are rarely accepted as great authors because it is so different from what we know. Many would say I am not open-minded, and to this I say that there is a reason that the poetry of old has lasted so long, because it is timeless and beautiful.

Daniel Pilla

My view on modern poetry

Upon reading the large packet of poems passed out during class, one common theme came to mind; they are not for me. I understand that poets of this day and age seek to break away from the poets of old, to be “original”, but I feel they have drifted too far. The stylistic choices made in these poems are not to my liking, for example, I despise when the thought of one line runs directly into the next. I am a firm believer in each line being able to stand on its own and possess the intended meaning. An example of this can be found in the poem “Song of the Abducted.” The author ends a line with “I am choking,” then starts the next paragraph with “on questions.” The initial “I am choking,” heightens the moment so much that upon reading “on questions” I was, to some extent, disappointed. Another issue I have with the poems at hand is the technique of simplicity being used to raise a larger issue. In today’s society this technique may prove more effective in reader comprehension, but I don’t believe it does the topic justice. What I am trying to say, is that when one is speaking of “Time,” one cannot do such a resounding topic justice, by comparing it to a banana. I understand that “Time” is a topic so over done that writers are seeking new comparisons, but as I have said before, they have strayed too far. I believe that writers should be searching for ways to improve upon the writing of old, not seeking originality, which is for the most part impossible. Those who do achieve originality are rarely accepted as great authors because it is so different from what we know. Many would say I am not open-minded, and to this I say that there is a reason that the poetry of old has lasted so long, because it is timeless and beautiful.

Reaction to Friday's Activity

Friday when we were asked to write about a specific place that we loved or hated, I thought for a few minutes about where to write about. I knew for my poem to be successful I had to try and create a poem that had an extremely good image that could be provided with it. My decision was to write about the beach that my family and friends would travel to while growing up; to Wildwood, New Jersey. I decided on Wildwood because I remember specific landmarks and restaurants that I would visit every time that I went down.

I had never attempted to write something like this because I usually try and write about a specific story and not about an area. At first, I found it to be challenging to try and find so many specific parts that had to be mentioned within the poem. However, once I decided to try and have some fun with it and stretch the truth as well as my imagination I really enjoyed writing my poem and felt that the ideas were easy to come up with. Instead of a regular stop sign I wrote about how the stop sing that we would pass on the way to Wildwood was covered in graffiti that consisted of various different colors. In addition, I attempted to think of the last possible thing that one would expect to see at the beach in the summer...any reference of winter came to mind. I thought something original was to have a sign in the middle of town at the "classic, crazy, old person's house" that said "yield to Santa and his reindeer." These two signs provide the reader with something extremely different, yet with a creative and easy to remember image.

I really enjoyed this activity for numerous reasons. Especially because it was able to provide me with a great flashback of the glories of summer as opposed to the snowy winter that we are in right now. In addition, I really enjoyed being able to write about a place like a beach and being able to put such vivid visuals into the poem. I hope to be able to have more assignments like this in the future.


--Perry Wertheimer

Dean Young. True/False

This poem has a very interesting structure. The title of the poem is True/False and, following from that, the poem is set up sort-of like an exam. Each of the one hundred lines are numbered, unlike any exam however there is no room for answers. The number in each line is followed by a statement or a phrase. Some lines are lines one would likely find on a job application: “I am good at following order.” Others are simple statements: “I use a number-two pencil.” Many of them are much more interesting, though. Lines like, “I am a Murder,” “The homeless are dangerous,” “Here’s 50 cents” or “I never had sex with an animal” raise interest in the poem and many questions about the poets thoughts at the time of writing it. The most interesting thing I found while reading it is how the poem seems to be asking the reader to answer the questions, true or false, and at the same time the reader must question what the poet’s answer to each line would be. The poem works very well because many of the lines seem to be letting the reader in on small beliefs which the poet may harbor yet is afraid to answer True too. Also they can call into question many beliefs that the reader of the poem may have. The poem flows nice as well. The lines vary in length from a single word to a short paragraph, but many lines are kept fairly short. This provides clever lines that are straight and to the point. This poem is a very interesting way for a poet to call to attention social woes and things weighing on his mind.

wes edmond.

Waiting for my foot to ring by Bob Hicok

By Sarah Portner

I really enjoyed reading this poem. I loved the imagery, and how you could see the different things the author was talking about, and how I had done some of the things that the author was talking about like; taking apart the tv and or can opener (I have never taken apart a tv, but my friend had an old can opener in her basement that we took apart. We couldn't get it back together.) or placing hamburger on your dog's nose and telling him he has to wait before he can eat it (my dog was never really good at this one.)
I liked the word order he used for a lot of his lines. Such as: "I was told about a poet who wrote a poem the day/his wife was put in a box and given to the ground/ like it was Christmas. The person telling me/ had on a green shirt on which trees of a different green/were imprinted, he thought the poet was sick/and I thought the poet had a mind that only lived/in his hands." I love that last part. The idea of having a mind that lives in your hands.
I like how there is a comparison between the author taking apart a can opener and or a tv and his father's surgery. How you can see the parts of his father laying on a table and the parts of the can opener. And how the author always forgets to a small piece to put back in and how they will be taking out a piece of his father's colon. Yet, the author was never deprived of soup or westerns, and in the same way he won't be deprived of his father either. It is an odd way of looking at someone going in for an operation and I really liked that about this piece, how it played with words and ideas.

Where You Go When She Sleeps

By Sarah Portner

I really liked the idea behind this piece. I like how the author, in the start of his poem, goes into such detail of how he has fallen for this girl and then compares it to a small boy falling into a silo of grain. It fascinated me that he would compare two things that are so drastically different from each other; love and death. How he has fallen so deeply in love with this woman, comparing her hair to that of sun, or metal, or grain, that he is trapped and cannot escape this love, nor does he want too. To a boy looking at the swirling golden flakes of grain, that he falls in, which leads to his death. This too, the small boy cannot escape. I thought it was brilliant that love and death could simultaneously be one in the same poem and mean two different things. "But a whirling of sunlight and water and air full of shining dust/That takes you, a dream that is not of you but will let you/Into itself if you love enough, and will not, will never let you go."