True/False

I actually loved the "True/False" poem by Dean Young. As far as literary difficulty goes, it’s fairly simple: simple format (how can you get any simpler than numbering from 1-100?); small, common words; nothing overly complex or scientific; in fact, even a child could write a poem similar to this—if it weren’t for the underlying meanings of some of the phrases. “2. I want to break things.” Okay, sure, it could just be someone who is in a bad mood, but it could also be someone who has a lot of anger building up inside; or someone who is completely destructive.

Several of the lines also hint at psychological issues. Number 2 (breaking things) suggests suppressed anger. Both number six (washing hands six times a day isn’t excessive) and number fourteen (always skipping a belt loop) suggest an obsessive-compulsive tendency. Numbers 15 (terrible things have happened to me), 21 (my parents were cruel to me), 97 (I wet the bed) and 98 (I am sorry) all suggest being abused/traumatized as a child. The way the poem changes tone could even suggest schizophrenia (well, that and line 3 that specifies hearing voices). There are also numerous lines that are typical of a conspiracy theorist, or from a psychological perspective, paranoia.

I love the underlying complexity in this poem. I also like the nature of a true/false poem. Maybe I have too many secrets to hide, but I like the idea that I can write whatever I want—anything at all—in a poem, but still have the option to say that it could just be false. I like the idea of putting yourself out there by divulging deep, dark secrets, while still having a little comfort in the fact that your readers don’t know whether it’s true or false.

I really enjoyed this poem. Even if it’s ridiculously easy to imitate, I think it still takes time to create a poem that says so many things without coming right out and saying them.

Sarah Corra

TRUE/FALSE

After reading True/False, I was a bit bewildered. At first, it just seems like a bizarre list of random things. It is really hard to understand what the author is getting at. However, at the same time I felt like the poem had a purpose that I was completely missing. This of course drove me crazy. It wasn’t until I read through it again and physically marked the seemingly more meaningful statements, or actually answered “true or false” to some of the questions that it started to make some sense.

Even if I’m wrong, which who really knows what any poem is about except the author, I feel like I may be on the right track. To me, the poem is about society’s tendency to constantly standardize everything. Most major issues are not black or white. Most controversial topics do have a great deal of gray area, and have many situational dependencies. Even so, it seems that people/ politicians/ leaders/ organizations strive to create laws and rules to hold special issues or stories at one extreme. To take a topic with a lot of “unknown” or a lot of variables surrounding it, and to simply decide true or false about it is Dean Young’s way of showing how ridiculous disregarding “the gray area” can be.

Some of the lines seem simple, and therefore are more confusing. Why would this be in the poem at all? Or why even a true/false question? For example, number 52 states “parking meters lie.” At first, you might put false. Then you think, if it’s false why is that line even on here? Then you wonder, maybe parking meters do lie? This and other lines like 52, make the poem seem like it is suggesting conspiracy. When something simple that you trust day in and day out (you don’t have a choice when it comes to parking) is questioned, you start to wonder about other more important things. The feelings of suspicion, betrayal, and paranoia that such questioning leaves you with can be quite powerful. In my opinion, Dean Young does a great job with this. He is teaching his readers to think!

With purpose in mind, each line raises a question and makes a statement about society. Some are more obvious than others. (Though I love analyzing this sort of thing, I can’t do all 100. I'd be banned from blog-town!)

Overall, the most important thing here is format.

The lines are numbered. There are 100 (magic number) lines. The title serves as direction. (This is crucial to the poem, too.) There are only two options, true or false. Black or white, right or wrong. The thing is, not one question can be answered with a definite true or false.

Dean Young is showing that you cannot possibly take an important topic or issue and fit it nicely into a little simple box. We should ask questions, consider all sides of a matter, and use the gray paints on our pallets more often. (Even when putting quarters into a meter!)

-Rachel Alberico

Valentine

Valentine

I can see the hurricane tonight
sweeping across the town

Tell me when did the water surround me
deep inside waves of warmth
and hard beating hearts
and glittering beams

The smell of the pink sweats
flows down your throat
shivers as you whispered
the whirlpool of doves’ feathers
into my ears

I dreamt of
the bitter of your lips
so I planted you a rose
rooted from our palm prints

* Chan Wing Hong

Draw a little bird by Mary Ann Samyn

Draw a little bird by Mary Ann Samyn
Reading Mary Ann Samyn's poetry has been particularly interesting for me because I am currently in the Engl418 seminar with her. The class covers fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, and while she is clearly well versed in all three, her forte is poetry and I am glad to be able to read some of her work. "Draw a little bird" especially jumped out at me. Reading it, I get the impression that the speaker is a bit older, reminiscing about 1979, when apparently the girls felt the pressure to impress so they brightened their cheeks with lipstick. But time has passed and the speaker, who so enjoyed her youth and seemingly standard life, feels that she has little to offer - only enough to fill one volume, and a small one at that. At the same time, she finds her simple life inspiring and wants to share it - for any price. Maybe I read it too simply, but I enjoyed it. Especially the line "Yes, I accept personal checks, word-of-mouth, token love." The speaker will share her knowledge with anyone willing to listen. "Blotched and botched" is also a pleasing line to the ear, although it makes me feel sympathy for the speaker. I find it interesting that of the two poems by Samyn in the packet, both end with "-" as if the speaker as been cut off in the middle of her sentence. I'm not sure if it's supposed to sound abrupt when read out loud or just look as though the speaker lost her voice unexpectedly, but I like the effect - it definitely makes me curious about what else there might be to the poem.
~Nicole Bartow

"Full of Knives"

I enjoyed Zachary Schomburg’s poem, “Full of Knives,” quite a bit. I thought that the list format in “Full of Knives” was very strange and interesting. I wonder if there is significance in the number of items—eighteen. Is it symbolic? I don’t think so, but sometimes it’s difficult to tell. I don’t really understand the reference to notes, starting in the first line “Notes are brittle around the blades.” Is it a way of documenting who/why/how he was stabbed in the beck? I think that it must be something along these lines because later in the poem it says that the notes, not the knives, are slowly killing him. I find the tone of this poem especially intriguing. The theme of “being stabbed in the back” is a theme that I associate with feelings of bitterness, anger, sorrow, frustration, and betrayal. However, throughout the poem, there is an ironic, almost humorous tone. The line “He has difficulties with metal detectors,” seems even more amusing after having read the entire poem. The humor is subtle, which is why it seems so fitting. More humorous lines were number twelve and number eighteen. I think my favorite part of the whole poem was the end, number eighteen. “He was obviously stabbed, brutally and repeatedly.” That line is fantastic! It’s such an obvious understatement. It feels significant that the doctor delivers the news to some anonymous person rather than a relative or a loved one. It clearly expresses the sentiment that the speaker doesn’t really belong, and that he has no one to care for him. Although, on that note, number seventeen, “He is difficult to hold when he cries,” is interesting. I think the notion that he is difficult to hold when he cries makes it less likely that anyone would even try.
Sarah Corra

James Harms's "February"

James Harms's poem "February" is strange in a way that makes reading it wonderful. A lot of his images in the poem are discernable but not quite within reach of full comprehension, which is something I strive for in my own poetry, albeit with nowhere near the success to which this strategy is employed here. The list of the things in Walt's pocket: A magnifying glass, two poker chips and a plastic dinosaur, show that Walt is probably a younger boy carrying around such unrelated things in his pocket. He then "fall's asleep mid-chew," and "leaves the rest of his bologna to the charity of winter," both of these parts that conclude the initial image I actually found myself laughing with as I read them. Anybody who "falls asleep mid-chew" is hilarious; for some reason the memories of someone on TV falling asleep and falling face first into a bowl of cereal popped into my head. Harms writes of flower petals "floating in vase water," which I thought was a beautiful image, somewhat reminiscent of the big green leaves that sit atop the glassy water of a pond in the south. Harms introduces a second character, Phoebe who is going through laundry. Again, Harms goes from something normal (naming the laundry being folded-- "blue sock, pretty dress, blue sock) to something just beyond reach: "every shirt a kind of hat." What does that mean? I am not quite sure but it makes sense and simply the sound of those words together just flows. And I found the ending to be the best part of all, the strangest and the least discernable: "And the light seems to sizzle/as it settles into shadows, at the edges of which something moves. Something always moves." I have no clue what is moving or what that motion may look like, but I don't think Harms is aiming for a concrete image, he is aiming for an almost dreamlike quality that expresses the boring drollness of a February spent inside.
--Michael McCune

One Train May Hide Another by Koch

This was a very interesting poem. I had listened to it before actually reading it, and by doing so had a better idea of the reasoning behind it. I love how Koch took a single image he saw in his past and concocted this wonderful poem. I like the structure and the repeated phrasing. It has such a perfect flow, it moves so easily from line to line. I also really enjoyed how he had a little bit of humor mixed in with his writing. A good example of this is the line; In a family one sister may conceal another, So, when you are courting, it's best to have them all in view. What an excellent line it added a great deal to the poem and it gives a nice little chuckle. He has a great talent for comparison, and imagery. Throughout this poem I saw and thought many things. Hew also covers so many varying topics, from lilacs to tombs. So obscure, yet so perfect and beautiful. He also shows a little about his own life when discussing him and his wife and how he says that one life may hide another life and now she is gone and I am here. He also does a great deal of name dropping. Which I never had any sort of problem with. To me it seems like by doing so it grounds the work in a certain way and also shows a little bit more of the authors interests.


Robert C. Carothers III