Beloit Poetry Journal

I read the journal called Beloit Poetry Journal which is partly online and definitely printed. Beloit Poetry Journal’s main goal is to expose talented hidden poets which they have done for 63 years now. I read a majority of the poems on the fall 2013 issue and noticed quite a few things. To begin, the first poem in the issue is very heavy, which I thought was interesting because how I would imagine a poem journal to be organized is starting with light, then moving to heavier poem, then back to light, and maybe a heavy on at the end. Then again, this was one of the first poem journals I read so I really didn’t know what to expect. The first poem in this issue is titled “Telemachus” by Ocean Vuong, and seemed to be about his father’s death and how he sees his life past this point, the structure of this poem was series of longer lines separated into twos. The next poem I read was a series of seven, six line poems entitles “Route 9,” “Joss,” “Batteries,” “Dug In,”  “Combat Base,” Museum Pieces,” “Quang Tri River,” all by the poet Fred Marchant. While I didn’t have much interest in Vuong’s work I really enjoyed these seven poems. While at first seemed like they varied in topic, in reality they were all related. I really found it comforting almost that they were written very similarly. The adjectives were all alike in some way where they all were very fluid with each other. Finally the last series of poems I read was by John A. Nieves, once again BPJ provided variety in the style and tone of the writing. This poem was medium length lines in triplets, and each poem has three.  BPJ provided very different poem types and being new to poetry I found it enjoyable because it was easy to tell which types of poems I was drawn to, which in the end helps me strengthen my own writing voice. I also really appreciated that all of these poems were written by aspiring poets. I enjoyed this journal a lot and it makes me very interested in the world of poem journals. 

Neil Hilborn - "OCD"

my heart hurts every time after I watch this :(

Response to Jenkins

After reading and listening to some of Jenkins work I had some questions immediately pop into my head about his writing style. I noticed that when you look at his poem on a page, it almost looks like a paragraph which was very different to Martin’s style. This wasn’t so weird but what really made me curious about his voice, and how he found his voice was when I was listening to him recite his “Fresh Duluth” poem and it sounded very chopped up, you couldn’t tell that when his poems are on paper they look like bricks, but when he speaks it sounds very fluid. Some of the other questions revolved around what his poems want people take away from them. After reading “Foot ball” I was very confused when he transitioned from “I've got a receiver open downfield...What the hell is this? This isn't a football, it's a shoe” and also to “I have eaten pancakes, for instance, with that clear corn syrup on them because there was no maple syrup and they weren't very good.” It was hard for me to find a flow to his poems when I was reading them. This also happened in “the Afterlife” because while it is titled that I found it hard to make the connections to “afterlife” throughout his poem, specifically when he writes “She says, "I was never happy with the way I looked." "The lighting was bad and I was no good at dialogue," he says."I would have liked to have been a little taller," she says.” I found it really hard to see some sort of structure in his poems but maybe that’s because I am on novice level of this poetry video game. I would really enjoy asking him about his voice, style, and intentions of a lot of his poems. 

Please stop

Please stop

You’re sweet,

But I don’t care.

You cannot convince me

From my own truth I’ve created.

My truth.  

Relief

Relief

Hot tears slide down my face,

My hands tremble to answer the phone.

Deep breaths to slow my pace.

The sweet voice talks, I whimper and moan

I can’t seem to focus

Tears return so I look at the sky

In a moment’s notice

A bird shaped cloud had caught my eye  

I can’t help but smile,

I am released from anxiety.

Context: I had a really bad volleyball game and my coaches were really mad at me so I began to have a panic attack on my way home, my boyfriend called me to try to calm me down but it wasn’t working and as I was driving I saw this cloud shaped perfectly like a bird and I just felt good and I wasn’t worried about anything anymore at that moment.

Poem of the Day

Snowball
by Shel Silverstein
I made myself a snow ball as perfect as could be.
I thought I'd keep it as a pet and let it sleep with me.
I made it some pajamas and a pillow for it's head.
Then, last night it ran away.
But first -- it wet the bed.

My lovely stress outlet

My Lovely Stress Outlet

Cluttered utensils tap measuring cups,

White sweeteners dance in sunlight singing through the windows,

My playful symphony.

Smooth vanilla attracts sweet rose water

Delicious neutrons and delightful protons collide

My candied chemistry.

Silky cream and sugar slowly condense

So light and so fluffy, as if the frosting could float

My cotton-candy clouds.

Precisely prepared I gaze at my art

Mindlessly lost in the curved peaks and dim shadows

My lovely stress outlet

Chris Martin Poetry

In Chris Martin’s poetry one thing that stood out to me as an audience, is that he uses synecdoche, but more specifically he uses body parts like fingers, hands, and skin to represent the relationships between the characters. I first noticed this in his poem “Time,” he creates this imagery between the characters by saying things like, “swollen fingers,” “we gather fingers into a knot.” Another place where this is seen is in his poem “Surviving Desires,” by stating “in skin as sometimes,” and once again in “The Science Fiction of Color” when he states “find my fingers twittering.” Using this type of device lets the reader see the relationships, and lets the reader create the scene in their head instead of just saying it. He is showing, not telling which in his short stanzas increases the power of his poem. I really enjoyed Matin’s poetry because I found them very intriguing and fascinating to read, I thought it was fun to subconsciously see the devices he used to create the images in my mind.