February

5, 2012 || Improvisation of Hair || Jay Wright || * Upon finishing this poem I thought it was rather strange. The speaker focuses on hair and healthiness and cleanliness, in particular washing away dirt and grime with water 5, 2012 || 5, 2012 || 5, 2012 || 5, 2012 ||
 * Number || Title || Author || Comments || Date ||
 * 85 || Dew || David Musgrave || * This poem's speaker chooses to outline the days of a professional footballer, spending their days and nights training and playing games in packed stadiums
 * The poem is very descriptive and relies heavily on imagery; almost every line give something new for the reader to imagine, which really helps to mimic the feelings of footballers on the pitch and helps the readers get into their boots. My favorite image is "hurling their burly / frames through rucks while the moist chaff / of wet grass under the winter lights / softens their fall"
 * The speaker continually uses the images of dew and droplets in the poem, sometimes using it as a simile or metaphor ("even the crowds / seems like droplets on the concrete"). I think the most interesting usage is seen at the end of the poem: "the sky bawls / cheerless little drops for the victors / and decks the oval with the losers' jewels". Overall the images of dew put it in a positive light, the dew softening the ground in anticipation of the players falling and serving as a sign of victory. || February 5, 2012 ||
 * 86 || Spring Reign || Dean Young || * The speaker, while in the midst of a springtime rain, reflects on the horrible, fleeting aspects of life, though he or she still remains hopeful and thankful for the good things that they do have
 * The speaker takes the poem in a full circle, in the first stanza talking about the things that he or she is thankful and doing the same in the last stanza, despite the doubt and cynicism expressed in some of the middle stanzas
 * There's one line that made me think in particular. It compares the word to "an engine inside an elk's skull on a pole". I'm still not entirely sure what that entails. It's going to bother me until I figure it out. || February 5, 2012 ||
 * 87 || The Nabob || Kenneth Slessor || * I thought the title "The Nabob" had some sort of ties to India before I even read the poem, as it sounds so similar to "Nawab". When I looked up the word, I found that it means "a provincial governor of the Mogul empire in India".
 * The poem's speaker seems to paint the picture of a horrible, greedy man, presumably a Nabob, and how he lives his extravagant life
 * As the poem goes on, the speaker seems to become increasingly enraged, using more explanation points and dashes toward the end of the poem to make lines short and jagged and more emotionally charged. || February
 * 88 || The Healing
 * There were a couple lines that stood out in particular to me - "wind in the cottonwoods wakes me / to a day so thin its breast bone / shows". The personification of the wind through this image was very striking to me; I could perfectly picture a completely emaciated person, bones protruding in every which way.
 * I thought the set up of the stanzas was interesting as well. The first stanza is a giant block of 28 lines, while the second (and last) stanza is only four lines long. The stanza break does mark a change in topic by the speaker; the four lines seem like they could be a poem all on their own. || February
 * 89 || Rivus || Richard Tagett || * Just upon looking at the poem, I thought the length of the lines and stanzas was interesting. Each of the six stanzas has five to seven lines, but the lines are incredibly short - some consist of only one word.
 * Secondly I had to look up the meaning of the word 'rivus'. Apparently it means 'a small stream'. This title fits in with the poems imagery of water and rivers ("whose stream", "they float / on the / surface / water")
 * The part of the poem that struck me the most was the third stanza: "the bread / crumbs I / bring you / in / morning". These lines just make me think that the speaker is talking to a duck in a pond, though the rest of the poem seems to be addressing another person. || February
 * 90 || Laps, Cook and Philip Pool || David Musgave || * Continuing the theme of sports as seen in his poem "Dew", the speaker in this poem tells about his or her thoughts on swimmers as they do laps in the pool
 * I thought the objectification of the swimmers in the poem was interesting. The speaker equates the swimmers with "machines" and goes as far as to call them "midget submarines" and "fleshy bottle-openers".
 * Despite the objectification, the speaker manages not to completely disconnect the swimmers from their humanity. The objectification of the swimmers seems to be the speaker's way of admiring their athleticism by exaggerating the speed at which they swim, as if they were inhuman. || February
 * 91 || Minneapolis || David Musgave || * This poem is perhaps told from the perspective of the author himself. Being originally from Australia and having relocated to the US, the poem outlines some different aspects of life in America.
 * The poem mostly focuses on the speakers job as a part-time business men and a night that he spends at dinner at what appears to be a sports bar with his team after finishing a long project. The speaker seems to be feeling lonely and distinctly weary about his situation, as if his life in America was not exactly as great and exciting as he had imagined it to be.
 * The final stanza of the poem does hint at some sort of intimate relationship with one of his co-workers, Cindy, though even that contains the same monotony, the speaker saying that she "rides me steady as a metronome". || February
 * 92 || Hour || Reginald Gibbons || * The poem seems to consist of the late-night thoughts of a person in bed, the darkness around them conjuring up memories past, in particular previous loves
 * Similar to the poem Rivus, the lines of the poem are extremely short, making the sentences very fragmented and sometimes difficult to comprehend at first, as if they are mimicking the fast, delirious thoughts that come with insomnia
 * There are many repeated lines ("An ache of / being / An ache of being, / over love. An / ache of being over love"), again suggesting the tired speaker's delirious state as he or she tries to think late at night || February 5, 2012 ||
 * 93 || Probation || Averill Curdy || * The speaker in this poem outlines the his or her experience living underneath a couple who often get into violent fights with each other
 * I love the way the speaker describes the violent couple upstairs - the woman is described as a "slightly slutty mermaid" and the two of them together make "a giant / bat trying to mince a mayfly" or "Blondie / with Dagwood on crystal meth". Despite the annoyance that they might cause, the speaker finds much humor in the situation through these descriptors.
 * At the end of the poem, the speaker transitions into a sweeter topic, producing the image of he or she and his or her partner in bed together, caressing each other and waiting for the upstairs couple to stop fighting. It seems as though the horrible relationship that exists upstairs has only strengthened the one downstairs. || February 5, 2012 ||
 * 94 || Because our waiters are hopeless romantics || Amy Beeder || * The speaker seems to be using an extended metaphor in this poem, using eating at a banquet as a metaphor for life.
 * According to the speaker, the different dishes we are served represent different experiences, different feelings, all aspects of life, and they are never ending, as "you'll never feel full".
 * As the title suggests, this metaphor could be a musing of a common waiter, hoping to give some meaning to the work that engulf themselves in, even if it is just serving food on plates || February 5, 2012 ||
 * 95 || Lithium Dreams (White Sea) || Amy Beeder || * The poem starts out with the topic of the Salar de Uyuni salt flats, first describing some ancient folklore as to its creation involving two personified volcanoes
 * The speaker then provides a nice contrast by breaking the poem into a different section entirely and jumping from the primitive, ancient story to a much more modern one of Buzz Aldrin spotting the location from space, of the different elements that can be found there and utilized by scientists to make energy. Lithium, in particular.
 * The speaker seems to be putting the use of the salt flats for energy in a bad light. Humans are now just draining another natural resource in order to fuel our unnatural machines. || February 5, 2012 ||