Professional Essays
Prewriting for Poetry
Poem:
A wildfire ripping through a garden and a storm
approaching with no sense of warning
Her usually glowing blue eyes burned like bolts of lightning,
The turmoil, friction, fixating on small features
A lease of breath taken as deeply an insult as any.
We draw no lines in the dirt though our points clear all the same
Honey dripping from the knives you hide between your chapped lips
Regret often tastes like the most delicious words in the heat of the moment
As time passes so does the storm, it was never a formal battle.
Apologies echo off of the top of her car like raindrops and still we are driving,
Swallowing the sound of each other's silence and dancing on the possibility of forgiveness.
Explanation of Imagery:
I was inspired by the imagery of this poem in witnessing a recent fight between my sister and a close friend. They ultimately ended up resolving their issues, but I was somewhat awestruck by the passion and sudden emotion that overcame them both. I realized how fragile and ever changing our emotions are, like simmering light just below the surface of our being that controls everything about our very temperament and enjoyment of life. The verbal argument definitely inspired me that life is worth observing and living even when things aren’t happy and perfect, as you might want them to be. I think what is memorable in arguments are not so much the words said as the feeling evoked, and that is what I attempted to do with this poem.
A Formal Feeling
I chose to further examine The Object of White Noise: The Oak Park Sestina by Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé as the poem in which I will be discussing how the form and structure the poem is written in supports the poem’s overall content.
The first thing that I noticed about this poem was the incessant use of commas in lue of periods or other forms of punctuation. This can mimic the incessant sounds of “white noise” which the poem is titled after. I think that this similarity is a clever part by the author to use these repetitive sentences which after a while would mimic the sound in one’s head of a constant flow of noise.
Another example that I noticed within the text where the form and structure aided in the overall theme of the poem was when the author stated at the end of the poem, “ verse
of wanderlust; think Illinois sonata into Hemingway^s Seine, its
wave of seers
and their want of love, hope for soft courage, one more ostinato
today to say
read me to sleep, beyond this city's noise and history, and
meandering verse.”
The connection that the author provided of the crowds to his own comfort in the overwhelming truth that all hoards of individuals are full of love and hope and courage to his comfort being in the same city and feeling those same emotions. I believe that despite how long the poem was, this was a beautiful way to bring the piece back together, forming a beautiful poem who’s overall structure assists in creating the best possible way for the audience to understand the content of the piece.
Another point where the author uses repetition throughout the poem is when he states, “open as Sylvia Beach's hand, firm shake, first kindness, like the first verse,” the first and sounds of it repeating creates a familiar sound wave through the reader's mind which meshes well together in midst of all of the lines of sentences strung together with commas. While this poem is a bit lengthier, I believe that it is a fantastic poem that uses structure and repetition to create an experience for the audience to enjoy.