Fragments, Strange & Experimental

Fragmentation and strangeness and experimental poems, I confess, are not typically my cup of tea.  I can appreciate them, but they aren't what I'm drawn to as a reader or writer of poetry. I didn't connect with many of these poems we've read for this section. I am intrigued by the associative qualities of these poems. I like the possibilities for exploration of association and the greater role the reader takes in creating meaning.  Some leaps, however, are too great. Without the guidance though the poems that stronger rhetoric and more closely associated images impart, the poems felt a bit haphazard and removed. There wasn't the satisfying feeling of seeing what the poet is pointing to and for me, it leaves a big hole. People can go on and on about them, but I feel like they are missing something essential - the crafting of language into expression of human experience. It's all art and no substance for me. Chaotic and jumbled is interesting to a certain extent, and there is definitely a place for it in poetry but it doesn't hold the same power to reveal ourselves and our world the way more directed poetry does. This expression embedded within poetry provides one of the ways in which we share our vision of our environment and our self observation; it is the inward and outward exploration of life. 

I did enjoy Katie Ford's poem Last Breath in Snowfall.  I like it because I think it effectively creates these beautiful images and leaps, but doesn't let the reader fall through the cracks. There is a level of rhetoric that directs the reader. Simultaneously, the loose associations in it create a space for the reader to  be more actively absorbed in the poem. The imagery is beautiful, it is the main element that keeps me reading it though to the end. The fragmented nature of the language also parallels the content of the poem, reinforcing the ideas of thought, disjointed - life frozen and ending. The diction of religious iconography and imagry also support these themes. Finding the connections and elements in this poem is satisfying. Her poem demonstrates the incorporation of rhetoric and diction within the stylistic choice of fragmentation to create something intriguing and expressive without being completely opaque.


Last Breath in Snowfall
                  --Katie Ford


I loved one person do you see the evergreen there in fog
   one by one
I was taught to withdraw firts fro him do you want to
   know how

the mind works under extreme cold ice forming on the
   eyelid or wind thrown
at me I felt every needle felt every breath I've seen a vision
   of you I was told and

in it disobedience in it nakedness you have not surrendered
   have not torn his letters
liken yourself therefore to the messenger who broke the
   tablets

take the letters and bring them but it is cold out our God is
   a jealous God and so I
did street warmed from beneath dark sky dark hands took
   the photographs the letters twine-

bound tore them let them down through the grate what
    now I said just instruct
I have emptied am the earthen vessel no mementos no
    barrier

make straight the way of the Lord they said letters soaked
   with rainwater drifting
towards the city and twine a new twine binding me
    binding.