Sunday, February 13, 2011

I Think I Already Featured Whitney, but she Always Surprises me

Dude, if you checked out the title of this post, you would totally not even have to read this block of text right here, but if you want to do so anyway, my witty skill with words and my knowledge of all your needs and wants might make it worth your while anyway. Observe: YOU! THE ONE WHO IS READING THIS! YOU WANT A CHOCOLATE BAR RIGHT NOW! What then? Now who's got the ability to preemptively read minds through the interwebs? Oooh, if you wish your were me, raise your hand.

BUT TO BUSINESS! Whitney, this week, I'm taking a look at your poem, y'see? And for any who do not want to have to go find it themselves, here it is:

Softening
by: Whitney Johnson

Like the alphas tucked in boxed chocolates
Doing that which clogs the spout 'til they are limp,
The path they hoped their other halves would grate
Is a whisp of dissent that strangles them.

If they wish to vacate the hole, then go rest in it
Until you gentle her with a sword that offers the hue,
Or a slice of the fence thats repeats like a storm cracks
In the sparkles of the reflecting faced rightside up.

She won't save herself from grinding a stylish rag.

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What I liked: I liked the discordant imagery here. I don't know that it's a refined breakdown of language, but in part, I like it because it's rough and sometimes vague, but the phrases feel like they could mean something if only I could piece them back together. It feels very fractured and strange. As the title of this post says: you always surprise me with your work.

Improvements: At times it seems to detached, if there is such a thing. I think some readers would be turned off by the cryptic quality to the poem where I am instead compelled to read more. I personally like it the way it is, but it would be a very niche genre, this poem.
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P.S. Exactly seven of you raised your hands to say that you want to be me. Creepy, huh?

2 comments:

  1. Thanks, David! I would like a chocolate bar as well....! Anyways, to form this poem, I took all of the lines out of my Junkyard quotes, which could possibly be why it is so fractured at times, and put them in the shape of a random poem. I would, however, like to work on it further. Thanks! I always enjoy your criticism/feedback.

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  2. ahhh, that explains a lot. That's a pretty awesome idea: I might have to steal that for myself.

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