#9

While reading through Howe's poetry this week, I found several things I liked, and several that I didn't. I figured a critical post was more than appropriate for examining these aspects of her writing.

One thing I enjoyed throughout her work was, as we talked about in class, she has an ability to say shocking things without shocking the reader. She uses such strong language and imagery that there's no way around what she's saying to you. Sometimes she uses words that would get me a slap across the mouth. But she does it in such a way that you can't be upset because it fits so perfectly.

I must admit that, while I understand having a central theme to your poetry, the repetition throughout her poems was driving me nuts. If I read about a lamb or a bird one more time I was going to shut the book and give up. I feel like a great writer would be able to express their ideas with a multitude of words rather than the same ones over and over.

Another thing I liked about Howe's writing was that some of her work was religious. I've never read religious poetry before so I really enjoyed that new facet. Although her religious poems used the lamb metaphor constantly, I feel like here it was almost okay because the lamb is a religious idea anyway.

Did any of you feel like this about her writing? Or am I completely crazy?

#8

For this week's free entry I decided to post an updated version of my Billiards poem from class. Here it is!

Billiards

The white ball sits atop the green felt
facing the colorful triangle.
Waiting for its cue,
the ball almost vibrates with anticipation.

A sudden crack,
a sharp pain,
the
cue
ball
rolls
at
an
alarming
rate.

The colors
cry out for mercy.
Another moment,
and all Hell breaks loose.
Hectic collisions,
suffering screams...
Over and over the colors crash.
One by one they disappear into the darkness.
Shivering with fear, they await their turn to fall,
Newton freezing them in place with the curse of inertia.

As the white ball chooses its victim,
each color envisions themselves
rolling
spinning
bouncing
out of control,
first off the others,
then off the walls.
The upside of darkness is that
there is no more pain.

The lone ball sits atop the green felt
and thinks
This is what I live for.