Monday, January 28, 2013

Response to Fluorescence

Fluorescence by Jennifer K. Dick is a work of art.  At first glance the paragraphs are fairly broken, and the words are difficult to comprehend, but as you get more into the writing style, and find the flow of the language the reader discovers that there is a story going on.  Out of the pages one gets a sense of what is happening.  It's one of a kind.  The first half of the book is one long poem called What Holds The Body.  I think this is one of the most brilliant used of metaphor I've come across.  The first three sections are written dream like, fragments of images flash through the mind, and one gets the sense that something terrible has happened to the author.  The writing swing between fragmented sentences, and three page pauses, like she is  having a hard time telling the story.  Through the fragments the reader gets glimpses of an explosion of some sort, and possibly the narrator see someone she knows die.  It seems as if the story is forced almost fictitious  Like she's talking about one thing while saying another.  In section three she lets out what it might be, then in the last section it all become clear. A friend has committed suicide.
After reading it for the first time you get caught up in the structure of the writing, the pauses, and spaces.  But on a second reading these pauses make it sound like someone is actually telling a story for the first time.  She picks each word with incredible care in order to give this kind of effect.  The story is about her office getting a suspicious package, and it turning out to be a bomb.  IT explodes and the images jump from scene to scene of what is happening during and after the explosion.  Yet, when you read it to the end, it becomes clear that this is not about a physical explosion, it's all a metaphor.   The package is someone bringing new that her friend has committed suicide, the explosion is the shattering effect that this kind of unexpected news has on a person.  Every detail about the explosion is a metaphor, and it's incredible to see it the way it is.  Like looking through a widow that was once covered in fog, her story unravels, and becomes sadly real.  Anyone that has lost someone unexpectedly knows these emotions, she gets them just right, it's hard to read now that I know what it's all about.
The rest of the book is quite similar.  Dick obviously spends hours trying to get every word right so her stories will be felt the way they should.  She is a master at provoking the mind to come up with the emotions she is writing about.  This book is colorful, sad, often hard to read but beautiful.  It is the kind of book you can read several times and gleam new feelings from the word.  She is not trying to tell a story in a  traditional sense, she is trying to convey how she feels about life, and the massive pressure it puts on everyone at times.

Monday, January 21, 2013

A critical review of many poems and authors....

     There are not many poets whose work I enjoy reading more than Shakespeare.  His sonnets in the poetry packet are no exception.  All of them are original masterpieces which I can read many times over and gleam new meanings each time.  They are cryptic yet simple.  Each word carefully selected to fit just right in it's place, even if he had to break grammatical rules to do so.   These works are timeless and incredible,  they are truly great classic poetry.
     Many poets are not so careful or original, often times, such as with Susan Hone's poem's they take unmoving poetry and in order to make them more original and interesting, they will put the lines in funny shapes.  Susan Hone did this with her two poems in the packet and the result is a bunch of words cut up and practically unreadable.  Maybe one can sit for a long time to decipher these poems, but from what can be read it's clear that these are more of a novelty then anything else.  Yes there are some interesting words that by themselves are nice to think about, such as: Cusk, dise, wavelet, snapt, and a few others that are original and vaguely thought provoking, but the end result are poems that most readers will pass over and dismiss.  More than likely poems like these wouldn't be included in a collection like this if they were not put in this configuration, and I wouldn't be writing this, instead I would have read over them and remained unmoved, bored even.
     The small collection by Ted Berrigam on the other hand is, quite well done.  These, I would't call them masterpieces but they are well written, and thought provoking.  They are filled with imagery and imagination.  He took the sonnet and made it his own.  Each one gives the reader pause, they make you want to decipher them.  They are passionate, daring, and full of wit. Sonnet XVI for example, is full of imagery that, if one is not careful can be led to think is about oral sex... But then, what does "It is a Chinese signal" have to do with sex? The last two lines make you read the poem over again, and try not think think like a puberty stricken male, then give up and decide the poem is about blow jobs.  Then we innocent readers go on to read LIII and LV, which are dirty like the city.  I can't read these poems and think about the fields of flowers that most poets want to take us to, instead I think of sweat, dive bars, alcohol and drugs.  I think about polygamous sex, and jealousy.  I think about bitterness and words like voluptuous. They remind me of the early days of jazz.  These are remarkable poems because they are so raw, Ted Berrigam doesn't try to hide behind silly things like being appropriate and polite.  He means to be shocking and probably enjoys how difficult his poems are to talk about.
     I think my favorite poem here is Parade by Langston Hughes.  This piece mixes pleasure with sorrow. It encapsulates racism reminding us that even though we celebrate the civil rights movement, which is probably when this poem was written, there are still people that think like this.  About different races, about homosexuals, about anyone that dares be different.  We sit in our comfortable houses planning, plotting even, grand times and are ignorant to the people around us.  This poem is not just about race, it's shows the reader that people can be comfortable and ignorant to real suffering and inequalities.  "I never knew!" you hear people say that all the time.  This work is very well worded. It is simple yet addresses such complicated concepts.  It is sarcastic in just the right ways, and makes the reader look up, and see the world in a new way.
     Poetry is difficult to get right.  Many authors will spend their lives trying to construct something beautiful, and never enjoy the fulfillment of perfection.  It is a formless, yet very structured way of writing.  There are no real "rules" but if the words are not crafted in the correct way they become annoying, and hard to read.  Since the dawn of writing, poetry has been around, and authors have been trying to get it right all this time.  Few get close, but those who do, leave readers breathless, and entranced.  You can read a poem ten times and not get it, but in the right frame of mind it will get you.  Anyone can write a poem, they are easy, but not many can craft a timeless work of art.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Introductions

     Hello.  This is a blog I've made for my creative writing class at Eastern Michigan University.  My name is Kevin Sanchez. I am taking this class to obtain the credits I need in order to receive financial aid.  I have one class left for my major, then I will be done.  This is not that class.  I signed up for this class because as a History major I have been writing strict, colorless research papers for the past several years and I'd like to add a little spice to this semester. So look out! I am looking to break free of the script and add some pigment to my academic tapestry.  With as little source citing as I can.
     Out side of school I maintain a busy life.  With three and a half dogs, two cats, a band, a soccer team, full time work, and a wife I have but little time for the pleasantries of homework.  I'll make the best out of the time I have. I hope you enjoy my work as much as I am going to enjoy creating it.