I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means
September 15, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Thank you for the poem. I have to write a critical essay on anovel by Toni Morrisen. A master piece if you ask me but when I read the approach that the other students are making it discourages me and makes me feel like literary studies is bordering on farce. THe tutor calls for inovative metaphor but I am scared they are addicted to boring academic prose. I mean some of these guys would be better at car mechanics or engineering.
September 16, 2007 at 2:38 pm
I know the feeling. They are like medical examiners doing an autopsy, except the patient is still alive.
Good luck. Take a risk.