I am in awe of this poem by Alexandra Teague, which appeared on Verse Daily the other day. I read it and was hooked immediately. I felt it unfold. I felt, I wish I'd written that. I wish I could write like that.
Now, any poem that talks about a hurricane invokes the memory of Katrina. But it also resonated with me because my first date with my first husband was the evening after Hurricane Gloria brushed by Manhattan, where I was living then.
I asked myself what I could learn from this poem.
It's a poignant story, but we all have poignant stories in our lives—or we're poets and we can make them up.
Ms. Teague begins by setting up tension—the tension in the foreshadowing and also the tension between the storm's violence, the hurricane's lashing on the ground, and its circular beauty when seen from far above.
Then, each image and each verb supports the storm image.
Powerful. Something to aspire to.
What poems do you learn from?
1 comment:
Joannie, that's a marvelous poem. And she gets away with using the word "forever" -- always a risk.
And I love what you say here:
"It's a poignant story, but we all have poignant stories in our lives—or we're poets and we can make them up."
xoT.
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