My mind wanders, half in attempt to understand the poem, and
half because it is somewhat led by the meandering ideas within the poem. Martin
spins each idea with a creative twist that really enables imagination to take
over, and is very unrestricting. Ideas come from within the run-ons of other
ideas, which is very interesting but the reader can get lost if he or she isn’t
paying attention.
And we the passengers
Convene momentarily, our anonymous lot
Suspended slant as if
Preparing to nosedive on some
Futuristic and ad-laden
Rollercoaster safely blasting
Through the patently everyday
Landscape of traffic.
This excerpt is from Martin’s “Surviving Desire” and is a
great example of an idea that really takes off and runs on. It is about
passengers on a subway and is ultimately a long metaphor describing the subway.
I had to read it a couple times to understand that it was actually about the
subway the whole time, because words like “futuristic” and the phrase “landscape
of traffic” distracted me.
I think this style is refreshing in a world of poetry that
requires dense analysis to understand each line. Rather than cramming a bunch
of ideas into one line, Martin elegantly gives each of his ideas proper space
to pan out and be whatever it can be.
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