Louis Jenkins Response

Being a writer who is most comfortable working within the bounds of a given structure, I was initially pessimistic upon hearing about Jenkins' more undefined writing style. However, after reading only a couple of his prose poems I was surprised by how much I enjoyed them.

One of the things I noticed and liked most about Jenkins' poems were the themes. He invokes self reflection from the reader about everyday topics such as living too fast and not enjoying the moment. In his poem "The Speaker," Jenkins examines the overlooking of the small things in life which can mean the most. He concludes the poem with the two sentences: "When the speaker has finished we gather around to sing a few inspirational songs. You and I stand at the back of the group and hum along since we have forgotten most of the words." He writes that we may have ideas of what is important but are not experiencing everything to our fullest potential. I think it is true that the important things can get lost in the busy shuffle of life and Jenkins does a really nice job of portraying this through his questioning in "The Speaker." Another example of Jenkins' causing the reader to look deeper into their lives is in his poem "Gravity." In this poem Jenkins writes, "If you look into it further you will discover that the water is not attached to anything either and that perhaps the rocks and the trees are not all that firmly in place." He is talking about the narrator's house but it can be connected to the bigger picture - not everything is as it outwardly appears. Upon closer inspection even the foundations of our perceptions can be inaccurate, something which can be easily overlooked with the wrong attitude. I think Jenkins succeeds in portraying ideas like this in his short prose poems and wonder if he gives himself any definite boundaries while he is writing them. I'm also curious to find out how Jenkins picks the topics for his poems.