If I Were a Carpenter, And You Were a Lady...

The blind date you went on in 1928

lit up a pair of baby blue eyes

That dazzled your 

Mornings and

Twilights.

The man with hands carved of seasoned oak

The man with a heart full of 

Well worked earth that

Beats only for

You.

He bought you a hill

He built you a house

You gave him a home

He left you alone

Solitude

Gives old women

Time to mull over a life

Lived with the ones she loves

What transpires when his final nail is secured?

Recollection

Is the everlasting 

Card you have left to play

To patch his final gift to you

Your watered down eyes ripple and say

I wish he was a scoundrel

Then he wouldn't seem so far away

THE PLAN

For my rough draft I was able to type out about three pages and i talked in depth about one of my poems and touched on a few others.  If I am able to go into as much depth as i did on the first one I will have no trouble making the page requirement.  I am also trying to make the ties between my poems as concrete as possible.  Getting the whole big picture and making everything make sense together in the end has been the downfall of my other critical essays so i am trying to put given advice to good use.  I hope to get a big chunk of the paper done tomorrow and will then be proof reading to touch things up.

Final Paper Brain Storm

For the final paper I was thinking about finding poems that mix love and time and comparing and contrasting how the two ingredients intermingle.  Each poem will have a different aspect of love or time so each poems relationship between the two will be drastically different.  The poems I have picked out so far are Housman's "When I was one and twenty", Yeat's "When you are Old", Lawrence's "Love on the farm" and Auden's "As I walked out one morning".  I will probably use Virginia Wolf's critical essay for some memory refrences.  I was also thinking about using Robert Frosts's "The figure a poem makes" and discuss how and why each of these poems contains memorable speech.  

Rules of the Road - Flora Turgenson and Polly Darton Edition

1.  When in, about or around West "By God" Virginia thou shall watcheth and waiteth for the most opportuneth Tudors Biscuit World.  Driving down the road I get a feeling that I should have gone to Tudors yesterday.....
(John Denver - Country Roads)

2. Keep on eye out for the good, the bad and the ugly of the license plate world.  Vanity plates are so vain!
(Carly Simon- You're So Vain)

3. Never, I repeat, NEVER underestimate the necessity of good road snacks.  Hot sausage and mustard, or while were in the mood, cold jelly and custard!
(Olive Soundtrack- Food Glorious Food)
(Cab Calloway- Everybody Eats When You Come to My House)

4.  Sharp eyes and savvy nostrils will keep your road kill count top notch.  1,2,3,4,5,6 road kill, road kill!
(Modern Lovers- Roadrunner)

5.  Every good road dog knows:
       Vultures fly high,
          weather never better.
       Vulchers fly low,
          shoulda brought ya sweater!
(Martha and the Vandellas- Heat Wave)

6. When en route don't forget your music to boot!  Without ear candy your ride could get weeeiiird.
(Greatful Dead- Truckin')
(Aaron Tippin- There Ain't Nothing Wrong With The Radio)

7. Never underestimate the square footage of your cab.  You can probably fit another person ad their dog.
(Marvin Gaye- Hitch Hike)
(Roger Miller- Me and Bobby McGee)

8. Be kind to your toll booth workers, its hard out there for a little shrimp. Nine words can save a life.
(Rolling Stones- (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction)

9.  ROAD FRIENDS BEWARE!!!  Coffee induced maniacal delirium is a very real condition.  It will tae you up and it will bring you down.  I believe Merle said it best,  "you are always on top of a mountain when you fall!"
(Descendants- Coffee Mug)
(Bach- Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht) (translated to Be still, stop chattering)

10.  As your round the corner and realize that your epic journey is about to come to a well deserved end, revel in the blood, sweat, tears and bottles of energy drinks you put into your trek.  Arrive with a BANG!!!
(Europe- The Final Countdown)

"Let Them Play Euchre!!"

"Let them eat cake!"...ugh,
Why is that such an offensive suggestion?
Cake surely is a wonderful treat
for a frenchmen,
Is it not?

I could have been cruel and said
"Let them eat gruel!"
"Slop for dinner!"
Heaven forbid,
"Let them eat chopped liver!"
Ohh, I do despise that dish

Truly I do care for these
pathetic peasants but,
It would truly be a travesty if
I am remembered for my
Culinary curtness and not my
overwhelming beauty and grace.

What exactly do these
demanding demons want anyway?
My money?
My jewels?
Obviously they don't want my baker,
My castles?
My wit?
I'd gladly give my candlestick maker.

I suppose I know what they truly want,
But they are not going to get it.
The crown off my head via the neck,
It is just not in the cards for me to end neckless.

......mmhmm...card, playing cards...EURIKA!

An old french saying states
"An idol hand sews the devils seed",
The guillotine certainly must be manufactured by
Lucifer himself who is a known employer of
Idol hands to do his dirty deeds.

Those who utilize that bloody blade and
indenture their idly infected hands to do dirty work
Need something new to do with their itchy fingers.
I propose a jovial game of euchre!

Many are the days I have spent
In the afternoon sun
Sipping lemon water and
playing euchre to my hearts delight.

If my rabid people could only
focus on the delight of the game and
focus less on their petty complaints
things could be going much smoother for us all.

With my new stroke of genius
I will surely be remembered for my
Tact and gracious people skills!

Yes, yes, yes.  That is it.
Gather the crowds and tell them
I have something to say
"LET THEM PLAY EUCHRE!!!!!"

Duhamel Critical

In Denise Duhamel’s “Ka-Ching” many forms of poetry are employed with varying ranges of success.  In her poem “Anagram America” she uses the letters in the word America to form a seemingly infinite amount of words and phrases.  The many shapes and forms of the letters in America represent a parallel to the many shapes and forms the American population takes upon.  Some of these words and phrases fit better contextually than others but that shows the diversity of American citizen physically and cognitively.  An other interesting fascist of this poem is the mildly schizophrenic curves of attitude this poem takes.  In one stanza the speaker is accusatory and very pointed when speaking of America;

“America tends to maim, care-

ful not to kill at first.  We are all for democracy, or so we claim, care-

less with our rhetoric”

While just a few lines above the speaker speaks of America with nostalgia and pleasant sentiment;

“Now that’s America.  In Skate-a-Rama, ice

skaters figure-eight even in the summer.  I race, Ma-

donna on the speakers, my laces tight”

The opinions about America from fellow Americans is a spectrum ranging from national loyalists to ex-patriots and Duhamel successfully expresses the contrasting opinions of an exponentially varying population with her voice and her form.

In Duhamel’s villanelle “Please Don’t Sit Like a Frog, Sit Like a Queen” the sentiment of this poem is unclear and undefined.  The repeating lines of

“Remember to pamper, remember to preen,

Don’t sit like a frog, sit like a queen”

continue to give advice that alludes to becoming a proper and respectable woman and wife with supporting lines of 

“Don’t marry the professor, mary the dean. 

 Marry the King, don’t marry the earl” 

that enforce a very proper and stark existence only to be preluded by the lines

“Smile, especially when you are feeling mean.

Keep your top down when you take your car for a whirl” 

which insinuates a free spirited independent attitude that contradicts all former advice.  The two ideas of this poem mix like oil and water and leave the reader in question of the overall focus and moral of the villanelle.  

In a third form Duhamel plays with translation that takes shape as an exercise in linguistics with an underlying poetic tone.  A list of mostly politically pertinent questions are given to a translator, translated, then give to another translator in a different language eight times over.  In the international world that we live in a huge amount of information is lost or misinterpreted in translation which leads to greater issues.  Some of the questions asked are converted flawlessly from one tongue to another, some retain the general gist, while others loose all former significance.  Most of the questions are translated back into english still in the question form, but some are not.  The last line of the poem is striking and borderline disturbing.  Given the question “Do they have the nerve?” the statement answer in return is “If you have the rash audacity, just do it”  The answer appears to be back handed advice or a destructive challenge that took shape in translation.  The form of this poem tries to embody communication error while the voice has statements of political significance.  With voice and form combined this poem sparks constructive questions in the readers mind  by showing the reader how easily a simple question can be changed into a challenging one.

Denise Duhamel’s creative forms provide a unique look into different structures and interpretations of poetry while still speaking with a strong creative voice.  Like most things in life some forms work better than others but all are worth a try.

Simply Revolutionary

Allow me to introduce the use of a revolutionary idea,

Simplicity at its best is a building block for happiness.

Blacks and whites will suffice for games of dominos and dice

But spectrums of simplicity provide the best advice for life. 

Light a candle in the bath,

Feel the thunder, feel the wrath

Take a shot of top shelf liqueur,

Get new shoes, you'll run much quicker,

Fill your pen up with ink, let it write while you think,

Ride your bike in a summer storm

Remember every rose has a thorn

Feel the sand beneath your feet

Confess your love, don't be discrete.

The present is built upon the past,

Future lurks around the corner.

Embrace your time before its passed,

Be satisfied at the coroner .