Poetry

Jamie Parker
2/13/11
Laura Cline
ENG 102
Poetry, Again
Irritation beyond comprehension usually occurs when poetry meets the simple path of Jamie Parker. Thankfully I (am he) came across one poem that, in my opinion, made sense. The poem Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting created in me a spark of hope that I could one day appreciate poetry and, with a stroke of luck, understand it. I am kidding, but sometimes it feels as though I cannot understand a poem no matter how many times I read it, so when I read this poem I fell in love with the short and decently obvious meaning. The combination of the title and the first line—“I tell her I love her like not killing”—lets the reader know that the poem is about someone writing a love letter (Line 1, Powers). After getting the basic subject of the poem I feel like I picked up on smaller details where the writer showed that the soldier writing the letter, and the private with him, was starting to feel as though the war was nothing more than “just us making pieces of metal pass through each other,” (Lines 13, Powers).
The second poem I read brought up the familiar frustration that has come with so many poem readings. The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window was a poem that left me, possibly because I missed something, hanging. The entire time I expected this woman to commit suicide and I surprisingly wanted to her to die rather than be left with the question of what happened. The last line, “or as she climbs back up to claim herself again,” was unique, though, and it was nice to see a poet writing outside the boundaries of the common thought of finishing the story (Line 66, Harjo).
The biggest connection I had with these poems was that they brought me joy to see something different. I have not enjoyed poems in the past, so to see a writer tell a long story through a small amount of words, and to find that the unknown actually leaves room for creativity, was enjoyable, eventually.
Work Cited
Harjo, Joy. “The Woman Hanging From the Thirteenth Floor Window.” Poetry Foundation.2006.11 Feb.2011.Web.
Powers, Kevin C. “Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting.” Poetry Foundation. 11 Feb. 2011. Web.