John Berryman

“The world is gradually becoming a place where I do not care to be anymore”
John Berryman quote

“We have reason to be afraid. This is a terrible place.”
John Berryman quote

"29"
Clearly this man has issues. Henry's heart should be heavy, weeping and sleepless after he hacked a body in pieces. In the line "starts again always in Henry's ears the little cough somewhere, and odour, a chime", I think the body Henry hacked up is haunting him or he could have something that sets him of to hacking people up. Whatever it is Henry has serious mental issuses.



"45"

In "45" it sounds like our old friend the hacker Henry is being stalked. Or I might just want Henry to be stalked and his "stranger" be guilt following him through all this places.

Elizabeth Bishop

"All my life I have lived and behaved very much like the sandpiper - just running down the edges of different countries and continents, 'looking for something'."
Elizabeth Bishop

"The Man- Month" to me seems like a struggling actor or writer who tries to make in the big city, but finds rejection over and over again. He walks through the city never being seen by anyone. It is a sad little poem to me.

Allen Ginsberg

“Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture.”
Allen Ginsberg quote

“Nobody saves America by sniffing cocaine. Jiggling your knees blankeyed in the rain, when it snows in your nose you catch cold in your brain.”
Allen Ginsberg quote


As I was looking up pictures to post for this blog I found more pictures of him naked than dressed. When I look at him I think of hippies. When I read "Howl" I thought of hippies too. The thought of free love, drugs and no rules goes into this poem. I assume this poem is autobiographical and Allen was writing about scenes he has witnessed. I read this poem late at night I found the lines about the endless cock and balls funny. I know many people were shocked by the language in the poem, but just some of his wording made it funny to me. I guess being around such a wide variety of people during my life has made me ammune to certain types of languge. To me "Howl" is a confession from a hippie. He is admitting that the free spirited behavior was slowly killing off all his friends. I don't get a mornful feeling about the death of friends.

Theodore Roethke

“Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light.”
Theodore Roethke quote

“What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible”
Theodore Roethke quote


"My Papa's Waltz" to me reminds me of my dad when I visited him during the summers and him and my step mother would get drunk and start to act crazy. To me the boy "waltzing" with his dad is not really a dance it is the son trying to help the dad to bed. "Still clinging to your shirt" to me is a sign the dad is holding on to the boy for balance. The title to me says it is a reacurring waltz. He labled the actions of the waltz as his Papa's. I like the poem.

Gwendolyn Brooks

"I am a writer perhaps because I am not a talker."
Gwendolyn Brooks


"A writer should get as much education as possible, but just going to school is not enough; if it were, all owners of doctorates would be inspired writers."
Gwendolyn Brooks


“The Boy Died in My Alley” reminds me of the Elvis song “In the Ghetto” when I read it. They both describe how a boy lives in neighborhood and people see him, but they don’t know his name. I think when they left out the child’s name in the poem and in the song it makes the child seem like just another statistic instead of a real person.
I also feel like the person in the poem talking is not just one person, instead it is the neighborhood who heard the gun shot. The neighborhood “saw him going” and “saw him crossed”, but they “did not take him down”. People who lived in this neighborhood have become desensitized to the murders that happen in the area by saying “I have closed my heart-ears late and early.”
The end of the poem, “my alley is a special speech to me”; I would say the person feels so for the boys who have died there, but will not do anything to help them now or in the future.

Frank O'Hara

"So who's perfect? ... Washington had false teeth. Franklin was nearsighted...."

Full 'Frank O'Hara' Quote

The artificial is always innocent.
--Frank O'Hara

“Poem”
When I first read this poem I was seriously confused. The line “flat on a sheet of blood that ran down the stairs” is the line that I question. After reading it a couple times, I figured this line means his lover rolled out the red carpet for him. I pictured a lover laying a bed of rose petals waiting his guest to arrive.

“Why I Am Not a Painter”

"Why I Am not a painter" needs to say why am I poet. I see a self centered man in this poems. This one really lacks any meaning to me.

Tillie Olsen

“There are worse words than cuss words, there are words that hurt.”
Tillie Olsen

"The clock talked loud. I threw it away, it scared me what it talked."
Tillie Olsen

The line above "it scared me what it talked" is a line that speaks to me louder than anything I have ever read. Clocks remind me of so much more than just the time.
It is a constant reminder of my shorting life and how every minute that passes is another minute I grow old. I am sure that clock gave her nightmares about her life. I am sure it chimed over and over alone, alone at the stroke of every hour. Reminding her how lonely her world is.


"I Stand Here Ironing" to me is a confession of a mom about how she raised her eldest daughter. She tells us how she abandoned Emily and lack of affection for the child has made her daughter withdrawn from other people. The school official wants to help the child, but the mother is clueless on what the child needs. "That in some way you could use me as a key?" make me a little mad. It almost sounds like the mother doesn't care. At the end of the paragraph is says "that life has happened outside of me, beyond me." What the hell Lady! If someone is willing to help the girl more than you can than let them. I don't like to hear about poor people who keep having children when they can't take of the ones they have now. This story makes me want to get on my soap box.