When I first read this, I couldn't comprehend it, but not in a bad way. I couldn't believe that this piece contained the trauma it did. Usually when sexual abuse is mention in a creative outlet, it's typically a girl recounting her experience of being raped. This piece is about a boy who was sexually abused by his mom, who then went on to sexually abuse his cousin. This piece was powerful in an unexpected way. The language Johnson uses is informal. It's a piece of realization. She idolizes her boyfriend, who reveals to her that he was sexually abused and that he actually sexually abused someone. She's obviously shocked and finds it unbelievable because he is one of the best people she knows. She started a series of 'dark' drawings of her friends and family. He was so perfect that she fixated on his dark side to try and figure out how dark he could be and she found it. We find out about his mother's sexual abuse through pieces of dialogue, which is an odd, but effective way to introduce the idea to us. I like that Johnson included dialogue in her poetry, it felt like she was breaking from the poetry genre.
Frankly, I don't see similarities in our writing. Johnson uses so much familiar language and slang that I feel out of place. I get the feeling that we are supposed to be in this moment with her, but instead it feels like she's recounting this story to us later. Because her format is so spaced out and she uses active verbs like "want" and "need" and it generally seems to be a thought poem, I can't see myself using any of these methods. I like poems that bring intimacy, but I want it to feel like someone is looking in on me, instead of me giving them insight to my life. I really liked this piece and I thought it was so heartbreaking, but I wouldn't want to steal from this piece. It's great in it's own right and I enjoyed reading it, but I wouldn't steal from it and put it into my own art. Johnson, Katie. "Drawing of Jude." Glyph 24 (2012): 28-31. Print.
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My initial reaction was that this piece was poignant. If I hadn't been reading it in a classroom setting, I would've started crying. It's a poem that deals with death in a fresh way. The style is very repetitive, not with words exactly but with images. It starts off with "They pulled your body from the lake//and I thought you were dead." This image of a person drowning comes up three times. The first two times it's in the lake, but then it turns into the bathtub. I love the sections in this piece. I didn't notice it until after I had already read but even without the numbered sections, I would've understood the shift. That's really the only thing I didn't like about it. The author should've trusted us to understand that there was a definite shift in the timeline of events.
The second person was also really effective because the you is clearly not addressing us, but it hits us emotionally all the same. We feel connected to the speaker and who they are talking to because this 'you' is so personal and so specific that we can't relate it to ourselves. Another part that pains me to read is the stanza where they're talking about the constellations in the sky. They name the constellations they see "Mother", "Noose", "Swing", "Cradle", "Bone". This order obviously tells us a certain story, but one I can't exactly be sure of. The words imply suicide, more specifically the mother's suicide, but in the last stanza the 'you' of the poem is found dead by the mother. It could be that the mother kills herself after the death of this 'you', or the 'you' is the suicide and the speaker is being metaphorical. I use second person as well as include death and the aftermath in a lot of my pieces. Usually my pieces are from the point of view of a speaker who has already lost someone, and then they speak of the past which is what this piece does. I'm interested in experimenting with the recurring images. Gates uses the cicadas, the lake, the hair. The author has a random stanza about kittens dying that overall contributes to the emotions of the piece, but it never comes back up. The image is not repeated. I would be interested in doing that, in having multiple recurring images and then one that only appears once. It's interesting to see how tat affects a reader. The only thing that wouldn't make it into my work are sections. I don't really like them all that much because they don't really do much for me. It could make or break a piece, but for me I try to just not use them in case they're unnecessary. Gates, Colby. "Resurrection." Glyph 24 (2012): 124-28. Print. To start off, I love this story. This was too sad to read on the bus ride to school. The sections in the piece make the story all the more powerful. Segur starts off by introducing the phrase, "Eench vortis?' and explaining that it means 'what, beloved?' This is a recurring phrase throughout the piece. Each time it comes back, it's more powerful than before. It gradually introduces the Armenian history to us through the narrator's relatives. We learn about his grandparents and their connection to the Armenian genocide. Segur has this way of being in the story, but the story not being about him.
We have a common trait of using repetition in poignant ways (or at least that's the effect I hope I have). We also both like to bring our culture into our work. His piece really couldn't have been as powerful as it was without it, but for me, I just like to throw it in because that's who I am. Most of my characters are from the same culture as me and have the same background as me. Along with culture comes language. I use Spanish in a lot of my work as he uses Armenian. Another thing is the constant questioning within his work. He asks the reader many, many questions, and then answers them. I do the same in my poetry and fiction. I'd be interesting in experimenting with his section breaks (because I don't use a lot of these) and his strange first person writing. I don't tend to use sections breaks in my writing. My fiction never really needs it because I like a straightforward story, and I tend to either write in third person or second person. The way Segur uses both of these techniques makes me want to try it, though. I don't think I would ever write about a historical event related to my family, though, because I try to keep my writing current. I can write things about the past, but I don't like to just because things are so different now that I like to think about the challenges of today versus the past. Segur, Christopher. "Eench." Glyph 25 (2013): 35-43. Print. 15 Sept. 2016. |
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