Reflections of the 3 Poems Assignment

The three poems for this latest assignment were all generated by ideas from In the Palm of Your Hand. First, the August 5, 1977 poem: It is a (partially) found poem, all pulling phrases or words from the Oxford Dictionary I have at home, based on the numbers of my birthdate. I didn’t have a feeling for the poem in mind when I started it; I just wanted to see where it went. A lot of my poems, lately, have seemed to be going to a really dark place full of self-loathing. I am not sure that is really where I exist, I only know that I spend a lot of time not wanting to trouble anyone with my stupid concerns or bore them with the same old complaints. I try to make myself small, because … well, I am not totally sure why. Because I got tired of being on the radar and because some things happened that really made me doubt myself and hurt me deeply and while I think I am mostly over them, they changed who I was fundamentally.

The second poem is about the engagement photo of my mother that I have hanging in my hallway. I have always loved this photo, thought she was so beautiful. I have a really hard time reconciling this lovely young woman with the terrible marriage that was to follow. I feel sad when I think of the disappointments she was going to face. Anyway, I used as my writing prompt the exercise that asks you to take a family photo and use some photo-sounding words to create a poem. I went with the prose format because I have never tried it.

Finally, my last poem was a political rant I was inspired to write after seeing another gay-hating politician admit that he is gay. I feel strongly about gay rights (a.k.a. human rights), and as you can see it is important in my life. I keep my head down and try to ignore politics because they make me so mad. But for this poem, I allowed myself a crabby moment to tell people what I really think. I feel more comfortable doing this because my blog is anonymous, to a point. I wanted to convey in tone my derision, frustration, mockery and anger about this (FREQUENTLY REOCCURRING) situation.