forgetting as commodity
By Jax NTP | 1 August 2018
grandma disembodies her youth
as if famine isnt a weapon of war
once she was pregnant
for the fourteenth time
but her husband doesnt know my mothers
name from Vietnams humidity
to knowing snow in her bones Oklahoma
she said privilege is the ability to plan your burial plot
or to know where your ashes will be disseminated
after mating mother octopuses dont starve to death
her protoplasm betrays her
epiphanies are nutritious
my grandma said
if you can afford them
my frustration of inheriting cultural loss is equal
to Aristotles declaration that octopuses were dumb ocean mass
dear three hearted cephalopods,
the reflexes from grandmas left fingers
are gone infected from scrounging aluminum recyclables
the past orbits her present strength
oh the difficulty of guessing a trees age
when admiring its crisp shadow
an octopuss production of natural pigment
harms enemies and the self
sometimes knowing where you come from
prevents growth
old leaves fall to make space for new buds
what is post fragmentation
if emptiness is a pretense
what is queer visibility in commodity culture
but spatial subversions
grandma taught me that when octopuses
cant escape their own ink cloud they cease
dear women who are not embarrassed when their nipples get hard in public,
did you know that deserts are the first place to thirst
because they were the ancient oceans that dried first
evolution of consciousness and totems for a sea witch
nautilus, squid, cuttlefish, octopus: locomotion defense
i havent been able to process joy since ive inherited
my mothers trauma while she was pregnant with me
it is easier to thread the needle if you lick it first, mother
taught me feminine etiquette at a young age i had to let go
erect motion and bait, a simple love story in three parts
cut the deck and draw the strength, trilobite transformations
con khng c yu n b
tell me about all the things we cant undo
threats are promises people want to keep
at some point, you cannot live in rage, stop fighting
to allow yourself a chance to heal, go on, draw the three of cups
Poetic lens by Frank O’hara
Be Blunt = straight to the point
Keep poem modest = do not confuse reader
Be honest
Instinctual
Urgency
A poem should be between 2 people NOT 2 pages
Content must be alive
Poems should go on Nerves
Poems should be written with knee-jerk reaction moment/ person
Sexy pants metaphor
Intimacy
NYs: I do this, I do that poet
Do not use excessive imagery
Do not overanalyze ideas
Dont force subject or poems upon readers
Avoid technical apparatus = avoid using intentional poetic devices
Dont consider readers feeling during composition
Logic
Use #1, 2, 7 as suggestions for organizational units / body paragraphs ideas to discuss your poets theme: identity devices/techniques – are they effective or not? – and apply level of (in)effectiveness to theme
1. How does the explicit (obvious) and implicit (indirect) meaning of the poem affect theme? How does rereading each poem, unpacking ambiguity, allow readers to create multiple interpretations of the poem?
2. Discussion power dynamics, as in, relationships between:
-speaker and audience and/or person directly addressed, or
-speaker and time/setting/culture/history/self, or
-“title, first line, and last line’s” isolated meaning vs. the entire poem
(similar effect or different? which one is more effective?)
7. How does punctuation (or lack thereof) style, syntax, grammar, tone, voice affect the theme/audience?
Each body paragraph must compare and contrast all poems via one poetic device.Do not analyze poems in isolation (do no analyze one poem per body paragraph).
Topic for both poems: unlearning traditional feminine values
Theme: need to produce in introduction and repeat in conclusion