Embracing Literature
Connect with me at:
  • Poetry
  • Nonfict
  • Story
  • Memoir
  • Novel
  • Essay
  • Media
  • MFA
  • Ideate
  • Buy Poetry

Working on my ninth book, back to science fiction..

.

Hi

Blank Space in Poems in the Winter 2019 Comstock Review

2/21/2020

1 Comment

 
Blank space is inviting when you read poetry. It is not surprising that a majority of the poems in the Winter 2019 edition of Comstock Review edited by Betsy Anderson use forms that have blank space. Blank space serves as a pause while reading and offers the reader to have time to think about what was said. Blank space also acts line a connection line between verses that is soft rather than direct leading to forms that allow slipperiness in meaning, the quality of being imprecise and marginally connected. I found many poems that were praiseworthy in this edition devoted entirely to poetry. It also serves to showcase winners from the Muriel Craft Bailey Poetry Contest. Blank space acts like negative space in photography which is often used to write messages or advertise so is valued for what it isn't more than what it is, as seen below. Blank space equates to breath and we all like to breathe plenty of oxygen that wakes us up and allows us to think. So I will showcase the  poems that use couplets.
Picture
In "A Little Book on Form" by Robert Hass, he introduces the couplet with the idea that "two lines introduce the idea of form as the energy of relation." Some couplets are rhymed, some are connected thematically, and some follow what he calls a question, answer format. So it will be interesting to see how this is handled by the poems I selected.

Pinatas by Melinda Thomsen uses an open ended couplet, so that the ideas presented cascade from thought to thought showing a great deal of slipperiness, a quality that is often valued in modern poetry. Her poem deals with strikes upon herself and family, like slaps or an owie received from a slammed door. Here it is very ironic since pinatas are used in party games and people blindly hit at them until the candy is released. When it comes to personal pleasure in families, kindness is more the norm than seeking pain, but here it is used in a surprising fashion with the metaphorical pinata helping to build and clarify the conclusion. Her poem is an honorable mention.

The Coyotes Hunt in Open Light by Megan Merchant uses a closed form of couplet. The title is one line of the first couplet that uses a comparison to bring the sound of coyotes to the readers ear in an effective fashion. She uses a series of couplets that bring to the ear sounds that moves from hearing to sight into emotion, then cycles back to the beginning images to nail down how we relate to nature and society. It is a cool poem with slipperiness that slides in from the initial close couplet to more open couplets, perhaps freeing her to play with the ideas that come out. 
Picture
I played many games of cards when I was young and babysitting for the neighbor while she worked. So the next poem seems to fit the above photograph as well as my memory.

Solitaire Confinement by C. Fausto Cabrera uses both open and closed couplets in a straightforward fashion that follow the way solitaire is played. The open ends of the couplets allow him to be precise about the way the game is played, using pauses to put down cards or think. He is mildly ironic in showing the game has a high cost. Then he combines the couplets to offer up commentary in the form of a final quartet.  

I'll Whisper You a Quarter Cup by Betsy Anderson is a series of closed couplets that explain what she doesn't want to do, offering it to other readers, poets, or those in a relationship, the most open part of the poem is exactly who she is addressing, or referring to with the he, possibly God, possible the god of poetry. She makes her seduction first with title then with all the promises she won't do before finally offering up that quarter cup. So the slipperiness is in the language and the connections between seductive things.
Picture
To An Iris by Michael A. Sickler is also a seduction of sorts that opens with a closed couplet and then slides between the relationship between love and jealousy and between humans and nature. He closes with a play on words between miserly and misery in the closing stanza.

Signatures For Susan Tepper by Jeff Santosousoso uses the two halves of couplet in the form Robert Hass mentions, question and response, to showcase the differences in the way he and the woman addressed, Susan Tepper, communicate. The poem slips from the personal to the interpersonal, interrelationship to offer commentary on communication. It is an homage poem in the sense that he shows his understanding of their relationship together.
​
We Must Learn to Praise the Mundane by Heather Hallberg Yanda is an amusing poem that cycles from the beginning to the end back to the beginning in order to complete. It starts in narrative mode and slowly becomes more concrete. The references seem less personal at first but become more personal as it goes along. Discoveries in ideas and reality surprise by the end of the poem.

This is just a subset of the couplet driven poems. A couple of the couplet poems use a single line interspersed between the couplets to effectively act like a tercet, offering commentary on the previous couplet, but act almost like a stop or yield sign, directing the pace of the poetry. Two of the winning poems use tercets which are almost as visually airy as the couplets.

Overall, this edition offers a suggestion to poets, if you haven't played with couplets in your poetry and haven't allowed poems to slip from idea to related idea, maybe you should.
1 Comment
Garage Door Services Indianapolis IN link
9/13/2020 01:56:40 am


garagedoorsindianapolisin.com

Reply



Leave a Reply.

     

    About Sheri Fresonke Harper

    Click Here for Sheri Fresonke Harper's poetry
    Follow Sheri Fresonke Harper on Quora
    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Recent Reads

    The Waker's Corridor
    4 of 5 stars
    The Waker's Corridor
    by Jonathan Thirkield
    I’m somewhat of a coward about reading poetry and when I find a collection such as The Waker’s Corridor by Jonathan Thirkfield containing a series of linked poems I am intimidated. But I pressed forward, beyond the impressive thematic co...
    tagged: poetry-books
    Injuring Eternity
    4 of 5 stars
    Injuring Eternity
    by Millicent Borges Accardi
    This is an unusual collection of insightful moments, people, relationships and life throughout the day into evening. Many will find something of value just by randomly opening the pages and selecting something new, including births, deat...
    tagged: poetry-books
    Almond Blossoms and Beyond
    5 of 5 stars
    Almond Blossoms and Beyond
    by Mahmoud Darwish
    These last poems by Mahmoud Darwish are contemplative and have a dislocated feeling since many deal with adjusting to life exiled to a new home. He is an Arabic writer from Palestine and the quiet of these poems almost feel shell-shocked...
    tagged: poetry-books

    goodreads.com

    Archives

    July 2017
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    August 2014
    November 2013
    August 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013

    Categories

    All
    Adrienne Rich
    After Urgency
    A Gather Of Shadow
    Alan Michael Parker
    Alcoholism
    Alison Luterman
    All American
    Allpoetry
    Andrew Schelling
    Anthropology
    Ashland Residency
    Ashland University
    ASMR
    A Village Life
    Awe
    Bar Scene
    Beer
    Beginning
    Bill Hicok
    Book Review
    Cajun
    Carlow Mfa Program
    Catholic
    Central Florida Zoo And Botanical Gardens
    Cherry
    Claudia Rankine
    Cm Burroughs
    Comparison
    Concrete
    Contemplative
    Counting Poem
    Creative Nonfiction
    Dancing In Odessa
    Desire Zoo
    Douglas Goetsch
    Duwamish River
    Edna St. Vincent Millay
    Education Portal
    Elizabeth Browning
    Emotion
    Emotional State
    Empathy
    End
    Experience Of The Poet
    Family Poem
    Farmland
    Farrar
    Free Write
    German
    Germany
    Ghost In A Red Hat
    Glossary Of Literary Terms
    Goodreads
    Guest Speaker
    Half In Shade
    Harbor
    Hell
    Hello Poetry
    Heroin Addiction
    History
    Hofrbrauhaus
    Humor
    Idealistic
    Ilya Kaminsky
    Improving Your Poetry
    India
    Insomniac Diary
    In The Evening We Shall Be Examined On Love
    Ireland
    Irish Poet
    Jain Temple
    Jericho Brown
    Judith Kitchen
    Judy Halebsky
    Kathryn Winograd
    Kim Addonizio
    Lake Pontchartrain
    Language
    Let It Be A Dark Roux
    Lights And Mysteries
    List Poem
    Long Division
    Louise Gluck
    Louisiana
    Love And Other Passions
    Marie Howe
    Mark Pirie
    Mark Roper
    MFA Program Residency
    Music
    Narrative Poetry
    Narrator
    Nature
    New South
    Nobody's Hell
    Norton Books
    Nothing In Nature Is Private
    Omnidawn
    Online Literature Forums
    Online Poetry
    Pembroke
    Phantom Canyon
    Place Poem
    Please
    Poem
    Poems
    Poetry
    Poetry Class
    Poetry Collection
    Poetry Emulation
    Poetry Essays
    PoetryFlash.org
    Poetry Meditation
    Poetry Organization
    Poetry Reading
    Poetry Sites
    Poetrysoup
    Poets
    Post Poems
    Prismatica
    Prose Poetry
    Reading
    Reading Poetry
    Reflection
    Repetition
    Robert Hass
    Romance
    Rosanna Warren
    Rusty Morrison
    Scene
    Seattle
    Sheryl St. Germain
    Situation
    Southern
    Stanford Continuing Education
    Straus And Giroux
    Summer Residency
    Sun Under Wood
    Superimposed
    Tell Me
    The Dream Of A Common Language
    The Vital System
    Thomas Centolella
    Tim Jones
    Tukwila
    Tupelo Press
    Universal Chaos
    University Of North Carolina
    Voicesnet
    Void Of Moon
    Voyagers
    Washington
    Welsh
    What The Living Do
    Wikipedia
    Wine Tasting
    Yarn

    RSS Feed

Search Engine Submission - AddMe
Proudly powered by Weebly