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

Thoughts About Kim Addonizio's "Tell Me"

4/16/2015

0 Comments

 
Kim Addonizio’s poetry in “Tell Me” reads more like prose than poetry. This is not a fault or a benefit, it serves more to establish her voice, for me. Many of the pieces seem stream of consciousness—she doesn’t seem to edit out the unpleasant from her thoughts, such as a poem titled “Garbage”, a very unique look at humanity and what we value and do not that has a political edge to it rather than ecological. She in fact seems to specialize in the nitty gritty of everyday life, those details stood out as different from say, a nature poem and they add the richness of experience and reality to the content.

Even though her poem’s format seems to imply line breaks, I feel they are superficial, not always breaking to make a point or to lend emphasis, same way for the indents, sometimes they start a sentence, sometimes they end a sentence, other times words trail off not so you’d ponder the words more, but so that maybe it fits neatly on the page.

When I mentioned this to my classmates, they disagreed, and I admit that there are many places where her use is specific and important, however, that was my initial impression.

The formats are pretty much the same throughout the collection and serve as a visual tie for the poems, without even looking at content or thought or anything else. I think this format was chosen to help prepare a prose piece into a more poetic form, allowing space into a dense passage that would keep a reader from delving into the material (many people I’ve run into say dense blocks of text are skimmed or feel unapproachable and this format works to avoid that problem).

Again, I had argument about the idea that her poems were primarily prose. I guess, that is why the exercise of looking at other poet’s work is important since it helps to identify how impressions change with different people.

I felt the collection was about her broken relationship with her husband and with addiction and what comes after it. Many of the poems feel isolated and lonely or full of pain, such as “Collapsing Poem”. The follow on poem “The Divorcee and Gin” seems to indicate there is a tie here between the two. 

Picture
I found when I was doing poetry readings in Seattle that poems that are side by side related, tend to add commentary unconsciously, so when I would read and someone would offer a similar poem it tended to build a sense of fittingness, such as a laugh from one would add to the next.

One of the first things I did was to look up some of Kim Addonizio's work on Youtube, where I found her participation in a jazz festival. There's more out now than when I first looked, but this one seems to fit the bar scene theme:




My emulations tended to be from less personal issue areas. I didn’t relate personally to some of her topics although I could understand them and empathsize, I can’t say I’ve ever sat looking into my glass of whatever in a bar as in “Glass” yet it finds more content than I would imagine and I have to say, the concluding line was a situation I ran into a time or two. My curiosity is sparked by the unusual topic. I found her poem “Spider” amusing and sweet, the relationship with her daughter seems wonderful.

The title poem “Tell Me” is wonderfully revealing and inviting (like a desire to step away from loneliness and reach out), and seems like a turning point in the collection. Rather than being mid center, it sits toward the end. 

Many of the poems connect to bars and drinking and the problems they cause. The many poems on this topic change from relationships, to what happens, to a father’s problem with drinking, to social engagements, to addiction, to winding down after a class. They pop up throughout the collection so one is aware of it and you feel sad, but it doesn’t overwhelm the collection.

Why did I feel empathy for her poems, what happened in the poem to cause this feeling?

The emotion I felt via her imagery primarily, but I think the empathy came from the collective sense running through the pieces. It sort of says that even if we have emotion at some point, there's a greater humanity to a person than just the moment they cry, sort of like, its the sum of her experiences and willingness to dig into the world around her which feels gutsy given the pain she feels and her willingness to see people inside of people where many don't look such as the poor, the drunk, the woman on her doorstep, and how that same return look isn't guaranteed by others. So, "Tell Me", is just that demand, do you see more? given to her audience as a challenge to give back to her what she's given them.

In comparing Kim Addonizio’s work to Robert Hass’, I felt Robert Hass' work went beyond prose, to more complex contrasting imagery and thoughts. His works had emotion, but held at check, while the ideas came from many directions as if they added up to a bigger understanding. Kim Addonizio's is quite different, she's dealing in moments often, and what is at the surface at that time, very carefully examined. Not all of them are prosaic, some like Tell Me and What Women Want, are quite refined down to the nub, while others have the sharp details of capturing everything in a moment.  But many, seem to fall from one idea to the next.  I think I use it because much of her work seems to come in complete sentences.

More on Robert Hass' writing in another post.
0 Comments



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