Sunday, April 22, 2007

DPP4

THE DAILY POEM PROJECT, WEEK FOUR

Here are the poems to vote for in week four of my Daily Poem Project (the poems on Poetry Daily from Monday, April 16, to Sunday, April 22):

22. Mike Dockins, "Poem of Low Latitudes"
23. David Harsent, "Spatchcock"
24. Janice N. Harrington, "Shaking the Grass"
25. Fleda Brown, "Reading Poetry at the Horse Meadow Senior Center"
26. Jeffrey Franklin, "Drucker's Mule Barn"
27. Moira Linehan, "Refuge"
28. Allen Grossman, "A Gust of Wind"

The Rules:

You can send your vote to me by email or as a comment on the blog. If you want to vote by commenting but do not want your vote to appear on the blog, you just have to say so in your comment (I moderate all comments). In any case, I will not post the comments until after the final vote is in (secret ballot). Please vote by the number of the poem in the list above! Please make a final decision and vote for only one poem! Please VOTE BY THURSDAY, APRIL 26!

Results of previous weeks:
Week One
Week Two
Week Three
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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love Brown's poem.

- Cyril Wong

10:35 AM
Bruce Loebrich said...

Here's my ranked list (my favorite is at the top):

23. David Harsent, "Spatchcock"
27. Moira Linehan, "Refuge"
26. Jeffrey Franklin, "Drucker's Mule Barn"
28. Allen Grossman, "A Gust of Wind"
24. Janice N. Harrington, "Shaking the Grass"
22. Mike Dockins, "Poem of Low Latitudes"
25. Fleda Brown, "Reading Poetry at the Horse Meadow Senior Center"

4:13 PM
mrjumbo said...

Hmm. Too busy for much dwell time these days, but I'll admit the one part of the ritual I make sure of: I read each one aloud before judging, letting it breathe before guessing the flavors with the bottle still corked. I will take the time for that.

5:02 PM
Anonymous said...

dear andrew,

i join the club. here is my choice:
27, that is: linehan. once more i'm struck by the lenght and the narrative style of alle these poems. i'm not used to that.

hasta la vista,

a.

11:41 AM
Unknown said...

I vote for Allen Grossmann's "A Gust of Wind." In the first few lines, the poem turns Harold Bloom's reflections on the "Scene of Instruction", and its implicit "we," from an academic into an existential question. Also, I like the simple ending of the poem very much.

11:59 PM
Andrew Shields said...

Don Brown asked me to post the comments he sent me by email:

Where in the world is the scene of instruction?
In the Roman army, a soldier who has served
his time becomes a veteran, exempt,
and goes to fight afar. Before, there was
little time. And now there's no time at all.

I vote for Grossman, if only because of that final stanza. If only
because the other poems bored me. Dockins' poem ("Low Latitudes") I don't
even want to talk about, it was so flatly uninteresting. Hansent's was
well-written but so precious with the woman / spatchcock comparison (is
that considered clever, I wonder). Brown's is a little too slice of life
in terms of what poetry has become in the hands of "our" poets (not very
interesting lunch-time entertainment), but of course with no satire or
real irony. It just is. Franklin's "Mule Barn" has a bit more irony, but
is so chatty about mules and such. A little more concision, please.
Linehan's "Refuge" is that kind of earnest poem that expects the prospect
of women holding needles as their mothers did to inspire in some way.
Harrington's "Shaking the Grass" probably comes in second if only because
it's not so predictable, but it also is uneven in its effects. I accept
Grossman's poem because the idea of a "scene of instruction" seems to be
exactly what is lacking in the kinds of poets we're blessed with these
days. "And now there's no time at all."

4:19 PM

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