tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20782819.post114536783542594916..comments2023-11-12T13:22:30.358+01:00Comments on andrewjshields: Daily Poem Project, week 2Andrew Shieldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02804655739574694901noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20782819.post-1145783273865479742006-04-23T11:07:00.000+02:002006-04-23T11:07:00.000+02:00Dear Christian,Thanks for your comments on Carruth...Dear Christian,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for your comments on Carruth. <BR/><BR/>I quickly decided not to vote for his poem because I found the form distracting; the line breaks disrupted the syntax to no positive effect, as far as I could tell:<BR/><BR/>where the limestone ledge<BR/> crops out our wild<BR/> cherry trees<BR/><BR/>were making a great fountain<BR/> of white gossamer.<BR/><BR/>Here, with the possible comma omitted after "out" in the second line I have quoted, it is quite possible to misread the poem and end up completely confused. <BR/><BR/>Because of these infelicities, Carruth's poem was not even on my shortlist, which was finally Koethe's "Hamlet" and Skloot's "Dowsing for Joy." Even though I found the former deeply moving (it is a version of my life, as it were), I voted for the latter because I found it flawlessly beautiful. Koethe's poem has an appropriately chatty form, but that chattiness also means that it has certain limits that it is very hard for the poem to go beyond (a general problem I often have with the "New York School" poets whom he refers to). Perhaps I also voted for the Skloot because I felt that the Koethe poem appealed to me in such an idiosyncratic way, whereas the Skloot poem appealed to me in such a way that it seemed like it might appeal to other people, too.<BR/><BR/>Best,<BR/>AndrewAndrew Shieldshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02804655739574694901noreply@blogger.com