Poetry

This semester (second semester of 2015-16) I have asked my English 10 students to create online poetry portfolios, so I am going to do the same. What follows is my poetry portfolio.

Where I Am by Jodie Morgenson

I am in the yard, contemplating the pigs.
My husband calls them hogs,
in a weak attempt to distance himself
from what must eventually happen.
But he names them.
He sings to them too and sits in their pen until curiosity bring them to him.
He pets them like puppies.
He notes their human eyes.
I am in the coop, whispering to the chickens.
My husband collects their eggs, and lets them sit on his shoulder.
We’ve named them too. The Rhode Island Reds are the Tinas.
They look like miniature dinosaurs. If they were as big, they’d be terrifying.
I am in the house, worrying about the work that must be done.
My husband is in the field, worrying about the seeds that were stolen last night.
I am with the young cat who came to us in the night,
intent on seducing our neutered Tom.
My husband secretly hopes she gets pregnant by a neighbor cat
because he knows that’s the only way we’ll get kittens.
He says he doesn’t want kittens, but he does.
I am petting Penny, a foster dog, who must go away.
My husband is calling to her and
she is crouching under the table because of what other men have done to her.
She snarls at our daughter.
She is afraid.
I am writing, hunching over a computer screen. This is how I learn.
My husband dips his hands in the soil and memorizes the names of plants.
He can’t remember your name, but he remembers the plants.

*

Author’s Note for “Where I Am” by Jodie Morgenson

This poem is a free verse that I wrote for a class I took this summer. I have read many poems that influenced my style in this poem. Ted Kooser’s poems come to mind. I tried to be detailed, but straightforward in my delivery, which is something that Kooser does very well. I’m no Ted Kooser, but his influence is here. His poems “Flying at Night” (http://www.tedkooser.net/excerpts/flyingAtNight.html) “Tattoo,” and “At the Cancer Clinic” (http://www.tedkooser.net/excerpts/tattoo.html) come to mind. He is blunt and simple, but focuses on the tiniest of details and he is fond of similes (and so am I). In “Flying at Night,” Kooser writes,

“Five billion miles away, a galaxy dies
like a snowflake falling on water”

He also uses enjambment which helps with the flow of his lines. In “At the Cancer Clinic” he writes,

There is no restlessness or impatience
or anger anywhere in sight. Grace
fills the clean mold of this moment
and all the shuffling magazines grow still.

He could’ve moved the word “Grace” to the next line, but instead kept it there, adding a subtle pause which draws attention to the word without disrupting the flow of the poem. This poem was written to capture a small slice of life. When I wrote it, I was struggling with my foster dog, Penny and she was all I could really think of, yet we had all of these everyday things that had to continue happening. (Penny is now my adopted dog. She became a permanent member of our family toward the end of the summer.) The theme I was trying to convey was Life goes on … living isn’t easy … it’s the simple things in life that matter.

Poetic Devices:
Simile: He pets them like puppies
Simile: They look like minature dinosaurs.
Euphemism: who must go away …
Imagery: My husband dips his hands in the soil
Enjambment: My husband secretly hopes she gets pregnant by a neighbor cat
because he knows that’s the only way we’ll get kittens.

Can you find any other poetic devices that I am overlooking? Do you have any suggestions for a better way for me to say something? 


Grief by Jodie Morgenson

 

Grief greets you at the door.

She whispers in your ear as you fall asleep.

She reminds you of people and animals and places

—everything that you miss—

everything that leaves a space in you.

 

She bring you packages wrapped in brown paper and string,

or a silver jewelry box,

or a blanket, under a mulberry tree.

She is different for you.

She adapts for me.

She shows up unannounced and uninvited,

though sometimes you suspect she might be on her way.

She surprises you at times with a conversation about a memory.

She makes you cry

—not out of meanness, but out of what she forces you to remember—

what she forces you to face.

 

Pictures. She loves to bring out pictures of the people you love.

Of the limp figure of your cat.

Of the first time you held your child.

Of the last time you saw your grandma.

Of the only time you saw your father cry.

Of the lump of a body wrapped in a blanket under the mulberry tree.

 

An open grave.

 

An urn full of ashes.

 

She is blunt. She is forceful. She is gentle.

She is necessary.

She’ll leave flowers, and notes and baskets of food on your porch.

 

She leaves, but she never completely goes away.

*
Authors Note for “Grief” by Jodie Morgenson

This poem was inspired by The Book of Qualities by Ruth Gendler. In her poetry collection, she explores emotion through personification. Last year, I had my students write about anger, guilt, joy, pleasure, excitement,  courage, and other qualities. When I told them they could choose which quality I should write about and they all voted. Grief won.

This was timely: I have lost two grandparents this year as well as my dog Buddy, and most recently my cousin Mark, so it was both easy AND difficult to write about grief in a personified manner. How did they know that I needed to write this? (They didn’t.)

The purpose of the poem is to personify grief. I was trying to give grief a personality. I had been meeting with grief pretty regularly during the time I wrote this, so I sort of “in the thick” of a relationship with “her” at the time. In a way I think the purpose of this poem was to help me deal with my grief too.

I’m mainly concerned with the rhythm of this piece. How does it flow? Is there any part of this that you can see where I could improve the flow? I am also feeling like, with the death of my cousin, I have learned another aspect of grief that I would like to add. I have trouble with brevity sometimes too, so if you think something is wordy, please say so!

Poetic Devices:

  1. Personification: The whole poem personifies grief.
  2. Imagery: Of the limp figure of your cat.Of the first time you held your child.Of the last time you saw your grandma.Of the only time you saw your father cry.Of the lump of a body wrapped in a blanket under the mulberry tree.
  3. Contrast:She bring you packages wrapped in brown paper and string,or a silver jewelry box,or a blanket, under a mulberry tree.~ AND ~She is blunt. She is forceful. She is gentle.

    She is necessary.

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