Community Poetry Journal

Community Poetry Journal

A collaborative journal for poetry YWS-ers have read!

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  • 28 wall posts
  • Created Wed Jul 21, 2021 1:34 pm

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  • Hijinks replied · Jan 30, 2022

    That's a really lovely poem, Lizzy! I think the neutrality of it is maybe what makes it so comforting - it's not trying to make some feel-good, unrealistic claim, it's really just making a statement that's pretty hard to disagree with. The way it's phrased with "of us" at the end of every line makes it feel a bit mantra-like to me, like something you could recite to yourself when you need to feel grounded ^-^ Thank you for sharing!


    Liminality replied · Feb 2, 2022

    Thanks for sharing, Lizzy! I get that chant-like sense as well - it seems like every line begins with an iamb? Somehow iambs tend to feel chant-like to me. I kind of got the sense of well, not defeatism, but something like . . . a declaration of passivity here? I also had to look up the word behooves, and apparently it means suitable, so that's one lesson learnt for Lim today! It's a nice little short poem that works with word play despite not having much imagery.


    alliyah replied · Jun 20, 2022

    Really interesting concept to think on - especially given the attributed author's connection to historical writing (James Truslow Adams was the first writer to popularize the concept of "the American Dream"). I think that this lens could give a more gracious look to viewing history from -> that the people we hold up as heroes are not completely so, and those we would label as villains are not entirely monsters, usually we each have parts of both that must be understood.

    I agree with Seirre & Lim that the poem has a mantra / chant-like quality; I'm curious of it's original context such as if the author considered those lines to be a poem or just a phrase they had came up with. Either way, whatever its original source, I agree to is has poetic elements. To me it reminds me of a theological concept from Martin Luther that we are all "simultaneously sinner and saint" - humbling and freeing at the same time. Thanks for sharing Lizzy!



I would rather die of passion than of boredom.
— Émile Zola