Disclaimer: I'm kind of new to poetry; so perhaps I'm reading it wrong. That said, maybe you want your poetry to be accessible?
One thing that gave me trouble immediately was the staggering of the sentences. I read each line with a new breath. It ended up sounding really disjointed and being very confusing to me.
I know that poets tend to like to use specific structures, but no immediate pattern popped out at me. And if there is a structure, shouldn't each line contain an end of some sort?
The imagery confused me, but I tend to take things a bit too literally. Trying to imagine mother's plucking stars was difficult, but imagining them doing that in an explosion of blood and fire was something I'd rather not repeat.
I thought the Jack-in-the-Box bit was pretty cool; I thought it was good at describing the explosive force that characterizes growth.
Then Darwin is mentioned as taking stars and burying them in people. This confused me because Darwin wasn't an astronomer.
It seems then that the poem cuts to aliens listening to Earth describe itself as dying; which doesn't seem to link to anything else that was written above.
So, this first foray into reviewing poetry has left me very confused. All the moreso since everyone up to this point seems to understand what is going on and appreciates the beauty of the poem. Perhaps there is something hidden in the complexity; but I was hoping for more in the way of clarity.
I wonder what Darwin would think of this poem?
Points: 2090
Reviews: 863
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