Mankind

by Cspr

Published June 20, 2012

In Poems

Mankind


The boy stealing from a thrift store.
The boy killing a worm, thinking it a snake.
The boy falling from a tree for ten years straight.
The boy who almost blew up a garage, confusing gasoline for water.
The boy riding, believe it or not, a black Arabian stallion.
The boy planting flowers on Mother’s Day.
The boy without religion.
The boy with the iron stomach and a hollow leg.
The boy who had to remember to breathe.
The boy talking to no one but himself as he spoke to others.
The boy dragging his crutches, hopping.
The boy with the stitched up ear.
The boy still apologizing for getting blood on the stairs.
The boy hiking in an Appalachian forest.
The boy finally understanding the capricious nature of mankind as bullies circle like sharks.
The boy whose cat died of liver failure.
The boy stepping on a staple and pulling it out himself without a grimace.
The boy standing alone, the last to be picked for the game.



Comments & reviews · 2
User avatar
KRose
Review
KRose wrote a review Review · Jun 24, 2012

Wow! You did a great job on this one!
So, first of all, I think that starting with "The boy" on each sentence is cool. It makes for a very exciting poem.... Anyhow, the start of it was good, exciting... but the part where it says:
The boy dragging his crutches, hopping
The boy with the stitched up ear
The boy still apologizing for getting blood on the stairs
This part, is personally very emotional. I think it makes the reader--really think. It made me really sad. I like it though, because it gives a sort of 'passion' to this.
Great job!
KRose

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Yatta!
Review
Yatta! wrote a review Review · Jun 23, 2012

Initially, I didn't want to review this work. Why? Because it made me terribly uncomfortable. It evoked a real emotional response. Lets investigate this response and see what we can do to improve the poems impact, shall we?

REPETITION: "the boy...the boy...the boy." If you say a word often enough it becomes haunting and produces that visceral response in the reader. I like this.
How do you make this better? Parallelism. By parallelism, I mean that all of your sentences need to be comprised of the same structure of noun and verb placement. Too often you weaken your poem by clauses like "who almost blew up a garage" or "believe it or not" those are all superfluous. Poems are ALWAYS about cutting things down, never adding. I would get rid of all these clauses and focus on the "the boy DOING SOMETHING..." structure.

STRUCTURE: Next, lets consider the boy's actions. He is riding, plating, stepping, standing, etc. But there is not implicit connection between his actions to reveal any sort of meaning. You claim this poem is "mankind," but it so obviously is not. It is completely unique. Even in compression, mankind is not a single boy, nor is it comprised of all these actions. How would I convey meaning? Group similar verbs together. For example, you may consider grouping physical verbs: running, killing, stealing, and less physical verbs: talking, planting, falling. etc. or however to convey an overal story or meaning.

REDUCTION/SIMPLIFICATION: Theoretically, I would cut out a lot of unneeded lines in the poem. Think simplicity, "the capricious nature of mankind as bullied circle like sharks" may be a good line to some, but it doesn't match the nature of this poem.

Here's an example of what I mean:

Mankind (Change the title?)

The boy stealing from a thrift store.
The boy killing a worm (thinking it a snake).
The boy falling from a tree.
The boy confusing gasoline for water.
The boy riding a black stallion.
The boy planting flowers.
The boy missing religion.
The boy remembering to breathe.
The boy talking to no one.
The boy dragging his crutches.
The boy hopping.
The boy stitching up his ear.
The boy still apologizing.
The boy running away.
The boy mourning a loss.
The boy feeling pain.
The boy standing alone.
The boy...

Except I would cut out all those sentences that aren't necessary for the overal meaning of the text.

Anyway, good luck with your work. This is a good start.

Yatta!



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