Young Writers Society

Hi Lim,

Mailice here with a short review!

I like the idea that you have taken something very simple yet extraordinary here to give your poem an interpretation. I like how it feels like a funny story but also has something dark hidden between the lines, which may or may not have been your intention.

I get the impression that you're telling here about a person who always lives only in his head and is himself the one who puts stones in his way instead of the others - as he might assume. I like this interpretation, but I don't know if it isn't just a very simple narrative in the form of a poem. Say it tells more about a person / character type who is perhaps shy / introverted or even neurotic. Or maybe even has a disorder that can actually make the person heal quite easily?

Hey, door-stopper, little faded
red rubber pedal. Do you remember
when I used to think you
could soundproof rooms?

This sounds like the beginning after someone comes out of therapy talking to themselves, realising that there was a before / after. Maybe the character sees it playfully and makes a new character out of another object ( maybe a knife?). It seems to me as if the character is talking about an object that caused him pain (or maybe would have killed him = soundproof), but now realises more the right use of it, as described here:

Like a plug into a socket
for household magic,

I could click you in place with one foot
and imagine the outside world was
pushed by your presence
even more outsider than here.

Here it sounds as if the person wants to be alone with their thoughts, far away from time and society, as if they want to close themselves off from everything. There is something dark about it, as if the person continues to feel that he has relapsed. (Maybe he was a drug addict).

I find the ending particularly interesting because I imagine it as a whisper, as if the person is pretending that everything is an ideal world, but in reality it's all about getting back on that kick / or falling into that old disorder.

I don't know what else to interpret from it, and possibly I've been reading too much Franz Kafka, but I think every text possibly hides a dark secret. But I like the actual simplicity and how you can write something about an everyday object that most people probably forget, which makes a reader ponder. I like how the lines mostly complement each other in your writing by being the same length. I also like the narration. It could also be about a young person reflecting on their childhood and what it was like where people used to worry more about nothingness.

Have fun writing!

Mailice.

Haven't done a review in a while, so I'll just pop in here! Hi Lim!!!!

So there's nothing specific I want to critique about, so I'll just rant what I think you're talking about here I guess. :]

So your choice of topic was . . . really interesting, I would say. I, for one had written a poem about a chair, from the point of view from a chair, so I guess I understand poeting about inanimate objects. (Although the Ballad of a Chair was mostly supposed to be humorous) ANYways

I would guess that by writing about this doorstopper, there's something metaphorical going on. Maybe talking about a friend that the narrator felt was so important that the narrator felt this person could "stop the door mid-swing".

From what I interpreted in this wonderful free-verse poem, is that the door-stopper is an inspiring person whom the narrator admires deeply. I have to admit, though, this poem is a bit too abstract for me haha, but I'll try to interpret as MUCH as possible.

Hey, door-stopper, little faded

red rubber pedal. Do you remember

when I used to think you

could soundproof rooms?

From here, I think the narrator used to think this friend/door-stopper to protect the narrator from the 'outside world'. "Soundproof rooms" could have multiple meanings, though. It's either keeping stuff out, or keeping things in. Maybe the narrator believed in this friend and gave many secrets, but the friend revealed all the secrets, and thus the room is no longer soundproof. (Although, I don't really understand this. Aren't door stoppers meant to keep doors open? I guess maybe that's why the narrator decides that the door stopper doesn't actually soundproof rooms.)

Let me tell you a secret.

I still believe, in the clunk

of your surface meeting the wooden door,

fitting snugly, squeezed against the floor,

and I think there's a spell being cast

when the door stops mid-swing

because you were there.

It's good you separated this stanza from the first one, because they seem to be talking about the door-stopper from two different directions. In the first one, the narrator is reminiscing the times when the narrator believed the door-stopper could "soundproof rooms", but in the second one, the narrator decides that even though this door-stopper did all that, the door-stopper is still someone very influential, that it's almost enchanting. "fitting snugly, squeezed against the floor," makes me think that the narrator might not be the most . . . social . . . person. The narrator thinks of the door-stopper as someone who can fit in really well, even in those tight spaces, and even though the door-stopper is small compared to the huge door, and has very little space to work with, it can still stop that door mid-swing.

At the very end, the narrator seems . . . regretful. Or maybe partly . . . resentful? It says "when the door stops mid-swing \ because you were there." This, I find, is the most interesting part of the poem, since the narrator decides to reinforce the door-stopper's influence, but also with a hint of sadness. I think the narrator regrets that they couldn't be a door-stopper, too.

Anyhow, I totally enjoyed reading this poem, and I hope you were satisfied with my review!

-Yosh