A social site for poets in Sydney.
A POEM DRAWN FROM A YEAR 7 ENGLISH CLASS, EARLY MARCH 2013
The new boy
with a drained pen
raises his slow arm
and asks,
Sir,
if a sloth loses
its grip, does it fall
slowly?
Tags:
Catherine... What is a poem? What if a sloth DOES fall slowly? LJ
Catherine:
If I interpret your subtext correctly I discover an assertion that this short work is yet another take on a hoary old joke reporting a real or imagined ‘cute' encounter.
Refer the satirical scientist of children’s television, professor Julius Sumner Miller [1909-1987], he did a lot of this sort of thing to entertain and educate children.
As for it being a poem, I too have my doubts… however… If one accepts the definition of free verse as ‘unrhymed verse lacking a consistent metrical structure’ perhaps it qualifies.
Also refer to the venerated [by Americans] William Carlos Williams.
William Carlos Williams -1883-1963]
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
This work, in free verse form, may at least claim originality, ingenuity and an innocent but elegant simplicity without playing the ‘cute’ card.
Lorne:
Clearly, Williams understands the nature of poetry and is no sloth when it comes to demonstrating it.
Regards
Dermott,
Thanks for reading my poem and having an opinion on it. I think you need to read more of Les Murray's work so as to truly understand the presence, diversity and originality of the pithy poem. Start with Poems the Size of Photographs... This work may help you define what a poem is.
Lorne
© 2024 Created by Adrian Wiggins. Powered by