Reading Response: Week 4-1

This week’s chapter was on subject, and I enjoyed some of the suggestions given because every time I sit down to write I am trying to first come up with a topic instead of letting language lead the way. As the chapter says I think the main reason I want to come up with a topic first is because I want my poem to have a meaning. I found it interesting to read the many examples throughout the chapter where playing with language eventually led to give an explicatory meaning to a poem. I particularly enjoyed reading about the ‘juggling’ technique. Erika Meitner’s poem ‘Rubber’ was a great example of this technique, and it was fascinating to read how well she juggled two unrelated events, buying a plan B pill and having a flat tire. It gave the poem an unexpected twist while reading, and it was interesting how she tied the two events together at the end by saying that in both events she did not know how things work and all she could ask was how much it costs. At first thought I would think that the only commonality between buying a plan B pill and having a flat tire is that they are both unfortunate events, and of course that buying a plan B pill is probably a much more of an unfortunate event. It is uncommon to tie these two events together but the poet does a wonderful job in doing so and produces a very interesting poem. I guess that is the whole point of poetry, creating something that is unexpected but at the same time interesting and challenging.