Week 2: Poetry

         This week we have been working a little deeper into poetry. I love that we have started out with poetry because it is something that I can tend to do without very much help. We've began reading our book, "Writing Down the Bones" by Natalie Goldberg and began discussing the first 1/3 of the book in class on January 20th. So for this assignment I want to take a look at the poetry packet again. Specifically at the Ted Berrigan section of the packet. He has 4 poems within this packet and let me tell you, he must have been one crazy guy. His writings are so unique and yes there is probably someone else who has wrote something like it, but this is m first experience with this.

        The writing I wanted to take a closer look at is XV. When I first read this I kept questioning myself, I did not understand it and I felt kinda dumb for not. I continued reading it over and over until finally my group decided to talk about the writer in general. I missed class on Thursday January 15th, and they shared some of the information that was discussed as a class then. The fact that you had to read the first line and then the bottom line, second line and second to last line, third line and third to last line, and so on and so forth. This is not what most people would view as the "correct" way of writing poetry, bu in reality, it is a "correct" way of writing poetry.

       Poetry isn't a strict writing process, it just comes to you. To many people have it stuck in their minds that it has to be, well, like my blog entry here. Reading it from top to bottom, left to right. But it doesn't, that is just a form of what you can do. You can write a certain length, with a certain amount of syllables per line, or even right from bottom to top reading right to left. Poetry is meant for you to feel free spirited and write however your heart desires. Barrigan just has an odd way of writing his, so not everyone right from the start will know how to read his poems.

       Another one of his poems that caught my interest was LIII. This one is a jumbled up mess of a masterpiece. I learned from my group members that when he published his book, he mixed sentences all around within the entire book, so in a way it's a jumbled up mess. In this poem, you can tell he did just that. Last I checked "belly to hot belly we have laid" doesn't come after "the poem upon this page is as massive as Anne's thighs".  He is writing about poetry, and having bits and pieces of different poems literally cut and pasted into this just gives a raw feeling to this poem. He literally is writing about poetry but he makes the reader have the mindset that they are reading of someone's sex life.

    In closing to this weeks entry, I believe that Berrigan has a very unique way of writing, and I enjoyed reading it.

-Danielle Joy Colestock