It Took All My Energy by Tony Wallace

It took all my energy to want you
and the rest of me to go after you
and then one day I knew
that I had you.
I was standing at the sink rinsing dust
from a bunch of grapes.
All my energy had been spent
pursuing you and then I had you
and then
I sat down at the kitchen table and ate the grapes.
The day was hot, that day
when I knew I had you. The man
in the house across the street
was cursing his wife.
An hour later I went to see about a job,
and the woman behind the desk
with her gold spectacles
caused me to remember that I had you.
Outside the sky was blue as a china plate.
There is nothing to do
on a day like that
but go to the beach. I caught three fish,
black and heavy as paperweights.
After the third I stopped to clean them in the ribboning surf,
three black fish flecked gold as the capes
of Egyptian kings,
strong swimmers, broad across the backs.
I slit the bellies, tossed the guts and roe
to the waiting gulls, cut the heads off slant
and lay them one by one on the gurgling sand
while I thought of you. Three small boys
picked them up
and carried them away,
holding them aloft as if on pikes.
Even as I fry these fish I think of
their heads against the sky
while the birds worked on a patch of sea
on the lee side of a sand bar that split the water
like the broken spine of a ship,
and as I turn these fish in the pan
I think of the day when I knew I had you,
and then the next, and then the day after that.
____________________________________________

Reaction: At first I thought this was a kind and sweet poem.

Meaning: I think that by the sound and flow of the poem, the author is a guy (Tony can be a guy or a girl's name) and that the author is presenting this to a love one, most likely his wife. By the sound of it, it seems like the character in the poem does all his daily things but everything makes him think about that one person (I'm still guessing his wife) and then at the end of the day when he thinks about the fish's heads in the sky, he remembers when he "had you", meaning that his wife probably died just as the fish did.

Technique: free verse

The Forgotten Planet

The Last Wolf

Tuesday 9:00am

Forgotten Planet by Doug Dorph

I ask my daughter to name the planets.
"Venus ...Mars ...and Plunis!" she says.
When I was six or seven my father
woke me in the middle of the night.
We went down to the playground and lay
on our backs on the concrete looking up
for the meteors the tv said would shower.

I don't remember any meteors. I remember
my back pressed to the planet Earth,
my father's bulk like gravity next to me,
the occasional rumble from his throat,
the apartment buildings dark-windowed,
the sky close enough to poke with my finger.

Now, knowledge erodes wonder.
The niggling voce reminds me that the sun
does shine on the dark side of the moon.
My daughter's ignorance is my bliss.
Through her eyes I spy like a voyeur.

I travel in a rocket ship to the planet Plunis.
On Plunis I no longer long for the past.
On Plunis there are actual surprises.
On Plunis I am happy.

_____________________________

1. Reaction: The last two stanzas surprised me and had to re-read it to understand it's meaning. The last part threw me off.

2. Meaning: The forgotten planet is Pluto and today Pluto is no longer a planet. But the author is recalling a memory from his past and he's realizing that knowledge is changing from the time he was a boy. But I think the poem is just him remembering his past and comparing his memories to what his daughter is learning. She called Pluto Plunis because it's no longer a planet, so it's not important and the new generation is starting to forget its name.

3. Technique: free write

The Last Wolf by Mary TallMountain

The last wolf hurried toward me
through the ruined city
and I heard his baying echoes
down the steep smashed warrens
of Montgomery Street and past
the ruby-crowned highrises
left standing
their lighted elevators useless

Passing the flicking red and green
of traffic signals
baying his way eastward
in the mystery of his wild loping gait
closer the sounds in the deadly night
through clutter and rubble of quiet blocks
I hear his voice ascending the hill
and at last his low whine as he came
floor by empty floor to the room
where I sat
in my narrow bed looking west, waiting
I heard him snuffle at the door and
I watched

He trotted across the floor
he laid his long gray muzzle
on the spare white spread
and his eyes burned yellow
his small dotted eyebrows quivered

Yes, I said.
I know what they have done.

_________________________

1. Reaction: By the time I finished the poem I was in shock because I can understand the wolf's pain.

2. Meaning: I think the wolf represents someone spirits. The wolf represents the spirit's sorrow and how it feels sad and lonely and it's in pain. The wolf is looking for someone for help or for someone to understand its pain. The person at the end is the one person who tells the wolf "Yes I said. I know what they have done," meaning that "Yes. I understand your pain,"

3. Technique: free write

Tuesday 9:00am (Poem) by Denver Butson

A man standing at the bus stop
reading the newspaper is on fire
Flames are peeking out
from beneath his collar and cuffs
His shoes have begun to melt

The woman next to him
wants to mention it to him
that he is burning
but she is drowning
Water is everywhere
in her mouth and ears
in her eyes
A stream of water runs
steadily from her blouse

Another woman stands at the bus stop
freezing to death
She tries to stand near the man
who is on fire
to try to melt the icicles
that have formed on her eyelashes
and on her nostrils
to stop her teeth long enough
from chattering to say something
to the woman who is drowning
but the woman who is freezing to death
has trouble moving
with blocks of ice on her feet

It takes the three some time
to board the bus
what with the flames
and water and ice
But when they finally climb the stairs
and take their seats
the driver doesn't even notice
that none of them has paid
because he is tortured
by visions and is wondering
if the man who got off at the last stop
was really being mauled to death
by wild dogs.