Poetry / Lies My High School Poetry Teacher Told Me

1.
williams
poetry no

pronouns

2.
That stabbing means rape
and the knife symbolizes a thingy whatchamacallit.

The other sex abhors the knife as much as circumcision.

Cut the poem vaguely like a shoplifting trip
to 7-Eleven. Take whatever you want,

but buy the doughnuts because
if it’s not a torus, it’s a phallic symbol.

3.
Mugging Kills Parent
Single Mom’s Son Left Behind
Knife Found Near Victim

pasted headlines have
no high queue of words strung with
intent to harm you.

4.
(Note: two stanzas, iambic quadrameter, ABAB.
About pretty words for pretty subjects. Use repetition.
Last line breaks:
Because nothing rhymes with ugly.)

5.
Teacher said don’t write
about life, love or death at 14.

What do you know?

You need to log in to urbis or create an urbis account to review this writing.

Reviews

March 22, 2007

Raef

No. of Reviews	Overall Quality	Comment Followup
254	89.3% (56 votes)	54.3%

personal info reviewer stats

Age	Gender	Location	Last Login
22	F	United Kingdom	January 24

Raef reviewed Version 1 - Read 100%% of the Item

A very unusual style; cleverly reflecting the school-style notes contained within. I like the language and cynical humour that you’ve used here, e.g. the comparison between ripping apart a poem to ripping off a supermarket. I don’t know enough terminology to relate completely, but i can emphasise with the concept of distate for dissection of verse.
No suggestions to offer, as this piece makes its own rules.
I enjoyed reading this. Thanks for posting it.