Marshall+Johnston

"Poetry is either something that lives like fire inside you-Like music to a musician or Marxism to a Communist-Or else it is nothing..." -F. Scott Fitzgerald

Every line neatly spaced With about a centimeter of room between you Blue lines stacked on top of each other Ready for the contact Ready for what could possibly be the greatest thing ever written Or a infant child just realizing how to expand its mind

Two thin columns neatly spaced That slide down about a foot cutting through the blue Red running lines down both sides Ready for the pricks of pencils and pens Ready for a person to write the 1st draft of their will Or for a child, just learning how to spell its name

Deep black holes neatly spaced With about 12 blue lines, and 5 inches of the red line between you Perfectly circular holes separated from each other Experienced already, the stings of a hole puncher Ready for the college professor to snatch it out and enlighten the new students Or ready to be clipped into a teens journal

Yet, it’s always ready.

Ode to my paper


 * Praise to exaggerated stories**

Apparently the dog came bounding from behind a fence A fence that stood more than 20 feet high Apparently my dad came leaping over from behind two cars Scratch that, two busses Apparently my brother was only a year old in the stroller Helpless in his defense Apparently my dad snatched the dog out of mid air Skills learned from years of football Apparently my dad wrestled it down, and launched it back where it came from The true strength of a grown man And apparently, everybody got home same Praise to my dad, and his Superman moments


 * Wanda Coleman's work

In that other fantasy where we live forever**

we were never caught

we partied the southwest, smoked it from L.A. to El Dorado worked odd jobs between delusions of escape drunk on the admonitions of parents, parsons & professors driving faster than the road or law allowed. our high-pitched laughter was young, heartless & disrespected authority. we could be heard for miles in the night

the Grand Canyon of a new manhood. womanhood discovered like the first sighting of Mount Wilson

we rebelled against the southwestern wind

we got so naturally ripped, we sprouted wings, crashed parties on the moon, and howled at the earth

we lived off love. It was all we had to eat

when you split you took all the wisdom and left me the worry

the fall of velvet plum points and umber aureolae
 * Mastectomy **

remember living

forget cool evening air kisses the rush of liberation freed from the brassiere

forget the cupping of his hands the pleasure his eyes looking down/anticipating

forget his mouth. his tongue at the nipples his intense hungry nursing

forget sensations which begin either on the right or the left. go thru the body linger between thighs

forget the space once grasped during his ecstasy // sweet sweet mama you taste so

// our mothers wrung hell and hardtack from row and boll. fenced others' gardens with bones of lovers. embarking from Africa in chains reluctant pilgrims stolen by Jehovah's light planted here the bitter seed of blight and here eternal torches mark the shame of Moloch's mansions built in slavery's name. our hungered eyes do see/refuse the dark illuminate the blood-soaked steps of each historic gain. a yearning yearning to avenge the raping of the womb from which we spring
 * American sonnet (10) **

Wanda Coleman is a black female poet. Both the black, and the female sides of her are strongly reflected in her poetry; specifically the poems, //In that other fantasy where we live forever, Mastectomy,// and //American sonnet (10).// The main idea in the first poem mentioned is the thought of keeping the young years of your life (20’s). Trying not to let them go in order to fool yourself into thinking you are young forever. One line that caught my eye while I was reading this was, “The grand canyon of a new manhood. Womanhood discovered” I don’t think she was referring particularly to the whole keep your youth with you idea. I think what she was trying to express in those lines was the point that her generation was the first generation of women in history to be able to travel the world, go site seeing etc. “Grand canyon of a new manhood. Womanhood discovered” is a way of saying, the biggest, most powerful achievement for women yet. Which is why she refers it to a large mass such as the Grand Canyon. The second poem, //Mastectomy,// is another about women’s power. A mastectomy is a surgical operation used to remove a woman’s breasts. Throughout the poem, each stanza starts with the word forget. Followed by certain things a man does to pleasure a woman. To me, this word choice combined with the definition of the title can only imply one thing. Men want nothing to do with a woman besides use her body. I can’t agree with her, but that’s the connection that I see. The final poem, //American Sonnet (10),// is one more about race. Like many other poems built around race and discrimination, it refers back to slavery times, but this poem is more about the eternal shame that America should/does carry because of it. There are a few lines in this that stand out to me, the first is “Fenced others gardens with the bones of lovers” This line to me means, America (used to) cherish only the wealthy, and in order to keep them happy, slaves (the bones of lovers) were brought to America. Another line that stood out was “Eternal torches mark the shame of Moloch’s mansions built in slavery’s name.” Moloch is a word that has two meanings; the first is the name of a ancient Palestinian idol to whom children were sacrificed. The second meaning is a grotesque spiny lizard that eats ants. Both can be used in the way she writes the sentence. If referring to the sacrificial object, this can only mean negative things. “Eternal torches mark the shame” would mean that no matter how hard people tried, they would never be able to outgrow the cast of their dark past. It would also be connecting slavery to the sacrifice of children because it would be saying the construction of Moloch’s temples was only possible because of slavery. If you see the “moloch” as the lizard, I see “Eternal torches mark the shame” as referring to the grotesqueness of the lizard and it not being able to escape that. I see the lizard itself as society and its corruption, and the slaves would be the ants it eats because they are somehow ‘below’ it.

My poetry is seen by many as very basic, although I don’t think it is. It is usually written in stanzas, repetitive , and hard to understand because it’s about inside jokes. I write it in 4, 6 , or 8 line stanzas because I don’t see how playing around with the form of the poem can help get the idea you are trying to portray across. I think it just makes the poem a lot harder to read, and when I read poems I choose to ignore the form , as many people do. To me, poetry is a creative way of getting a point across. It doesn’t need a deeper meaning. You don’t need to make it look confusing and force your readers to read between the lines, but it has to be catchy which is why I repeat certain lines , and usually make it rhyme although we weren’t allowed for this portfolio. When poets feel the need to be complicated in their writing and use symbolism, I find it creative but not intriguing. I use what I would find interesting if I were to read something; and it might be rhyme because I grew up listening to hip hop/rap so it would only be natural for it to attract me.
 * Analyzing my poetry**