Read the poems from the next section, and as always, feel free to pick and choose your favorites. Here are some questions to help you along...
Answer TWO of the following:
Q1: Most of these poems seem to involve the trials and tribulations of daily life, from war to working minimum wage (also a battlefield!). How does one of these poems give a 'theory,' or a new way of examining the daily dramas and disasters of life in the 21st century? Why could you relate to it, even if you've never examined in that wa before?
Q2: Many modern poems are arranged in an unusual fashion on the page, which doesn't necessarily correspond to a specific meter or syllable scheme. Discuss why a specific poem looks the way it does. How does the arrangement of lines on the page, the length of those lines, and the experience of reading them aloud, affect you as a reader? Related to this, are they transcribed for sound (to be read aloud) or is it more for the eye and the mind?
Q3: Discuss how one of the poems' titles is a metaphor that changes or augments the experience of reading (or having read) the poem itself. Arguably, the title doesn't make complete sense until after you've read it once or twice. Which poem changes the most with its title, and why?
Q4: Pronouns really matter in a poem, since they are always written by the poet, not by us. Using the pronoun "you" in a poem is risky, since it could either be read as a universal "you" (almost like "we"), or it could implicate a very specific person reading the poem. Discuss how one of these poems uses "you" to establish a specific relationship with the reader. What IS this relationship? Do you feel "outed"? Or are you not the "you" intended?
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