11-07-2013, 01:56 AM
Todd, that was breathtakingly evocative.
I tend to hate free verse, both writing it and reading it, but something so rich in images and connotation is very hard not to admire.
The economy of expression is superb. Not a line seems wasted.
What I see in it: the figure of Jimmy Hoffa, being something of a dirtbag who was likely murdered by criminal ties or loose, shadowy affiliations, is dressed up into an extended metaphor for the haunting facticity of repression. More generally, we might that the poem concerns itself with the dark secrets of life that tend to hide themselves, and of which we can't help but go in search of -- but ironically enough, these secrets end up finding us, and not the other way around.
The poem accomplishes this, in part, by making Hoffa out to be a sort of anti-Icon.
Throughout, it sustains an oily, creepy, gritty, noir sort of feel that is thrilling.
There are, as usual, allusions that I feel powerless to get to the bottom of -- but Hoffa was not really an item for my generation. Anyways, hopefully the remarks are useful to you in some way.
I tend to hate free verse, both writing it and reading it, but something so rich in images and connotation is very hard not to admire.
The economy of expression is superb. Not a line seems wasted.
What I see in it: the figure of Jimmy Hoffa, being something of a dirtbag who was likely murdered by criminal ties or loose, shadowy affiliations, is dressed up into an extended metaphor for the haunting facticity of repression. More generally, we might that the poem concerns itself with the dark secrets of life that tend to hide themselves, and of which we can't help but go in search of -- but ironically enough, these secrets end up finding us, and not the other way around.
The poem accomplishes this, in part, by making Hoffa out to be a sort of anti-Icon.
Throughout, it sustains an oily, creepy, gritty, noir sort of feel that is thrilling.
There are, as usual, allusions that I feel powerless to get to the bottom of -- but Hoffa was not really an item for my generation. Anyways, hopefully the remarks are useful to you in some way.
“Poetry is mother-tongue of the human race; as gardening is older than agriculture; painting than writing; song than declamation; parables,—than deductions; barter,—than trade”
― Johann Hamann
― Johann Hamann