I'm supposed to be writing an AP style paper on the "big ideas" and thematic elements of this poem in relation to the attitudes of the speaker. The poem is RIDICULOUSLY confusing and so obscure I can't find it or the poet anywhere online, but my English teacher suggested it because she said it was "profound" and "extremely complex"....Help pleeeaase.
Looking Up at the World's Floor by J. Skyler Holton
Thirteen yellow droplets
of melted llama stones
Drip horizontally upward
and seep into my bones
Sixteen juniper dogs
belong to Mr. Indiana Jones
Walking in the green park
they talk on wooden phones
Fourty-two jumpin' jehosophats
poke Jesus in the eye
And I run through solid water
For hours 'til I die.
It isn't complex, it's facile and puerile with poor meter and even poorer imagery.
That being said, you could write pages of BS that will surely impress any "teacher" that would foist this crap on their students.
Talk about the mathematical relationship between 13, 16 and 42, referencing 13 as unlucky,16 as either sweet or tons, and 42 as the answer to the ultimate question of life the universe, and everything.
Compare Jumping Jehosophat to Jesus Tapdancing Christ
Speculate wildly how something horizontal can go "upward", and if water is solid, then isn't it ice? and like, how, wow, man, it's still water too...oooh
OnePoint, I agree with the assessment in Johnny's opening sentence.
Writing nonsense lines can be a useful exercise to tap into the subconscious and to get the creative juices flowing, but the raw output is unlikely to be good poetry.
I'm not averse to nonsense poetry if it's polished and witty and (like an abstract painting) stimulates one's imagination or emotions in an enjoyable way. There are many examples. Can't find those qualities in this piece. It's hard to believe any English teacher, even one totally brainwashed by post-modernism, could seriously rate it as "profound" and "extremely complex" and full of "big ideas". Perhaps your teacher is on the verge of a mental breakdown.
I doubt that the ridiculously named poet exists. My guess is that your teacher wrote this piece himself or herself, with the aim of testing whether you are prepared to swallow crap uncritically or to demonstrate independence of mind.
One way of doing the latter might be, as Johnny ingeniously suggests, to serve back an equally pretentious and far-fetched piece of rubbish as criticism, with just enough style and wit to show that you are writing tongue-in-cheek.
Good luck. And please let us know how it goes!
By the way, what does "AP" mean? Presumably not a reference to A.P.Herbert.
Ian
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2008 04:38PM by IanAKB.