Comments on: New Motto

By: helen

helen — Tue, 22 May 2007 05:59:00 +0000

I have read your blog carefully and like it a lot! We have the same opnion! Could you check my blog at: http://www.muslimfriends.com/i/free to check my blog title: helenwang`s blog”? May be we can talk further and be friends.

By: Liv

Liv — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 19:51:00 +0000

A superior merchandising idea this is! Combines my love of Plath, the strange and the familiar in one tidy package.

By: kim brimhall

kim brimhall — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 08:36:00 +0000

While endulging in your comments, I noticed you were looking for shirts with longer torsos…I have found a site that I love. http://www.shadeclothing.com. they have everything.

By: Sarah Marie

Sarah Marie — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 06:57:00 +0000

One of the most repeated tenets of 100-level cultural anthropology classes is to “make the strange familiar and the familiar strange.”

By the way I’m now addicted to Amy Winehouse. Love it.

By: Sheryl (papernapkin)

Sheryl (papernapkin) — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 06:18:00 +0000

I thought the central task of poetry was to rhyme. Hee.

By: Mom101

Mom101 — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 05:57:00 +0000

The Sylvia Plath reference reminds me of how in comedy, Sara Silverman is always the one “acceptable” female comedian. It’s like any woman artist has to project a certain level of darkness and edge to be considered worthwhile.

That quote is fantastic. I agree that that’s what any writer is charged with. As they (“they”) say, there are only 7 stories in the world and Shakespeare’s done ‘em all. Without “making it strange” we’d forever live with that self-doubt of “well why should I tell this story? It’s all been told before.”

By: Eden Kennedy Onassis

Eden Kennedy Onassis — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 12:56:00 +0000

I hear what you’re saying, Bob, but I do like it when a poem comes at its subject sideways. You get a different point of view.

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:28:00 +0000

maybe I’m just being male here, but I HATE having to guess what the hell a poem is about. It isn’t that I don’t appreciate the rhythm of the words, or the way they sound together, or the imagery it evokes, or a new way at looking at the same-old same-old, but dammit, I hate reading anything and not being able to tell what the hell it was about afterwards. It makes it inaccessible. Its like poetry that only poets can appreciate. Or not having the key to a code, or not knowing the secret handshake.

rant over.

By: owney

owney — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 08:41:00 +0000

Just thinking about Mrs. K’s question as to whether, in order to be honest, writing about domestic life has to be dark — and also what Weaker Vessel says above about Plath’s writing on motherhood being pathological. I’ve always thought that Plath (especially in her journals) was actually great at capturing the feeling of happiness on the page. It’s really hard to write about joy without sounding sappy, and her journals from when she was falling in love with Ted Hughes are some of the best writing about that feeling I’ve seen.

Also, she has two super-happy poems about pregnancy which I’ve given copies of to many pregnant friends: “You’re” (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=178971) and “Metaphors” (http://www.csuchico.edu/~pkittle/101/plath.html) It’s always struck me that this poet who’s remembered as the ultimate gloom-monger also had a capacity for expressing joy.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 21:57:00 +0000

I think a lot of what poetry is deals with putting ordinary things into words that are unfamiliar. If it didn’t, it wouldn’t make you think, wouldn’t make you want to lie on your bed with a cool beer analyzing what it could mean or what it could relate to.

Regardless, poetry intrigues me regardless of what it makes me think of, and occasionally something simple that doesn’t require a lot of analysis is a welcome relief.