PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

Poems like these are the reason I could brag on Rae for hours and hours and hours, and still never get to the end of her seemingly limitless talent. Like Wallace Stevens, whom, I suspect, might be one of her literary ancestors, she likes to be tricky with the reader at times---and this poem is evidence of that. Most poems have a beginning, an end, and a conclusion that usually sets forth the point of the poem. Not this one. Like Stevens, she springs the poem's impact in the middle---so that the beginning leads the unsuspecting reader toward; and the end takes the now initiated reader away. The coiled spring in this poem is the fifth and sixth lines---a dichotomy stated so undramatically that it could be easily missed. That, too, is part of her strategy. Again, like Stevens, the reader is expected to look at each word. As in his poems, you cannot crib the point of the poem from the end. To meet the test of understanding, you must read the entire poem, and notice the middle.
I do not suggest that every poem she writes is, or will be, like this. I do not think a poet of Rae's capacity can be cornered into one strategy. The careless reader of Rae's poetry may very well never see its glory. The careful reader---and that, Friend, means every word---will be rewarded over and over again.