Distinction

Each poet of focus this week depicts their lives in vastly different settings, from Padron’s “sagging alley clotheslines” to Quickly’s hills. What stood out to me was the raw bones of each perspective, statements or aspirations that could ring true to anyone such as Quickly’s declaration “I will find myself.” It occurred to me that as people we all work with the same emotions and thus can relate on some level to all desires, difficulties and internal workings of others. It made me wonder how it is possible to stand out as distinct in a world where every emotion has already been written or recited.

What proved compelling about these poets, however, was a strong visceral reaction to the compilations of words and the distinct feeling that each poem brought. Phrases such as “the soil finer painting” and “we forever stained a story” are unique and truly evocative, allowing Tolliver to speak in a way that transcends the specific emotion of love to become a memorable voice amid many. The troubled neighborhood of Quickly’s youth might be simply a neighborhood in which a boy is killed after a drug deal gone bad, but Quickly alludes to “the landslides he left behind” and “whiskey his father began to swallow to keep from breaking,” suggesting through metaphor that death can be destructive with lingering effects, and whiskey might keep a person from fracturing.

The subjects themselves are not what make difference distinct in these poems, but rather the way they convey their difference. A neighborhood could be simply a neighborhood and a lover just another being, but just as The Last Poets bring voices to spoken word, these poets weave their stories into more than words. Their emotions, delivered through each poet’s personal interpretation of their situation, become distinct even on the page.

-Casey V