Round One= Therese Broderick

The three poems that I read were "Near Mount Holyoke" , "Safety in Numbers" , and "I Love You". In each poem I can tell how pationate she is about many aspects of her life. She loves her daughter more than life and I can tell just by reading THREE poems and skimming through others. I can tell how appreciative she is of people and all the little things, and she takes time in her every day life to show this ( see third quote) . I can tell how artistic she is through her poems placing the words with a meaning and a purpose. Some of Broderick's poems are creative in the way they are layed out but others are more conserved in the sence that to get th point all we have to do is read it. In the poem "Near Mount Holyoke" I like the emphasis she had on some of the words, and this stood out to me ...

"Her bowed head

and closed eyes

are softly swiped by

caravans of

                     lambs "

I pause in all the right places so there is more drama and also in her biography I learned that she wanted her poems to be "When I write any new poem, I intend for it to be a beautiful work of human language (spoken/heard) that leads to wonder about the human condition. I do not intend for my poems to be vehicles of social reform, community reparation, personal healing, or spiritual salvation" To me this means that she wants people to wonder and read the poems while they're thinking of the way humans are but at the same time realizes she cannot control who reads her poems and what they think.

In the poem safety in numbers I like the way she admits that her whole day is affected because of this piece of information on the news. I like that she talks about her creal and even her daughters socks. They all have to be in pairs because thats safe. One of my favorite of her qotes (so far) is "Thirty consonants, sixteen vowels, fourteen syllables: We give thanks for our plenty when others have so littele". 

The last poem that i read was "I love you" and the poem talks about how you can see someone growing up and in some cases getting hurt from experiences but that is something they need to learn. I think that Broderick recognizes many things people don't such as the effort it took to teach her daughter to say the words "I love you" and now she can say them easily to some teenage boy. Also when she says that she "...gives thanks for our plenty when others have so little" is her recognizing that she has things others don't and she is thankful.

1. Is writing poetry a type of escape for you?

2. How do you know if your poems are "Good"?