Incendiary Lit

In her wonderful collection Tell Me, Kim Addonizio plays around with the pantoum form in poems like “A Childhood” “Spill” and this poem:

“The Revered Poet Instructs Her Students on the Importance of Revision”
by Kim Addonizio

Listen. I’m trying to tell you
how easily the poem you thought
was a beautiful woman becomes
cronelike by a kind of witchery.

How easy, you thought, to write a poem:
you scrawled last night in your journal
and in the morning, by a kind of witchery,
the poem was born, perfect, immortal.

But soon, too soon, what you scrawled in your journal
begins moaning, pitches forward and wails, hating
itself, the fact that it was ever born - imperfect, mortal
and suffering the way everything suffers,

every moaning lover, every wailing child,
each creature destined to be isolate and alone
and suffering the way everything suffers,
but I said that, didn’t I, I explained alreadya bout suffering

and about each one of you, destined to be isolate and alone
because writing is lonely work, is what I’m trying to say,
did I say that, did I explain already? I’m suffering
through your poems, and my own, oh God I feel

so desperately lonely is what I’m trying to say,
look at you you’re so young all of you,
I don’t care about your poems, or my own,
do you know how fast it goes, all I want is to be

as young as all of you, look at you
you’re so fucking clueless, oh I want
my life back, where did it go, I want it all to be
different but I’m standing here, lecturing again-

on what, on what? Oh fuck it,
listen, I was a beautiful woman,
you think I want to be standing here, lecturing? Look again
Listen. I’m trying to tell you.

(Notice how the poet plays on words and  alters them slightly to completely change the meaning of the repeated line? Try it yourself! Here’s info for the basic pantoum form, try to tweak one in a similar way.)

Posted: Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Category: Poems, Exercises.