City Eclogue

Today I read from the book City Eclogue by Ed Roberson. For me this was a difficult read because I am extremely picky when it comes to poetry. Maybe it's some obsessive compulsive disorder or maybe it's just me being weird, but I have a very hard time reading poetry that is "disheveled". Last week's Topsy-turvy poem was a nightmare for me. Ed Roberson's writes his poems with a lot of unique spacing which drives the analytical side of my brain nuts. That being said, I did still manage to find a few poems that I did enjoy (or at least didn't annoy me).

The first of these that I came across was on page 37 - Beauty's Standing. The opening lines were also intriguing to me, "Only eye lives in this no place anything else can com to rest on". Roberson's wording is also a little strange to me. It reminds me of Yoda from Star Wars. On page 45 I found the poem to be a bit sad. To me it seemed to be suggesting that although there was a civil rights movement "occurred" it didn't achieve the entire goal. I think this was suggested with the line, "the civil rights movement never reached".

Now the poem on page 95- The State Bird on the Wall in Trenton Station. I really liked the language in this poem. It really made me think of trains and the way the sound when they go from still to moving. That chugging sound kind of sounds like, "a flock of tin birds taking off". I also really liked the language in Point on page 111. "The star relaxing from the pirouette. The tiny waist the starry skirt of night." These were my favorite lines from Point. The final poem I wanted to comment on was Eclogue on page 131. Who could not love a poem that starts with, "I wonder if anyone ever thought to tell time them" in regards to shadows. Unlike a compass, you cannot misplace a shadow.