| Example Responses to A Book of Luminous Things |
| (In this response I made a personal connection to the poem) Response to Louis Simpson's "After Midnight" on p. 117 Cara and I were walking through Delaware one night when we noticed, for the first time, a brick tower with stained glass built into the facade of the buildings on the east side of Sandusky St. north of Williams St. This is such a beautiful detail that we were surprised we hadn't seen it before. I wonder who would have built it there or why. The person clearly cared about beauty/architecture/creating something unique. He or she also had the means to make the building not just functional, but meaningful to the eye. The few blocks of downtown Delaware are filled with such details if you look for them. But sadly, housing developments in which each house only differs from the next one by one or two details are spreading around us like the blades of spring. Who lives in those too similar houses? Not us, but our friends, and so many others. And so many more will come. |
| (In this respons I tried to style my own version by following the rules set up by the first poem.) Response to William Carlos Williams' "The Red Wheelbarrow" on p.66 So much depends upon a black table spoon warmed by bright sunlight under a green cactus |
| (In this response I performed a close reading of the text.) Response to Joseph Brodsky's "Odysseus to Telemachus" on p.116 In lines four and five, the speaker seems to be making commentary about the Greeks. Does he have a distaste for their style and or reasons for war? The second stanza seems to make reference to Circe's island with the grunting pigs. He sounds forlorn in this stanza, but he had some control over his time spent there and chose to stay. In the third stanza, about what was Palamedes' right? This seems to be key information. And why is he worried about Telemachus' Oedipal passions? What are these dreams of Telemachus? This seems to have been written as a letter, but clearly couldn't have been sent, so may have been more of a prayer. I never had the feeling from Telemachus that he had any designs on dating his mom - the Oedipal passions. Maybe this is more about needing to be the male in charge. Perhaps they would both have been such strong personalities that they couldn't exist in the same space without conflict. |
| Your responses don't have to follow any of these exactly. Be creative with the way you make connections to the poems. |