Title of Poem: Erasures
Poet: Michael Gullickson (Texas)
Source: Bridges (2002)
Rating: 3.3 laurels of our 5 laurels.
Michael Gullickson's poem "Erasures" is a poem about the process of composing or crafting a poem.
"I would like to collect
the words you subtract
from your pencil written poems
and create new poems from them."
This poem is unusual since the poet comapares a poet to a forensic expert.
Michael says in the poem:
"I'd like to know if some forensic expert
could reconstruct the words
from the residue, the cold remains
still and silent on the table"
Michael compares "words" to a "cold remains" of a dead body?
A forensic expert deals with dead bodies and determine the cause of their death by collecting clues or analyzing clues from the dead bodies.
Why is Michael comparing "words" to "cold remains"?
In my analysis, Michael probably thinks printed words are dead like cold remains. Printed words don't have life of their own since they just lie on the pages of a book. Hence, a "word in print" is comparable to a "cold remains".
Not a bad poem. The poem gives a fresh ideas on how poets craft their poems. The comparison of a poet to a forensic expert is what makes the poem memorable to me.
Poet from Texas
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Erasures
by Michael Gullickson . (Texas)
Source: Bridges (2002) p.10
I would like to collect
the words you subtract
from your pencil written poems
and create new poems from them.
I write in ink, scratch out the words
I won't use
but I can still see them
somehow that helps me
know where I'm going
from where I have been
but your hand wipes the words away
leaving a blank space....
I'd like to know
the words you wouldn't say.
I'd like to know if some forensic expert
could reconstruct the words
from the residue, the cold remains
still and silent on the table
Perhaps someday.
--------------------
The Cold River
by Michael Gullickson
Source: Bridges (2002) p.18
Whatever two people do
as moving closer they
plunge into icy waters
trying to learn hypothermia
and the two distinct stages
of death which are 1) almost and
2) quite which are oddly enough
the two stages of life
and being
that two people
have enough blood to transfuse each other
while the winter river pushes them on
almost drowning
but not quite
and the difference is
buddy - breathing
sharing enough air for one
making it suffice for two
which is the miracle of loaves and fishes
when a hillside full of people can be fed
from lunch- for -one
and Christ anyway told me
it was ok to love anyone
even strangers, except stronger
as he ran my mind on fast-forward
showing me what was love and what was not
as the cold river moved on
as the sky surged and the wind bellowed
a limb to hang on to and each other
and at last nothing more
than one voice from two
loudly against the storm.
------------------
Copyright (c) 2005 to Michael Gullickson.
Available in print edition.
--------------------
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Title of Poem: The Cold River
Poet: Michael Gullickson
Source: Bridges (2002)
Rating: 3.5 laurels of our 5 laurels.
Available in Print.
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