On "Accident, Mass. Ave." by Jill McDonough

This poem is all about the tension and compassion sparked between strangers in a city that is known for its tough reputation, all over a minor accident where no actual harm was done.

It illustrates how people don't stop and assess the damage done before they start hurling angry obscenities at each other and threatening to sue. At the very end I found that the women's violent reactions to one another came out of fear, sort of like they were venting angry words as a way of chastising one another for creating such a scare. Feelings such as anger and frustration often seem to be rooted in fear.

The poem points out that people should forgive each other for making mistakes, even if they could have caused a large amount of damage. There was no need for angry outbursts on either woman's part. There was no damage done to their vehicles, the women themselves were not harmed. Someone was at fault but in the end no one got hurt. What is there to yell about?

I think that what the author is trying to communicate is that in this day and age, in a large city where many people think they have to look out for number one all the time and where stress and tension runs so high that all it takes is one tap on the shoulder for someone to snap at another person, people need to look up from their tightly wound tunnel vision and assess the situation before they start pointing fingers and taking out their anger on the other person involved. Anger and resentment gets you nowhere.

New Voices Editorial Experience

Although there were more submissions to go through for New Voices than there were for Dust and Fire, I thought that the elimination process was a lot quicker than it was for Dust and Fire. That could be because students in the class were given the option to reread rejected manuscripts for a second opinion. Initially I did not choose that option, but I ended up reading through at least one or two No packets in order to help save a few poems and short stories from elimination. I found that I enjoyed a few of them upon reading them for a second time.

While reading through prose submissions, I found that there were a lot of fantasy stories, some fairly grounded in reality with extraordinary characters and events while others were set in other worlds inhabited by creatures like centaurs and elves and other mythical beings that often confused and amused me all at once. Fantasy is not exactly my cup of tea, but then again I am just one reader without complete devotion to any specific genre. I also had to keep in mind that these are young writers who are just starting to get their feet wet with writing poems and short stories.

I had some trouble adjusting to the genres. Most submissions were fantasy, horror or suspense, and a few even bordered on noire fiction. I was impressed with the level of creativity that these writers utilized in their pieces. However, I was a little disappointed that there were no creative nonfiction pieces--again, my personal preference is speaking out for I tend to read a lot of nonfiction these days.

Overall I had a bit more fun with New Voices. It took me back to the books I used to read in high school and also the stuff I used to write about in high school. I had to switch back into the teenage mindset in order to get into the mood and become more open-minded about the pieces I was reading.

On "Stolpestad" by William Lychack

The story is about a law enforcement officer who responds to an unusual call toward the end of his shift. He is called to the home of a boy whose dog appears to have been mortally wounded (the story does not go into specific detail as to how the dog is injured), and at the request of the boy's mother, the officer ends up putting the dog. The boy is not there to watch, though the officer keeps hoping that the boy will come running and ask him to stop. Out of courtesy for the boy, the officer shoots the dog in the neck, just under the collar where the wound will not be seen instead of shooting her behind the ear to guarantee a quick and sure death.

The story brings into question how a person should respond to a situation like this. The officer shoots the dog, but it is later on in the story when we learn that the dog was still alive when the boy and his father went to bury her. When the boy and his father are speaking with the officer, the father explains how they found the dog and how they called a vet to examine the dog before the vet showed them the proper way to put down an injured animal. "Helluva thing to teach a kid, don't you think?" the boy's father asks the officer.

I believe that the story reflects on how we learn about death and the conveys the ethical challenge people face when they are making a decision such as the one the officer made to shoot the dog in the neck. His intention seemed good and justified--he did not want the boy to see what he had done--but in the end it prolonged the animal's suffering and the boy learned a lesson that children his age may not be prepared to absorb.

On "The Favorite" by Alison Townsend

The poem is about a personal, emotional connection that a teacher makes with her female student, who has written an essay about an incident in which the girl (or her best friend?) was raped. As we read on, we discover that in her youth, the teacher experienced a similar situation when her best friend was raped, but the incident was kept a secret.

The use if "you" in the narration makes the reader feel like the author, or the narrator, is talking directly to him or her, putting them in the teacher's shoes and telling them what they are thinking and feeling as they, the teacher, are reading the student's essay aloud. The descriptions really drew me in. They may be small details, but they are strong images in my mind: "...the hot scent of cotton/ candy and popcorn, everything about her unbearably/ young, from the small, hard apples of her knees/ to the way her braces cage the candy-cotton-stained/ red of her mouth."

Through reading her student's essay aloud, the teacher is able to tell her own story, though it is still a secret. The poem brings to light the idea that we can confront the past by writing about it and transform a painful memory into something beautiful: "So she can know it was no her fault, the most beautiful room in her whole house built from the ugliest mud, terror a blue vowel that kisses the hurt." Reliving a terrible experience after living with the burden of its secret is both a painful and healing process.

Entry 4: Response to "How to Succeed in Po Biz" by Kim Addonizio

The story doesn't exactly discourage one from attempting to become an accomplished poet, but it does inform the reader of what they are likely to experience if they make it past the first and most difficult step in the process--getting published. As I was reading this story, I couldn't help but wonder if the details weren't based off of someone's actual experiences in the po biz.

The story confirms that isolation and insecurity are the main weaknesses of the poet--in other words, you are your own worst critic. The story also illustrates how one can get too wrapped up in themselves and pull away from the world, harboring doubts about one's own talent and worth as a writer. Really, the story tells you how not to succeed as a poet rather than how to become a successful one. 

Entry 3: Response to "Our Pointy Boots" by Brock Clarke

I have to admit that when I got a couple of pages in, I did not like this story at first. When I read war stories, I often expect to get the same content: tragedy and violence. Sometimes we can only read so many stories about war as it can be emotionally taxing. However, this war story has a very different tone.

Use of the word "we" in the narration indicates that there is no individual telling the story, but instead we have this group of soldiers speaking as one. The reader gets a sense of military mentality--this closeness--through the narration, and throughout the story it becomes evident that this group of men and women have become very much like a family away from home. They are all individuals because not all of them wear the same brand of pointy boots, but when they come together to march in the Public Square as teenagers, they are united as one, their pointy boots being like a uniform in a way. However, when the soldiers come home, not all of them return to march in the Public Square. Some simply did not show up, which leaves the reader to wonder why.

There is also a question as to why Saunders was killed. Even though he was shot intentionally by his own comrades, his death can't be labeled a murder. Instead his killing could be seen as an act of mercy carried out by his friends, a means of escape for a man who has reached his limit. Though this seems to be the most likely explanation, it remains a mystery. At the very end we are left with soldiers laying in the snow, and we are left wondering if they will ever dust the snow off their boots, pick themselves up and continue their march in the Public Square. The real question there is, will they be able to pick up where they left off before they went to fight?

Entry 2: Response to "Rain" by Peter Everwine

When I first read this poem, I did not pay much attention to all the sounds that are described until I heard the piece being read aloud. It was then that I could imagine the sound of wind gusting in the trees before a heavy rainfall and the long echo of a loon's call drifting from across the lake while rain pitter patters on the roof of the tent overhead. The poem contains many water sounds: rain drumming, water lapping, an unnamed emotion surging against the heart (I can't help but think of powerful ocean waves when I hear the word surge). It is quite clear that sounds are the root of memory here, but there are other senses used as well. We can imagine the smell of wet clay on the wind and we can also visualize what the speaker in the poem is seeing outside his open door.

The passage of time in the poem was what stood out to me the most. The scene opens toward evening when everything is growing dark--evening is usually a meditative time for one to think about the recent or distant past. The late hour of the day and the age of the speaker are relative. He is an old man in the late years of his life, recalling a memory of his father that is sixty years old. His father is long gone and it appears that he has probably outlived most or all of his closest friends. It is hard to determine if he is lonely or not, just as he could not decipher for himself whether the loon's call was an expression of loneliness or a serenade to the wilderness. The poem captures the mystery of the inner self as well as the mystery of nature.