Blog Response

The blog I found is called The Art and Poetry of Sherrie Lovler (http://natureartandpoetry.blogspot.com/).

I personally like poems about nature, so I searched for blogs with the key words of poetry and nature. Sherrie Lovler blog was a few pages into Google and it seemed to have the components I was searching for. I read three of her poems and found them very intriguing. Before reading more of her poems I did some research on Sherrie and looked at a few of her other blogs. Ms. Lovler has a strong connection between her artwork and poetry, which is clear from her blog. This passage is displayed on the side of one of her blogs, "Sherrie’s poetry is her doorway into the unknown and is the first step in her process of painting. She invites you to enjoy the art on these pages and the poetry that inspired it". The background color of the blog itself is a very light grayish-white, this shade really invited me to explore her work. Her first poem, Balance describes an avalanche and the power it has, but also how delicate it is (like a butterfly as she describes it). An avalanche is snow which by itself is not destructive in any way, but when it falls together there is no telling how big the avalanche will be or when the snow is going to give way. Her next poem is called The Wanderer. The painting inspired by The Wanderer is darker than the Balance painting, and it has more shapes and brush stokes in general. Two stanzas that I found particularly intriguing in The Wanderer were, 

Stay here

my mind

who wants to wander

on her own.

Stay here

in silence

as thoughts arise.

Let them pass.

Many times when I'm writing poetry, frictional stories or drawing in a notebook, my mind wanders and I don't even think about what I'm doing. I no longer think about my brain telling my hands move, they just do it. During these spells, my mind often goes to creative places and I think Sherrie is referencing these blank and creative times with her third stanza. 

The last poem of Sherrie Lovler's that I found relevant to school and my life is Lunar Love. The line that I loved from this poem was,

Don’t dissect it —

it wants to be whole

Don’t tear it apart —

it doesn’t need to be figured out.

I feel in school we are always looking for the meaning behind things. Whether the author meant it or not, teachers push us to find the hidden meaning. What if poetry and artwork are just beautiful and there isn't a meaning behind them. What if there isn't a meaning that needs to be figured out. Many times when I look at photography, I think to myself, "wow, that is a really amazing picture". I can't explain why it's amazing, it just feels right and makes me happy.

Overall I really enjoyed looking through this blog, and I hope she posts new content frequently. 

 

Louis Jenkins Blog Response

These poems are simple. That was my first reaction after reading Louis Jenkins' poems. His video poem Fresh Duluth, to me, was just a list of winter time thoughts or just some things to think about. I don't believe poems just have one meaning and that meaning is universally understood, but many of his poems are definitely directed toward a Midwest audience. Would someone in California understand getting dressed for winter and appreciate his poem. I don't think they would. Louis describes the thoughts that go through our minds when we get dressed to travel outside in the snow, but what further meaning does his poem offer? What is he trying to express in Fresh Duluth and quite frankly why is this poem popular and what distinguishes it from other list poems? In poetry class we talk about showing vs. telling and how our poems become more interesting for the reader when they have to think about and interpret the language, so how is Louis poem showing instead of telling. Not that every poem in the entire world has to show instead of tell, but it has been a main theme in our class and I was wondering if there are exceptions to this general rule. 

Another thing I would like to point out, is that poetry comes in many different forms and I found it interesting that Louis Jenkins poem, The Afterlife, has a unique form. It contains quotes, and seems like more of a dialogue than a poem. It's interesting to read different poets work because they are all so unique. Chris Martin has the form or three line stanzas varying in length and Louis Jenkins' form is more dialogue and paragraph form. I'm excited to hear how he reads his poetry though.