My 1st poem on Steemit. Let's start a writing workshop! All comments, critique, questions welcomed!

in #poetry7 years ago (edited)

Nothing Wild

lives here
anymore.

Switchgrass seeds
dry and crack
in the hidden gears
of escalator steps,

as stillborn colts
lie quiet
on buffed white
linoleum floors,

and a razor catches
beneath my chin
dripping
in the fluorescent light
of an airport restroom.


In this poem I tried emulating the sparseness of Mark Strand’s “Keeping Things Whole”. I wanted to experiment with how short bursts of images could compliment each other and develop a theme posed in the first short sentence of the
poem. I also wanted to try and write a poem with the least amount of sentences I could, which turned out to be two. I wanted to push as much out of/into the second sentence as I could by including almost the entire visual and emotional weight of the poem within it. I really admire how much depth and emotion Strand gets into his poem, while maintaining a sparse/minimalist aesthetic. It is my goal to get to the point where brevity/minimalism strengthens my poetry, rather than a limiting its effectiveness.

photo credit: junkman wildlife supply