Poem: “Panels From a Blue Summer”
Poet: Kelly Creissio-Moeller
Magazine: Box Car Poetry Review
http://www.boxcarpoetry.com/030/cressio_moeller_kelly_001.html
Blogger: L. Dunbar
The title of this poem intrigued me to read further. As I read the poem out loud, I loved the flow of it. The poet uses alliteration and assonance throughout the entire poem. The very first stanza reads “I lack the luster that my lilacs can/ muster at any time of year.” This starts the poem off with both alliteration and assonance, and made me want to read more. In the second stanza, alliteration is used again; “white waves of woolgathering.” Here the alliteration helps paint a picture of what the poet wants us to see. Again in the fifth stanza, assonance is used; “Too many shoes from overstayed/welcomes left by the door.” In this poem, alliteration and assonance are used to slow down the flow of the poem, and to really show the image the author has in mind.
The form of the poem is really interesting to me. I like the diamond separators in-between the stanzas, and I am curios as to why there are a different number of them in-between certain stanzas. I also like how the poem is centered. The indentation of the stanzas is very appealing to me because I like everything aligned together. I am also interested as to why the last line in each stanza does not align on the right side.
The imagery in this poem is very strong. I like the line “ Outside my window, knots in the/ fence stare drunk as bull’s eyes.” Another catchy line is “Peacocks ring the rotund rotunda,” The repetition and assonance there definitely slows down the reading, and is also fun to say out loud. Throughout the poem, the poet occasionally rhymes. My favorite rhyme in the poem is in stanza six, “To be the leaver or the left, the/ cleaver of the cleft – his language a/ glacier calving, nouns vanish under/ ice- the bereaver, the bereft.” The quality I like best about this poem is how it sounds when read out loud.