Jesus Christ

It's cold out now, and I think the cold weather is here to stay.  The other morning I had to wake up at 5 to drive back to Rhode Island.  While my father and I were driving down some side road in Woonsocket, we drove by a huge, flat cemetery that had no trees.  I remember getting this awesome idea for a poem that connected the cemetery, our driving, the darkness at 5am, the cold, the treeless land and the grass, etc.  But I was in such a caffeine and sleep deprived state that I forgot what it was I wanted to write about.  That's what happens when you don't write shit down the moment you get the idea.  But I have a feeling that even if I had written it down, I wouldn't have had any idea what my notes meant because I was so tired and in such a daze and caffeine deprivation. So anyways, from this experience I've decided to write a poem about THAT. That is, about driving by the cemetery, the cold, the grass, the dark, Woonsocket, and my failure to remember what the hell it was I wanted to write about. I'll have the lost idea of a poem inside a poem.

 

In other news, I really enjoy it when lyrics to a song sound like they could be poetry. In Brand New's song "Jesus Christ," for example:

Do I divide and fall apart?

Cause my bright is too slight to hold back all my dark,

And the ship went down in sight of land,

And at the gates does Thomas ask to see my hands.

 

You can tell by reading those lines that whoever wrote them (I don't know which member of the band wrote the lyrics) carefully chose every word and every word's position, just like a poet. And the sound of line two is great. It's too bad that so many people don't appreciate it, though. They just think "derrr I like dis song, derr I'm gonna drink more beer and listen to this song, derr it's good." Sigh. When I am teaching English to high school students I will play a song like that (or even that song) to my students to show them the relevance of what they're learning. Students become more engaged that way, and I think they would appreciate what they learn a little more if they see that rock bands use the same techniques in their lyrics that poets use in their poetry.