Ridding my poetry of the explanatory “becausing” consists of using my backspace button often. I’m not sure where the style came from, but I often use a lofty and archaic diction in my poetry. I don’t aim to sound Victorian, nor do I aim to sound contemporary and modern, but I definitely like the rhythm of my poetry once I remove “because,” “since,” “whereas,” and the like. Though I like the way “thus” sounds, the word is nothing more than an ornament. Aside from rhythm, it brings nothing to my writing. I am sacrificing those words while trying to find other words in order to maintain the same rhythm. The goal of workshop for me is ridding my work of words that merely take up space. There is a different between my poetry and my literary criticism, so I need to put more effort into making that contrast apparent. I find that my poetry hits harder when I remove “is like” and qualifiers that I use out of comfort. I never use qualifiers out of purpose or intent. Basically, I need to become more aware of how I write and the words I use.
Kathy Fagan’s strategy in dealing with clichés follows the strategy we are often taught, to inject fresh language into and around the cliché in order to personalize the phrase. Fagan does this every couple of poems, even developing an entire poem off the phrase “a monkey on her back” (2) in "Womb To Tomb Pantoum." This use of clichés makes the diction of Fagan’s poetry very casual and familiar, but the personalization of the clichés makes the specific language pop out with originality. Fagan takes the phrase “’pretty on the inside’” (19)in reference to girls that aren’t stereotypically beautiful and lets it reference specifically “the ones” (19)in "'69." Moments like this make Fagan’s poetry comfortable to an American audience, yet intriguing. If for no other reason, I continue to read Fagan’s work just to absorb how she twists clichés and trite phrases. When you catch one in her work, you expect her to twist the language into something that feels familiar, yet ...
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