In both of my improvs, I tried to adopt Adrian Matejka’s technique of short, quick, and pointed sentences, as well as a consciousness for ethnicity and nationality. I appreciate his work because of the distance he creates between what I assume are his personal feelings and vendettas and the final product of poetry. I often struggle with maintaining a balance between what I may describe as art and merely a rant over injustice. I still haven’t figured out how to introduce sincere anger over subjects such as assimilation and race into my works without becoming preachy, but Matejka succeeds here also. The collection Mixology depicts frustration over issues such as colorism, but the works never disturb me with an overly emotional tone. Matejka also appropriates popular culture and music into his work, another task I struggle with and often ignore. I don’t fawn over every lyric he uses, but I often think the lyrics add depth. I’m not sure if the lyrics would turn me off if I weren’t familiar with them.
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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