Meek’s use of enjambment astounds me. Not only does she break lines and leave “weak” words as the last words of lines, but she often uses comma one to three words before the line break. This double pause forces the reader to move slower through a poem than usual. The poem “Courantijn River” includes instances like this multiple times within just the first stanza. A few examples are line 3 (she uses a colon, "transparency," and then a line break) and line 11 (she uses a period, comma three words later, “such,” and then a line break. These pauses don’t create a stuttering effect, but rather ample opportunity for pauses and breathing. The pauses also highlight the syntax of the piece. The commas at the end of lines are just as important as the commas at the center of the piece. This specific poem, especially in the first sentence, spirals downward somewhat like a roller coaster. The lines take you one way and then break off to go another direction, all to end with the pleasant phrase “tongued open” (9).
Language Mixology Half brother of the same halves, simulacra is fancy for “absent.” Like banging means “good” or off the chain means “good.” The same way off the hook forgets the phone, I’m forgetting the space between Oregon and North Carolizzay, daylight savings time and the addition of the “-izzay.” So silly that suffix, verbed blackface for black folks. ----------------------------------- Halfrican Brothers Keep Trying To Out Do Me Halfrican brothers keep trying to out do me, Blending their jaw line blackface. “Does that make you feel more black?” I’d say yes, if I knew that “black” Wasn’t the absence of white, The refusal to speak the King’s English. I’m remembering that black points, Though hard to come by, make all the difference Between grape drink and some opposite, Pants on the ground and some opposite, For non black folks.
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