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).
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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