If I could just charge in here with a reckless comment, Christina, you have
obviously written thousands of poems or at least your poetry makes it seem
like you have. You have your language honed down to that crisp stage that
many try for, without loss of clarity. I can read from start to finish once
and "understand" the poem. I do not think that the form of your poems is
over-snipped but I wonder if the content is. I worry that afterwards it is
the explanatory comments re Japanese Professor or nuns that stick with me,
or at least cause the poem to have richness. Consuming cultures could be
about the way people aggressively attack their life experiences instead of
enjoying them passively as some tourists take too many photographs instead
of taking things in through less mechanical organs. Or it could be about
cuisine as a visceral means of assimmillating culture. The adventure with
the flowers so beautifully present in the vase could be about the clash
between commercialism and a streetwise but aesthetic outlook. I can't speak
a second language but if I could and were asked to translate the poems
(without any additional help) I would not be sure what to translate as I
would not feel that I had grasped the core of each poem. They have a playful
detachment (which may be just as you intended) but at the expense perhaps of
a human presence communicating something to me through the poem. That
presence comes through once I have the background. So couldn't that
background be in the poem? It could be that it is and I am too stupid to see
it or do not know this type of poetry well enough. It all comes down to
audience again. Maybe you have an certain audience in mind, likely to prefer
a tantalizing cropped shot, because they have the ability to imagine the
rest. This cannot be a suggestion for  your poetry -everything is
subjective- so much as this question of audience.

Hope this is not out  of line,


BW

Colin

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christina Fletcher [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Sunday, December 29, 2002 3:36 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: Some Santas
>
> Thanks, Gary.  Yes, it needs a lot of work: it was something I started
> last year and I think I've cut and altered it too much.  Very hard to know
> when you've snipped something to death.  Ouch!
> Happy New Year, old dawg...
> bw
> c
>
>
>
>
>       Might need a bit of work, but reading after Christmas, who cares.
>
>       Smiles and thanks.
>
>       Gary
>
>
>
>