Yes, I think it's Smither's unexpected associations that attract me to
what I've read of hers. Emily Dickinson? Why of course! I used to do
an exercise with my creative writing classes in which I'd take "My
Life Had Stood--A Loaded Gun" and others of Dickinson's and make
little guessing games of them, leaving out parts and asking the students
to fill in what they thought the association would be. I also included
a few examples of our more "standard" poets. The students could never
correctly fill in the blanks for Dickinson, though they had a relatively
easy time for the others. Jesse
|