The years the locusts have eaten: a collection of original poems

Date

1997-08

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Texas Tech University

Abstract

This collection of poems represents the growth of a poet in terms of a maturation in poetic style and ability, and in terms of reliving life experiences in an effort to come to grips with and overcome those events that brought pain into the poet's life. The effect of coming to grips with the past is one of freeing the poet to pursue new areas of poetry, rather than simply dwelling on adolescent angst and childhood trauma. Because it is important to write from one's own knowledge and experiences, many of these poems are autobiographical, although the real details have often been embellished or otherwise altered to produce impact or drama. To describe details concerning which poems are based entirely on real life experiences and which are mostly imagined might be a mistake at this point, because certain works could be far less effective if the reader knows which events in these works never really happened. Furthermore, a poem is no discrete thing~the instances in a poem are both "borrowed" and "real." No exact duplication of any given moment is possible; therefore, it really does not matter which events in these poems were personally experienced by me. All of the events in these poems have taken place for at least some people. That is, these poems describe experiences of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, mental problems, and war-all of which occur every day.

Description

Keywords

American poetry

Citation