2016Bluestone

How to Understand Poetry Debi Swim

… and so you use black to represent despair the sun, stars and moon rain a myriad of moods a daffodil becomes a child’s innocence and the crash of thunder an angry retort but I’m scratching my head over tender buttons, refrigerated plums, and red wheelbarrows yet just the movement of a line, sibilance of fricate, affricate or even Emily’s dash to stop or slow the reader like a selah in psalms – think about it. Sometimes, you need to listen to the music just let a poem be not to rope and hogtie it to crystal clear significance or beat it to a pulp of deconstructionism. Just let it be a poem.

Debi Swim is a wife, mother, grandmother and happy WV poet.

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