America

I did not like this poem at all. The reading nearly put me to sleep and I felt like I was listening to some rebellious 7th grader who hates life and country and anything he can find to be negative about. There wasnt one line that I saw myself going, "well written." I feel like a lot of people, who are not poets, could have written this poem.

So from a word literature standpoint, this, in my opinion, is of the lowest quality of any poem we have read this year. A lot of the poems we have read this year have really gripped the reader without having to come out and say any details. This poem sounds like some frusterated, depressed kid who is pissed off ranting about his country.

For example, does this stanza appear to be poetic:
I'm addressing you.
Are you going to let our emotional life be run by Time Magazine?
I'm obsessed by Time Magazine.
I read it every week. Its cover stares at me every time I slink past the corner candystore.
I read it in the basement of the Berkeley Public Library.
It's always telling me about responsibility.
Businessmen are serious. Movie producers are serious.
Everybody's serious but me.
It occurs to me that I am America.
I am talking to myself again.

As far as content I would say it is highly hipicritcal to a point of comedy, as the intention of this poem, if there is any, appears to be that there are all these problems with America but by writing this poem the poet is doing their part to help. This is hipicritical because there are very few places in the world that would allow someone to publicly bad mouth the country in a poem, and America is one of those places. I would think poets would like America because it gives them the freedom to write about whatever they want, which is a rare privaledge in this world.

I also disagree with a lot of his references, "America why are your libraries full of tears?" This could be a reference to all of the books written in the library which would make little sense to say this because their are plenty of happy books. I would guess the poet is refering to American history, and although many would look at all the depressing times for example: Depression, Slaves, how we treated the natives upon arrival, Wars, etc. overall people are very fortunate to live here. Realizing that there are places in the world that slaves still exist, their are over 100 wars going on across the world right now, countries are having depressions a lot more frequently than the United States, and I think our history, compared to the histories of other countries in the world, would be one of the happiest.

I cant help but think when I read the following, I did not think that was great poetry or interesting content, I thought the poet needed help.

America I used to be a communist when I was a kid and I'm not sorry.
I smoke marijuana every chance I get.
I sit in my house for days on end and stare at the roses in the closet.
When I go to Chinatown I get drunk and never get laid.
My mind is made up there's going to be trouble.
You should have seen me reading Marx.
My psychoanalyst thinks I'm perfectly right.
I won't say the Lord's Prayer.
I have mystical visions and cosmic vibrations.
America I still haven't told you what you did to Uncle Max
after he came over from Russia.


My favorite line: "I can't stand my own mind. " Because I can't stand his mind either.