Surfing through my favorite blogs this morning, I came upon Ron Silliman's post that highlights the poet Steve Benson and his compilation of poems titled "30 times in 2 days." I liked what I read--Ron's commentary and excerpts of Steve's poetry.
Steve has a straight-forward, matter-of-fact, conversational style at work in his poetry. In the examples Ron provided, I noticed stream of consciousness was minimal, there were no over-wrought poetic simile finding refuge in his verse. His style is linear, as if from one vantage point, one idea. He describes what comes to mind in complete, logical sentences. Take for example this excerpt:
Anyone can do it, but generally speaking,
few do. You can see it in the morning,
a subtle glimmer behind the glare. Whenever
treetops are brought plummeting down by
winter winds, lightning, or collisions, some
people, like animals, wake with a start. At
each evident instance, I start again. What
makes it seem one might be a perception
of ending, or it might be my refusal to
continue as I had been, as when, planning
or daydreaming or rehearsing recriminations,
I stop and notice that I am breathing again,
what color the moss is in this light, the
sounds no one is making
Now I'm not saying stream of consciousness or poetic simile is bad. I'm a avid fan of it. What I am saying however, is that Steve's style lends credence to....well...Steve's style. Ron describes it best, saying that it is a "high philosophical treatise." I concur wholeheartedly. Click here to read Ron's post.
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