I agree with Tom about the disjuncture of certain words in "Balance," especially "metamorphosis" and "diadem," words I would hesitate to use in any poem. But I am also bothered by the implicit, word-conscious intellectualism of "she balanced...her one name." Were it not for these nits, I would like the poem very much.
"Chosen" has one word-choice that I dislike intensely, "starburst joy." Otherwise it works well enough, though it lacks, I think, the vividness of "Balance."
But "Sisters" is revelatory, and what it reveals is not the surface anecdote of racial tension but the intellectual bankruptcy of the guilt-ridden academic left. The narrator has longed for---what? The courage to be as thuggish as the lowlifes whom she envies for their authenticity. And to what end? Seemingly, so she could displace racial animus into the sexual arena.
I am always interested in what a poem says and why the poem says it. If that means I must risk ad hominem comments, so be it. I do not shy away from interpreting poems in the light of biographical information, though I am aware that a critic may commit injustices by reading too much into a narrative persona. I certainly hope the persona of "Sisters" does not speak for the author, but I fear it may be so.
A.S.
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Threaded Mode
