Office by Alex Penny
In His Own Image
The last few lines of this poem:
“His are a sculptor’s hands:
they summon
form from the void,
they bring
me to myself again.
I am a new woman.
In the Bible it says that we were all made in the image of God. I believe that this poem is about a person’s beliefs. They seem to believe in the bible and God, but are unsure of who they want to be within that religion. By the end of the poem it seems like she has let God sculpt her into who He wants her to be. Often Christians refer to people who accept God as a “New person” or they are “born again.” With this in mind it explains that she is a new woman, and forever will be changed.
This poem cracks me up. I really like the lines about me. ”it’s a trick./ Myths/ are made by men.” The poem makes me think of a couple that has broken up, and they are trying to make it work. Instead this woman gives off the impression that she is lonely. For example the lines, “Take nothing, nothing/ at its face value:” She seems like she can’t take him seriously or that she has to rethink things before she can truly let go and fall back into love with him.
This one to me is definitely about a prostitute. There are so many sexual references and ideas of stripping. The woman is even making references to her customers, the businessmen. However, I don’t know the purpose of this poem, it could possibly be that she is confident in who she is and enjoys tempting people. This woman seems like she gets an odd pleasure out of helping people do what they shouldn’t. After all, she is an exhibitionist.
This poem makes me think of a woman who is a servant or maid for a rich family. She dreams of doing what she pleases, but instead is stuck inside the house that she sees everyday. That would be such a drag.
When I first read this poem, it made me think of a long lost series that I loved as a child, Animorphs. It was a series about kids that could morph into animals to “save the world.” When they became the animals, it was freeing to them, making them feel like they could be anything, and all worries were gone. I believe that the speaker in this poem is attempting to run away from something, so instead of facing their fears they just run away and dream of becoming a fish.
Words in this poem like, “abstract, loom, inkling, innocence, pushing, refresh, and instinct,” all refer to being young in one sense or another. This leads me to believe that this poem is about growing up. As we get older we gain knowledge, not just by getting older but by gaining experiences and prior knowledge to base things off of.
The Making of an Irish Goddess
“I drove west in the season between seasons.”
These lines from this poem makes me think of that horrible time between winter and spring. The trees are starting to bloom but the flowers haven’t started blooming yet so we can’t quite call it spring. This time of year my allergies are driving me nuts, my eyes water and nose runs. It’s such a beautiful time of year but we never get along.
This poem reminds me of something we learned about in my astronomy class this evening. When looking into the sky at stars you are looking at them in the past. Since the stars are so many light years away it takes years for their light to become visible to the human eye on Earth. With that thought, it would be the same if you were looking at the Earth from the surface of another sun or planet. From the other planet looking at the Earth, you would be looking into our past or history.
