Click on this link to read the poem and learn more about Valencia Robin. https://poets.org/poem/after-graduate-school
Robin’s latest collection of poetry can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40126442-ridiculous-light
Afterward for “After Graduate School” by Valencia Robin.
I’m curious of this poem took you anywhere?
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There is a lot being told about the life of this poems main character (is it autobiographical?): Accomplished, aware, alone, procrastinator, self-critical, concerned, observant…
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It seems it may be autobiographical based on the link there is a section “About this poem.” I did not focus on that aspect because I wanted to highlight what happened to me when I read it. But if you go back to that area–you can read what Valencia Robin says about her poem… If you cannot find it, I can try to link it for you. I get more out of the poem each time I read it. I adore the way the rhythms ebb and flow–the timing– of course this is me noticing beat of the language. This afternoon I noted how she added that element of the environment in relationship to the wisteria taking over the nation and the old growth trees, turtles, and birds marching on Washington. Plus the moment in the neighborhood of someone playing trumpet and someone frying food. Terrific snippets I could feel and smell. Thanks so much for your comment.
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I found myself analyzing the things she noticed. I thought about how we all notice different things. Do the things we notice tell us something about the observer? And how we describe the things we observe. Each of us could look at the same old growth trees yet feel something different and describe them distinctively. Or smell bacon cooking and have diverse reactions.
Yes, we will all have different associations, which is what I find so interesting. The beagle gave me the pugs, the flowers she mentioned took me to the daylilies, and the melancholy took me to that dripping window and yearnings to be a writer. The bacon frying — I knew what that smelled like — it’s a neutral association but familiar –maybe pleasant like coffee perking, but for a vegan remembering the smell of bacon may not be comforting for sure. When I thought of trees and turtles, birds, and plants showing up in Washington– I adored this– for me–it is the other-than-humans having a voice.
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