Cotton Xenomorph\u2019s \u201cCryptids and Climate Change\u201d issue continues, with \u201cAngelus Novus\u201d by Mileva Anastasiadou<\/a> and two poems by Henry Kneiszel<\/a> breathing fire on<\/em> our literary <\/em>Nostromo.<\/p> Now that you\u2019ve read last week\u2019s column and officially Like Poetry<\/a>, let\u2019s close read another poem, huh? What a must-click this newsletter is. <\/p> \u201cNext week is gonna be epic,\u201d I would say if this was 2010 or if I was a masterful gambiter<\/a>. But that\u2019s not a promise of anything exciting, I\u2019m just gonna write about reading Homer next week. <\/p> The Odyssey<\/em> rules, by the way. <\/p> Last week, I close-read a poem<\/a> I\u2019ve been reading and thinking about for like 14 years. A poem that used to influence me a good bit, but now I simply enjoy. This week, I\u2019m reading from one of my favorite poetry collections I read last year<\/a>, something I said I\u2019d re-read quickly but somehow a whole year has passed. We did have the author on <\/a>The Line Break<\/a><\/em> though. And this collection is definitely having an influence on my writing these days. <\/p> Like last week, here\u2019s a photo of the poem, and then a typed version below instead of alt text. We\u2019re reading \u201cLoyalty\u201d by Jos\u00e9 Olivarez.<\/p> \u201cLoyalty\u201d<\/p> i was loyal to my hair until it started receding.<\/p> i was loyal to chicago fitted hats.<\/p> i was loyal to chicago, but i still moved away.<\/p> i was loyal to chicago fitted hats until i shaved my head.<\/p> i was loyal to my baldness except when i was lazy.<\/p> i was loyal to my laziness especially during the pandemic.<\/p> it\u2019s self-care, i said. i said, i\u2019m being loyal to myself.<\/p> except my self-care started to look suspiciously<\/p> like self-neglect. the balding angel on my shoulder<\/p> said what\u2019s the difference? sugar is loyal<\/p> to the heart. that\u2019s what makes it dangerous. <\/p><\/div> Goddamn, I was flipping through the book (which I\u2019m using to practice Spanish, there are translated versions of each poem, it\u2019s so cool, buy this book) looking for a shorter poem, something I could type in the blog without taking too much space, and what a precision stab wound this poem is. You wanna know how precise this poem is? Notice the \u201cespecially – except – especially\u201d trilogy in the middle of the poem. See how the rhythm of how similar those words sound lull you into forgetting the vastly different meanings those three clauses have? Oh man those poem rocks. Let\u2019s talk music. <\/p> Music Image Metaphor<\/strong><\/p> We\u2019re going to talk about anaphora\u2014the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses\u2014at length in a bit, but I\u2019ll say here that it\u2019s a solid move to get out of \u201ci was loyal to\u201d after six lines. We\u2019re obviously talking about music, but I\u2019ve started to think of anaphoric stanzas as their own riffs in poems. It\u2019s a good thing to have as part<\/em> of the poem, but you don\u2019t want Slash soloing during the whole <\/em>song. Beyond anaphora, do yourself a favor and read this poem out loud as if you were talking to a coworker while you both are doing other things. Idk, I worked restaurants\/retail, and this reminded me of like, opening or closing and telling my homie a story. Giggle and say \u201chey\u201d before every line, that\u2019s a fun reading. <\/p> The best image in this poem is chicago fitteds. <\/p> If you lived and were conscious from 2020 through when they announced vaccines for under-five-year-olds, I think you get the (main) metaphor. I\u2019m not bald and yet this poem speaks to me. You\u2019ve been through some sort of collapse before, some sort of breakdown. Had some sort of horrifying realization about the way you\u2019ve been living. If you haven\u2019t<\/em>, then, wow, keep it to yourself. <\/p> The Line Breaks<\/strong><\/p> How poets use line breaks is one of those things that used<\/em> to have a lot of rules involving syllables and rhyme. Fortunately, English speakers\/listeners\/writers\/readers came to their senses about all that bullshit. Anne Carson is right, the time between Homer and Gertrude Stein was<\/em> a difficult interval for a poet. One might even say a boring <\/em>interval for a poet, unless you were Persian or Japanese. Anyway, you can break lines whenever you want, so when a poet does so is interesting. <\/p> Line breaks are something that gets less cool the more you explain it, though. Like, I\u2019m gonna<\/em> point out the complete sentences and firm punctuation in the first seven lines. This declarative monotone gets disrupted, though. To be facile, it\u2019s when the speaker1<\/a> starts to have this \u201cself-care is becoming self-neglect\u201d realization. That\u2019s when things get less orderly, when the sentences start breaking at different points from the line. It\u2019s when the speaker realizes all this orderliness in his life is actually disorder that the poem gets \u201cmessier.\u201d What a juxtaposition! Genius stuff. Is life better when your lines break in the middle of sentences? Is controlled disorder the path to improvement? Is it simply naming the right demons<\/a>? The poem\u2019s not saying, but it\u2019s making you wonder. Again, this is a facile reading for column inch purposes, but it\u2019s a cool move. <\/p> A Quick Unscientific Note On Anaphora<\/strong><\/p> Anaphora rules. It\u2019s one of my favorite devices in the writer\u2019s toolbox, and I\u2019d use it in every poem\/chapter of a novel if I could. I cannot, though, because a little bit goes a long way. Anaphora is good for building, anaphora is good for twisting meanings in interesting ways, anaphora is good for varying rhythm, anaphora is good for varying rhythm when you also throw in some other internal repetition, anaphora is good for varying rhythm when you\u2019re reading live and you want to feel the audience move to the edge of their seat like oh shit the poet\u2019s building to something<\/em>, anaphora is good but yes, you can already picture how too much would get grating. <\/p> You know what anaphora is like? Harmonized guitar lines that are transitions or fadeouts. Polyphia does this in at the 1:24 mark of \u201cPlaying God,\u201d between the main riff and the Animal Crossing <\/em>section. Right here: <\/p>![](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/a565401a-7bc4-4078-b5ae-4417246be57d.heic\"\/)
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